Newsweek has a terrific, well-reported story in the current issue, written by three of the magazine’s top writers, on the deteriorating conditions in Afghanistan. As the article explains, “Five years after the Afghan invasion, the Taliban are fighting back hard, carving out a sanctuary where they — and Al Qaeda’s leaders — can operate freely.” […]
I don’t want to belabor the point, but Bill Clinton’s interview with Chris Wallace — the former president’s first-ever chat with Fox News — has become one of the more interesting political showdowns in quite a while. If you were out of the loop over the weekend, Clinton sat down with Wallace, ostensibly to discuss […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * It’s safe to say that Republicans best, if not only, chance of picking up a Senate seat this year is in New Jersey. The latest Monmouth University/Gannett poll shows state Sen. [tag]Tom […]
The Family Research Council’s “Values Voters Summit” in DC over the weekend produced a treasure trove of bizarre and frightening anecdotes, but this one, at least so far, has to be my favorite. Even in this crowd of nearly 2,000 Christian conservative activists, some balked at one tactic recommended to turn out church voters. In […]
Has this Congress, which has been in-session for less time than any in the last six decades, earned its “do-nothing” title? Consider the tale of the tape. At best, it appears that just 2 of the 11 required spending bills will pass, and not one has been approved so far, forcing a stopgap measure to […]
Last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez equated George W. Bush with Satan in an address before the United Nations General Assembly. (Speaking from the same podium, Chaves said he could “still smell the sulfur” from where the president stood.) Even Bush critics conceded that comparing the president to the devil was a little over-the-top. Chavez, […]
As Slate’s Fred Kaplan explained a while back, a [tag]National Intelligence Estimate[/tag] ([tag]NIE[/tag]) “is not an ordinary report. It marks the one occasion when the Central Intelligence Agency warrants its name, acting as a central entity that pulls together the assessments of all the myriad intelligence departments, noting where they agree and where they differ.” […]
I’ll have the transcript up as soon as CNN posts it, but George W. Bush appeared on “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer” this afternoon and made one of those stunning remarks that could — or rather, should — become a political problem for the White House. Blitzer asked the president to respond to the nightmare […]
The debate in DC over whether and how to torture — I still find it painful to type those words — gripped the political establishment for a couple of weeks, and Dems on the Hill took an entirely passive approach. It wasn’t necessarily because they didn’t care, it was more part of a deliberate strategy: […]
As stunning as Bill [tag]Clinton[/tag]’s interview on [tag]Fox News[/tag] was, no one should overlook the fascinating interview the former president did yesterday with MSNBC’s Keith [tag]Olbermann[/tag]. (C&L has some of it, and MSNBC has clips of nearly all of it.) Olbermann, as he is wont to do, asked a poignant question: “This is not what […]