Garance Franke-Ruta

NEWS YOU CAN USE. Eric Boehlert has just written a devastating column on the way The Washington Post has covered conservative bloggers at the expense of liberal ones. It’s genuinely rather shocking. –Garance Franke-Ruta

STRAW WOMEN. I see via Matt Yglesias that Christina Hoff Sommers has written a piece for The Weekly Standard on “The Subjection of Islamic Women And the fecklessness of American feminism.” Sommers writes: If you go to the websites of major women’s groups, such as the National Organization for Women, the Ms. Foundation for Women, […]

IN IT TO WIN IT. The Washington Times reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has inched closer to a decision about running for president as an independent in 2008, putting together plans to devote one fifth of his very substantial assets to the quest. From the online teaser story: New York City Mayor […]

HOT OR NOT? A reliable G.O.P. source sends in this e-mail from “a colleague … in Iowa” who “just went to see Mitt Romney speak. This is from her, and a piece of campaign literature she picked up at the event: His promotional flyer says, “In this media-driven age, Romney begins with a decisive advantage. […]

THE GREAT UNSPOKEN QUESTION. Talking to some Democratic operatives last night, the question was raised about whether the conventional wisdom on the strength of the Democratic field is correct, or whether the apparent strength of the top three contenders as primary candidates masks worrisome questions about whether any of them can actually put together the […]

THE PROTEGES. I’m no defender of Mark Penn, given the campaign he urged Joe Lieberman to wage in 2003 against Howard Dean‘s then-daring articulation of positions that are today’s conventional wisdom on the war in Iraq, but I think if people are going to go after him and Doug Schoen, they also need to take […]

MORE IRANIAN BACKLASH AGAINST SOFT POWER. This is a worrisome development guaranteed to set Washington foreign policy circles on edge. Robin Wright reports: The State Department today condemned Iran’s detention of Washington scholar Haleh Esfandiari and journalist Parnaz Azima and acknowledged a growing problem with Tehran over its actions against U.S. and dual U.S.-Iranian citizens…. […]

HOT AS HELL IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE. Because the surge is going so well, the U.S. government has directed employees of the U.S. Embassy in the Green Zone in Baghdad to wear protective gear while traveling around the Zone and even while indoors: A sharp increase in mortar attacks on the Green Zone — the […]

SELF-CORRECTING BLOGOSPHERE. I see Matt Yglesias has taken to Campus Progress to argue with my Wall Street Journal piece on late teens porn, but he’s unfortunately made a rather significant factual error that’s led him to respond to a position I don’t hold and have never argued. Matt wrote: On the other hand, criminalizing participation […]

STRESS MANAGEMENT. Another sign that Paul Wolfowitz may not be long for the World Bank: I hear he’s been spending a lot of his time these days at the Sports Club LA just blocks from the Bank. “I swear, he must live there,” says one gym attendee. –Garance Franke-Ruta