Sam Rosenfeld

TOUGH NUT TO CRACK. As Harold points out, the dawning realization on the part of the right that Iraq is facing a civil war puts enormous strain on the administration’s justifications for U.S. policy there. A new National Review editorial provides an example of the kind of anguish and addled prescriptions that emerge when conservatives […]

MORE KISSES TO COME. This seems almost too perfect to believe: According to a close Lieberman adviser, the President’s political guru, Karl Rove, has reached out to the Lieberman camp with a message straight from the Oval Office: “The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do.” At any rate, it’s a […]

WHAT DOES JOE WANT IN ’06? No surprise that Alec raised hackles with yesterday’s post. In light of the primary’s outcome and Lieberman‘s oddly-phrased determination that he will “not let these results stand” — that is, as we now look to a general election wherein Democratic resources do have to continually be expended in Connecticut […]

WHAT ABOUT BOB? I had been hoping to do a short, humorous item for our print magazine this fall about how amidst all the “culture of corruption” hype this year, the two most flamboyantly corrupt pols of them all, Ohio’s Bob Ney and Louisiana’s William Jefferson, were actually both poised to win re-election assuming November […]

BIG RACE FOR SMALL DOLLARS. Solid reporting by Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in this recent piece provides a preliminary answer to the question, Which Democratic presidential candidate is most effectively harvesting the small-dollar donor base? Answer: Hillary Clinton in terms of total dollars, but Russ Feingold in terms of the share raised […]

WHO CAN DO BETTER THAN “WE CAN DO BETTER”? There has been a certain amount of sneering disappointment, mostly from liberals, about the rather milquetoast mantra developed by the Democrats: �America Can Do Better.� Yes, the phrase is vague and policy inspecific, and thus seemingly says everything and therefore nothing all at once. Yet semantically, […]

GORE WATCH: WAL-MART EDITION. Amanda Griscom Little�s report at Salon about Al Gore‘s recent meeting with Wal-Mart�s leadership at the Bentonville headquarters sounds like further evidence that Gore is positioning himself for a White House bid: Sporting a curiously thick Southern drawl, Gore heaped praise on Wal-Mart’s green goal-setting. “…by taking this climate crisis on […]

JO-ANN MORT: DISPATCH FROM TEL AVIV The weekend begins on Friday in Israel — and this weekend, the war is settling in. The initial shock and feeling of righteous justification have begun to yield to wonderment about where all this is going. The change in mood is slight so far, but questions are beginning to […]

REPUBLICANS AND CIVILIAN DEATHS. Here’s the roll call for today’s House resolution on the Mideast crisis. What Israel lobby? Snark aside, despite the monolithic quality of the final vote there actually does appear to have been a bit of behind-the-scenes wrangling over some of the language in this resolution. At her weekly press conference today […]

GORE WATCH: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY EDITION. There are, I hasten to acknowledge, much more important things going on in the world at the moment, but nevertheless this passage from EW‘s cover story on Al Gore includes a softer Gore line on the “running for prez” question than I’ve seen before from the man: Of course, Gore […]