On a dismal, rainy afternoon, over tea and Pepsi and a plate of fries at the Bob Evans restaurant in Cannonsburg, Kentucky, Bill Scaggs, a retired government and public-relations executive of ARMCO Steel, told me why he thinks that homosexuality is the greatest threat to America. “AIDS kills,” was his circa 1984 answer, “and the […]

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Full Court Press—The Supreme Court’s last week of the summer began with decisions upholding the death penalty in Kansas, overturning strict campaign-finance laws in Vermont and largely approving Tom DeLay’s redistricting power-grab in Texas. Conservatives seemed to be getting everything they wanted from the new Roberts-Alito court until the end of the week. Then the […]

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Worse Than Nixon—George W. Bush’s approval ratings plunged into the 20s recently. Only three states—Idaho, Utah and Wyoming—now have a positive view of the president. Only four other chief executives—Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Richard Nixon—have fallen as far during a presidency since the advent of modern polling. A recent photo strip […]

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To the Dismay of Ney—If Tom DeLay was the first casualty of Jack Abramoff’s guilty plea, Representative Bob Ney (R-OH), a fast-rising protégé of DeLay’s, is almost certain to be the second. As chairman of the House Administration Committee, which oversees everything from the lawmakers’ mail to parking spots to—gasp!—lobbying rules, Ney became known as […]

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Recessitation—Members of the House of Representatives quickly got out of town on December 19. And they aren’t coming back until January 31. Why the month and a half paid vacation? Two words: Tom DeLay. After “The Hammer” stepped down as House majority leader last September upon his indictment in Texas, House leaders named only a […]

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