First they came in the form of a morning fax. Then mass emails became the medium of choice. Instant messages were attempted, briefly used, then discarded. Eventually talk turned to telepathic messages delivered through implanted neurochips. But now, we may never see them, with word leaked from the White House today: Karl Rove, President Bush's close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White House at the end of August, joining a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the administration. A longtime member of Bush's inner circle, Rove was nicknamed ''the architect'' by the president for designing the strategy that twice won him the White House. Notably omitted from the … [Read more...]

Phil Mella at Clear Commentary draws our attention to a story in the Colorado Springs Gazette about Gov. Bill Ritter's encounter with a group of Iraqi teenagers. As usual, Phil has a lucid grasp of events and provides keen insights that put Ritter's "veneer-thin understanding of events on the ground in Iraq" into a broader and deeper context. His conclusion is worth quoting: Politics has a way of infecting collective thought in ways that create a kind of lemming-like group think which effectively relieves us of the charge of thinking for ourselves. Let's hope that as real progress continues in Iraq our arm chair strategists such as Ritter begin digging a bit deeper into the situation so that they can rise above the din of the mainstream … [Read more...]

Michael at Best Destiny made a great catch today, courtesy of Captain Ed, about the more pronounced partisanship of Colorado's Democrat Congressional delegation. Almost 96 percent of the time, the quartet of Diana DeGette, Mark Udall, Ed Perlmutter, and John Salazar vote along with Nancy Pelosi. As Michael points out, Bob Schaffer needs to trumpet the notable statistic that Boulder liberal Udall has earned his moniker by voting party line 95.1 percent of the time. Put precisely, Udall is 95.1 percent Pelosi pure. Of course, liberal elite orthodoxy has tried to teach us that only Republicans can be "partisan." Voting with the Democrat agenda makes them "bipartisan." This implied double standard in the world of politics has been around … [Read more...]

The highly-paid propaganda organs of Colorado's Left make a living off incidents of phony selective outrage, such as the one repeated yesterday against Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer at one of their mouthpieces. Today's Denver Post clears up the matter pretty decisively, however. First, they picked the wrong subject to attack him on. Schaffer's personal integrity and principled stance on issues of parental choice and educational freedom are well-established. Further diminishing the credibility of those who attack him, they are firmly aligned with the status quo forces of the teachers union: Schaffer said there is no connection between his vote to support the charter school and Brennan's contribution. "I … [Read more...]