Greg Sargent

PLEASE, NO MORE JACKBOOTS STOMPING ON HUMAN FACES! To add a slightly more frivolous point to Matt‘s post below about Jonah Goldberg, isn’t it high time to retire the “jackboots-stomping-on-a-human-face” clich� that Goldberg quotes “Derb” as using? I mean, does any military outfit itself with jackboots anymore? That’s a real question. Anybody know? My inclination […]

UNITED NATIONS OFFICIALLY DECLARES IRAN DRESS CODES STORY UNTRUE. OK, you read it right here first: The U.N. has done an investigation and declared the bogus dress codes story to be false. Now can we finally throw the last shovel of dirt on top of this story? —Greg Sargent

IF BUSH WELCOMES IMMIGRANTS, WHY PANDER TO THEIR ENEMIES? In today’s Times, Elisabeth Bumiller offers a rather remarkable take on President Bush‘s immigration speech. She basically said that because his rhetoric was more accommodating than his actual policy proposals, it meant that his approach is “more subtle” than his proposed real-world solutions suggest. She tells […]

THE POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF PLACING THE NSA SCANDAL IN A WIDER CONTEXT. We need to look at the latest NSA scandal not in isolation, but as part of a much larger pattern of presidential lawlessness — a view Matt has rightly insisted upon — and now we have some proof that this way of seeing […]

WHEN IN DOUBT, LIE. In Laura Bush�s interview yesterday with Fox News, in which she blamed the media for her husband’s abysmal poll numbers, the first lady said this: And I think right now what we’re seeing with these poll numbers is a lot of fun in the press with taking a poll every other […]

THE WASHINGTON POST‘S POLL IS FLAWED. Let me get the fun part out of the way first. Here’s an answer to Matt‘s question about the identity of Specialist (whose criticism, which has on occasion targeted yours truly, is indeed valuable and well-argued sometimes). “Specialist” is the code name for a secret team of a dozen […]

DAVID BRODER: REPUBLICANS PRESUMED INNOCENT; DEMS PRESUMED GUILTY. You really couldn’t ask for a more perfect illustration of the punditry’s double-standard when it comes to “authenticity” than today’s Washington Post column by David Broder. After approvingly quoting the view in Joe Klein‘s new book that Al Gore and John Kerry were “trimming their public positions […]

GOP FUNDRAISING APPEALS. Speaking of The New Republic, Michael Crowley has a very good post over at The Plank where he excerpts a chunk of text from the latest National Republican Senatorial Committee fundraising letter. It has an astounding eight paragraphs sounding the alarm about the investigations and imminent impeachment proceedings the GOP says Dems […]

IS THE CLOCK TICKING FOR KARL ROVE? Today’s Washington Post piece on Karl Rove reminds us just how implausible Karl Rove’s Plamegate story has always been. It appears Patrick Fitzgerald is very skeptical of Rove’s claim that he forgot his conversation with Time reporter Matthew Cooper about Valerie Plame because Rove was up to his […]

DEMS ARE — GASP! — STAYING ON OFFENSE. It was refreshing to read the toughly worded statement DSCC chief Chuck Schumer put out today about the AP poll which showed far more Americans want Democrats to run Congress. Said Schumer: The chickens are coming home to roost. An administration that is incompetent on both domestic […]