McConnell: No Retalliation

Olympia Snowe and other wayward Republicans will be subject to strong persuasion but no punishment from the caucus, Senate Republican leaders tell Politico. [caption id="attachment_42848" align="alignright" width="297" caption="Mitch McConnell and his deputies in the Senate Republican leadership are responding very cautiously to Olympia Snowe's decision to become the first GOP vote for a Democratic health care reform bill. Photo: AP ...

The Dodd Proposal

Senator Chris Dodd, through whom any bailout proposal from the Treasury must go, has offered an alternative to the Paulson plan: The legislation requires Treasury to take an equity stake equal to the purchase price of the assets being bought. If the company isn't publicly traded, the government would take senior debt instead, placing it in the front of the line ...

VP Talk Heating Up

Team Obama is reportedly seriously vetting Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as vice presidential candidates.  It's hard to imagine that he'd go with Dodd, who I find likeable and serious, given that he's running on a "youth" and "change" message and Dodd is old and has been in Washington since roughly the Civil War.  Sebelius is ...

Press Not Doing Its Job?

Elizabeth Edwards, who despite no public policy credentials other than having been married to a one-term senator and yet oddly seems to get op-ed space in the major papers whenever she requests it, has a rather strange editorial in today's NYT whining about how the mainstream media is failing in its duty to inform the public. The first several paragraphs make ...

Bainbridge Revises and Extends

Steve Bainbridge has a lengthy post responding to some questions that Steven Taylor and I have put to him vis-a-vis why he's so vehemently against John McCain after having supported his ideological twin, Fred Thompson. He makes some good points about actions McCain has taken that have irritated him but also acknowledges that personality is a part of the ...

Bill Richardson Drops Out of Presidential Race

As widely anticipated, Bill Richardson is ending his quest for the presidency. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico is pulling out of the presidential race, after coming in fourth in both the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses. Mr. Richardson made the decision after returning to New Mexico yesterday and meeting with his top advisers. He is expected to ...

ABC Cuts Also-Rans from Debates

ABC has drawn a line and three did not make the cut. ABC News is eliminating Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter and Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from its prime-time presidential debates Saturday night because they did not meet benchmarks for their support. The Democratic debate three days before the New Hampshire primary will include Iowa caucus winner Barack Obama, ...

Iowa Caucus Results – Signs and Portents

Mike Huckabee won the Republican vote by a much wider margin than expected and Ron Paul came in a distant fifth place -- but ahead of ostensible national frontrunner Rudy Giuliani. Barack Obama won on the Democratic side but one could argue that it was essentially a three way tie, since he got only one more delegate than ...

Biden, Dodd Drop Out after Iowa

While there will be plenty of speculation today about what last night's result in Iowa portend for the race, the parties, and the fate of the Republic, one thing is for certain: We won't have Joe Biden and Chris Dodd to kick around anymore. Delaware Sen Joe Biden and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd abandoned their bids for the Democratic presidential ...

Ron Paul Excluded from Fox Debate

I know several of our readers are tired of posts on Ron Paul but Fox News' announcement that it would exclude candidates not polling in the double digits from their pre-New Hampshire primary debates has set off a firestorm, getting a sharp negative reaction from not only the blogosphere but the New Hampshire GOP. ABC and Fox News Channel are ...

Clinton Team: Obama Will Be Attacked on Drug Use

Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire co-chair says that Barack Obama's past drug use will hurt him if he should win the nomination. Billy Shaheen, the co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire, raised the issue of Sen. Barack Obama's past admissions of drug use in discussing the relative electability of the Democrats seeking the presidential nomination today. In an interview, Shaheen ...

Hillary Clinton Earmark Queen

Hillary Clinton has been amazingly effective in bringing home the pork to New York, Alexander Bolton reports for The Hill. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) has won tens of millions of dollars more in federal earmarks this year than her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, even though two of them have significantly more Senate seniority. A review of the first three ...

Mukasey Confirmed as Attorney General, 53-40

Michael Mukasey was confirmed as Attorney General in a late-night vote despite the vehement opposition of key Democrats over his refusal to state unequivocally that waterboarding is a form of torture. Six Democrats plus Joe Lieberman joined all 46 Republicans in the vote. Notably absent were each and every one of the Democratic senators running for president: Hillary ...

Colbert Files for South Carolina Primary

Stephen Colbert has filed for the South Carolina Democratic primary. Stephen Colbert's fanciful White House bid took a real step Thursday. It's up to South Carolina Democrats to decide whether to take him seriously. Colbert, who poses as a conservative talk-show host on the Comedy Central cable network, filed to get on the ballot as a Democratic candidate in his native South ...

Chris Dodd to Put Hold On FISA Reform

Greg Sargent reports that, "Senator Chris Dodd plans to put a hold on the Senate FISA renewal bill because it reportedly grants retroactive immunity to telephone companies for any role they played in the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program." Doesn't this just mean the administration will continue what it's now doing and which provided impetus for the legislation? I'm sure ...