Matt Bai has a good column in the Times today about the looming debate over controlling the costs of old age entitlements, especially social security. The left wing of the Democratic Party is wildly–I’d say, excessively–opposed to limiting it in any way. I disagree: a few minor fixes, similar to those made in 1983, would [...]
Continuing their run of extraordinary reporting from Afghanistan, Dexter Filkins and Mark Mazzetti break the news that Mohammed Zia Salehi, President Karzai’s top national security aide who was busted for corruption last month, was on the payroll of the CIA. Earlier this year, Filkins reported that Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was also on the [...]
Swamplanders may have noticed a post from a new name this afternoon, TIME’s National Security correspondent extraordinaire Mark Thompson. Mark is a Pulitzer Prize winner for his 1985 Fort Worth Star-Telegram five-part story about a design flaw in Bell helicopters that went uncorrected for a decade and claimed 250 lives during that time. He’s written [...]
The Sunlight Foundation has this report from the front lines of Congressional fundraising skulduggery. Longtime Democratic lawmaker Maxine Waters has perfected an unusual tactic for fundraising over the years – getting candidates, including some of California’s most prominent political figures, running for state and local offices, to pay as much as $45,000 for her endorsement [...]
Being a legacy candidate is a blessing and a curse. For Ben Quayle, it must have been daunting to plunge into politics knowing he had almost zero shot of climbing to the heights reached by his father–even if his father’s defining moment may have been misspelling “potato”–and that any success he achieved would be written [...]
So, John McCain has survived his primary brush with political termination. But he still has another challenger standing between himself and re-election in November: former Tucson City councilman Mark Rodney Glassman. At first blush, it might seem that McCain will roll to easy victory this fall. A recent Rasmussen poll shows him 19 points ahead [...]
Economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics was in the spotlight at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast this morning, where reporters quizzed him on policy and predictions, some more heartening than others. Jay and Crowley both addressed House Minority Leader John Boehner’s economic-themed speech yesterday, but below are some excerpts showing where Zandi, an increasingly ubiquitous [...]
Based off of the enormously successful Old Spice commercials, this is probably the most unique intern recruiting video I’ve ever seen. Apparently, it’s working. Rep. Blunt is running for Senate in Missouri.
