I’m on leave writing a book about my beloved stimulus, but when I heard about Rick Santorum’s big finish in Iowa, it reminded me: Didn’t someone advise Swampland readers to invest in Santorum back in May when Intrade was giving him a 0.5% chance to win the nomination, because “that’s going to rise as the campaign starts heating up in …
Viewpoint
Rep. Sensenbrenner Says Michelle Obama Has a ‘Big Butt.’ Really!!?
When a 17-term Republican congressman and former chair of the House Judiciary Committee says the First Lady has a “big butt,” there’s only one way to respond. So with apologies to Seth Myers (and Amy Poehler)…
Really, Jim Sensenbrenner? Really?! While speaking to a constituent–and one who has just expressed her admiration for …
Our Pakistani Allies
Jonesboro, Arkansas
I’ve got to take a break from road trip posting–there’ll be more tomorrow morning–to say: Finally! And Hoorah. Finally, the U.S. is acknowledging what some of us have been reporting for years: the Haqqani Taliban network is an asset of the Pakistani military. This means we’ve been played for suckers for the past …
Solyndra Hypocrisy: David Vitter Sought Energy Loans He Now Seeks to Scrutinize
Washington “scandals” have a predictable rhythm, and the Solyndra solar loan “scandal” has entered the phase where critics start exploiting the controversy to push their ideological agenda.
The Sisyphean Stimulus Sell: Why Obama’s Big Job Speech Will Likely Prove Unpersuasive
Governor Rick “Galileo” Perry declared at the Reagan Library last night that President Obama and his 2009 stimulus have “proven once and for all that government spending will not create one job.” Actually, in the last …
The Republican Debate
It is now a two-man race, with an asterisk. Everyone seems to agree that last night’s Republican debate devolved into a spitting contest between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Those who live on Planet Earth will believe that Romney won the debate; those who live on Planet Tea Party will favor Perry, with a slight hitch–did he actually order …
Obama’s New Semester
The political year is sort of like the school year, only longer and more depressing. Both begin–after a summer recess–in September. Barack Obama will begin his new semester tonight, with his jobs speech. This is a curious …
Forget Solyndra: Obama’s Green Loan Program Is Still Worth It
Nobody’s going to notice this, because nobody’s going bankrupt, but the Obama administration just approved a conditional commitment for the largest residential solar project in history, an effort to install photovoltaic panels on up to 160,000 rooftops at 124 military bases in 33 states. With its $344 million federal loan guarantee, …
Obama’s Ozone Flip-Flop: Bad Policy and Bad Politics
My lefty friends have been asking me: If I think President Obama has been so great for the earth, and I think his enviro critics are ungrateful whiners, then how do I defend his capitulation to industry on new smog regulations? And the answer is…I don’t. He ignored the science, threw the EPA under the bus, and double-crossed green …
Lessons of the Post-9/11 Military
Earlier this week, I attended the retirement ceremony of General David Petraeus at Fort Meyer. It was a landmark moment, the closing of a chapter–the decade after 9/11. I’ve written about the transformation of the U.S. Military at length, including a column about Petraeus’ intellectual impact on the Army and a cover story about how …
Ben Bernanke Embraces Obama’s Reality-Based Presidency
Texas governor and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry still knows about as much about monetary policy as Sarah Palin knows about American history—or, for that matter, about monetary policy—but maybe there was a glimmer of …
We Have Big Noses, Too
I interrupt my personal boycott of the artist formerly known as Glenn Beck because…I just can’t resist this. Here is what Beck said about his recent sojourns in the Holy Land:
“I love the Israelis, he said. “I love the Jewish people. But they drive me out of my mind when they talk over each other. They’re constantly talking!”
Beck
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Spending Cuts Are Great When the Spending Is Stupid
There’s a tired fight raging in Washington between anti-government people who want spending cuts and pro-government people who don’t. Here’s a crazy thought: Maybe we should spend more on good things and less on dumb things. I’m in the pro-government camp, but I’d be thrilled to eliminate almost all of the $380 billion worth of …
