I am on principle a defender of romantic love, and all the absurdity and pain it can bring. There is something noble about it, something that must be praised and cherished, even when it doesn’t make sense. But the more I watch Mark Sanford, the more I think he is conflating love with self-absorption, as [...]
Norm Coleman, in a statement this afternoon: “I join all Minnesotans in congratulating our newest United States Senator – Al Franken.”
The Minnesota Supreme Court this afternoon ruled unanimously that Al Franken is “entitled to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota.” Barring an appeal by G.O.P. incumbent Norm Coleman to the U.S. Supreme Court — an appeal that court would be unlikely to be heard until the next [...]
The old rule of thumb in journalism is that it takes three to make a trend. So I think we have a trend here in the question being raised by Jonathan Cohn, E.J. Dionne, and, today, David Brooks. Brooks concludes: The great paradox of the age is that Barack Obama, the most riveting of recent [...]
It’s not often that a former political aide gets a hefty $$ deal to write a tell-all book – such a betrayal would come after only the harshest kind of disillusionment. Apparently Andrew Young, John Edwards’ former aide who once claimed Rielle Hunter’s baby as his own, is that disappointed and angry with his former [...]
I have a Time.com story up today about Obama’s decision to attend church services at the chapel up at Camp David for the time being, rather than join a D.C.-area church. The plan makes a lot of sense for the First Family–it was also how the Bush family chose to worship in semi-privacy for the [...]
The Great Americans over at the Weekly Standard have a parody this week that involves a quote from one of my posts here a few weeks ago. “Iran…is breezy with freedom.” Which raises the question: Why the ellipses? Well, because the words elided were “by contrast.” By contrast to what, one might ask. By contrast [...]
I generally agree with Michael Scherer’s assessment of the great Wapo-Huffpo faceoff. Too much petulance by both Nico Pitney and Dana Milbank on Howie Kurtz’s show. But let’s cut to the chase: Pitney is right; Milbank is wrong. Yes, the Obama Administration let Pitney know, in advance, that the President might ask Pitney for a [...]
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the challenge by Frank Ricci, and other firefighters, to the city of New Haven’s decision to throw out the results of their promotion exam because no African-Americans passed the test. That seems eminently fair–unless someone could prove, in some way, that the test was inherently racist, which [...]
The New York Times is reporting that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak may be coming to Washington bearing gifts: a 3-to-6 month freeze on new settlements. It’s not what the international community has been demanding–the East Jerusalem settlements are not included–but it’s close enough for diplomacy. It’s a step in the right direction and it [...]
