Sam Boyd

All the cable networks naturally saw big ratings gains in 2008, but MSNBC led the pack: Fox News racked up its seventh straight year as the most-watched cable news channel, delivering an average prime-time viewership of 2.1 million, 40% more than 2007, according to data released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. CNN placed second with […]

Hendrik Hertzberg tries to make an affirmative case for appointing Caroline Kennedy to the Senate, which is a relief from all the “but lots of people in the Senate suck too” responses by her supporters to her critics: To harp a bit on the theme of my current Comment, one of the plus sides of […]

Sarah’s post critiquing Alan Wolfe‘s essay in TNR is interesting. The whole Rick Warren kerfuffle (actually it may have reached windspeeds high enough to upgrade it to a brouhaha at this point) has inspired a lot of fuzzy thinking (not from Sarah though) — one reason I haven’t written anything is that I couldn’t quite […]

New York Gov. David Paterson revealed his budget proposal for the next fiscal year earlier this week. He deserves credit for the care with which he managed budget cuts; though some social programs are being cut, he’s not really going after schools or entitlements. And given that he is legally required to introduce a balanced […]

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve edited TAPPED for the last nine months (so yes, you can blame me for any typos). It’s been a remarkable time — from the primaries to the general election to the transition, we’ve always made every effort to offer a unique progressive and opinionated perspective on political […]

Noted without comment: He dismissed the notion that his pick would be tainted by the cloud of a federal investigation hanging over his administration. Blagojevich says there is no cloud hanging over him, only “sunshine.” On a more serious note, the fact that Blagojevich is talking to Jesse Jackson Jr. doesn’t mean much: After all, […]

Rich Miller and Larry Handlin point out that retired Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones has some serious problems of his own that might make him a poor choice to replace Obama in the U.S. Senate. Miller makes the case: So, his wife’s redesignation to get a pay raise, his stepson’s millions of dollars in […]

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has given his longest and most detailed interview so far about who will replace Obama in the Senate to Lynn Sweet, but it just ends up making the picture less clear (for a roundup of some possible candidates see this piece by Adam Doster). First of all, Blago denies that he’s ruled […]

Politico reports on a new statement by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who warns Sarah Palin not to challenge her for the GOP nomination when Murkowski runs for reelection in 2010. Assuming Palin could win (not a sure thing, but probably more likely than not given Murkowski’s ethical issues) would that help Palin win the GOP […]

Rep. Luis Gutierrez said yesterday that he was asked by Gov. Blagojevich if he’d like to be appointed to Obama’s Senate seat, but declined because the governor wanted someone who would run for reelection in 2010. If that’s true, it probably rules out Emil Jones as a candidate. Valerie Jarett also seems to have taken […]