There’s a terrific cover story in the new issue of New York magazine on Rudy Giuliani, but like Michael Crowley, I thought this anecdote stood out. From a recent campaign event in New Hampshire: Up on the dais, it’s Rudy’s turn to raise the subject of the terror attacks. September 11 is proving to be […]
Lieberman wants a rhetorical ‘truce’ until the end of the summer
In describing Joe Lieberman’s op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal today on the war in Iraq, Glenn Greenwald said, “When historians endeavor to understand how America embarked on this dark and disastrous period in our history — how we not only collectively made our worst strategic mistake by invading Iraq on multiple false pretenses, […]
Iraq opposition need not be ‘bipartisan’
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll out today shows Dems with a big lead among Americans on who the nation trusts on the issues. On the war in Iraq, it isn’t even close — 54% trust Democrats to get the war right, while 34% trust Bush. The lead was bigger in mid-January, but the numbers […]
Secrecy agreement first, diplomacy second
I admit that I’m not an expert in international diplomacy, but this struck me as extremely odd. U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney insisted [Australian] Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd be sworn to secrecy about the details of their meeting before their talks in Sydney on Friday. According to senior Labor sources, Mr Cheney would not meet Mr […]
Henry Jordan — redux
I received a surprising amount of feedback over the weekend about a post from Saturday, so it’s probably worth fleshing the story out a bit. For those just joining us, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a struggling Republican presidential hopeful, named South Carolinian Henry Jordan one of his campaign co-chairmen late last week. Duncan called Jordan, […]
Good cop, bad cop — redux
The New York Times reports today that the Bush White House has decided that it’s finally time to get tough with Pakistan when it comes to terrorism. That’s probably a good idea — last week we learned that senior leaders of al Qaeda are operating from Pakistan, have rebuilt training camps, and have “re-established significant […]
Monday’s political round-up
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: * At a recent meeting of the Council for National Policy, a secretive club of right-wing heavyweights (Dobson, Norquist, Falwell, et al), there was widespread discontent over the leading GOP frontrunners for the […]
‘Lessons learned’ from Iran-Contra
Just to follow up for a moment on this morning’s post, there was another portion of Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker piece that warrants some attention. Hersh explains that as the U.S. sides with Saudi-backed Sunni extremists and puts money in the hands of Lebanese Sunni groups with ties to al Qaeda, they’re relying on a […]
I don’t care about Mitt Romney’s great-grandfather
I’m not in the habit of defending Republican presidential candidates against unfair criticisms, but this AP story was widely panned by bloggers all over the political spectrum over the weekend with good cause. It’s a cheap and unnecessary shot. While Mitt Romney condemns polygamy and its prior practice by his Mormon church, the Republican presidential […]
Prosecutor purge — the performance evaluations
Three weeks ago, Paul McNulty, the deputy attorney general, testified under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the U.S. Attorneys purged from their positions “had been urged to leave because of poor performance.” The claim looks less credible all the time. Internal Justice Department performance reports for six of the eight United States attorneys […]