Sam Rosenfeld

SPECTER’S SHAM INDEPENDENCE, EXAMPLE #2,494. For those who haven’t yet read much about the Arlen Specter–Bush administration “compromise” on the NSA domestic surveillance program, this from Marty Lederman is highly worth reading. Orin Kerr elaborates further on the troubling balance-of-power implications in the bill, while Jane Harman concurs that the thing’s no good. Meanwhile, Greg […]

QUALITY OF LIFE. Folks should tell Tester that, once you look past this pesky crime emergency and the apparent uptick in ghoulish attacks against even residents of the fancier neighborhoods in town, DC’s a swell place to live. Great summers, too! –Sam Rosenfeld

TESTER TEST. A year ago, I had a chance to sit down in Great Falls, Montana, with Senate candidate Jon Tester, who is in DC now for fundraising events and meet-n-greets. The one thing he said last July that still sticks in my memory was this reflection on the life he and his wife have […]

BIKINI KILL. I hadn�t noticed at first, because the print is squintishly small, but the latest Vanity Fair cover takes a pretty rude and gratuitous shot at Hillary Clinton. The cover is of two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank in a white bikini kneeling in the surf, accompanied by the tag �Hey, there, HILARY!*� The asterisk […]

MUM’S THE WORD. I just returned from the ostensible news conference at which Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, issued statements on the reasons behind their launching of a civil lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, former vice presidential Chief of Staff I. […]

REAL RAGE. Far be it from me — very far be it from me, Moons Of Freaking Neptune be it from me — to be perceived as defending NewsMax, but I think Ezra’s a little glib in dismissing the story about John McCain‘s temper. It is a very real, and very startling, and very important […]

VIEWER’S GUIDE: JUNE 29 — INFINITY. I link to this only to point out that The Food Channel is likely to be the only place in the cable universe where this gentleman is not discussed for the foreseeable future. You can almost hear Sean Hannity‘s blood boiling, O’Reilly‘s in full loofah, and Rush probably isn’t […]

BODY POLITICS. The July/August print issue of the Prospect has a three-article package on abortion politics that is now available online, and worth a look. Helena Silverstein and Wayne Fishman assess the Supreme Court’s swing voter on abortion, Anthony Kennedy, while Allison Stevens reports on a crucial shortcoming in the choice movement’s strategy. Finally, Scott […]

JUST SAY NO. This is what Peggy Noonan wrote today on a website sponsored by one of America’s most influential publications: “Bush The Younger would breastfeed the military if he could.” This is one of those moments in which I love to imagine how the editing process at a place like OpinionJournal works: “Jesus, Bill, […]

KEEPING THE BOOT ON THE NECK. This Hill piece about the heat Democrats are bringing down on vulnerable House GOP incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick on the subject of Social Security privatization makes for highly encouraging reading. For a while there has been a real worry that Democrats’ fierce and devastating victory in the Social Security fight […]