The war in Iraq can apparently turn even more deadly. In addition to the traditional combat forces, militias, and snipers, U.S. troops had to endure improvised explosive devices. Then explosively formed penetrators. More recently, insurgents have developed the ability to shoot down helicopters. And now chlorine gas has been added to the very lethal mix. […]
Shortly after the 2006 elections, discussing whether he’d bolt the party, Joe Lieberman told the NYT, “This is not so much to threaten anybody, but….” Shortly thereafter, on the possibility of bolting the party, Lieberman told Tim Russert, “I’m not ruling it out, but….” Needless to say, this causes great consternation among Dems everywhere, not […]
Yesterday, I published my 10,000th blog post, and tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the start of The Carpetbagger Report, so I thought I’d take a moment to offer a quick progress report to readers. (I generally avoid navel-gazing posts; consider it a once-a-year-indulgence.) To borrow a presidential cliche, the State of the Blog 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: * Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) endorsed Barack Obama yesterday, offering the Illinois senator one of his highest profile Senate endorsements to date. Daschle said Obama has a “great capacity to […]
I read the transcript of the president’s “roundtable on health care initiatives” held at the Chattanooga Convention Center yesterday, and was amazed at how well the participants stayed on message. There was the uninsured father of two who really loved the idea of the president’s idea of changing the tax code to help the uninsured. […]
Thousands of National Guard and Reserve troops had been told they could expect a longer break between deployments to Iraq. In some cases, reservists were promised they would get years between deployments. Now, they’re being told to forget what they’d been told; Bush’s escalation strategy demands more sacrifice. The Pentagon is planning to send more […]
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, one of my favorite writers, has written one of my favorite pieces in recent memory. It’s both hilarious and poignant (and more than a little infuriating in its subject matter). Taibbi starts by noting something that probably bothers most of us: the media’s bizarre obsession with trivia. I’m not one of […]
Yesterday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the beginning of his troop withdrawal from Iraq, which on the surface seemed like a drastic development for the Bush war strategy. Britain was, of course, the only “coalition” partner with thousands of troops on the ground — and now they’re leaving. Not at all, said the White […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * In 2004, John McCain said Dick Cheney was one of the best Vice Presidents in American history. Last month, McCain reversed course, saying Bush has been “badly served by…the Vice President.” According to Cheney, McCain reversed course again, and apologized to the VP directly. * Reuters: “U.S. spending on […]
One of the selling points of the war in Iraq, at least once the “flypaper” theory came into play, was that the war would keep the terrorists busy in one place, preventing them from wreaking havoc around the globe. On a related note, some of these same war supporters argued that the conflict would stem […]