The Editors

Gershom Gorenberg explains: The current crisis was set off last week by Cabinet decisions aimed at dismantling Hezbollah’s private telephone network — critical for its military communications — and at removing Beirut airport’s security chief, who has links to the Shi’ite group. If the Siniora government expected quiet acquiescence, it was wildly overconfident. Hezbollah quickly […]

Dean Baker has the latest on the economy in the meltdown lowdown: A new bill sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, directs the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to buy up loans that are facing foreclosure. If the bill passes, the FHA will guarantee new mortgages at a price 15 […]

Matt Yglesias has an essay on the main site based on his new book, Heads in the Sand which explains how Democrats have hurt themselves with incoherent foreign policy thinking and how they can improve in the future. TAP has invited a group of foreign policy experts from across the ideological spectrum to respond to […]

Sarah Posner on the religious right: Evangelical leaders put out an “Evangelical Manifesto” but not everyone’s on board, the Alliance Defense Fund challenges the tax man, Mike Huckabee continues his quest for the VP slot, and Jay Bakker challenges Megachurch pastors on homophobia. Read the rest in this week’s FundamentaList and comment. Subscribe to our […]

Democrat Travis Childers won the special election last night in Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District. Terry Samuel wrote about the race for TAP Online on Friday: The election is producing extraordinary levels of GOP anxiety, because of what it says about Republican prospects in November. While losing any congressional seat these day is distressing for a […]

Paul Waldman examines the impact a McCain presidency would have on judicial appointments. The truth is that an “activist judge” is a judge who makes a decision conservatives don’t like. If they truly cared about the principle that judges shouldn’t substitute their own opinions for the law, then they would be just as exorcised about […]

Harold Meyerson reminds us about the role West Virginia has previously played in Democratic politics: In 1960, the nomination process was still controlled by the political organizations that dominated the various state convention delegations (that didn’t change until the convention of 1972). Only 16 states had primaries in 1960, and many of those, West Virginia’s […]

Harold Meyerson observes that Obama‘s success in weathering controversy demonstrates his wider appeal to the electorate: With his appearance at the National Press Club last week, Wright endeavored, whether consciously or not, to swallow both Obama and Obamaism. His onetime parishioner might be telling Americans that it was time to end our historic divisions, and […]

From our May special report: Jonathan Cohn argues that introducing universal health care would also salve the cost crisis facing Medicare: But if privatizing and pruning Medicare won’t save the program from financial turmoil, what will? The answer lies in understanding the real reason why Medicare costs keep going up. Surprisingly, the prime cause is […]