Start watching at 9:20. My favorite Al Franken scene–from the 1983 cinematic masterpiece, Trading Places. Al Franken has been certified the winner by the state’s canvassing board. In the Capitol just a few moments ago, Democrat Harry Reid said it was all over. Republican Mitch McConnell said it won’t be over until the coming litigation [...]

TIME’s Mark Thompson points out that there are roughly 250 detainees now held by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. At a similar facility at Bagram, Afghanistan, the U.S. military is holding an estimated 670 detainees. Furthermore, “the U.S. military is building a new prison for what it calls ‘unlawful enemy combatants’ at Bagram that [...]

As Joe notes below, multiple news outlets are reporting that Obama has found his next CIA director: Leon Panetta, who once quit the Nixon Administration in protest over his Civil Rights policy, and later became a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. On cue, Marc Ambinder finds the clip, which answers the most immediate [...]

This smells a bit of desperation. Leon Panetta is a terrific guy, a fine public servant–one of those people who reek of sanity and good judgment–but he doesn’t have much, if any, experience in spook world. The problem was trying to find a DCI with intelligence experience who wasn’t tainted during the Bush Administration.  The [...]

When it comes to big-time campaign contributors, ideologues are often the most noble. They tend to give because they believe in ideas, not because they want some personal favor in return. Peter Buttenweiser, a Philadelphia philanthropist, is a good case in point. For years, he was one of the Democratic Party’s biggest benefactors ($1.3 million [...]

Leave it to Bill Kristol to take the situation in Gaza–a necessary corrective action on Israel’s part, I believe (with a few caveats)–and transform it into a call for war with Iran. But here he is, in today’s Times: The huge challenge for the Obama administration is going to be Iran. If Israel had yielded [...]