Will this be remembered as a political turning point? For months, Mr. Lugar has kept his skepticism about the president’s Iraq policy to himself, seldom offering anything beyond a wait-and-see reply. But three weeks ago, Mr. Lugar said, he privately concluded that the troop buildup plan was not achieving its goals and he began preparing [...]

As Jay well knows, Elizabeth Edwards does not shy away from a fight. She apparently just called into “Hardball” to confront the shrewishly shrewd Ann Coulter for her personal attacks. She’s wearing dark sunglass (Coulter), and the lack of visible eyes is giving her an even more robotic cast. Matthews is being weirdly accommodating, though [...]

Thanks to the commenter who pointed out this article: After a review of lobbying records and Thompson’s tax returns, The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal reported in 1994 that he earned $507,000 from lobbying in 1975-93. That figure, a fraction of his total legal income, reflects a narrower definition of lobbying than the one in the current [...]

Notice what’s missing in this excellent report by Michael Gordon of the New York Times? Hint: The enemy. It’s beginning to seem that most of the estimated 500 Aal Qaeda fighters have managed to slip the noose in Baquba, leaving behind the rigged house-bombs that Colonel Townsend’s soldiers have to defuse. This was supposed to [...]

Ben Smith points to a Daily Kos diary* comment entry about not just seeing the sausage get made but being drafted to get in the grinder yourself: I’m in NH and I just got called on this by a firm called PSA. It was clear it was a Hillary poll from most of the questions. [...]

Our colleague Brian Bennett writes with a request for our enthusiastic commenters: Hi Swamplanders, The CIA just posted its “Family Jewels” file here http://www.foia.cia.gov/ It’s about 700 pages. We’d like to enlist your eyeballs to pick out revelatory sections and post them on Swampland. (We all know how successful TPM readers were at pulling out [...]

And I’m not talking about Lorrie Morgan. From the comments: amber: way back on some thread last week, I posted a Picture of Pres. Gerald Ford to be compared to Fred. The born-again Nixon virus. Which lead me to the “Pardon me, Fred” handle. I also speculated that Fred was holding off announcing, that when [...]

I just read the WH briefing that Karen referred to in her “liger” post and, well, the Napoleon Dynamite parallel is born out many times in this remarkable presser. A slightly edited selection of highlights: Q Okay. And just lastly, it’s a little surreal — I mean, how is it possible – MS. PERINO: You’re [...]

The $1 million-plus that Fred Thompson’s earned as a lobbyist since the 70s is not, in lobbying terms, very much. (Insert Dr. Evil sound bite here.) In his report for the Huffington Post, Tom Edsall has to slice and dice the fees in order emphasize that, no really, it’s untoward! Untoward, I tell you! With [...]