WAITING FOR AN ARGUMENT. Better lawyers than I will have fun conducting a weeklong autopsy of John Yoo‘s execrable attempt in the Sunday New York Times to recast American history as Peronism In Powdered Wigs. However, I was struck by this particular passage: A reinvigorated presidency enrages President Bush�s critics, who seem to believe that […]
Sam Rosenfeld
Sam Rosenfeld, a former web editor for the Prospect, is visiting assistant professor of government at Wesleyan University, beginning in September.
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The Way of the Hammer
It was a summer of odd political valedictories. On the night of August 8, Joe Lieberman bade farewell to his career as a Democratic senator, kicking off of his independent bid by blaming the “politics of partisan polarization” for doing him in. He asked citizens “fed up with the petty partisanship in Washington” to support […]
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KRAUTHAMMER ADDENDUM.
KRAUTHAMMER ADDENDUM. I think Ezra‘s comments on Krauthammer’s column are apt, but surely his most dubious claims come right after the passage Ezra cites. It’s straightforward, after all, that Iran’s strategic position in the region would at least be strengthened by becoming a nuclear power, notwithstanding Krauthammer’s stronger claims about that. Not at all straightforward […]
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CAPITOL DOMES AND HOWDY DOODYGATE.
CAPITOL DOMES AND HOWDY DOODYGATE. Eve Fairbanks points us to Radar‘s “worst hair in Congress” rankings. Readers with good memories will recall that two of the three exponents of trend number four, “Childlike hair,” played key rolls in the “Howdy Doody-looking nimrod” incident of 2005. –Sam Rosenfeld
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“OUTRAGEOUS AND DISHONEST.”
“OUTRAGEOUS AND DISHONEST.” The Washington Post‘s Daphna Linzer has one hell of an aggressive piece out today on the IAEA’s apoplectic reaction to the House Intelligence Committee’s recent report on Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Yesterday’s letter, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post, was the first time the IAEA has publicly disputed U.S. […]
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IT’S ALRIGHT, MA BELL.
IT’S ALRIGHT, MA BELL. Ezra‘s post on Verizon’s cronyish involvement in the administration’s spying program prompts me to mention this piece by Zander Dreyer that we ran a few months ago, which makes a useful argument drawing the connection between the adminsitration’s pro-monopoly line on telecom issues and its interest in domestic surveillance. It’s worth […]
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FORWARD TOGETHER.
FORWARD TOGETHER. Today saw some truly horrific carnage in Baghdad, with over 100 people killed or found dead throughout the city, and another of the double-wave bombing attacks designed to maximize deaths: At least 62 unidentified bullet-riddled corpses–all bearing signs of torture–have been found throughout the city since Tuesday night, said Brig. Gen. Abdullah Mahmood […]
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WYNN WINNING.
WYNN WINNING. A while back our boss Bob Kuttner (assisted by wunderkind intern Asheesh Siddique) put some real thought and effort into actually discerning who were the most indefensibly sell-outish Democrats in the House. Among the “faithless fifteen” they came up with was Maryland’s Al Wynn, who’s of course garnered blogospheric attention more recently for […]
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WAR SUPPORTERS’ LAST THROES.
WAR SUPPORTERS’ LAST THROES. Everyone’s getting their digs in on Rich Lowry and Bill Kristol�s “More troops to Iraq!”column in The Washington Post, as, indeed, they should. But I think today’s chutzpah award has to go to TNR‘s Lawrence Kaplan, who has a new article hectoring pro-withdrawal commentators for feeling insufficiently bad about the sectarian […]
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FIGHTING BACK.
FIGHTING BACK. When we last checked in, the Corner’s Cliff May had used the occasion of croc hunter Steve Irwin‘s death to mount a sustained stingray-as-Islamofascism metaphor, noting that “every stingray is a very real and present danger.” It appears that Australians may have missed the metaphor part of May’s call to arms and are […]
