Today’s edition of quick hits. * The AP, noting that previous wars have claimed far more lives, asks why U.S. casualties in Iraq are so upsetting to the nation. It’s a provocative point, but I think Will Bunch is quite right: “When the war is a mistake from Day One, then one U.S. military death […]
The New York Times’ front-page 3,000-word account of the Bush administration’s unraveling policy in Iraq is easily today’s must-read, for more reasons than one. The article, on its face, is fairly devastating. At every key moment in the conflict, the Bush gang has been a couple of steps behind where they should have been. It […]
Somebody’s getting fired. It’s clearly laid out in 140 pages of printed text, handwriting and spreadsheets: The top-secret plan for Rudy Giuliani’s bid for the White House. The remarkably detailed dossier sets out the budgets, schedules and fund-raising plans that will underpin the former New York mayor’s presidential campaign – as well as his aides’ […]
Thousands of Iraqis are desperately fleeing their country every day, leading many to believe the U.S. should do far more to help the refugees, including welcoming them to our country. With thousands of Iraqis desperately fleeing this country every day, advocates for refugees, and even some American officials, say there is an urgent need to […]
The 110th Congress hasn’t even officially begun, but as Justin Rood noted, several House Republicans have already taken to feeling sorry for themselves. Indeed, they’ve not only decided to embrace a victim complex, they’ve decided to put it in print. In a “Dear Colleague” letter circulated to fellow Republicans, three House GOPers are trying to […]
As recently as September, the president told the Weekly Standard that capturing Osama bin Laden is “not a top priority use of American resources.” I thought about the comment after watching a CNN segment today about bin Laden’s suspected whereabouts, and whether the 9/11 mastermind might be in Pakistan or not. CNN reported: There is […]
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: * Outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) will create a presidential exploratory committee this week with the FEC, but out of respect, will wait until funeral services for former President Gerald Ford have […]
Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va.) appeared to have weathered the storm. Last week, Goode made headlines for a blatantly bigoted letter to supporters in which he insisted Muslims represent a threat to “traditional” values, which is why, he said, we should pass massive immigration reform in order to keep more Muslims out of the country. After […]
Just last week, the New York Times ran a lengthy item about how much better Congress, and particularly the House, will function under the new Democratic majority. It all sounded quite pleasant — no more middle-of-the-night votes on key bills, no more restrictions on the minority offering amendments, no more single-party conference committees. Indeed, as […]
Following up on an item from the weekend, the Military Times newspapers published a massive new poll after questioning 6,000 randomly selected active-duty members of the Armed Forces. The results ran counter to much of the conventional wisdom — barely one in three service members approve of the way the president is handling the war; […]