Blog: TAPPED

BRODER’S CHOICE. Life is comprised of actions and reactions. If you touch a hot stove, for instance, you’ll burn your finger. If you move from California to DC, you’ll spend about five months of every year bitterly regretting your decision and wondering how the hell people live in this Siberia. And if you start some […]

THE RISE OF THE NATIONAL PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY. I am repeatedly struck by just how much larger the 2008 campaign currently appears than the 2004 campaign. The crowds are bigger–including an unbelievable 20,000 people for Obama in Austin. The fundraising is much bigger–Edwards is going to put up numbers roughly equal to Howard Dean in Q3 […]

DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER! MICHAEL BARONE MAKING SENSE! Relax, all is right with the world. In a previous post, I contrasted Michael Barone‘s acknowledgment that a U.S. senator intimidating a federal prosecutor is deeply corrupt with his hilarious reinterpretation of Watergate, which I’ll quote again because I love it like a favorite poem: “Richard […]

A POTENTIALLY AWKWARD MOVE. I’d like to revise and extend my remarks on John Edwards and the Nevada Fox News debate, as I’ve just received new information that casts Edwards’ decision in a rather different light. Later this week, the Congressional Black Caucus Political Education and Leadership Institute plans to announce two debates in concert […]

WAY WORSE THAN WATERGATE. A few years ago, Michael Barone wrote a column about how conservative presidents are always under attack by us ultra-powerful liberals who refuse to accept their legitimacy. It included a dazzlingly audacious one-line historical reinterpretation of Watergate: “Richard Nixon…unwittingly colluded in the successful attempt to besmirch his administration.” Compare that with […]

PLAN CV. A Chinese military official (there’s some dispute as to who, exactly) has, according to Reuters, said that Peoples Liberation Army Navy could build its first aircraft carrier by 2010. I’d say that’s staggeringly optimistic. Unless I’m terribly wrong, China has yet to lay the keel for a purpose-built domestically produced aircraft carrier. To […]

ALREADY FEELING THE HEAT. In an article written on February 11 for the March issue of the Prospect, I remarked, �If the Democratic tide in 2008 threatens to reach tsunami-like proportions, even a Republican thought to have a safe seat, such as Pete Domenici of New Mexico, could feel the heat.� At the time, I […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: MORAL RESERVE. Kay reports on the plight of military reservists doing extended tours of duty in Iraq but lacking eligibility to the same G.I. Bill education benefits that active-duty members have, and congressional efforts to address the issue. –The Editors

CONVERSIONS OF CONVENIENCE. How stupid does George Will think his audience is? He writes: The journalistic rule is that conservatives pander, liberals “grow.” When Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, Jesse Jackson and Dennis Kucinich changed from being pro-life to pro-abortion, their conversions, a price of admission into Democratic presidential politics, were often described as conscientious “growth.” […]

ISRAELIS ON IRANIAN NUKES. “Contra Iran”, Halevi and Oren’s article in The New Republic, purported to express Israeli alarm on the status of the Iranian nuclear program. In the midst of painting a dire picture, Halevi and Oren suggested that a Jewish state that allows itself to be threatened with nuclear weapons — by a […]