Blog: TAPPED

FRED HIATT: NOT THE MEDIAN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY VOTER. In addition to being bad on the merits, what puzzles me about Tom Vilsack‘s decision to end his campaign yesterday by endorsing price indexing for Social Security is what makes him think it would work. I’ll admit that I’m no political consultant; I don’t have a strong […]

PAGING HARRY FRANKFURT. A good post about the Pelosi non-scandal by ex-TAPPER Greg Sargent. GOP Rep Adam Putnam “now acknowledges he had no personal knowledge of any Pelosi request,” and remains unapologetic about having spread the false smear. As Greg said, this is even more worse for the media (including various bloggers) promoting the non-scandal, […]

WHAT POLLS TELL. A new poll seems to suggest that Americans like the surge in Iraq, after all: In a dramatic finding, a new poll shows a solid majority of Americans still wants to win the war in Iraq – and keep U.S. troops there until the Baghdad government can take over. Strong majorities also […]

WHO NEEDS THE HPV VACCINE? Merrill Goozner opposes mandatory HPV vaccination for sixth-grade girls in the U.S. He writes: By insisting that all young women get this vaccine, public health officials (the Centers for Disease Control last June endorsed universal vaccination, although its recommendations are not binding on the states, which carry out public health […]

SIGH. There’ll be no live debate blogging because our TV doesn’t get C-SPAN and C-SPAN’s online streaming is super spotty. I bet The Weekly Standard has digital cable… –Ezra Klein

AWAITING THE VERDICT The Scooter Libby case has gone to the jury. While waiting for the verdict, it’s worth highlighting something pretty extraordinary from Fitzgerald‘s closing rebuttal yesterday. Fitzgerald repeatedly raised the claim that Libby obstructed the investigation into Cheney‘s role, and even seemed to suggest it might have been in coordination with Cheney. As […]

EDWARDS & VARIETY. Actually, I was apparently suffering from blogger dyslexia in the item below, and did not make the chronology clear. The Peter Bart article is from January 19th, referencing an event that took place even earlier in January, while the Herzliya speech was given on January 22nd, and Edwards talked to Ezra on […]

MORE ON TAUSCHER. To add on to Atrios here, the case of Rep. Ellen Tauscher is interesting. Here’s a centrist Democrat who wrested a swing seat from a rock-ribbed Republican. A couple years later, though, her seat was redistricted, becoming overwhelmingly Democratic. Her own vote totals show the shift. In 1996, she wins with 49%. […]

MORE ON TAP AND THE WAR. This’ll be the last time I discuss Brendan O’Neill‘s column about TAP‘s alleged pro-war editorial history, promise. But, re-reading this October 2002 piece written by editors Paul Starr, Robert Kuttner, and Harold Meyerson, I’m pretty damned impressed by its prescience and feel compelled to highlight some passages: … No […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: BARRIER METHODS. An outdated and little-used contraceptive is being redesigned for the 21st century. The diaphragm, which (for good reason) has not been popular among American women since the advent of the birth control pill, may soon be easier-to-use and available over-the-counter — if a group of researchers has their […]