The shift appears to be complete. When the intelligence community concluded recently that Iran halted its nuclear-weapons program, the right’s reflexive reaction was to condemn intelligence agencies, question the accuracy of the report, and raise doubts about officials’ motives. If the NIE didn’t tell conservatives what they wanted to hear, then the NIE had to […]
When the National Intelligence Estimate undermined months of overheated presidential rhetoric, it didn’t take long before the political world realized Bush had been talking up an Iranian threat that didn’t really exist. This problem was compounded through a series of clumsy lies — about when the president learned about Iran halting its nuclear weapons program, […]
Yesterday, on Meet the Press, Tim Russert asked Rudy Giuliani one unexpected question towards the very end of the interview, inquiring about the former mayor’s opinion on a House energy bill that would increase fuel efficiency in cars. “That isn’t the way I think it should be done,” Giuliani said. “I think what we should […]
He may already have a get-out-of-jail-free card in hand, but Scooter Libby has been trying to overturn his felony convictions anyway. Something about trying to clear his “good name,” as if that were still a possibility. This morning, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff gave up and ended his legal ordeal. Former White House aide […]
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: * The Republican presidential candidates met for a genteel debate in Miami last night, appearing on Univision for a Spanish-language event. (Questions were asked in Spanish and translated to English for the candidates. […]
The Cuban Missile Crisis is one of those landmark crises of the 20th century that Americans should be familiar with. One need not have been alive in 1962 to appreciate that the world was on the brink of a catastrophic conflict. Indeed, even if someone wasn’t familiar with the historic record, the Cuban Missile Crisis […]
By some measures, Andrew Young is an American hero. The former mayor of Atlanta, Young was a champion of the civil rights movement and a close ally of Martin Luther King in the 1960s, he was a popular mayor of Georgia’s biggest city, he was a successful member of Congress, and drew plaudits as Jimmy […]
Late last week, we learned that the CIA destroyed videos of U.S. officials torturing detainees. The administration has said the destruction was necessary to protect the identity of those doing the torturing — a claim that no one can take seriously — while the reality-based world notes that the CIA appears to have obstructed justice. […]
When Rudy Giuliani sat down with Tim Russert yesterday on Meet the Press, there was more interest than usual, in large part because the interview was unexpected. The former mayor rarely sits down for lengthy on-air interviews, and when he does, it’s exclusively for partisan journalists at Fox News. With that in mind, for Giuliani […]