Fred Kaplan has, as usual, a smart piece on Obama’s second-tier appointments at the Pentagon and State. I’d add a couple of observations: 1. I agree that it’s good news that people like Holbrooke and Ross are being successfully recruited to do the difficult negotiations to come–but I wonder about the special envoy set-up. This [...]
Here’s what he said to AP yesterday: Q You think that waterboarding, for example, was warranted in the three cases that it was used. Do you have any qualms about the reliability of that — of the information that comes out of a technique like that? THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I don’t. I think [...]
It’s a curious oversight on the part of Obamaland, and maybe more than that. Jonathan Martin notes the absence of the outgoing DNC Chairman at yesterday’s news conference announcing Tim Kaine as Dean’s replacement: The obligatory praise did little to placate Dean loyalists, and the mention of Emanuel, who Dean famously clashed with when Democrats [...]
A number of readers have taken me to task for not calling for the prosecution of George Bush et al for war crimes. Glenn Greenwald has now piled on. Let me say this: I would have no moral, legal or spiritual problem with the Obama Administration pursuing this course of action, if they so choose. [...]
Obama today is expected to give a “major” speech on the economy this afternoon at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, probably the first of many to convince “some [that] might be skeptical of the plan,” as he says in excerpts e-mailed to reporters this morning. Just when we thought the eternal campaign was over… [...]
With no real fanfare, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has finished up his investigation of steroids in professional wrestling. (Yep, it’s a problem.) Marc Ambinder, a hopeless fan of the squared circle, has a good write up of some of the highlights and the policy implications. But the steroid stuff is not really the most interesting [...]
If you’ve been watching cable news over the past few days, you may have noticed a new refrain from GOPers, led by NRSC chair Sen. John Cornyn. Ever since Harry Reid admitted on “Meet the Press” that he had spoken to Rod Blagojevich about filling the vacant Illinois Senate seat, Cornyn has been demanding that [...]
Obviously yesterday’s nasty scene left a bad taste in the mouths of Senate Democratic leaders. While they aren’t going to immediately seat Burris, as was reported this morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did tell reporters they’ll consider seating the former Illinois attorney general depending on the outcome of Burris’ testimony before the Illinois legislature’s [...]
