Dana Goldstein

Three years ago, when I first moved to D.C. and started writing for liberal magazines, it was considered hopelessly niche to care about decreasing Americans’ reliance on cars. Supporting ideas like gas taxes and smart growth suburban development got you labeled an urban-triumphalist with little understanding of how most Americans “chose” to live their lives. […]

Roger Simon reports that next week, the RNC will approve a resolution rebranding the Democratic Party the “Democrat Socialist Party.” RNC Chairman Michael Steele opposes the move, but is reportedly powerless to stop it: Steele wrote a memo last month opposing the resolution. Steele said that while he believes Democrats “are indeed marching America toward […]

I was a bit surprised to read, yesterday, that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona, is on President Obama‘s shortlist for the Supreme Court. When I profiled Napolitano for the Prospect last year, spending some time with her in Phoenix, I came away with a picture of a savvy political animal, […]

Freelance writer Dan Baum continues to tweet the story of his relationship with The New Yorker, and the magazine’s eventual decision to end his contract as a staff writer. Baum’s story is fascinating and honest, and I do recommend it, despite some critical words I wrote last week about something I found peculiar: Baum’s use […]

Dan Baum, a newspaper reporter turned New Yorker staff writer, is tweeting his 2007 firing from the magazine. In 140-character dispatches, Baum reveals that like all New Yorker writers, he was paid according to a simple dollars per word equation — in Baum’s case, $90,000 annually for 30,000 words. The hitch? There were no employee […]

Despite campaign promises to the contrary, President Obama — in his budget released yesterday — did not move to overturn the Hyde Amendment, the provision that bars federal funds from being used to pay for abortions. The Hyde Amendment has the biggest effect on low-income women who use Medicaid; because of Hyde, these already economically […]

To be fair to Jeff Rosen, who’s had a terrible drubbing here at TAPPED in recent days, I’ll point out that today, he published an update to his already-infamous anti-Sotomayor piece. Rosen now argues, outright, that the next Supreme Court justice should be a woman, saying, “the next justice should indeed be a she.” And […]

Coming off their national convention, AIPAC — the main pro-Israel lobbying group in the United States — has made a remarkable concession: The organization is agreeing to legislative changes that would allow the U.S. to fund and conduct diplomacy with a Palestinian Unity government that includes Hamas. JTA has the report. AIPAC’s decision could clear […]

Over the past two years, Michelle Obama‘s public image has undergone a remarkable number of transitions: Outspoken antiwar activist. Self-proclaimed “mom-in-chief.” Fashion icon. Advocate for her husband’s economic agenda. Vegetable gardener. Throughout, feminists have watched Michelle with some trepidation, worried that this professionally accomplished attorney and longtime advocate for urban issues was being politically pressured […]