Ezra Klein

Via NewsUnfiltered: “THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. My message to the Cabinet this morning is this: This administration is not going to rest until every life can be saved; until families are reconnected; until this recovery is complete. Our goals — our immediate goals are these: We want to complete the search and […]

So I just booked my flight — on September 21st, I’ll be moving out to DC. I’ll spend a few days tracking down an apartment, getting myself settled, and then, on Monday the 26th, I’ll be starting at The American Prospect. So this is how Real Life starts, huh?

Via Sam Rosenfeld, this bit from Mark Tushnet on the Roberts nomination is very much worth reading: At this point, there’s no reason for a Democrat to vote to confirm Judge Roberts. My argument has two steps: the first is that Democrats should disagree with what they know about Judge Roberts’ constitutional philosophy … and […]

You’ve probably heard this quote already, but Barbara Bush went on NPR tonight and really let one rip: “What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality…And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, […]

By Ezra Saltman says: I certainly disagreed with many of [Rehnquist’s] opinions, but he maintained an astonishing degree of intellectual integrity in his long tenure on the court. I read somewhere, and I wish I could find it on google, that he voted to strike down fewer laws than any other justice presently on the […]

Posted by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math At the start of the weekend, Ezra asked what the future should look like, and how it would be paid for. Since we live in a bizarro world where proposing a tax increase to pay for things like body armor, rebuilding New Orleans, and medicine is considered unthinkable, […]

Neil the Ethical Werewolf The idea that someone like Michael Brown could possibly get a job as director of FEMA belongs in parody. We’re talking about a guy who had spent a decade running horse shows before being fired for supervision failures in 2001, when Bush crony Joe Allbaugh was hired as FEMA director. Brown […]

As Neil noted below, Ezra asked us: I’m interested in the idea that, if Bush asked for sacrifice, a one time tax increase, a something — if he said he and his VP and his cabinet would lead it by foregoing salaries for the year — his numbers would skyrocket. Why, then, doesn’t he do […]

By Pepper I was taken aback at how quickly Bush rolled out his decision following Rehnquist’s death, compared to how quickly he’s rolled out everything else lately. I tell ya, when it’s something the Court of George II cares about, they move fast. I’ve had a lot of coffee and I’m in a conspiracy kind […]

Bush has tapped Roberts as Rehnquist’s successor, making his hearings a combined affair. Senators, now, have to evaluate his acceptability as a) a Justice on the Supreme Court and b) the new head and leader of the Court, probably for then next 4 decades. This is a very, very savvy move by Bush. If the […]