First up from The God Machine this week is a much-discussed opinion piece from Richard John Neuhaus, a conservative Catholic priest, in his far-right journal, First Things. The premise is surprisingly straightforward: Christians, Neuhaus argues, should hesitate before supporting Mitt Romney because Romney is a Mormon. It is not an unreasonable prejudice for people who, […]
A month ago, Fouad Ajami, a prominent neocon at Johns Hopkins, wrote a bizarre op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in Scooter Libby’s defense. “In ‘The Soldier’s Creed,’” Ajami wrote, “there is a particularly compelling principle: ‘I will never leave a fallen comrade.’ … [Libby] can’t be left behind as a casualty of a war […]
Soon-to-be-presidential-hopeful Fred Thompson has struggled a bit to explain his position on abortion rights. On the one hand, he voted with the right during his Senate tenure. On the other, he’s also argued that he doesn’t want to see abortion “criminalized” and opposes a constitutional amendment on the issue. So far, the GOP’s far-right base […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * The ACLU’s lawsuit on warrantless-search programs may have been booted by the 6th Circuit today, but the case isn’t necessarily dead: “We are currently reviewing all of our legal options, including taking this challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime it is now more important than ever […]
When it comes to U.S. losses in Iraq, obviously the top concern is the tragic rate of fatalities and casualties. Nothing else comes close. But if we’re going to consider the latter half of the “blood and treasure” equation, Noah Shachtman reminds us today that the financial cost of the war is soaring. It’s not […]
Earlier this week, Joe Lieberman said, “Although no one desires a conflict with Iran, the fact is that the Iranian government by its actions has declared war on us.” Today, he elaborated on this idea in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. As Lieberman describes it, Iran is not only evil, it’s busy. “Iran’s actions in […]
It looks like the column of the day actually ran yesterday, with David Ignatius’ piece in the WaPo about the state of America’s readiness for another possible terrorist attack. Ignatius’ column believes we should all be more united. Behind who or what? Well, that’s the tricky part. Ignatius describes what he believes would happen in […]
Independent national pollsters rarely ever ask Americans for their opinions about impeachment. In fact, when Washington Post polling director Richard Morin started receiving questions about it from readers, he got a little snippy about it, and refused to take the questions seriously. It’s hardly a mystery — the notion of impeaching Bush and/or Cheney is […]
Almost a year ago, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the president’s warrantless-domestic search program. “In this case, the President has acted, undisputedly, as FISA forbids. FISA is the expressed statutory policy of our Congress,” Taylor wrote. “The presidential power, therefore, was exercised at its lowest […]
Salon’s Tim Grieve attended a Rudy Giuliani campaign event in Maryland yesterday and heard the candidate’s basic stump speech. Giuliani, apparently, was supposed to deliver a specific address, but he managed to accidentally show up without a copy of the remarks. He told the crowd that he’d have to “do it from the top of […]