One day after the Washington Post's Bob Woodward published the confidential McChrystal report on Afghanistan, the Politico asked, "Who leaked and why?" But while the article speculates on the identity and motivation of the leaker, one issue - the punishment of Woodward's source for revealing national security documents -remains off the table. Which is a […]

Among the most disturbing legacies of the horrific Al Qaeda attacks on the United States 8 years ago has been the appropriation of September 11 by Republicans as just another arrow in their quiver of partisan warfare. Former New York Governor George Pataki used the anniversary to attack the Justice Department's limited probe of CIA […]

On Monday, the AP portrayed President Obama's struggle to pass health care reform as the second coming of George W. Bush's unpopular and ultimately disastrous attempt to privatize Social Security. But while man each left the bill crafting to Congress and faced a growing backlash from frightened American seniors, the parallels end there. Democratic health […]

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," President George W. Bush protested on September 1, 2005. Ultimately, Bush's feeble - and false - excuse for his tragic failure in the wake of the drowning of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina four years ago today defined his presidency. As it turns out, from […]

"In his new book, former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge confirms what most long suspected: the Bush administration manipulated the terror threat level for the President's political advantage. But while his long overdue admission is welcome, his suggestion that he resigned over the matter is laughable. As ThinkProgress and others have passed along, US News […]

The Bush White House was notoriously famous for its purchases of positive press coverage. While columnists Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher pocketed $240,000 and $41,500 to push the Bush line on education and marriage initiatives, paid-for Pentagon pundits took to the airwaves to back the administration on Iraq. But as new documents from the U.S. […]

Among the least surprising revelations in the shocking Inspectors General report on President Bush's domestic surveillance programs are those concerning John Yoo. As it turns out, in justifying the NSA's warrantless wiretapping of Americans beginning in 2001 the Bush administration relied solely on the same legal architect behnid the President's regime of detainee torture. And […]

The Obama administration again this week moved to protect former Vice President Dick Cheney's 2004 interview with the FBI over the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. But in so doing, the Justice Department's court filing only served to confirm Cheney's central role in guiding the Bush White House response to - and retaliation […]

Freedom, George W. Bush repeatedly insisted, "is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity." Now with tens of thousands of protesters in the streets of Tehran, former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer declared the reform movement is his boss' gift to Iran. In an email last Friday on the eve […]

In the wake of the surprisingly strong showing by the pro-Western coalition in Sunday's elections in Lebanon, the debate is raging as whether President Obama can take any credit for it. McClatchy, Newsweek, Politico, the AP and a host of others pondered whether the President's dazzling speech in Cairo and recent diplomatic efforts in Beirut […]