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Just in time for the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s resignation, John Dean, his former counsel, has a new book on some 1,000 White House tapes that he has exhaustively catalogued and transcribed. What is Dean’s view about Nixon? Why weren’t the tapes destroyed? And how does he see his own role in the Watergate scandal? …
With less than a hundred days to go before Election Day, we decided to bring Cook Political Report analyst Jennifer Duffy on the show to preview the major contests for the Senate at stake this year. Jennifer is not willing to go beyond saying that it’s a “50-50” chance the Republicans win a majority… a …
Not all the fights heard on the Political Junkie are at the ballot box. Some are in court — as we saw this week, in the latest attempt by opponents of the Affordable Care Act to gut the measure in the D.C. Circuit Court. Julie Rovner, a senior correspondent at Kaiser Health News, talks about …
It’s no folly, the Political Junkie’s in Alaska! In this web special, former Talk of the Nation duo Ken Rudin and Neal Conan reunite in Fairbanks to kick off their 2014 World Tour at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Sessions. They brought back some old jokes (there’s no place like Nome) and new topics (the latest from Israel) in front …
Howard Baker has died. The former Senate Republican majority leader was 88 years old and was admired and respected by members of both parties. Tom Griscom, his former press secretary, shares his memories of the late Tennessee lawmaker. And immigration legislation is dead too. Republicans blame President Obama for the stalemate, saying they don’t trust …
Two weeks ago we were astonished that Eric Cantor, a well-situated House incumbent from Virginia, could get defeated in his primary. Now we’re astonished that Thad Cochran, the six-term Republican senator from Mississippi, could pull out a victory against his tea party-backed opponent. Whether incumbents are winning or losing, it’s the latest example of a …
There’s a four-letter word in the headlines lately: Iraq. The withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011 was done with the expectation that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would unite his country and ease ethnic tensions. Instead, Maliki, a Shiite, did what he could to ostracize minority Sunnis… perhaps in response to what Saddam Hussein did to Shiites during his ruthless decades …
Wow. Who saw the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor coming? Certainly not Cantor. Or the nation’s political establishment. And not Greg Giroux, political reporter for Bloomberg News, who sat with Political Junkie host Ken Rudin and together they shook their heads at one of the more amazing primary upsets of recent times. We also hear from Kevin Broughton of the Tea Party Patriots …
It was the race the tea party wanted from the beginning. And while they didn’t completely accomplish their goal, they are thought to be on their way. In six-term Sen. Thad Cochran, tea party conservatives saw a politician from the old school, who spent a career fighting for earmarks and pork projects for Mississippi and who …
With 8 states holding primaries on Tuesday, June 3, the Political Junkie focuses on California, where Jerry Brown is the odds-on favorite to win a fourth, non-consecutive term for governor. KQED politics editor John Myers outlines the long path of Brown, who was first elected governor in 1974. He’s seen his share of ups and downs in his decades in politics, but …