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- John Sides has seven questions for political reporters who are covering the 2010 midterms. In response, Jonathan Bernstein asks how this works down the slate, particularly the districts across the country with Republican primary challenges. The implication of Sides' and Berstein's questions is that reporters are going to have to get to know some of these smaller districts with under-the-radar challengers better than we might usually expect from midterm coverage.
- John Bolton, perhaps tired of making the same argument for the 50 millionth time, comes up with some novel ways of spinning the tired yarn of a post-nuclear-Iran Middle East. A nuclear Iran is an inevitability, he admits, unless "someone uses pre-emptive military force to break Iran's nuclear fuel cycle and paralyze its program, at least temporarily." Temporarily! Now that's some long-term strategic thinking. "There is no possibility the Obama administration will use force," he continues, which only leaves Israel. We can't count on Iran being deterred by the U.S. nuclear umbrella, you see, because "Iran's theocratic regime and the high value placed on life in the hereafter makes this an exceedingly dangerous assumption." They can't wait to blow themselves up and take the infidels with them! That's what Muslims do. And don't forget to keep this neocon gem for your scrapbook: "Israeli use of military force would be neither precipitate nor disproportionate, but only a last resort in anticipatory self-defense" (emphasis mine).
- In the epistemic closure debate, Sean Scallon suggests that the real problem is the industry of conservative book publishing cranking out endless drivel that does little more than confirm their readership's own beliefs. True, conservatism has carved a niche market, but it isn't treated as such. As soon as some right-wing radio host's new book shoots to the top of The New York Times bestseller list, there's somebody at The Corner pointing a "resurgence" of interest in conservative thought, as if short-term popularity were indicative of quality.
- Brian Beutler reports that Nancy Pelosi has alleged in recent weeks that the Bush administration barred top officials from briefing Congress about the severity of the financial crisis, even though they knew well in advance that Congress would need to authorize a historical bailout to cover the damage. This claim reads less like revelation than it does Pelosi taking a shot at the former president, who had little influence on the day-to-day decisions at Treasury. It is likely that absent a crisis, Congress would not have authorized in advance a plan to purchase toxic assets, and by the time the crisis came around, only direct, unpopular, capital injections -- the bailout itself -- was sufficient to prevent the collapse of the U.S. economy.
- Weekend Remainders: Rush Limbaugh decides, Fox News reports; get your Charlie Crist (ex-R-FL) merchandise while it's hot; "former member of the Bush administration" is the new J-school; and David Broder thinks the Tea Partiers are "the grass-roots political force that logically should be spurring Congress and the president to tackle these ruinous deficits."
--Mori Dinauer
