Joe Klein

Several readers were wondering what I was doing at the National Review’s conservative summit last week. Here’s the answer.

I just heard that General Petraeus has asked the very well respected Colonel H.R. McMaster to be part of his Iraq team. McMaster wrote a terrific book about Vietnam and successfully attempted to use counterinsurgency tactics in Tal Afar last year (although as with Petraeus in Mosul, the success diminished after McMaster’s team left). …

I was airborne this morning and missed the first part of General George Casey’s testimony before the Armed Services Committee, but apparently John McCain gave Casey a tough time.

I know there’s belated sympathy for Casey. He’s obviously uncomfortable with Bush’s new strategy in Iraq. But that doesn’t mean Casey wasn’t an utter failure …

Eric Alterman at war with the teachers unions! I’ve long believed that the NEA and AFT were harmful to children, as functionally reactionary as Southern suburban Republican legislators–in fact, I’m sure Alterman has criticized me about my anti-teachers-union harangues at some point or other (before his own kids started going to public …

There’s this from the estimable Roger Simon at Politico. I always thought Edwards’ nicey-niceness was gaggingly dreadful in 2004. He did John Kerry no favors by refusing to dispute him on the issues in the primaries. It’s good he’s speaking his mind now. Especially when he takes these positions with Simon:

To reduce carbon emissions,

…

There’s been a lot of comment on the web about Joe Biden’s ritual self-immolation in the New York Observer regarding Barack Obama:

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Clean? To which I say: Yikes and adios.
But …

This is an interesting idea–Evan Bayh would make a terrific vice president for Hillary, and the idea of announcing it early has some real merit. But then, of course, Barack Obama–or John Edwards–could respond by naming Bob Kerrey as their vice presidential pick. (At least one campaign, I can report, is thinking about doing just that.)

I’ve got to dispute Karen on the importance of money in politics. I think that it’s less important than it’s been in recent campaign cycles for several reasons. I mean, why do politicians feel compelled to raise gazillions? To buy television advertising, mostly negative. It’s just a gut feeling, but I suspect the public is increasingly …

A number of readers raised the astute point that Hillary Clinton’s failure to question Gen. David Petraeus at the Armed Services Committee was less obnoxious than some of the questions asked by other members of the panel, namely Senators McCain and Lieberman.
I agree, especially about Lieberman, whose line of questioning seems to have …

I’m so pleased to have received the coveted wanker of the day award from Atrios, whose civility knows no bounds. But slightly disappointed in the Matt Yglesias post that Atrios links to, since Yglesias does have a reputation for substance over slime.
And then there’s this from a reader:

Exactly what “little people” does Broder talk to?

…

I know it’s become common practice to slag David Broder in the blogosphere. But let me say this in David’s defense: he is not an armchair pundit. Even now, at the age of 236, or thereabouts, he goes out and really does his homework, riding the buses and hitting the living rooms of voters in the crucial states. If you’ve ever wondered why …

Seems to me that thisis a clever response to Bush’s attempt to provoke a war with Iran.

Thanks, readers, for your generally unsnarky response to the post below. But one reader wanted to know why I wasn’t writing this sort of stuff in June 2003.
Answer: the intelligence sources who knew the details weren’t sufficiently upset with Bush Administration policy to talk to me about it until June 2005. I spent the summer of 2005 …