Below The Beltway

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert has his own blog.
The first entry, titled Welcome To My Blog is up today and I’m really not sure what to say about it.

This is Denny Hastert and welcome to my blog. This is new to me. I can?t say I?m much of a techie. I guess you could [...]

Its just been reported on ABC Radio that the White House announced today that Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination to the Supreme Court. No link yet, but I’m sure one will follow.
Update: The Washington Post story on the withdrawal is here.
As Michelle Malkin says, what a relief. Now, Mr. President give us a real [...]

From today’s Washington Post

At least the deer had good taste.
As it ambled through Georgetown late yesterday afternoon, drawing crowds and causing traffic tie-ups, the young buck entered two of the trendiest clothing boutiques, Diesel and Ralph Lauren.
“It was definitely a stylish deer,” quipped Kira Sternburg, the manager of Diesel.
And popular. Some onlookers said the deer [...]

As usual Peggy Noonan’s column in today’s Wall Street Journal is required reading. It is not, unfortunately, something that will make you happy when you read it.
I think there is an unspoken subtext in our national political culture right now. In fact I think it’s a subtext to our society. I think that a lot [...]

The White Sox have beaten the Astros 1-0, completing a four game sweep of the World Series.
This article from the Chicago Tribune says it all.
After seven scoreless innings, Jermaine Dye singled home the only run in the eighth, and the White Sox beat the Houston Astros 1-0 Wednesday night to win their first title in [...]

The year is 1862. The month is September. The Army of Northern Virginia has just defeated the Army of the Potomac for the second time at Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia. Now, Robert E. Lee has decided to take the fight across the Mason-Dixon Line. The Army of Northern Virginia crosses into Maryland, threatening Washington [...]

Thursday’s Washington Post has this report about the issues Harriet Miers is likely to face when she appears before the Judiciary Committee
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee warned Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers yesterday that he intends during confirmation hearings to probe her views of the Bush administration’s detention of suspected terrorists in the [...]

I haven’t posted anything new on the Harriet Miers nomination since I formally announced my opposition to it over the weekend, but via Eric’s Grumbles Before The Grave, I am pointed to this article by Hugh Hewitt where he asks the non-Democratic opponents of the nomination a series of questions and I figured I’d take [...]

Does someone have it in for Condolezza Rice ?
First, there was the Eugene Robinson column in the Washington Post that I wrote about yesterday.
Today, via Michelle Malkin, comes news about an obviously altered photo of Rice that appears in this USA Today piece.
Here’s the original photo:

And here’s the USA Today version:

Look’s like someone at Gannett [...]

From today’s Washington Times, comes yet more evidence that the leaders of the GOP have abandoned any semblance of the principles they claim to believe in.

Rep. Joe Barton and Sen. Charles Grassley, respectively the chairmen of the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Finance Committee, were supposed to come up with ways to reduce Medicare [...]