David Broder reported yesterday, and the NYT’s Sam Roberts adds today, that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is still laying the groundwork for an independent presidential campaign, and will meet a week from today with some relatively high-profile politicians from both parties in the hopes of forming a “government of national unity.” Those who […]
John McCain’s website tells visitors, “Too often the special interest lobbyists with the fattest wallets and best access carry the day.” It sounds like a compelling sentiment from a one-time reformer, and might even be impressive, just so long as you don’t peek behind the curtain. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took a break from the […]
Mike Huckabee was taking a bit of a chance appearing on “Meet the Press” with just a few days left before the Iowa caucuses — an unimpressive showing would have created quite a bit of negative media buzz in the closing days — but the former governor didn’t make any errors that were so serious, […]
In case there was any doubt, the early reports from the Huffington Post were true: Bill Kristol is, in fact, going to be a regular op-ed columnist for the New York Times. Times’ editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal defended the move. Rosenthal told Politico.com shortly after the official announcement Saturday that he fails to understand […]
It’s not exactly a secret that Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign isn’t going well. By some measures, that’s a surprise — he’s plenty conservative; he’s never flip-flopped on key issues; and he’s not a member of a religious minority that the GOP base finds offensive. Simply as a matter of process of elimination, this guy should […]
As it turns out, the reasoning behind the CIA’s decision to record interrogations on video, stop recording interrogations on video, and destroy the interrogation videos was all exactly the same: officials were hoping to avoid a public-relations nightmare. If Abu Zubaydah, a senior operative of Al Qaeda, died in American hands, Central Intelligence Agency officers […]
TNR’s Noam Scheiber had an interesting item the other day, gaming out possible post-Iowa-caucus scenarios, and describing the various “paths” Democratic candidates have to the nomination. First, the three easy scenarios: 1.) Hillary wins by more than a point or two, in which case the race is basically over. 2.) Obama wins convincingly (five points […]
It’s hardly a secret that the Bush administration has treated the rule of law as some kind of punch line for the better part seven years now, but Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick has done the political world a tremendous service by documenting the “Administration’s Top 10 Stupidest Legal Arguments of 2007.” Now, if you’re like me, […]
John Deady, a designated surrogate for Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign, and a leader with a group called “Veterans for Rudy,” was caught on video making some jaw-dropping comments about Muslims. Here’s what Deady said about Giuliani: “He’s got I believe the knowledge and the judgment to attack one of the most difficult problems in current […]
Years ago, when I worked for the Rev. Barry Lynn at Americans United, I was frequently amazed when he seemed pleased by the right’s personal attacks against him. It seemed to me that scurrilous, baseless attacks from far-right activists, which were fairly common, should be offensive and frustrating. I expected Barry to mind, but invariably, […]