Who knew? Apparently, all this time, Karl Rove was really angling for a seat on the Chris Matthews Show. In today’s Financial Times, he offers advice to Barack Obama on how to beat Hillary Clinton. Much of it appears to be what Obama has figured out for himself. Like this: First, stop acting like a [...]

Clinton’s poll-driven attack on Obama today seems a bit too sweaty and desperate for her current situation, which is still a dead heat in the totally unpredictable January 3 caucus, although an Obamaward ripple can be discerned. And this attack seems downright idiotic. All right, it’s true Clinton is in a tussle–I’ve talked to lots [...]

George Costanza would sympathize with Harry Reid in coming weeks, as the Senate Majority Leader sees worlds collide. The Washington Post has a good story today by Jonathan Weisman and Paul Kane summing up all the major legislation that Congress will be trying to get done before it leaves for the year, dealing with: warrantless [...]

This LA Times piece, by two people I respect–one of whom, Fred Siegel, is a good friend of mine–is pretty far off the mark. It describes Democratic candidates of the recent past, but not the current campaign. For one thing, all of the Democrats are far more populist than they’ve been in the past. They’ve [...]

This article about corruption in Iraq is stunning, but not surprising. And it doesn’t even mention the oil sector–where, I’m told, the 30% rule applies: at least 1/3 of the revenues are, literally, siphoned off. Two points: Obviously, there is absolutely nothing the U.S. military presence can do about this. And less obviously, there is [...]

From the New York Times today: As Wall Street rallied this week, it seemed that investors were taking comfort in the notion that the economy had become so imperiled by the crumbling housing market that it was forcing the government to finally mount an aggressive rescue effort. Aren’t these the guys who believed, after Reagan, [...]

It turns out they still know how to write laws. After a lot of very difficult negotiation, House and Senate negotiators last night reached a deal on an important energy bill that would require automakers to increase fuel efficiency standards by 40% by 2020–the first increase since the current standards were set in 1984. As [...]