Matthew Duss

LIKE ANDY ROONEY, BUT WITH MORE EXPLOSIONS. Victor Davis Hanson is one hilarious dude: ”Bin Laden also sees how the rival Muslim theocracy in Iran has turned its oil profits into a nuclear-weapons program. He’d like to replace the present Gulf monarchies with self-professed imams and jihadists. Such a single, united Wahhabi theocracy could dole […]

STILL ATONING FOR THAT SUHA EMBRACE. Following up on Ezra’s post yesterday on Hillary Clinton‘s statement acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided capital,” it’s worth noting that this puts her to the far right of Israeli public opinion, of which a stable majority recognizes the Palestinian claim to East Jerusalem, and accepts that shared sovereignty over […]

STEADY AS A ROCK. Jonah Goldberg on the inconstancy of President Bush‘s war critics: “Perhaps the answer is that when it comes to bashing Bush about the war, no accusation is inaccurate — even if it contradicts all the accusations that came before. Some say it’s all about the Israel lobby. Others claim that Bush […]

REDNECK CHIC. Is there anything more pathetic than the spectacle of the wealthy conservative pundit, that creature of millionaire-funded think tanks, TV studio green rooms, and catered symposia, trying to establish some red-state cred by pretending to be down with redneck culture? Michael Ledeen: “Barbara and I went to Indianapolis for a Toby Keith concert, […]

THE DREAM PALACE OF THE NEOCONS. Fouad Ajami yesterday in Tigris Beat magazine, err, the Wall Street Journal, remembering Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Reisha: “This was the dashing tribal leader who emerged as the face of the new Sunni accommodation with American power, and who was assassinated by al Qaeda last week. I had not […]

OBAMA’S TEACHING MOMENT. Alec MacGillis reported Tuesday on the spectacle of Barack Obama’s campaign frantically trying to distance the candidate from an ad for Mearsheimer and Walt’s new book The Israel Lobby which appeared on the campaign’s website. Yesterday we had this number from The Politico, in which Ben Smith functioned as a conduit for […]

KING OF IRAQ. The L.A. Times reports that the U.S. Army is doing business with Muqtada al-Sadr. “U.S. diplomats and military officers have been in talks with members of the armed movement loyal to Muqtada Sadr, a sharp reversal of policy and a grudging recognition that the radical Shiite cleric holds a dominant position in […]

BLESS YOU, KEITH. Olbermann nails Brit Hume for Hume’s casual, and false, assertion that al-Qaeda was in Iraq “before we got there.” Four years on, and Hume still persists in repeating lies that the Bush administration doesn’t even bother with any more. It’s frustrating watching Juan Williams simply ignore this and move to another point. […]

LIVE AND LET DYE. In reference to Osama bin Laden‘s apparent beard dye-job, Michelle Tsai explores the question: “Are Muslims allowed to dye their facial hair?” My immediate response is that if Osama believes he can reconcile mass murder with Islam, justifying beard-dyeing is probably a small deal. I enjoyed Andrew Sullivan’s take on the […]

THE FORBIDDING RATIONALITY BLUES. Richard Cohen‘s column yesterday on Mearsheimer and Walt‘s The Israel Lobby is a perfect example of the “kvetch” strategy delineated by Tony Karon (via Ezra) last week. Cohen basically concedes all of Mearsheimer and Walt’s main points, but then goes into a plaintive violin solo lamenting the book’s “one-sided” and “forbiddingly […]