I’ve known Newt Gingrich for about 20 years now and I’ve always enjoyed him intellectually, but detested him politically. The reason for the latter is his now-anachronistic first resort to anger; again and again, he cheapens public discourse through exaggeration and wild claims. One imagines that if John McCain were President and Paul Krugman had [...]

As a proud Saturn owner (despite the fact that my husband keeps threatening to push the wheezing car into the Potomac), I found this commercial running during the NCAA Tournament endearingly sad. Hey, everybody–we’re not dead yet! We’re still around! Don’t forget about us! What I didn’t realize, until I read Joseph Szczesny’s Time.com story [...]

Just over a century ago, in 1908, an 86-year-old woman looked at the dismal state of journalism around her and decided to do something to fix it. Mary Baker Eddy started the Christian Science Monitor not to further the doctrine of the church that she had founded, but because there was a need, as her [...]

Just finished watching the President unveil his new Af/Pak strategy. It is, as advertised, comprehensive. Most of the details were known in advance, but it was impressive to watch Obama lay them out in a coherent fashion. Some highlights: 1. The most important aspect of Obama’s review is a refocusing toward the situation in Pakistan. [...]

Cue Michael Scott: “That’s what she said.” [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.c-spanarchives.org/flash/cspanPlayer.swf" fvars=" pid=284890-1 ; clipStart=9049.96 ; clipStop=9109.30 ; autoplay=0 " width="365" height="340" /]

As Obama gave his speech laying out a new strategy for Afghanistan Friday, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley posted on Twitter, “Listning Prez on FOX anounce his Afhgan stategy Now it bcomes Obama War Not Bush war any longer.” Indeed. In addition to laying out the new strategy–more U.S. blood, more U.S. treasure, more international involvement–he [...]

The extremist spew over at the Commentary blog–It’s all over for Obama! His Worst Week Yet! Geithner’s Finished!–is occasionally punctuated by a posting of such transcendent ignorance and chutzpah that it can’t be ignored. Such is the case with Pete Wehner’s attack today on Tom Ricks. Wehner was a propagandist for the war in Iraq; [...]

For the new issue of dead-tree TIME, I have written this short profile of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a most unlikely figure to have emerged as the point man for health care reform in the Senate. (The print version also has a chart detailing the highlights of Baucus’ own health reform proposal, which [...]

In today’s installment, Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio auditions for The Food Network: [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.c-spanarchives.org/flash/cspanPlayer.swf" fvars=" pid=284845-101 ; clipStart=8406.23 ; clipStop=8550.54 ; autoplay=0 " width="365" height="340" /]