Mark Foley Endorses Obama

File this one in the Endorsements You'd Rather Not Have category:  Variety reports that disgraced former Republican Congressman and sender of solicitors of underage boys for sex Mark Foley is backing Barack Obama for president. Let's just say I don't believe Team Obama will be touting this one as loudly as the Powell endorsement. UPDATE: Several commenters say Foley has denied ...

Rebuilding the Republican Brand

It's not exactly news that the Republican Party is in the doldrums at the moment. It lost control of both Houses of Congress in the 2006 elections, its president is at historic lows in the polls, it has lost a string of special elections and its incumbent Congressmen are retiring in droves, and the odds are better than even ...

Blogger Files FEC Complaint against Thompson

A liberal blogger charges that Fred Thompson is breaking the law by raising so much money and still not formally declaring himself a candidate. Lane Hudson, a left-wing blogger, filed a complaint against former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) on Monday, accusing the likely presidential candidate of breaking the law by violating the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) “testing the waters” clause. Hudson, ...

Hastert to Step Down?

The Politico's Mike Allen scoops Bob Novak on his own column: Robert D. Novak plans to report this weekend in his always-delicious tidbits column (which doesn’t run in The Washington Post, but is usually in Saturday’s New York Post): “Former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has indicated to a close former aide that it is likely he will not run for a ...

Liberals Just Too Darn Nice to Play Politics

Glenn Greenwald chides The Politico for continually featuring a "vapid, petty, and inane" stories like John Edwards' expensive haircut and Mitt Romney's makeup consulting on its front page. He's right, I think, as far as it goes. These stories are amusing and make sense from a business standpoint, but they're hardly cutting edge journalism or worthy of front ...

Congressional Ethics Reform

The Senate Ethics Committee has absolved Harry Reid of wrongdoing, saying he "did not break Senate rules in accepting free ringside seats at boxing matches from the Nevada Athletic Commission." As the NYT explains, "Senate rules bar members from accepting gifts worth more than $50 but make an exception for anything paid by federal, state or local government." This decision ...

Rahm Emanuel Lied About Mark Foley Scandal

Glenn Greenwald examines the evidence and finds that Rahm Emanuel lied when he told George Stephanoupolous that he was not aware of the Mark Foley emails before they ABC News' Brian Ross broke the story, making him "guilty of exactly what he was accusing the GOP House Leadership of. And his hypocritical, pious lectures about the 'warning signs' which GOP ...

Democratic Leadership Knew About Foley E-mails

Brian Ross reports that, "The House Ethics Committee Report includes new information that top Democrats were also aware in 2005 of Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to congressional pages at about the same time as outgoing Speaker Dennis Hastert's office was informed." I'm not sure what to make of that, really. The presumption was always that Hastert and company chose to ...

House Ethics Panel Clears Leadership in Foley Scandal

The House Ethics Committee has found that no rules were violated in the Foley scandal. The House ethics committee has found that Republican leaders did not break any rules in handling allegations against former Rep. Mark Foley, but that they were negligent in protecting the teenage pages, a congressional source said. No one will be reprimanded, the source said. The ethics ...

Hastert Likely Out as GOP House Leader

It appears Denny Hastert is out one way or the other. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's future is in doubt even if the Republicans retain control of the House because of unease among GOP lawmakers about his handling of the Foley page scandal and what a House ethics committee investigation might conclude about him, according to several Republican aides. House Chief Deputy ...

A Pre-Mortem on Republican Losses in 2006 Midterms

Charles Krauthammer has an excellent analysis of what to make of the losses the Republicans are expected to suffer five days from now. Substantial, yes. Historic, no. Before proclaiming a landslide, one has to ask Henny Youngman's question: "Compared to what?" (His answer to: "How's your wife?") Since the end of World War II, the average loss for a second-term presidency ...

Punch Foley for Negron

A very funny and effective ad campaign that not only reminds people in Florida's 12th CD that they have to vote for Mark Foley in order to elect Joe Negron but makes it a little more palatable to do so:

Conservative Bloggers Polled on 2006 Election

John Hawkins polled a large number of conservative bloggers on the 2006 election (I was asked but didn't participate) and got some interesting results. 1) Do you think the GOP is going to retain control of the House? Yes (38) -- 61.3% No (24) -- 38.7% According to all the reputable polling I've seen over the past couple of weeks, the Republicans are going ...

Real Polls and the 2006 Election

Karl Rove told NPR's Robert Siegel Tuesday that Republicans will retain both Houses of Congress two weeks hence. When Siegel said this was extraordinarily optimistic, Rove retorted, "I'm allowed to see the polls on the individual races. And after all, this does come down to individual contests between individual candidates." The ensuing discussion tangentially focused on an important ...

Good News is Sometimes Actually News, Even Near an Election

CNN reports that Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, a member of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list and planner of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings, was killed this past April in an airstrike by Pakistani forces near the border with Afghanistan. Chris in Paris, writing on the popular AMERICAblog, is furious. CNN tows the line, again. Sure the world is better without someone ...