Several of the usual suspects have questioned the use of semi-anonymous sources in my column this week. They also seem not to have read beyond the first paragraph to consider the bad news from Iraq, which also came from anonymous sources. For the past four years, much of what I’ve learned–and print readers of Time [...]
Peter Wehner, the White House’s intellectual-in-residence, is selling his usual brand of kool-aid regarding John Edwards’ foreign policy speech yesterday. Some thoughts: 1. Edwards is precisely right. The “Global War on Terror” is a bumper sticker and a disastrous one at that. If this actually were a war, the President would have (a) raised taxes [...]
Shorter Bush presser: If you’re not afraid, you’re not paying attention. Also sticking in the mind: – China needs to open its borders in order to fully appreciate American beef. – His directly threatening the children of a reporter — or, rather, implying that they, specifically, are in danger. – Jim Rutenberg and the Prez: [...]
Apologies for my lateness. I fully intended to post on this yesterday, but my computer–through which I had been streaming CSPAN-3–decided to commit suicide halfway through her testimony, and I spent the afternoon dealing with that. (In the new and allegedly cost-effective order of things around here, the High Sheriffs have to send someone from [...]
A leaked memo from Hillary Clinton’s deputy campaign manager Mike Henry urging the candidate to skip the Iowa caucuses is causing quite a stir today. “I believe we need a new approach to winning the Democratic nomination,” Henry wrote. “This approach involves shifting the focus away from Iowa and running a campaign that is more [...]
I like Ryan Lizza’s analysis of the Hillary-may-skip-Iowa story: Perhaps it is a controlled leak to lower expectations for Hillary in Iowa, where — what a coincidence! — she has been cratering in the polls recently. Just raising the idea that she might skip Iowa changes the perception about how well she has to do [...]
I’ve got an actual story up about the McCain/Romney spat. The two campaigns have the most quickly birthed feud in modern politics, I look forward to following it: Indeed one thing both McCain and Romney staffers agree on: The aside and the two camp’s reactions to it highlight the fundamental differences between the campaigns — [...]
The Bush Administration now has one less political fight on its hands. The National Association of Manufacturers lobbyist that the White House had nominated to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission has withdrawn his name. This came after Barack Obama and other Democrats had raised questions about Baroody’s ability to regulate the industry for which [...]
We all know that zombie movies are all political allegories, but it’s also true that some politicians are actually zombies: In virtually any other Presidency, Alberto Gonzales—a clumsy prevaricator, a talentless hack and a dangerously indifferent advocate of the rule of law—would be a dead man walking. In the Bush White House, though, he is [...]
