So the creator of the anti-Hillary 1984 ad worked for firm that worked for Obama. While some insist that this revelation proved “Obama was behind it,” I kinda believe the guy himself: The campaigns had no idea who made it–not the Obama campaign, not the Clinton campaign, nor any other campaign. I made the ad [...]

I’m not a legal expert, but my colleague Reynolds Holding is, and here’s what he has to say on the subject. I’ve seen a number of comparisons today like this one between Bush and Clinton in Reynolds’ piece: Despite his strong views of executive power, the current President Bush has rarely invoked executive privilege, says [...]

Eric, still after me–still pathetic–pulls this quote from a piece I wrote in the New Yorker in 2000: Quote of the Day: “Given the circumstances, there is only one possible governing strategy [for George W. Bush]: a quiet, patient, and persistent bipartisanship.” — Joe Klein, The New Yorker. But I was right about that, wasn’t [...]

AGate fans will want to watch today’s WH briefing, which had Tony Snow in Scott McClellan-like form (battered panda! human traffic cone!) as he tried to sell the admin’s talking points. How bad is it? He’s now gone to both Goyal (of the “Goyal foil“) AND Les Kinsolver (the crazy man). That’s known as “pulling [...]

Michael Crowley makes a point over at TNR’s blog about McCain’s senior moment regarding condoms (Do they prevent AIDS? “You’ve stumped me.”) and how his “old fashioned” bus-tour-talkathon is a bad fit with this whole “blogging” phenomenon: Back in 2000 McCain sat on the bus all day shooting off his mouth about every topic under [...]

How strange am I? Sitting here watching the sun set and moon rise over the Dead Sea–spectacular lower half sliver–and following Gore’s testimony via Brian Beutler’s live-blogging. Hard to tell just exactly what’s going on, but it seems Gore has backed away from his prior support for a massive carbon tax-payroll tax swap…now he’s limiting [...]

Zack Exley has a theory about that “Vote Different” ad: Why is the “Vote Different” creator still in hiding? There can only be one reason: the project was funded by a well known Obama supporter, or someone with very close and public connections to the Obama campaign. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying that the Obama [...]

At least one columnist is outraged at the President’s attempt to claim executive privilege: “Evidently, [the President] wants to shield virtually any communications that take place within the White House compound on the theory that all such talk contributes in some way, shape or form to the continuing success and harmony of an administration…Taken to [...]