FIRE EVERYONE, HIRE LA TIMES COLUMNISTS INSTEAD. Max Boot offers up the right-wing version of the incompetence dodge — Don Rumsfeld should be fired for his mismanagement of the war, and the professionals in the officers’ corps should be slammed for their own mismanagement of the war. Apparently, the only people fit to run the […]
Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias is a senior editor at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a former Prospect staff writer, and the author of Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.
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IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH….
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. If you’re interested in getting a taste of the burgeoning grass-roots support for a quasi-fascist understanding of American politics, take a gander at this email sent to Jonah Goldberg. It starts with the sentiment that “Analyzing a war, especially publicly, right in the middle of the fight is a terrible thing to […]
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HECKUVA JOB, SCOTTIE….
HECKUVA JOB, SCOTTIE. One thing you can say in George Bush‘s favor is that he’s exactly the sort of boss you’d like to use as a reference when you look for your next job. Scott McClellan‘s tenure as White House press secretary has been objectively disastrous — a giant step down from the psychopathically smooth […]
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Don’t Do It
Should we go to war with Iran? The short answer is “no.” The long answer is “hell no.” As the rumbles of war are heard over the horizon, many feel they’ve heard this whole story before. But with all due respect to those who correctly ascertained in advance that backing Bush’s march on Baghdad was […]
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HISTORY REPEATS. Can’t…
HISTORY REPEATS. Can’t have a war in Iran without Joe Lieberman‘s involvement, so that’s taken care of. Which reminds me of something I wanted to say about the whole “how should Democrats handle Iran?” question, namely that the first step is to take this seriously as a party issue. More than one donkey was inclined […]
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THE PASSIONS OF…
THE PASSIONS OF THE OVERCLASS. Allow me to agree with Reihan Salam on this: Daniel Gross’s crusade against the AMT is taking a new shape. Now it’s not just a war on affluent Democrats — it is a a war on “a good chunk of the national Republican base.” In that case, though, isn’t keeping […]
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DEFINING JOHN MCCAIN….
DEFINING JOHN MCCAIN. In yesterday’s LA Times, Jonathan Chait offers up a more convincing and sober-minded version of Jacob Weisberg‘s recent argument that John McCain really isn’t a conservative and he’s just doing a little necessary pandering. My Big Correct Debate-Changing Observation about this is that the disagreements here are less about McCain than they […]
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THE “OVERHAUL” CONTINUES….
THE “OVERHAUL” CONTINUES. The president’s effort to shake up the White House staff without actually changing anything took another step forward today. When Andy Card resigned, he was replaced by Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten which, in turn, created an opening. That opening, we learn, will be filled by US Trade Representative […]
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Fight Now, Think Later
Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered our Government — and How We Take It Back by David Sirota (Crown, 384 pages, $24.00) David Sirota is the kind of pundit you’d like to have on your side in a knife fight and wouldn’t want to cross in a dark alley. After toiling […]
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AS LONG AS…
AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. David Ignatius, aiming to make me love Don Rumsfeld by arguing that he should resign in order to increase public support for the indefinite continuation of the Iraq War, observes that “As bad as things are in Baghdad, America won’t be defeated there militarily. But it may be forced into […]
