Washington Babylon

From the Miami Herald: John McCain will venture into the Everglades for the first time as a presidential candidate Friday, an obligatory rite of passage for politicians shoring up their…

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Referring to Obama’s speech yesterday to AIPAC, reader Ed Moloney comments by email: “Not only a cynical shift but perhaps one of the fastest flip-flops in presidential campaign history.” Moloney…

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Well, Barack Obama achieved his goal with his speech today to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC): he has officially been unendorsed by Hamas. “I will bring to the…

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Larry Johnson, the man who has been pushing the story of a mysterious tape that supposedly features Michelle Obama ranting about “whitey” with Louis Farrakhan, formerly worked for the CIA…

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The rumor sweeping the Internet, which I’m sure you’ve heard by now, is that there’s an explosive tape of Michelle Obama ranting about “whitey.” The rumor is being spread most…

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From the Miami Herald: A Maryland prosthetics company pushing a new federal bill that would broaden insurance coverage for its products — and boost its bottom line — has enlisted…

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Politico reports that former Senator Bob Dole “sent a scalding email to Scott McClellan, excoriating the former White House spokesman as a ‘miserable creature’.” Dole, said the story, used his…

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Not long after the 9/11 attacks, lobbyist Howard Marlowe sought help for the American Shore & Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA). A letter to Congress his firm helped prepare said that…

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Congressman Henry Waxman of California has been the mastermind behind congressional investigations into steroid use among baseball players. However, based on this promotional clip from the new movie Bigger Stronger…

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From the Baltimore Sun: U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, who travels to a world food security conference in Rome next week, laid out the Bush administration’s strategy today for meeting…

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From the New York Times: When Howard Kurtz invited Kimberly Dozier, the CBS journalist wounded in Iraq, onto his program, “Reliable Sources,” on CNN on Sunday, he was not a…

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The lavishly-subsidized federal ethanol program is one of the biggest corporate boondoggles of recent times. Eileen O’Connor, a Clinton-supporter based in California, wrote a letter (published below) which charts Obama’s…

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From MSNBC: A little-noticed civil lawsuit in Florida is shining a light on an unusual but hugely profitable Pentagon contract to ship millions of gallons of aviation fuel to U.S.…

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The Onion reports.

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Remember former Congressman Curt Weldon? He’s the one currently under federal investigation for allegedly steering business to a lobbying firm headed by his daughter. And now running an international consulting…

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Senator John McCain’s charitable works don’t appear to be terribly impressive. As I reported here a few months back, he has essentially been the sole contributor to the John and…

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Over the past few weeks, the media has finally begun reporting the fairly obvious fact that there are a whole bunch of lobbyists working closely with the campaign of Senator…

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Mark Slouka has a terrific piece in the June issue of the magazine that convincingly argues against political politeness. “In the long term, it is [the] tilt toward deference, this…

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Very interesting story in National Journal: John McCain’s presidential campaign has finally paid off its debt to 3eDC, a private Web company linked to campaign manager Rick Davis and his…

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From CNN’s website: Is politics in Chelsea Clinton’s future? Bill Clinton says maybe. In an interview with People Magazine, the former president said he thinks his daughter is a natural…

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Augustus Richard Norton, a professor at Boston University and expert on the Middle East, sends this note about the latest developments from Lebanon: Lebanese politicians reached agreement last night in…

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“Here’s how it works,” said Stephen Colbert during his famous appearance at the White House Correspondents Dinner, describing the rules for covering the President. “The President makes decisions. He’s the…

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The soaring price of commodities worldwide has been a disaster for the poor, with reports coming out of Haiti that some people don’t have enough money to pay for food…

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In a recent story about Hillary Clinton, I stated that Congressman Charles Rangel had, like Clinton, accepted political contributions from attorney Melvyn Weiss, who recently pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks…

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Once more I’m going to return to the topic of those blogger roundtables organized by the Pentagon, which I have discussed several times since last summer and most recently last…

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From the Star-Tribune: What would prompt Bloomington mayor Gene Winstead to vogue down a Mall of America runway modeling a t-shirt and Zubaz? Nothing short of the unveiling of the…

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A few weeks back I posted an item about a 2005 Senate trip Barack Obama made to Azerbaijan during which he lobbied dictator Ilham Aliyev on behalf of McDonald’s and…

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Will Perry is the son of Bob Perry, a major funder of the Swift Boat Vets and the G.O.P. Will is also a G.O.P. donor, although he gives less than…

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