The Associated Press reports that Jacob Lew, the deputy secretary for management at the State Department, will replace Peter Orszag as the head of the Office of Management and Budget, beating out other contenders like Laura Tyson and Gene Sperling. Jonathan Cohn, at The New Republic, offered some Who Is Lew tidbits on his blog [...]
Steve Kinzer, author of a timely new book about Iran and Turkey–and a constant purveyor of sanity when it comes to all things Persian–has just returned from a trip to Iran with this report. It tracks closely with things I’ve heard from average Iranians in my visits there over the years: They like us. They [...]
Well, we’re finally entering the hot zone for campaign 2010…the general election ads will start going up soon and then the terrain may begin to change–since ads grow more and more important with each passing newspaper. The Republicans have gotten a free ride on their naysaying so far. But that is about to change–in part, [...]
–An awful workplace shooting roils Albuquerque. –As Politico reports, a typically combative remark by former Congressman Tom Tancredo underscores former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton’s shift to the right to repel a challenge in Colorado’s Republican Senate primary. –Newt Gingrich is really, truly, seriously pondering a presidential run. –A proposal to offer online undergraduate degrees at [...]
Back in April, when Scott Brown was a no-show for a Tea Party rally on the Boston Common, the activists who helped propel him into office didn’t take it personally. It was a non-issue, they told me; Brown was busy looking after their interests in Washington. But as Adam noted, the Tea Party’s love affair [...]
For all the talk of being the “41st Senator” (thus denying the Democrats their supermajority), Scott Brown sure has a knack for delivering numero 60 for Harry Reid and Co. in a pinch. You may remember the time he saved the Democrats’ jobs bill. Today the Massachusetts Senator, who won late-in-the-game concessions in conference committee, [...]
For New York Magazine, Joe Hagan has written the definitive account of the John McCain’s last 18 months, describing how McCain has gone about dismantling “the carefully constructed political identity [top aide Mark] Salter had been nurturing over the last decade.” If there is a fault to the well-reported story, it is that Hagan falls [...]
I was definitely among the skeptics Jay mentions when it came to the prospects of a Palin presidential run in 2012. Since she stepped down from the governorship last year, she had taken few concrete steps in that direction. Showing interest in a TV career is a pretty strong indication that a politician has ambitions [...]
