Slate’s John Dickerson has been attending the Scooter Libby trial’s jury selection, and is bringing surprising life to a court case that most people — apparently those covering it as well — assume is over already:
We looked like the most boring patrons of the most boring sports bar in the world, deciphering the action on the screen
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A number of readers, as well as other bloggers, have taken issue with my post about the “purge” of U.S. attorneys by the Bush Administration. What most of the criticism seems to miss is that I am not dismissing as “no big deal” either those resignations that truly were forced or the Patriot Act provision that gives the AG the power to …
In the ArenaUncategorized
This, from a reader:
Despite what the wingnuts will say, the least Iran-friendly Shiite political player of significance in Iraq today is Sadr. That’s not saying that he avoids all contact with any Iranian elements, but he’s much less tied to Tehran than other Iraqi political parties who depended on Iran’s support/shelter for many years …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Her position on Iraq is nuanced and responsible. Note this well:
“You don’t want to say there’s nobody within the Iraqi government who’s really committed to any nonsectarian future, but the weight of the evidence is that the people in charge are not committed that way,” she said. “At some point, how much are we willing to sacrifice if …
So much for the spirit of bipartisanship:
With the knowledge that neither Mr. Lieberman nor his supporters planned to take the reins, one of Mr. Lieberman’s loudest critics, John Orman, filed papers after the election with the secretary of state declaring himself chairman of the party. His rules stated that anyone who shared a name with
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In the ArenaUncategorized
This is a great piece of journalism by Sabrina Tavernise. Earlier in the war, an announcement that the Iraqis were rolling up Sadr’s henchmen would be greeted with unqualified huzzahs from the press and Bush administration. Not anymore. This detail was especially telling:
In an interesting twist, the militia’s leadership has not visibly …
Two days ago, a Republican leadership aide in the Senate boasted to me that Republicans were going to “out-ethics” the Democrats in this week’s debate over a lobbying and ethics bill, by pushing reforms–including an amendment by South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint–that went well beyond what the Democrats were proposing. Instead, late …
That Hillary press conference was most notable not for what HRC said — she’d gone over much of it on the Today show this morning — but for the amount of attention that was paid to it. As Karen suggested yesterday, the room was way too small for the number of journalists hoping that Hillary would either announce support for an immediate …
Karen asked:
What did Hillary Clinton mean at her news conference just now, when she said that she would vote for the non-binding resolution opposing the President’s surge/augmentation/escalation policy, but that Congress “will eventually have to move to tougher requirements on the Administration to get their attention”?
I can tell you …
That’s how Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo describes a story that his blog and its offshoot, TPMMuckraker.com, have played a laudable role in uncovering: the resignations of more than a dozen United States Attorneys across the country, and their replacement, under an obscure provision in the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, …
What did Hillary Clinton mean at her news conference just now, when she said that she would vote for the non-binding resolution opposing the President’s surge/augmentation/escalation policy, but that Congress “will eventually have to move to tougher requirements on the Administration to get their attention”?
As most everyone else in the Senate agonizes over a non-binding resolution of opposition to President Bush’s planned increase in troops in Iraq, Senator Christopher Dodd introduces one that has real teeth. Dodd contends the authorization that Congress gave Bush in 2002 is no longer valid, and that if the President wants more troops, he …
First a confession: Last summer, in a fit of journalistic responsibility, I bought the first season of “24” on DVD. I think I made it through one episode before deciding that for nail-biting drama I prefer “America’s Next Top Model,” which, one could argue, is also a fictional exploration of the American political and justice system.
In …
