The Editors

If it was, that’d be cool, because we’re having problems with certain links on our site redirecting readers to a site that plays the video (for an explanation of rickrolling see here) and doesn’t let you close your browser (using task manager takes care of that on Windows). Anyway, we’ve fixed it for now and […]

Ezra Klein on Bill Clinton: Bill Clinton’s formidable political reputation is, in large part, the product of such speeches. And no one has seen Clinton give more speeches than the reporters who’ve covered him. Nightline’s Terry Moran described Clinton as “the man often called the most gifted politician of his generation.” The New York Times‘ […]

Gershom Gorenberg on the woman who just might be Israel’s next Prime Minister. One line of Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s resume has always been an enigma. From 1980 to 1984, it says, Livni served in the Mossad. This week, some details of her work in the ultra-secretive espionage agency emerged in the Sunday Times […]

Lee Drutman explains what we get wrong about lobbyists: In recent weeks, John McCain and Barack Obama have sparred over the role of lobbyists in their campaigns. While both are eager to position themselves as the candidate of reform, neither has proposed a plan that tackles the real sources of lobbyists’ power. Real lobbying reform […]

Amanda Terkel explains the administration’s standard procedure for discrediting those who turn against it: The attacks on McClellan have been extremely well-coordinated, with current and former Bush administration officials sticking to tight talking points. They seemed to mostly take their cues from White House Press Secretary Dana Perino‘s official response, which came out on Wednesday […]

Harold Meyerson reports that yesterday’s Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting is a sign of problems to come if Clinton continues her campaign: In the end, the Clinton camp was undercut by its own supporters and by the state parties it purported to defend.Yesterday’s Rules Committee meeting began with Florida’s state party essentially conceding that its […]

Brian Beutler has the latest: While Congress has launched sporadic inquiries into contracting fraud, one legislator, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., has made it his mission to investigate contractor corruption. Dorgan chairs the Democratic Policy Committee, a Senate entity tasked with gathering and distributing policy, strategy, and oversight information to congressional staff and other Democratic officials. […]

Dana Goldstein gears up: But as I quickly learned, car ownership remains the norm in D.C. Although a full 12 percent of District residents walk to work—the second highest rate in the nation after Boston—over two-thirds of Washington households own a car. Car-ownership rates have even risen in low-income communities, in part because they are […]

Matt Duss on Muqtada al-Sadr: Senor and Martinez were engaged in what has now become a semi-annual ritual among pro-Iraq war cultists: Prematurely celebrating the demise of the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. (Last year, Crooked Timber blogger John Quiggin compiled a partial list of Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds‘ premature “Sadr is finished!” ejaculations.) Senor and Martinez’s […]

Mori Dinauer looks at the John McCain‘s most interesting potential VP pick: On Feb. 8, a caller to The Rush Limbaugh Show asked the conservative host if there were any chance of McCain adding Newt Gingrich to the presidential ticket. Sighing audibly, Limbaugh regretfully described it as unlikely before rattling off the usual list of […]