Scott Lemieux

PLACE YOUR BETS! In the wake of the sad, sad news that Alberto Gonzales will be resigning, inevitably the speculation has begun about what appalling choice Bush will put forward, secure in the knowledge that several Democratic Senators can be counted to abdicate their responsibilities. The odds are as follows: Michael Chertoff: 5-1. Michael Brown: […]

IT WAS YOU, FREDO. A few thoughts on the at-long-last end of a rags-to-fascism success story: One of the few contrarian arguments ever to turn out to be right was Yglesias‘s qualified defense of John Ashcroft. The Bush administration has not only pursued poor-to-catastrophic policy outcomes, but is also frequently unable and/or unwilling to carry […]

UNDERMINING THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE. I’ll have a longer piece about the general subject coming up next week, but in the meantime Brian Beutler notes an interesting proposal by California Dems. In response to the California GOP’s “21st century democracy for thee but not for me” initiative, the Democrats have a proposal that would award the […]

INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE SURGE. Kevin Drum compiles the relevant data and notes that along virtually all significant metrics the surge has failed to stop things from becoming worse that they were in 2006. It seems worth emphasizing that 1) the only way that the surge or any other military strategy can work is if it […]

WASTED OPPORTUNITY. Matt points us to data demonstrating that, according to current state-by-state polling, Hillary Clinton would beat the GOP’s strongest candidate, Giuliani, fairly handily. Particularly given that Giuliani isn’t terribly likely to actually win the GOP nomination, I think this should make clear that claims that Clinton is “unelectable” are nonsense. On the other […]

MAN-CHILD IN A BUBBLE. This aspect of Bush‘s attempts to prevent any of that nasty “dissent” from sullying his rallies [via The Talking Dog] is particularly remarkable: But that does not mean the White House is against dissent — just so long as the president does not see it. In fact, the manual outlines a […]

LUCKY DUCKIES! In addition to what Roy says, I’d like to highlight this odd part of Megan McArdle‘s counter to Ezra’s attack on Giuliani‘s health plan: Moreover, as a class, the old and sick have some culpability in their ill health. They didn’t eat right or excercise; they smoked; they didn’t go to the doctor […]

THE COMING FEDERALISM DIVERSION. As Republicans fight in the coming years to preserve an indefensible health care system, one argument is inevitably going to be that health care should be “left up to the states” rather than being addressed by a “one size fits all” federal solution. As Bush’s actions yesterday make clear, however, this […]

MY HANDS REMAIN UNWRINGED. To follow up on what Sam wrote below, I’m frankly not sure even what to say to Josh Patashnik‘s response to my post from earlier today. Essentially, he concedes the merits of the arguments Matt and I made, but argues that “it would be comforting to at least see a bit […]

IS THIS A PLOT CONCEIVED BY MICHAEL SKUBE? Tristam Shandy points us to this extraordinarily weak piece of media criticism from perpetual punchline Pajamas Media. As TS points out, the biggest problem is that it’s mostly unfounded speculation. But there are a couple more gems. I like this one: Let’s go into the fact-checking department. […]