The President has finally announced, after much unnecessary sturm und drang, that Dr. Rajiv Shah will be the new director of USAID. This is great news for Hillary Clinton’s effort to make development–that is, the distribution of humanitarian and economic aid overseas–as important as diplomacy in the State Department’s portfolio. It is also good news [...]
…is just that, a game. There have been media reports from McClatchy and CBS News citing specific troop increase numbers to come in Afghanistan. These are wrong. There is a more guarded report in the New York Times today, that Clinton, Gates and Admiral Mullen favor 30,000+–which is true, although Mullen is known to favor [...]
It’s something that doesn’t get the attention it deserves in this health care debate, in large part because the true cost of health care is hidden from most people. (Though those of us fortunate enough to have employer-provided health coverage do get an eye-opening, jaw-dropping reminder during our annual open enrollment period, which we happen [...]
Politico’s Ben Smith has, alas, confessed, more or less, that the Obama Campaign was his source of the John Edwards $400 haircut scoop. Back in March of 2007, I wrote a story for Salon.com about the role of opposition research in shaping the primary news cycle, which I termed the “Matt Drudge Primary.” At the [...]
Former President Bill Clinton was the guest at the Senate Democrats’ weekly policy lunch. The subject: health care. Taking responsibility for the collapse of his attempt to pass health care reform in 1994, Clinton urged the caucus not to waste this opportunity. “I do think it’s good politics to pass this and pass it as [...]
Jay Newton-Small is preparing a fuller account, but you can hear the audio of his Q and A with reporters here: (Our audio wizard Caitlin Thompson thinks we should award bonus points to the first Swampland commenter who can identify Hillary’s ringtone on his cell phone.) UPDATE: Here’s a clip that zeroes in on that [...]
It seems clear that, barring unforeseen factors, Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings, will be tried in the military court system. He is a military officer accused of killing and wounding other members of the military on a military base. If he is tried for capital murder, one of [...]
It is becoming increasingly apparent that Nidal Hasan was not only unhinged, but also an entirely inappropriate character to counsel U.S. soldiers on war-related stress and injuries. The wingers are exaggerating much of this–the fact that he attended the same mosque as two of the 9/11 hijackers is guilt by association, at best; the fact [...]
BREAKING NEWS: Bill Clinton Ringtone Mystery Solved
Alas, somewhat disappointingly. A source close to Bill Clinton confirms that the cellphone call he received while talking to reporters in the Capitol was indeed from the Secretary of State. However, he informs us that the intriguing ringtone we heard this afternoon was a generic jazz one, which the former President picked because, well, he [...]