Blog: TAPPED

THE COSMOPOLITANS. So many things are amazing about the emerging field of presidential candidates, but here’s one that hasn’t gotten much attention — just how many of the candidates are from no fixed address. Most presidents, like most Americans, are clearly the products of a single particular place, and understanding that place — Bill Clinton‘s […]

THE MCCAIN PARADOX. To take another quote from Matt‘s article, he’s right that Maverick McStraightTalk John McCain “has the misfortune of being both the most conservative candidate in the race and the one most hated by conservatives.” It’s quite strange, and is one of the ways in which the Bush personality cult will hurt the […]

THE RIGHT RESPONSE. Responses from the right to the Libby verdict are starting to come in, though they have not yet gelled, so they’re sort of interesting. The general tenor, not surprisingly, is one of despairing disappointment. There seems to be an impulse to blame the jurors, but I don’t think that’s going to fly, […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: PITY PARTY. In his column this week, Matt sizes up the leading GOP presidential candidates — “a crew so bizarre you’re inclined to think that none of them could possibly win the nomination.” After discussing anti-gun pro-choice pro-gay pro-immigration thrice-married Rudy Giuliani, Matt moves on: But none of the alternatives […]

LIVE FROM BAGHDAD. TAP senior correspondent Spencer Ackerman is currently embedded in Iraq and will be filing periodic reports for Tapped in the coming weeks. His first dispatch is below. –The Editors — GANGSTER’S PARADISE. Welcome to the Green Zone, Tapped readers. I’m here for another hour and a half before I join the unit […]

WHITHER CHENEY? In his comments outside the courthouse, Patrick Fitzgerald announced that he does not anticipate bringing any more charges and, barring any new information, the investigation is now inactive. I don’t think anyone thinks Libby is going to turn on Cheney, so that means indeed that whatever consequences there are for Cheney will be […]

AFTER ROE? Jessie Hill has an interesting three–part series about potentially overturning Roe at PrawfsBlawg. [HT: Volokh Conspiracy.] The long version of what I have to say on the issue can be found in my article last summer in TAP here and my reply to Benjamin Wittes-type “letting Roe go will be good for reproductive […]

GUILTY ON FOUR OF FIVE. Libby has apparently been found guilty of four of five counts, including the obstruction of justice charge. I will have more to say about this, of course, but given the way Fitzgerald raised the stakes in his closing rebuttal, the main consequence beyond the obvious legal consequences for Libby is […]

GUILTY ON FOUR COUNTS. Libby verdict is in. –Sam Rosenfeld