It was a credibility-killing moment for John McCain. Last month, the senator insisted there are parts of Baghdad that are safe for Americans to go for a stroll and that General Petraeus travels around the city “almost every day in a non-armed Humvee.” Obviously, that was wrong. McCain took this to the next step, of […]
Perhaps the single most frustrating aspect of contemporary political debate is the myth that somehow Democrats are anti-military, while Republicans are pro-military. David Broder, reporting from the DNC’s winter meeting a few months ago, observed, “One of the losers in the weekend oratorical marathon was retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who repeatedly invoked the West Point […]
Following up on yesterday’s item about Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) replacing Doolittle on the House Appropriations Committee, Erick at RedState declared “war” on the House GOP leadership and offered a run-down on Calvert’s alleged misdeads. In 2005, Calvert and a partner paid $550,000 for 4.3 acres of land. Calvert then used his earmarking powers to […]
We’ve known a while that Monica Goodling was chiefly responsible for vetting Justice Department attorneys based on partisanship and ideology, but this piece in the NYT is nevertheless stunning in its detail. Two years ago, Robin C. Ashton, a seasoned criminal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, learned from her boss that a promised promotion […]
I noted in a couple of posts this week that I believe September will likely be the point at which even congressional Republicans give up on the president’s war policy. Petraeus is scheduled to deliver a progress report on Iraq and everyone seems pretty certain that’s little hope for good news. But will the GOP […]
If a Republican presidential candidate snubs some working-class farmers, and the media doesn’t report it, does it really make a sound? When Greg Sargent first noted on Thursday that Rudy Giuliani’s campaign cancelled an event at Deb and Jerry VonSprecken’s family farm because they’re not millionaires, he asked in his first paragraph, “[W]ill the haircut-obsessed […]
For all the palaver about John Edwards’ appearance, haircuts, and Breck-Girl qualities, at least he isn’t distributing items at his campaign appearances about his “sensational good looks.” But Mitt Romney is. One of Garance Franke-Ruta’s Republican sources in Iowa picked up a jaw-dropping flyer at a Romney campaign event. His promotional flyer says, “In this […]
First up from The God Machine this week is the ongoing religio-political discussion about a Mormon presidential candidate. Al Sharpton clearly seemed to cross the line this week when he said, “As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don’t worry about that; that’s […]
Guest Post by Morbo Much to my surprise, books critical of religion having been selling well lately. Sam Harris’ two books, “The End of Faith” and “Letter to a Christian Nation,” have hit the best-sellers list along with Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion.” The publishing industry, eager to ride this boomlet, is giving book contracts […]
Guest Post by Morbo Every few weeks, I get a catalog from a firm in Connecticut that sells books that have been remaindered. It’s printed on newsprint in tiny type but is always worth poring over because, while most of the offerings are dross, gems do lurk within. One thing I’ve learned from years of […]