Adam Serwer

I’ve said that I’m cautiously optimistic about the likelihood that the Obama Administration will end Bush‘s policy of “enhanced interrogations,” although less so since learning about Obama adviser John Brennan‘s past and his potential role in the Obama Administration. At the same time, I’ve argued that people shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that he won’t […]

Andrew Sullivan expresses frustration over Prince‘s homophobia: Prop 8 has helped unearth the seething homophobia in much of black America. Even for a dandy, feminized midget like Prince. (Actually, black dandy, feminized midgets need to express more homophobia than most.) Sullivan is so desperate to vent his anger at black folks over Prop 8 that […]

Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan are both concerned about John Brennan, the Obama adviser quoted in that CQ article because he seems to have been a supporter of torture in the past. At the very least, Brennan has defended both “enhanced interrogation” and “extraordinary rendition” (sample quote from Greenwald: “There [has] been a lot of […]

When I think of Christmas, this image of a product John Aravosis found being sold by the Christian right American Family Association is not the one that comes to mind. You’ll remember the AFA from such moments of intolerance as attacking Keith Ellison for being a Muslim and seeing a “secret gay agenda” in, well, […]

Last week, there was one article in The Wall Street Journal that named a single source suggesting Obama would be open to continuing Bush “enhanced interrogation” policies. Right wing blogs, desperate for vindication on this issue, cited the WSJ report, or reports citing the WSJ report, and ignored contradicting stories printed in Salon and The […]

There were a lot of problems with mistaken identity with my last post, so I just want to clear a few things up. This is Hoover Fellow Shelby Steele: This is former Maryland Lt. Governor and RNC Chair contender Michael Steele: This is Civil War Scholar Shelby Foote: Any questions? –A. Serwer

Redstate and company might need to add a few names to that “Operation Leper” list, now that the Republican Governor’s Association has snubbed Sarah Palin: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was voted RGA chairman, taking over the top job from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who will now serve as finance chairman. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour […]

I’ve been trying to quit Shelby Steele. I really have. I saw his Op-Ed in the LA Times the day after the election, and it was replete with all the same “insights” Steele usually offers — that is, the smooth balm of one racial platitude after another. In Steele’s world, whites are the victims of […]

Susan Rice caught my interest during the primary because she was one of the first foreign policy types to sign onto the Obama campaign, but also because she opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. The last time Spencer Ackerman spoke to Dr. Rice for TAP, he got this fantastic quote: “After eight years […]