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Perhaps jealous its sales may trounce those of the wildly popular Perhaps jealous its sales may trounce those of the wildly popular Left Behind novels — the evangelical publishing phenomenon scribbled by fundamentalists Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins — many religious conservatives have been up in arms over J.K. Rowling’s phenomenally […]

Jewish immigrants to America used to respond anxiously to any major public news event by asking: Is it good for the Jews? Al Gore’s embrace of Joe Lieberman invites a new twist: Is it good for the Democrats? I’m torn. On the one hand, Gore’s choice signals boldness. And it could give America an elevated […]

President Bush announced that on his vacation this month in Crawford, Texas, he’d be reading David McCullough’s new biography, John Adams. “I’m particularly paying attention to that part about John Quincy Adams,” he told The New York Times. “You might remember, Quincy and I have got something in common.” But as this October 23, 2000 […]

During his second term, Bill Clinton sometimes lamented that he didn’t have any big events to test his mettle and secure a legacy. With the economy booming and the world largely at peace, he was left with no immediate challenges through which to show his leadership, and nothing to push his sex life and investment […]

Earlier this week, the Bush administration’s immigration taskforce leaked word that it was considering a proposal to grant amnesty to the estimated 3 million Mexicans living illegally in the United States. The amnesty plan is one of many proposals under consideration by the taskforce. But just leaking the fact that it was being considered guaranteed […]

Los Angeles Times Those who expect President Bush to move to the center now that Jim Jeffords has defected from the Republicans are the same people who expected that Bush would govern from the center once in office. He didn t then and he won t now. The recent Senate inversion will slow him down, […]

The producers who brought you The producers who brought you Doggygate and the brouhaha over Al Gore’s alleged claim that he invented the Internet are at work on a brand new project: the destruction of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Comments from a recent discussion thread on the right wing website FreeRepublic.com demonstrate the […]

Yesterday, Republican Randy Forbes narrowly beat Democratic Louise Lucas in a special election for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District. Predictably, the GOP is claiming that this amounts to a “bellwether” victory for their president and their party; as goes Virginia’s fourth CD, so, apparently, goes the nation. Also predictably, this is mostly nonsense. There’s no doubt […]

Republicans now control the executive and legislative branches of government and are aiming for a lock on the third branch, the federal courts. All that stands in their way are 50 Democratic senators, 40 of whom can mount a filibuster. But will the Democrats be as unified and as tough as the Republicans? We will […]