Blog: TAPPED

SUCH SUBTLETY, SUCH NUANCE. As Greg Sargent notices, a leak is a leak is a leak, except when the leaker is the president. But in some ways, the more interesting wrinkle of this little saga is the ways a lie isn’t a lie when the administration utters it. As others have noticed in the past, […]

PHILOSOPHICAL CLEAN-UP. Tom Friedman says the Bush administration “tried to make history on the cheap. But you can’t will the ends without willing the means. That is Strategic Theory 101, and ignoring it is not just some ‘tactical error.’” It’s not Strategic Theory 101, it’s Philosophy 101 (or, in my case, Philosophy 168) — Friedman’s […]

A LEAK ISN’T REALLY A LEAK. GOT THAT? The White House appears to have adopted a novel approach to spinning their way out of yesterday’s explosive revelations about Scooter Libby‘s testimony that President Bush authorized the leaking of classified intelligence. From today’s Washington Post: A senior administration official, speaking on background because White House policy […]

CAN’T WIN IF YOU DON’T DISAGREE. I’m sensitive to concerns that there are some districts out there where a robust anti-war stance would create problems for Democrats in the fall. On the other hand, as this story indicates there are some GOP incumbents — like Chris Shays — for whom the war is their major […]

MAN…They’re biting my style, yo. Show ’em what’s what and subscribe here, instead. –Ezra Klein

MOVING THE DEBATE LEFTWARD. And this, via Jon Cohn, is why I’m enthusiastic about Mitt Romney‘s presidential candidacy: Still, Mitt Romney will say this law makes him a worthy candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. And he’s right. Politics should reward officials who accomplish something in office. And while it will undoubtedly annoy some progressives […]

GENOCIDE APPEASEMENT WATCH. In mid-February, I obtained a confidential annex to a United Nations report on Sudan�s progress — or more accurately, lack there of — towards peace in Darfur. The annex named the 17 men most responsible for keeping Darfur in a state of perpetual violence and misery, and recommended that they have their […]

DON’T LET A THOUSAND COMPROMISES BLOOM. The Senate’s “compromise” bill on immigration is pretty bad, in addition to being poorly labeled. It’s really a compromise thrice removed, as the proposed law it’s supposedly compromising on was itself already a compromise bill fashioned by Republican Arlen Specter from the bipartisan McCain-Kennedy legislation and passed with a […]

EYE ON MA. With the Massachusetts health care plan passed, my inbox has been subject to a great hue and a cry over my relatively superficial treatment of it. And I am nothing if not a man of the people (particularly when they subscribe to the magazine), so let’s get to it. If you need […]

THE HIGH PRICE OF IDEALISM. Joe Stiglitz says the Iraq War will cost about $1 trillion if you’re optimistic. Jeff Sachs says that ending poverty worldwide would, if other countries followed America’s lead, require US government expenditures of about $60 billion per year. Even if other countries refused to up their foreign aide in response […]