We’ve been hearing quite a bit lately about the president reaching out to observers outside his inner circle for big-picture bull sessions. In April, Bush met with some “big money players up from Texas,” who got out exactly one question before president launched into an extended rant about how no one understands him. In May, […]
The Senate Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the White House for information related to the U.S. Attorney purge scandal. The White House announced that it would ignore the subpoenas. Yesterday morning on Meet the Press, Tim Russert asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) what happens next. RUSSERT: You have asked the White House and […]
It’s not often major news outlets fact-check documentaries, but Michael Moore’s not just another documentary filmmaker, and healthcare is not just another public policy. So, I suppose it’s not a big surprise that CNN would give “Sicko” some close scrutiny. As it turns out, the network gives the movie a clean bill of health. Moore […]
In some ways, measuring presidential candidates by their fundraising totals is just about the ultimate in political inside pool. The typical American doesn’t know or care how much money a campaign raises — but the numbers are carefully scrutinized by reporters, candidates, staffers, and major donors. It’s not necessarily fair, and fundraising conditions can change, […]
An inexperienced leader, facing a serious global threat, grows increasingly arrogant, spurns lawmakers, grabs unprecedented power, bullies skeptics, stifles the press, and decides to spurn the advice of seasoned hands and go it alone. Sound familiar? Lynne Olson, author of a new book about the British Parliament replacing Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill in 1940, […]
Hmm, what was the most disturbing part of Joe Lieberman’s appearance on ABC’s “This Week” this morning? It’s a surprisingly tough call. Was it Lieberman’s reality-be-damned insistence that “the surge is working”? That was certainly disconcerting. Was it Lieberman’s assertion that leading Democrats are weak because they reject a neocon vision of foreign policy? That […]
The dramatic events in Britain over the last couple of days are a stark reminder of a terrorist threat that is likely getting worse for the West, not better. Fortunately, no innocent people suffered any serious injuries as a result of these attacks in Britain. What’s more, the attackers do not appear to have been […]
As of yesterday, three years to the week after the president triumphantly proclaimed, “Let freedom reign,” we are now seeing the end of the deadliest quarter for U.S. forces in Iraq since the war began. Those deaths brought to 99 the number of U.S. troops killed this month, according to an Associated Press count. The […]
Ken Silverstein wrote a fascinating expose for the July issue of Harper’s about DC’s lobbying industry. Silverstein wanted to understand how, exactly, these firms operate when approached by an ethically-dubious client, and what lobbyists would/could do for a price. Of course, if the Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine calls up one of these firms, he’ll […]
The New York Times report on the defused bombs in London included this disconcerting graf: [T]he idea of a multiple attack using car bombs — a departure from the backpack suicide attacks of the London bombings of July 2005 — raised concerns among security experts that jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda may have imported […]