Today’s edition of quick hits. * Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.) died this afternoon after battling cancer and lung disease. The 65-year-old Norwood died at his home in Augusta, Ga., his office said. House members debating the war in Iraq briefly interrupted proceedings for a moment of silence in his honor. My condolences to his family. […]
How to prove a point to al Qaeda, Take 1
For me, this summarizes perfectly the entire current state of the debate over the war in Iraq. A friend on the Hill responds to GOP Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s argument on the House floor that, by withdrawing from Iraq, America would show al Qaeda that we can’t stomach combat casualties: “Which raises the question, just how […]
Restoring habeas corpus
When the Military Commissions Act, which among other things suspended habeas corpus for suspected terrorists, went to the Senate floor in September, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) noted, “Surely as we are standing here, if this bill is passed and habeas corpus is stricken, we’ll be back on this floor again” after the courts reject the […]
Tears of a clown
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who’s never showed much of anything in the way of emotion, reportedly takes this week’s floor debate over a non-binding resolution on troop escalation so seriously, he began crying about it this morning. Boehner appeared at a stake out of House GOP leaders that featured an appearance by Rep. […]
‘The Terrorism Index’
The Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy, an influential journal published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, launched an interesting project last summer. CAP and FP asked 100 leading American foreign-policy analysts, from both sides of the aisle, for their perspectives on the war on terrorism. The participants included some serious heavy-hitters, including […]
Newsweek’s ‘periscope’ stuck looking backwards
Newsweek publishes a weekly “Conventional Wisdom watch” graphic, with arrows denoting whether major players are going up, down, or sideways. It’s not exactly intended to be real news; the box is more “infotainment.” That said, it often offers a sense of how major news stories are being perceived. As Greg Sargent noted, this week’s piece […]
Marcotte resigns from Edwards campaign
I suppose, given the significance of this story here and elsewhere, I can’t very well let this go without commenting. I’m just not sure what I think about it. Days after Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards decided against firing two liberal bloggers with a history of inflammatory writing, one resigned last night with a blast […]
Tuesday’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: * To fairly mild fanfare, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) officially launched his presidential campaign this morning. Perhaps the most noteworthy part of the announcement wasn’t what Romney said, but where he […]
Obama’s ‘waste’ gaffe
In New Hampshire over the weekend, Barack Obama told an audience that “we ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged, and to which we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.” It was a well-received […]
This is what Bush means by ‘supporting the troops’
Maybe conservatives can remind us again about which side of the political divide really supports the troops. The Bush administration plans to cut funding for veterans’ health care two years from now — even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system. Bush is using the cuts, critics say, to help fulfill […]