Ezra Klein

Well this is positive: Sen. Harry Reid (Nev.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), the Democratic leaders of the Senate and House, plan to shake up the Democratic political consulting community and break the grip that a small number of consultants have had on strategy and contracts, party sources say. The Democratic leaders want to bring […]

Justin’s thoughts on my post arguing the merits of the EU’s lead role in Iran deserve a quick response. The world, he argues, is more complex than I give it credit for, mainly because the EU has no credible military force nor the appetite to introduce sanctions and our threats don’t matter because they’ve been […]

Hosting the Koufax Awards has obliterated Wampum’s server. If they don’t get some scratch, a good deed they tried to do for the lefty blogosphere is going to end up backfiring and driving them off the net. That’d really be a shame, we should support our own better than that. So if you can chip […]

The Kyoto Pact takes effect today. Without us. In some ways, it’s more symbolic than anything. Sans our involvement, it’ll barely make a dent in global carbon dioxide emissions. But our opposition neither killed nor derailed it, and that in itself was meant to send a message. It’s worth noting that, in this too, Bush […]

This is the worst news we’ve had on HIV in a long while: On Friday, New York City health officials issued this chilling announcement: A man is infected with a form of the AIDS virus that is not only resistant to three of the four classes of anti-HIV drugs, it is apparently so virulent that […]

Matt’s observation that the media, in discussing Iraq’s future, is conflating a pro-Iranian government with an Iranian-style government misses the point, I think. The conversation isn’t really about the institution of velayet-e faqih (Khomeini’s philosophy that only those steeped in Islamic jursiprudence can rule) or friendly relations with their Shi’a neighbor. The commentary on Iran […]

I’m always amazed at the twisted logic, or at least outcomes, of Bush administration policies. When pushing policies that have no relation to reality, they change reality so it relates to their policies. They mismanage government finances and blow through a budget surplus creating what they call a “crisis” in Social Security, propose a plan […]

Steve Clemons brings up a good point: Iran and North Korea know that America’s bark is loud but bite is probably pretty soft right now. And the Europeans are doing their best to take on a global strategic dilemma — their very first — without the U.S. in the lead. The EU is in the […]

I’m going to disagree with Jeff Dubner’s assertion that the Bush administration has committed too much to pivot on Social Security reform. Indeed, they’ve committed virtually nothing. The plan we all attack is a phantom, a combination of leaks, divination, and reading between the lines. The President has repeatedly argued that he wants to see […]

As Justin Logan notes, Kerry’s comment that we really had a “coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted” turned out to be spot-on, with the newly elected Bush administration no longer even bothering to hide the payoffs: The $80 billion war-funding request that President Bush plans to send Congress next week […]