Arlen Specter

Surgin' Santorum! Rightbloggers Not So Frothy for This Week's Next President of the United States

The wheel of fortune has spun once again, and the GOP Next President of the United States of the Week is now Rick Santorum. Mind you, no one thinks Santorum will actually be the nominee. He's just running third in some optimistic polls -- of the Iowa caucuses, which is no bellwether. Yet all the wo ... More >>

Rick Santorum, Presidential Hopeful, Can't Beat Google, Dan Savage, or Anal Sex

​Rick Santorum, at least on the Internet, is at the mercy of Google's algorithm, by way of syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, almost eight years after the writer, enraged by Santorum's ignorant stance on homosexuality, started a campaign to define (and defile) the politician's surname. The w ... More >>

In the U.S. Senate, A Hearing on Downgrading Rape Complaints; In Our City Council, Crickets (Update)

While elected officials here in the city are reticent to hold public hearings on allegations published in the Village Voice on the downgrading of criminal complaints by the NYPD, the United States Senate has no such qualms about looking at the practice across the country. Senator Arlen Specter, a d ... More >>

A Gay Man Considers Joining the GOP

Is it possible that Republicans could prove to be a closer ally?

Kyl, Specter Talk Supreme Court Filibuster on Fox News

Justice John Paul Stevens​Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) stopped just short of threatening a filibuster of any liberal the president nominates to replace liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, but newly-Democratic Senator Arlen Specter thinks the ugly mood of the Senate "might w ... More >>

Inside the Heads of Obama's Health Care Town-Hall Rowdies

Washington Post Article Challenges Us: Who Do We Like Less -- Bloomberg or Gun Nuts?

The Washington Post has a look at Mayor Bloomberg's victory over the NRA via the group he founded with Boston Mayor Thomas Merino, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), to which Bloomberg has dedicated $2.9 million of his considerable fortunes. As with old Japanese monster movie battles, in this story ... More >>

Sotomayor Approved by Judiciary Committee

Sonia Sotomayor's appointment to the Supreme Court has just been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee en banc. All the Democrats (Herb Kohl, Dianne Feinstein, Russell Feingold, Chuck Schumer, Benjamin Cardin, Dick Durbin, Al Franken, Sheldon Whitehouse, Amy Klobuchar, Ed Kaufman, Arlen Specter ... More >>

Update on the Damn Sotomayor Hearings

Yesterday Al Franken reminisced with Sonia Sotomayor about Perry Mason. Today Arlen Specter asks if she'd like TV cameras in the Supreme Court. Sotomayor tells John Cornyn she won't use foreign law to interpret the constitution. Tom Coburn asks her if she's worried that gun control would take t ... More >>

Rightbloggers on Defector Specter: Fewer But Better Republicans!

"The last mass trials were a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians." -- Ninotchka. Once upon a time -- as we pointed out elsewhere -- rightbloggers disapproved of purist liberal Democrats who were trying to drive moderates like Joe Lieberman out of their Party. This hun ... More >>

Cheek, In Review: 7 Days of Runnin' Scared

Swine is the word! It started out as a mere public health emergency. Some kids got sick in Queens and they closed their school. Then it went viral, so to speak, becoming the new thing everyone's enemies caused. Another Queens school closed. A kid died in Texas. Two Brooklyn schools closed. The Isr ... More >>

Arlen Specter Turns Into a Democrat

They're having a hard time getting Al Franken to take a seat in the Senate, so in the meantime Democrats will have to make do with a new seat in Pennsylvania: Senator Arlen Specter is switching parties. "I have been a Republican since 1966," says the rightwing's bete noir in a statement. "Last year ... More >>

Stimulus Passes Senate

Obama's stimulus bill, sheared to a mere $838 billion, has passed in the Senate, by a vote of 61 to 36 with one abstention, with Republicans Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins joining all the Senate Democrats. They are the only Republicans in the entire Congress to vote for the bill, fo ... More >>

Clinton In, Geithner Delayed, Holder Grilled

Hillary Clinton was this morning approved for Secretary of State by a 16-1 Senate committee vote. Her husband's multifarious international dealings only dissuaded Republican David Vitter, who would presumably prefer Bill did his deals with prostitutes. But there's still hope, albeit faint, of scuttl ... More >>

What Obama Doesn't Know

Much has been hidden from the new president by the Bush team

Bush's Man Mukasey

Will the Supreme Court also bow low to the president?

Dead Man Talking

Our Human Rights Show

Countries abusing their prisoners say they are following America's practices

Bush Revives Espionage Act

Bush's war on the disloyal press climaxes in a trial on classified information.

Congress Bows To Bush

New Military Commissions Act gives president more power than ever

Letters

Arlen Specter's Sellout

Senate Judiciary Committee chair intent on rescuing Bush from felony charges

George Bush: Recidivist

A judge who came out of the civil rights movement teaches Bush the Constitution.

Bush's Invisible Ink

Signing into law bills from Congress, the president often adds that he won't enforce them.

Congress and Judges Gagged

Arlen Specter and a CIA torture victim know: Only the Oval Office decides what the law is

Justice Department's Black Site

The administration censors internal probe of lawbreaking by the Oval Office and the NSA

Bush: Hands Possibly as Dirty as Scooter Libby's

Flashback: Bush Impeachment Not Out of the Question

Barricading the Storm

Why the White House Won't Release Its Katrina Papers

Full Text: Alito on Presidential Power

The Senators and Mr. Vague

Verbatim: A sampler of meaningless statements by Samuel Alito

George Bush: Master Spy

Unilateral president exposed in his ignorance of Constitution he's sworn to protect

Bush Impeachment Not Out of the Question

From Spying to Plame, Congress riled over abuse of power

Bushwhacking the Constitution

U.S. Senate proves as disdainful of the Constitution as George W. Bush. Be forewarned.

Letters

Morning Report 1/7/05
Panel's 'Oversight' of Gonzales? Mission Accomplished.

Gonzales Hearing 3:46 p.m.
Hide in Plain Sight

Gonzales Hearing 10:27 a.m.
Saved by the Bell

Morning Report 1/5/05
Speeding Gonzales

Letters

Grim Specter of Things to Come

The first battle in the new war against Roe

Musical Chairs in the White House

Ashcroft's New Ally

Senator Schumer Pushes to Make Covert Surveillance Easier

Rounding Up the 'Enemy'

Sixty Years After It Jailed Japanese Americans, Would the U.S. Consider Another Ethnic Internment?

Iran’s Secret Diplomacy

Persian Insiders Say Hard-Line Clerics Are Romancing U.S. Officials

Civil Liberties War Among Jews

Only One Jewish Group Versus Ashcroft

Nation

Letters

Twin Leaks

Trulock Gives 'Times'-Bashing a Bad Name

Moderately Republican

The Power of the Maine-stream

Autopsy on Alfonse

A Look at the Real Numbers in '98 Sweepstakes