Ezra Klein

I’m trying to spruce the place up a bit now that I’m all settled in. First order of business was moving the picture, which I think was too prominently displayed. Those wanting to stare at me can now do so in the “About” section. Next up, I need to find a picture for the top […]

Well Garance knocked that one out of the park.

Over the last weeks, an interesting back-and-forth kind of dialogue has developed over the situation in Syria. It’s gone roughly like this: Good News: Democracy may, in fact, be on the march in Syria. Bush’s strategy worked! Bad News: Pro-Syrian, explicitly anti-American counterprotests dwarfed those staged by the opposition. Bush’s imperalist-tinged adventurism in the Middle […]

Political Wire reports that Paul Sarbanes is getting out of the legislating business. It’s too bad; Sarbanes is a very good Senator. He’s a strong liberal (he voted against Iraq, both tax cuts, and Ashcroft), but he works harder behind the scenes than Barbara Boxer does in front of the cameras. (Don’t get me wrong: […]

With many thanks to commenter Nick, I finally found that Jim Talent quote, and she’s a doozy: But a Republican panel member, Senator Jim Talent of Missouri, signaled that, as far as he is concerned, little if any blame rests on American shoulders.”If our guys want to poke somebody in the chest to get the […]

This week’s TNR features dueling pieces on Social Security. The second, by Jon Chait, is a principled case for obstructionism, hitting all the points you blog-readers have now committed to memory. The first, however, is by Greg Mankiw, former Chair of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors, and it argues — I’m not making this up […]

DHinMI is wondering whether young voters, who seem to support private accounts, will help Karl Rove create the enduring Republican majority he seeks. Nope. Young voters barely care about politics, Social Security excites them about as much as Golden Girls cliffhanger. From 15 years ago. Seriously — whether or not my generation likes Bush, and […]

John Judis’s article on the AFL-CIO’s need to replace Sweeney makes a lot of excellent points, none of which relate to replacing Sweeney. Read the piece for an all-too-rare counterpoint concerning SEIU’s Andy Stern and his restructuring proposals, but don’t go looking for the argument it claims to contain — why the AFL-CIO needs to […]

Matt Welch has an idea so crazy it just might work: There’s a better and arguably more attractive ideological option than beinganti–”pro–free market,” and it’s sitting right in front of the Democrats’noses. When the party you despise controls most of the levers of government,it’s an excellent time to run against government. Disparate threads of limited-government […]

Hello, fellow Klein enthusiasts! I’m Daniel A. Munz, and I run things down the road at Politics and War. Continuing his admirable experiment in editorial altruism, Ezra has given me run of the place for the weekend. I am, as they say, pleased as punch. I’ve admired Ezra’s writing for a sight longer than he’s […]