A Question for Mr. Kinsley

Is it a “scandal” yet? Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to documents released Friday that contradict earlier claims that he was not closely involved in the dismissals.

Re: Re: The Edwards Question

I’ve been reading the reaction to the story I wrote yesterday for Time.com about John and Elizabeth Edwards’ announcement. Ana’s most recent post is particularly compelling. And many Swampland commenters have written very thoughtful responses and raised a lot of interesting and important questions. This is a thorny, difficult topic that mixes politics, medicine and [...]

Be Well, Tony

WH Spokesguy Snow will be hospitalized as part of an “aggressive” response to a potential re-emergence of colon cancer. He said Friday that tests since the growth was discovered have been negative, but that doctors decided to remove it to be sure. “Please do not leap to conclusions about this because we don’t know what [...]

Iraq Timetable (with Pork on the Side?)

Anti-war* Democrats (and Republicans) have their deadline: September 2008. A Democratic strategist I spoke to on Wednesday told me that the bill, ultimately, could be very bad for Ds: “They should have kept it clean.” (Meaning, just a vote on the timetable, without the sweeteners.) But this person also though the bill wouldn’t pass. Could [...]

Re: Politics, Lies, and 93 v. 8

I agree with Mike’s characterization of this admin as being “comically mendacious,” and with the idea that just because something is absurd doesn’t mean it’s not serious. But I’ve got to quibble with this assertion that the bad actors in this case should be held to account by “electoral politics — punish liars by voting [...]

What A Day, What A Day for an Auto-da-fe

At the Los Angeles Times, the self-destruction continues. The editorial page editor, Andres Martinez, was driven to resign yesterday over the discovery that his girlfriend works for a PR firm used by a Hollywood producer who was invited to be a guest editor for an opinion supplement called Current. (Got that?) The suspicion is that [...]

Re: Re: The Edwards Question

I’ve been thinking really hard about Jay’s points from his piece yesterday. His argument initially struck me as interesting — even a good point — because it was so different than almost any other piece I’d read after the announcement; it was largely an examination of the baldly political consequences rather than a reaction to [...]

In the Arena

Good Advice

For Democrats, from David Ignatius. I’d add that Congressional Democrats had best be careful of symbolic battles–however worthy–against the Bush Administration. They’d be better advised to step out with positive alternatives on issues life Health Insurance, Global Warming etc–pass them and challenge Bush to veto them–rather than allowing the executive privilege tit-for-tat suck all the [...]