Sam Rosenfeld

ONE-TWO PUNCH. See, not all political campaign staffers are the somber, well-bearded, and amber-lit sages that “The West Wing” folks threw out there for our entertainment during the Santos–Vinick campaign. (Well-bearded, of course, except for Donna Moss, Valkyrie Wonk Queen Of the Great Lakes.) Sometimes, they’re just, well, dopes. On a day in which convicted […]

YOU’RE OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM: YEAH, YOU. While I�m kvetching about regional politics, I may as well tell you I�m sick of the double standard that operates with respect to Democrats or liberals when it comes to the politics of opponent-framing. With impunity, sneering Republicans and conservatives can mock �northeastern liberals,� but duck and cover […]

HITCHENS CLIFFS NOTES. At his other site, Rob offers a conveniently succinct summary version of Christopher Hitchens‘s Slate piece on the “moral idiocy” of the Lancet study on Iraq. I don’t pretend to have any inside knowledge, but it seems notable that Hitchens is the one discussing this new Lancet study for Slate and not […]

EXCEPTIONS PROVING RULES. With news that Republicans are pulling resources out of Ohio (and thereby imperiling incumbent Republican Senator Mike DeWine‘s re-election), the national buzz is that Republicans have retreated to a three-state “firewall” in Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia in defense of their Senate majority. Strategists and electoral observers, Democrats especially, may now start claiming […]

SCENES FROM IRAQ. Open warfare raged between Shiite militias and Sunni gunmen north of Baghdad (right near the U.S.’s Camp Anaconda), while the president of the United States kindly put in a call to the democratically elected president of a free and liberated Iraq to assure him that rumors of an imminent forced removal from […]

A SLIGHT OVERSIGHT. Paul Krugman‘s column today makes the obvious but always crucial point about what’s at stake in three weeks: There are two reasons why party control is everything in this election. The first, lesser reason is the demonstrated ability of Republican Congressional leaders to keep their members in line, even those members who […]

MORE ON SUCKERS. David Kuo‘s recent turn as Disillusioned Bush Follower du jour offers another welcome addition to the burgeoning literature as to why you wouldn’t hire anyone still employed by this carnival of charlatans to park your car, let alone govern the country or play with the Army. I have adopted the Karl Rove […]

UNFINISHED BUSINESS. My dad always said being an adult means admitting your errors and apologizing when those mistakes have harmed others. Well, I�ve been wrong about a couple of things on Tapped, so it�s time to come clean. First, post-Ned Lamon‘s primary victory last August I truly felt confident that statewide polls which showed Joe […]

WHAT THEY REPORT: WHO DECIDES? The Associated Press is reporting that a McClatchy newspaper in Kentucky, the Lexington Herald-Leader, is returning to the Center for Public Integrity Center for Investigative Reporting* a $37,500 grant the foundation made to the paper to finance a series of stories on the fundraising operation of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, […]

FREE SPEECH. I have to say I don’t quite share Pierce‘s level of incredulity at Rohrbaugh‘s notions and the fact that CBS would air them. I certainly agree that those notions are wacky. But creationism is no fringe outlook, even if the causal connections Rohrbaugh draws obviously constitute more of one. Lotsa people believe all […]