Joshua Green

It's safer for Republicans to vote against Kagan than it was to vote against Sotomayor More »

Kagan is less controversial, but Washington has become more partisan since last August More »

His primary against Rep. Joe Sestak will be close, and the president won't campaign for him More »

Just guessing, but I'll bet this "Joke and Toke Fundraiser" at my alma mater, Oaksterdam University, to benefit California's referendum legalizing marijuana, produces lots of laughter. And giggling. And not necessarily because of the jokes. More »

Newsweek has fallen on hard times, and the Washington Post Co. is putting it up for sale. Thoughtful context here and here. I have no long-term solutions. But if they're looking to goose newsstand sales, Matt Cooper, a triple-crown veteran of Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News, once came up with the greatest newsweekly cover line of all time: "What Would Jesus Eat? The New Science of Biblical Diets Could Be The Secret to Weight Loss."Having never worked at a newsweekly… More »

In Washington, environmental disasters come with a silver lining. They have the power to change the legislative dynamic almost overnight. A 1969 oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara was the impetus for the original Earth Day, and prompted Congress to pass the National Environmental Policy Act, which among other things banned new offshore drilling. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 helped speed passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, a landmark… More »

Rarely does my fondness for schlock horror flicks overlap with my politics beat. So my thanks to the authors of Arizona's new racial profiling law for bringing them together in this movie trailer-cum-protest film by the meta-pulp-movie director and Mexican-American Robert Rodriguez. He has assembled an all-star cast (Jessica Alba, DeNiro--and when was the last time you saw Lindsey Lohan in anything?!) to register his disapproval:Guessing he won't be shooting in… More »

Since just after Obama took office, a primary complaint among those pressing hardest for financial reform has been that the White House ceded its leverage over the banks by waiting a year and a half to tackle reform. This argument, which I touched on in my recent profile of Tim Geithner, holds that in the midst of the crisis public anger at Wall Street was so overwhelming--and politicians so fearful of running afoul of it--that truly tough reforms were feasible;… More »

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner endured plenty of ridicule when he put his suburban New York, home on the market in 2007 and it didn't sell. (Example: this Daily Show segment.) Geithner's real estate quandary became a popular data point in the housing collapse. Will his predecessor, Hank Paulson, fare better? We'll see. Paulson has just listed his DC mansion for sale at a cool $4.6 million.Want to ogle his place? Virtual tour here. More »

A colorful description, from BP's chairman, of how tough it is to stop the oil from pouring into the Gulf of Mexico More »

Neither Andrew Sullivan nor Joshua Green wants to see Palin as president More »

Right now, Washington is busily gearing up for tomorrow night's White House Correspondents Dinner. And no one is busier that the political comedy writers whose job it is to make the politicians seem funny. I've always had a soft spot/fascination with these guys (and they're all guys) and even wrote about some of them in this Atlantic article a few years ago. What sparked that piece was my amazement that anyone could make John Kerry funny--because let's be honest,… More »

Ha! When I referred to the bloggers at conservatives4palin.com as "rapturous dimwits" the other day, I'd assumed they were simply misguided enthusiasts. According to this new piece from Gabe Sherman, though, it would be more accurate to call them "rapturous dimwits on Palin's own payroll." More »

She'll be questioned, by adversaries and the press, on a national stage More »

The government did an awful lot wrong during the housing bubble. Now, it's beginning to get things right More »

File this one under "Stories that should shock--but don't, really":Pistol-packing Texas Gov. Rick Perry...told The Associated Press on Tuesday he needed just one shot from the laser-sighted pistol he sometimes carries while jogging to take down a coyote that menaced his puppy during a February run near Austin. Perry said he will carry his .380 Ruger - loaded with hollow-point bullets - when jogging on trails because he is afraid of snakes. He'd also seen coyotes in… More »

The former governor seems to like money more than politics More »

I see that Andrew Sullivan has responded with bug-eyed alarm to my suggestion that Sarah Palin might not run for president. I've got some stuff to do, but I'll weigh in with my reply soon. More »

In the new issue of New York magazine, Gabriel Sherman takes a revealing look at the business of being Sarah Palin. Upshot: it's lucrative. He estimates that Palin, who he dubs "the president of right-wing America," earned $12 million over the last year. What really jumps out, though, is not the size of Palin's haul but her overweening money lust, which would be at home on the Goldman Sachs trading floor. Others have cashed in on political fame, Gabe notes.But no… More »

Horrible, horrible pick. He'll flame out in three years, get elected to Congress. More »