Some may think the administration is preoccupied with the election, but while the nation is distracted by the campaign they dutifully take care of business. The Interior Department dropped a bid to collect unpaid oil and gas royalties because they didn’t want to waste money pursuing cases that couldn’t be won. Of course the states [...]

Bush created an Iraqi army and police force to “stand up so we can stand down.� Unfortunately we lost many of the guns, that we bought for them. Like the rest of the president’s plans this one falls a bit short.

Rove told Republican candidates to ignore the war in their campaigns, but so many clamored for a new direction, they precipitated change. Bush redefined “stay the course� to mean “constant adjustment of tactics to meet conditions on the ground,� but asserted our goal is still victory. With that precedent, when an obstinate prime minister al-Maliki [...]

Michael J. Fox let his symptoms show to help elect senators who favor stem cell research, but a conservative commentator claimed he is “either off his medication or acting” during the ad. There may be legitimate reasons for opposing such research, but even Rush Limbaugh should know suggesting a disease isn’t really serious is not [...]

The state department spokesman who admitted the U.S. showed “arrogance and stupidity� in Iraq, later said “I seriously misspoke.� It’s too bad we have to ask forgiveness for telling the truth.

Rumsfeld says Khalilzad and Casey are working on projections of when we can pass on pieces of responsibility to the Iraqis. Of course it’s not a timetable. That’s good ‘cause Rummy added: “there’s no doubt in my mind but that some of these projections we won’t make… once we meet the projection we may have [...]

The green tree turned flashy red, then faded leaves blew away before fall winds, revealing errant branches allowed to sag so friends could pick the fruit, and the absence of a trunk.

Republicans brag their new law permitting the president to define torture and create new rules for trials will help defeat terrorists. They neglect to add: Bush can put any American in that group.

Wal-Mart workers walk out of a store to oppose rapacious rules designed to make them quit. That won’t work, but if shoppers would follow suit, they could help our whole economy.

Republicans slipped a law into a port security bill that prohibits banks transferring funds for on-line gambling. Bush signed it without fanfare. That’s what it deserves. It contains the usual loopholes that Bush’s cohorts use to take away their friends’ cake, but let them eat it anyway.

Everyone but Bush and Rove thinks Democrats will win the House, and maybe the Senate, but it’s hard to ignore those pros. Do they predict victory because of money, organization, secret polls? More likely their boldness springs from inside knowledge of the programming dexterity of Diebold.

The Washington Post says Bush frequently uses “unacceptable.� That could make the word his presidency’s trademark. How appropriate.

“O, I am iamb,� she said pridefully. In groups of five I stood at Shakespeare’s will. To speak of love, of greed, of jealousy, Consuming fires so wild that men would kill. My lilt, my gait is easy to espy. A pulse so steady livens any text, And leads the reader’s mind and ear and [...]

Bush avoids admitting mistakes by redefining past generalities: “Stay the course means keep doing what you’re doing. My attitude is, don’t do what you’re doing if it’s not working — change. “Stay the course also means, don’t leave before the job is done. We’re going to get the job done in Iraq.� He’ll tell us [...]

Years ago John McCain rode a bus and talked straight, but that wasn’t enough to beat George Bush, so he started down the slippery slope toward buddy-hood. He finally arrived. With Bush-like twisting of facts into fantasy he blamed both Clintons for North Korea building a nuclear bomb and testing it, six years after they [...]

Colossus No More She cruises from New York Harbor plastered to the side of a U-Haul van docked one night in the drive next door. A stern Lady with face of lurid blue stares through my kitchen window. She wears a spiked crown suitable for goring huddled masses. In place of a lamp beaming welcome [...]

Listening to political advertising lets candidates buy votes. Most of it is misleading, negative, and leaves out the key fact: party affiliation. In today’s legislative bodies few individuals have power ― mostly leaders of the majority party. Ignore the ads, decide which party is best for you and vote accordingly, or flip a coin. That [...]

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday, Iraq is “drifting sideways.� Warner added, “In two or three months if this…level of violence is not under control, I think it’s a responsibility of our government to determine: Is there a change of course we should take?� Republicans have said the Democrats don’t have [...]

Pages warned each other to stay away from congressman Foley for eleven years, but the Speaker couldn’t see anything wrong. Reporters flush fresh facts daily with little apparent effort, but the Speaker found nothing serious. Republicans need a fall guy, but they won’t dump J. Dennis Hastert. It would look like accountability.

This year’s emails were just “too friendly� ― the bad stuff is three-years-old, but unknown until this week. Ex-pages knew about those, but didn’t want to incur the wrath of Congress. If Republicans also knew, maybe they wanted to preserve Foley until after the election when Jeb could appoint a successor. If Democrats knew maybe [...]