In the ArenaUncategorized
Juan Cole has some fascinating stuff here.
Actually, Jay: Allawi is a former Ba’ath Party member, and always had ties to the Ba’athist segment of the Sunni insurgency. And this kind of confirms that Allawi’s support, such as it is, comes from an alliance of the powerless.
Bobby Ghosh reports that the Baath Party — yes, that Baath Party — is endorsing Ayad Allawi to replace Nouri al-Maliki as Iraq’s prime minister. You’d think, for a Shi’ite, that an endorsement from the Sunni-dominated outfit that Saddam rode to power and used to consolidate his dictatorship would be the political equivalent of a kiss …
Eric Pooley spent a lot of time on the campaign trail with John and Elizabeth Edwards trying to capture the essence of the candidate, his populist message and his Iowa-focused strategy for leapfrogging Clinton and Obama on his way to the nomination. Pooley’s excellent piece appears in the new print issue of Time, and on-line here. It’s …
In the ArenaUncategorized
David Ignatius has a fascinating column this morning, in which it is claimed that Condoleezza Rice and Nancy Pelosi–now there’s a duet!–prevented the CIA from covertly supporting moderate and secular politicians in the 2005 Iraqi elections, even as Iran was backing the Shi’ite religious list with lots of dough.
Rice’s faith in …
In the ArenaUncategorized
The news that Muqtada al-Sadr is “ordering” his Mahdi Army to stand down for six months–apparently half-a-year is the time unit of choice on both sides of the Iraq War–may be a very positive sign or a sign of weakness or nothing much at all.
Positive Sign: For months, the U.S. has been trying, through intermediaries, to get Sadr to …
Over at Slate, former Clinton White House domestic policy chief (and Coeur d’Alene native) Bruce Reed tells us that panic has gripped his home state:
My hometown paper, the North Idaho Press—one of the most Republican newspapers in the state—called on Craig to resign in a scathing editorial titled, “Trust violated, there is no
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A key Republican to watch for signs of a shift in position in the wake of the Petraeus report is Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader. McConnell has, for the most part, been a reliable supporter of the President’s policies on Iraq, including the surge. But he’s facing an increasingly hostile political environment at …
The point is being made elsewhere, but it’s probably worth repeating here:
Republicans want Larry Craig to go, and soon.
This is, politically, a very different situation from that of Louisiana Senator David Vitter, who showed up on the DC Madam’s list, and not just because of the party’s stance on gay rights issues. Next year’s …
Yes, I’ve been co-hosting MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program this week, and will be continuing through Friday. I’m touched that some of you — okay, ONE of you — noticed. If someone else tunes in and you’ll double the ratings!
I’m also tentatively scheduled to be on “Countdown” this evening, whose ratings don’t apparently need any help (up …
Until recently, Larry Craig was Mitt Romney’s “senate liaison,” a not insignificant job for a candidate that has no Washington experience and few connections. To judge by what Romney said in the wake the breaking scandal, you’d think the two had never so much as met, much less liaised:
I think we have all heard the story about Bill
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So much for the hope held out by some in the GOP that Larry Craig would make this embarrassing episode go away quickly by announcing that he wouldn’t seek re-election. Instead, as the senator just made clear, for at least the next month (when, he said, he’ll announce his 2008 intentions), the Craig scandal will continue to percolate in …
This news release just in from the Dodd campaign:
WASHINGTON, DC – Democratic Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd will receive the endorsement of the International Association of Fire Fighters at an event with IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger at the Capital Hilton in Washington, DC tomorrow at 11 am. Saying that Dodd is the
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Commenter ivb calls our attention to this intriguing story by Brody Mullins in today’s Wall Street Journal:
One of the biggest sources of political donations to Hillary Rodham Clinton is a tiny, lime-green bungalow that lies under the flight path from San Francisco International Airport.
Six members of the Paw family, each listing the
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