On Monday, in response to a complaint from the United States Department of Justice alleging that Governor Milorad “Rod” Blagojevich had solicited bribes and engaged in a massive conspiracy to commit fraud, the Illinois House voted 113-0 to begin impeachment proceedings. Blagojevich has not yet been indicted. On December 10th, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [...]

A little over a year and a half ago, in a piece analyzing the Justice Department transition from Clinton to Bush, I wrote: Unsurprisingly, one factor that is very seldom discussed in Election 2008 coverage is how the candidates would treat the DoJ if elected, both ideologically and logistically. Perhaps it’s time for Wolf Blitzer [...]

Over the course of the past week, both the blogosphere and mainstream media have been spending quite a bit of time over at the Supreme Court rumor mill. There has been a lot of buzz about two cases concerned with president-elect Obama’s citizenship, Donofrio v. Wells (08A407) and Wrotnowski v. Bysiewicz (08A469). The applications for [...]

Again, our thanks to commenter Ted for bringing the Scalia referral to our attention. In speaking about that application for stay, Ted writes: I don’t think Team Obama should get too comfortable with the Court’s denial of [Donofrio] since [Wrotnowski] IS distributed for Dec 12 conference. It’s important to remember that the “safe harbor” deadline–the [...]

The Supreme Court appears to have declined review in a case filed against the Secretary of State of New Jersey that sought to nullify Barack Obama’s election to the presidency. The case, which centers on Obama’s citizenship, was not among those for which the Court accepted review on Friday; thus, watchers of the high Court [...]

Barack Obama has chosen a running mate that shares his views on fiscal policy, healthcare, education, the war on terror, and…Clarence Thomas? It seems that the presumptive Democratic nominee, fresh off his remarks at Saddleback, has selected Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) as his VP. Biden is widely-respected as the Chair of the Senate Committee on [...]

Earlier tonight, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama joined Pastor Rick Warren at his California megachurch for an event pegged as “The Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency.” The interviews, each an hour in length, were separated by thirty-six tense seconds in which the presumptive nominees shared the stage (and an awkward hug [video here!]). [...]

All of this John Edwards business has got me thinking about early voting. I am registered to vote in Texas, where Election Codes 81.001 and 82.005 specify that I can ”vote early” – up to seventeen days before any federal election. Say, hypothetically, that John Edwards had rallied for a victory in South Carolina and [...]

Primary and caucus results are all about expectations. Candidates spend the weeks before an election day campaigning hard and attacking their opponents, but they suddenly hit the brakes about 48 hours before the vote and begin setting up low expectations for the results. The point of this move is to create the perception of success, [...]

The Democratic National Committee voted to take away Florida’s electoral power at the national convention if Florida kept its January 29th primary date. Synopsis: Florida, in an attempt to make the candidates actually care about the state (“put me in, coach!”), moved up their primary date from February to January, hoping to steal the thunder [...]