The Carpetbagger Report

I noticed that quite a few well-read conservatives were pretty livid today at something Mike Huckabee said, and initially, I was thrilled — because I thought the right was rejecting Huckabee’s stated desire to bring the Constitution in line with his religious beliefs. As it turns out, that wasn’t the comment that drew the right’s […]

I’m perfectly content — delighted, in fact — to move past the recent race-based unpleasantness between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Reasonable people can disagree about the specifics, most notably about whether the Clinton campaign intentionally coordinated a series of racially provocative comments, but I think most would agree that it’s best if the campaign(s) […]

The United States Constitution, the foundation of our system of government and a model for the world for more than two centuries, is an entirely secular document. It doesn’t mention God or any specific faith tradition, it only mentions religion at all to separate church and state. Apparently, that’s not quite good enough for Mike […]

Hostility towards John McCain among most leading conservative bloggers has been linked to the Arizona senator’s recent rise — the more McCain looks like the Republican frontrunner, the more conservatives express their ire. The past couple of days have been particularly striking in this regard. With polls showing McCain in a pretty good position right […]

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 primary in Michigan is today, and no one’s really sure what to expect. Polls show John McCain and Mitt Romney as the two leading candidates, with different polls showing […]

Two weeks ago, the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen devoted an entire column to criticizing Barack Obama over his use of a statistic — the senator claimed that more young African-American men are in prison than in college — that Cohen insists is false. The columnist used the disputed number, and nothing else, to accuse Obama […]

Over the last couple of months, much of the political discussion regarding the U.S. policy in Iraq has been centered around the perception of progress. Civilian casualties are down. Military casualties are down. Political progress doesn’t seem quite as elusive. Iraq 2008 appears more like Iraq 2005 than Iraq 2006. No matter what the specifics […]

Up until the summer of 2006, I was completely unfamiliar with John Solomon, then a reporter with the Associated Press. What caught my attention, of course, was a series of odd and misleading articles Solomon wrote attacking Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), accusing him of ethical lapses. The closer one looked at the criticisms, the weaker […]

The intensity of the race-based debate surrounding the two leading Democratic presidential candidates seemed poised to get worse, not better. The tone and volume of the dispute was not only driving a wedge in the party, it seemed like the kind of clash that could do lasting damage. Fortunately, before matters got out of control, […]

Today’s edition of quick hits. * The de-Baathification law passed in Iraq might not be quite as encouraging as once thought. Spencer Ackerman explains that the measure is basically “phony”: “The Sunnis are outraged: one Sunni parliamentarian calls the law “a sword on the neck of the people.” But the Shiites throw their hands up […]