A couple of today’s headlines remind us that we need to pay attention not just to the ballyhoo when laws are passed but to the difficulties of turning statute into tangible reality. The 2010 food safety law extending the reach of the Food and Drug Administration is stalled in the process of regulatory review at […]
schmitz-a-t
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
We Can’t Wait (Except When We Can)
This weekend, former Nixon staffer Charles Colson died at the age of 80. Colson was, of course, well known for his Watergate-related crimes (as well as for his subsequent turn to Christian ministry) but it is worth noting too his contributions to what has become known as the “administrative presidency.” In Nixon’s day a number […]
Posted inArticle
Just in case…
Norm Ornstein and others have long been concerned about the US government’s poor record at planning for the continuity of government in case of disaster, terrorist or otherwise. So, we probably shouldn’t poke too much fun at Wyoming’s recent efforts to think ahead in the event of the apocalypse. (After all, both the Mayans and […]
Posted inArticle
Harry McPherson and Presidential Decision-Making
Harry C. McPherson, Jr., counsel to the president (back when that job title meant policymaking, not criminal defense), died last week. An obituary is here. McPherson worked for then-Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson and became a political appointee in the Defense and State Departments in the Kennedy Administration before rejoining Johnson in the White House in […]
Posted inArticle
Winner take all?
An interesting tidbit in the Miami Herald yesterday highlights the backroom struggle over, and importance of, delegate allocation rules in a drawn-out nomination season. (Whether we are actually in the midst of one, of course, has yet to be determined. Just ask John Sides’s cranky reader.) Florida’s primary next week is being touted as a […]
Posted inArticle
MLK, Jr, Online
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., day, a new trove of MLK’s archives has been digitized and put on-line. See the King Center’s website, here. It includes letters, speech drafts, press clippings, and the like.
Posted inArticle
Happy Xmas, War Is(n’t) Over
US troops are leaving Iraq, in the absence of an extension of the agreement with that nation to maintain a military presence there. But the 2002 congressional authorization for the use of force in Iraq remains in effect. An effort by Rand Paul (R-KY) to repeal that authorization (thus requiring the president to receive renewed […]
Posted inArticle
Rick Perry: the Good Ol’ Days
With Rick Perry now in 4th place in GOP polls, I wanted to share this reminder of his glory days in Texas gubernatorial politics before it was too late. The attached radio ad comes from his 2006 reelection campaign against former congressman Chris Bell. Perry won 39%-30% (with two strong independent candidates, bizarrely including Kinky […]