
News from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Wednesday, Aug. 19 – Remarks by President Obama honoring 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup champ Jimmie Johnson – Press briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Wednesday, Aug. 19 – Remarks by President Obama honoring 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup champ Jimmie Johnson – Press briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

You tell a tea-partier that a key element of health-care reform is reducing overhead costs, and they counter that the overhead costs of private insurers include spending money to investigate allegations of fraud and abuse of the system and collecting on delinquent accounts and that sort of thing. I mention this to Greg Marrow, the…

“Which one of your candidates is the one that fired his campaign manager?” I happened to be standing at the Staunton-Augusta Democratic Party booth at the Augusta County Fair last week when that question was directed at a volunteer. The reference was to a report from University of Virginia politics professor Larry Sabato from earlier…

Twenty-nine days. That’s how long it took Republican leaders and the three statewide campaigns to distance themselves from wingnut Northern Neck Republican House candidate Catherine Crabill, who has said in her campaign for the seat currently held by Democratic Del. Albert Pollard that the federal government might have played a role in the Oklahoma City…

In the last few months, we’ve made more progress on health-insurance reform than we made in the previous 60 years. You can tell from the reaction of reform opponents that we’re doing something right. Special interests who profit from the status quo are spreading brazen lies that stir up anger, and Republican leaders are chiming…

I’d not heard anyone talking about single-payer health care at the state level until I walked door-to-door with Sherry Stanley for a profile story that I wrote about her during her campaign for the 25th District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1997. All these years later, with much of her free time…

Wednesday, Aug. 12 – Remarks by President Obama at Medal of Freedom ceremony – Remarks by president and Justice Sonia Sotomayor at White House ceremony – Press briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Who doesn’t want to give Bob Goodlatte hell on health-care reform? Especially after seeing the organized shenanigans being played out at town-hall meetings being held by Democratic congressmen and senators across the country.

Monday, Aug. 10 – Press conference with President Obama, Mexican President Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Harper in Guadalajara, Mexico – Press gaggle by Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton

Do you want as the next governor of Virginia a Pat Robertson ideologue who opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest? Democratic Party nominee Creigh Deeds seems to be staking his candidacy on the notion that most of you don’t. “My opponent’s rhetoric can be confusing. One day, he says his campaign is…