Blog: TAPPED

IGNORANCE IS BLISS. Robert Zoellick was pretty ineffective as US Trade Representative, so I’m not sure we should shed too many tears over him not getting the Treasury Secretary job. The explanation for why he’s not getting it, however, is moronic. The White House is looking for someone “who would command more respect on Wall […]

JUST WONDERING. Okay, I�m not stupid enough to think that I just won a seven-figure sum in the Australian lottery (for starters, I didn�t enter it). But reading through the email I just got made me wonder: How does this scam work? According to Valentino von Kahn (Mrs.), the �coordinator� of the Australian Lottery who […]

WALL: ACTUALLY BAD, ACTUALLY EXPENSIVE. Jonah Goldberg thinks the arguments against walling off the southern border are all bad. Except, of course, for the symbolism argument which he concedes is good. The other main argument is that it’s too expensive. He doesn’t actually think that’s a bad argument either, but he says of folks who […]

FREELANCERS AND TEAM PLAYERS. Matt has some useful thoughts on the difference between a freelance crook, like Bill Jefferson personally enriching himself through abuse of his office, and the kind of systemic, institutional corruption practiced by the Republican congressional majority and typified by the major corruption scandals on that side of the aisle. (Rahm Emanuel […]

WHO’S NEXT? Kevin Drum pointedly asks the right (and wry) question about The Times‘ data-driven reporting on power couples: “Who’s next?” I’d like to see some data on President and Laura Bush, for one, and how many weekends they spent together over the past year, despite living in the same house and same city. Maybe […]

IMPRESSIVE. There’s a lot of blogosphere outrage, including here at TAPPED, about this morning’s New York Times story on Hillary Clinton‘s marriage. I’m not so sure there should be. This story answers an essential question for Hillary-watchers, and knocks down one of the major raps against her as a candidate, the allegation that she is […]

MORE ANALYSIS THAN YOU EVER WANTED ON THIS TOPIC. In regards to the morning’s big Clinton story, it really is all a matter of emphasis. As Matt notes, the actual article spends most of its time hinting that the Clinton’s don’t have much sex (I’ll get back to this in a moment). The piece admits […]

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL GLASS HOUSE YOU HAVE! To follow up on Matt‘s post about Ramesh Ponnuru‘s complaints that we, among others, won’t review a book that we haven’t been sent review copies for, I just did a search on a book I quite like: The Medical Malpractice Myth, by Tom Baker. Baker is a law […]

A BLOG BY ANY OTHER NAME. I’m glad Judith Warner is back as a TimesSelect bonus feature, but what’s the deal with the blurb they’ve given her? Judith Warner: “Domestic Disturbances”The author’s blog on modern parenting returns and will now appear every Friday.” If it appears once a week on a regular schedule, that’s a […]

WHY NOT JUST ASK? Ace New York Times reporter Patrick Healy delivers a big scoop on the Clinton family marriage. Take this shocking revelation: Since the start of 2005, the Clintons have been together about 14 days a month on average, according to aides who reviewed the couple’s schedules. Sometimes it is a full day […]