I think the Note has finally found its intellectual level:
A is for al Qaeda, which remains the problem (still).
B is for Bush, the biggest speech of his life (again).
C is for “cut and run,” which one doesn’t hear much any more.
D is for David Rogers, Dow Jonesing for Rep. Murtha’s secret plan to end the war.
E is for endgame,
…
Excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal today about the possibility of a regional war in the middle east. Those of us who favor a withdrawal from Iraq should be doing some hard thinking about how to deal with these consequences.–Joe Klein
I probably shouldn’t be wading in between Joe and his fans here, but I’ll be listening Wednesday night to see what the President says to address the political problem in Iraq. Strikes me that when David Brooks starts sounding like Joe Biden on the need for some kind of decentralization that would recognize the deep ethnic divisions in …
I love it! First day of Swampitude and the left-wing blogosphere–which is overpopulated by illiberal leftists and reactionary progressives–is already attacking me: 24 mostly mingy comments about my Left Behind post, many of which seem to be steaming off a post by Greg Sargent, who writes a blog called The Horse’s…Mouth.
The illiberal …
Health care was an issue you didn’t hear much about during the campaign last year. But with medical costs soaring and the number of uninsured growing, it remains near the top of voters’ concerns, and once again, it appears that the states may have to step in where Washington refuses to.
The Republican Governor of the biggest state in …
It’s a political truism that if you turn up the volume loud enough, the extremes of the left and right sound almost exactly alike. I am reminded of this weekly, when I get updates from both the conservative media watchers at the Media Research Center and the liberal watchdogs at Media Matters. This past week, Media Matters exercised the …
A couple of points on the so-called surge: Ana’s right that an increase of 20,000 is not what Gen. Keane and the serious surgers are asking for. She’s also right that it probably won’t be enough. (It’s hard to imagine what would be enough at this point). But the numbers game isn’t as important as the change in tactics. A lot of our …
As Jay points out, whether or not the “serious” supporters of a surge/escalation will walk away from a half-measure — a surge that is either short or small — will be the true test of seriousness. McCain’s recent history (cough torture compromise cough) suggests that for all his sober talk now, he could wind up “reluctantly agreeing to …
Joe’s right about Democrats who get so spooked by national security issues that they never bother to learn the details. In 2004, John Edwards was labeled a lightweight because of his inability to say anything that wasn’t superficial about foreign policy. He’s decided to fix this substance neglect problem in 2008 by becoming a policy …
Drudge has already had some fun today with the 110th Congress’s inability to keep even banker’s hours.
Co-blogger Karen Tumulty reports from the Hill that it’s not just the representatives (or, as some like to call them, “interns”) that are playing hooky during their first week of school. Only 88 senators managed to make it to the floor …
Joe Klein, cranky? Alert the media!
While I don’t feel like I’ve personally done enough homework to have a respect-worthy opinion on the idea of a surge, the theatrics of this debate are playing out at a level I’m very comfortable with: the lowest one. I left out a critique of Joe Lieberman’s presentation in my post on the Iraq surge …
TMPCafe introduced the “DoddPod” as though it were part of some off-beat Presidential rollout for the eh-tier 08 candidate: supporters program the Senator’s iPod, suggest podcasts, and even upload their own MP3’s. I profess a sneaking admiration for “interactive” gambits which require little to no actual input from the person in power; …
Karen says:
When they [the Dems] launched their Six for ’06 campaign, none of them thought they actually had a prayer of winning the Senate.
Funny, I think that when a lot of people voted for the Democrats, none of them thought they actually had a prayer of winning the Senate.
More seriously: I think I understand the reasoning behind …
