If I had believed a word the President said in the first half of his speech today, I would have been disappointed that he didn’t announce some withdrawals. His detailed discussion of progress disintegrated into double talk: we can’t leave until we win, but the “rejectionists� won’t stop fighting while we are there. The signs [...]

Bush junks amnesty wants to offer illegals hospitality

Newsweek says the Democrats are recruiting vets to run for Congress. That’s great, if they can make it work. The magazine wisely warns that local politicians may have other ideas that could foment destructive primary fights. Maybe Clinton and Carter could make up and serve as arbitrators to direct party funds to the candidate most [...]

Clinton listened to economists worried about the bond market and led us to boom times. Bush turned boom into bust by ignoring his economic advisors, now he can’t find any. That doesn’t say much for the nation’s future, but it speaks well for the profession.

Tom DeLay’s wife, Christine, worked for some former staffers determining the favorite charity of every member of congress. Her lawyer says she found it “interesting, very challenging and very worthwhile� for three years, and earned $115,000. One must assume the work was challenging, the money worthwhile, the results interesting, and perhaps useful to an enterprising [...]

Iraq is busted, and whether or not Pottery Barn would have made him buy it, Bush owns it, and most Americans want him to give it back. No one tells him how. Most don’t define when, beyond soon, or accept responsibility for starting the war, but will be responsible about ending it. The President can [...]

Dick Cheney glowered when the President pardoned the other turkey.

The Arab League and representatives of most Iraqi political factions met to discuss getting foreign troops out of their country – and they agreed. They want a timetable for departure and suggest it start in mid-2006, and be completed around year-end. Details were fuzzy, determination was clear. Of course Bush’s representative greeted this sign of [...]

No Child Left Behind, like most Bush programs, has been a disaster. Schools scramble for scores, kids learn more, but somehow it’s rarely enough. After four years of ignoring complaints, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings relaxed the rules to measure progress, not just generate statistics. Imagine, a member of Bush’s cabinet who can learn! The President [...]

Abramoff regains the headlines as one of his partners pleads guilty, and promises to help the prosecution. Congress is none too happy, but Bush appreciates any and all distractions. Let DeLay and Ney get some action.

The sordid story of Afghanistan seeps out slowly, staining our nation’s standing in the world. Corruption and ineptitude raced to win contracts that produce nothing but profits, and payoffs. Bureaucrats don’t want peace. If there were no warlords to fight they might have to produce results.

Nuance, nicety and sensibility are words Republicans apparently don’t understand. They brand anyone not bull-headed a coward. The only alternative they can see to continued killing is quitting. We will not leave until we win, but Bush doesn’t define victory. Insurgents say we’ll stay forever. Bush won’t deny it – though he quickly says “we [...]

Republican sloganeers decided any alternative to “stay the course� is “cut and run.� Unfortunately the course is lined with “IEDs.� It goes from one insurgent stronghold to another and back. The Democrat’s slogan should be: “get out of the rut, finish the job, and come home.� In the 40’s we trained millions of troops in [...]

FEMA, inept as always, decided Monday that cities had until December 1 to sign three-month apartment leases for Katrina evacuees. The mayor of Houston said, “We can’t get leases for three months. Landlords won’t do that.” The city’s leasing program came to a halt. FEMA responded Tuesday by saying they would stop paying for hotel [...]

It comes as no surprise that oil company execs met with Cheney’s energy task force, but after years of being secret confirmation comes to light. Insiders may think a wounded VP can’t muster retribution, or a leak too small to notice became newsworthy with Bush campaigning in the orient. Whatever brought the subject up again, [...]

Whether it’s a light at the end of a tunnel, or a tunnel at the end of the fog, the Senate’s new proposals for Iraq offer a flicker of hope. Warner says he’s not critical of the administration, “just forward looking.â€? Whatever. The combination has a faint glow of bipartisanship, and more than a glimmer [...]

A majority of Americans think Saddam was involved in the attacks on 9/11, but Republicans insist Bush never said that. Assuming they’re correct, most of us must’ve misunderestimated what he said.

Bush calls his drug bill the “greatest advance in health care for seniors in 40 years.� He lies. More likely, many of us will suffer nervous breakdowns from worry and loss of sleep. Medicare has a web site to help me choose among 69 available plans, but I found the data filled with asterisks on [...]

Bush and his security adviser defended the way we went to war, but they used the same old arguments, and The Washington Post poked them full of the same old holes. If they were building a boat for a quick getaway it would sink, but they’re building a wall, using just enough truth to prevent [...]

I hate to keep saying the same thing, but Bush does. He says Democrats voted to go to war, and now they’ve changed their minds. I say no one voted to go to war. Congress gave Bush the right to go as leverage to get inspectors into Iraq. That worked, but Bush went to war [...]