Matthew Cooper

America's ambassador to Afghanistan doesn't want more troops. Is this a prelude to Obama saying he doesn't want them either? More »

When are we getting a health care vote in the House? It seemed impossible that with her monster majority, Nancy Pelosi might need to delay the vote beyond Saturday to round up enough support for the House's version of a health care bill. But the Hill is rife with conflicting reports that the vote might go until Monday or Tuesday. Like most kerfuffles, this one won't matter. The Democratic House will pass a bill and that will eventually need to be married to… More »

Yesterday's tragedy at Fort Hood has already given rise to a cottage industry of bloviation and idle speculation. Last night, I flitted around the cable universe. Sean Hannity asked if there was enough security on military bases. On Larry King, Dr. Phil offered the stunning insight that the shooter had had a break from reality and that this was a "major mental event." Rachel Maddow was more measured in her discussion of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, noting that… More »

It's the day after the day after. And the punditocracy is still analyzing the off year elections. I thought E.J. Dionne had the most sober take--bad news for incumbents, Democrats, an annoyed electorate. If anything I think he may have underestimated the level of irritability out there. The defeat of Thomas Suozzi, the executive in Nassau County, should have been a real wake up call to Democrats. His election marked a big gain for the party in the land of D'Amato.… More »

Greatly relieved that the Fed didn't raise rates today and doesn't seem inclined to. Inflation feels like the last thing to worry about now when the economy is so weak. Yes, there's more reason to worry about inflation in the years ahead--commodity shocks and big spending could bring inflation back. But inflation scaremongers have been worried about its return in a serious way since the 70s and early 80s, and those were exceptional times. Bernanke hasn't done… More »

I'll confess to being surprised by the result in Maine. Having spent a lot of time in the state, where my brother has lived for decades, I thought its libertarian streak would prevail. After all, this wasn't a court ruling being overturned by the electorate. The legislature had passed the gay marriage measure and the governor had enthusiastically signed it. Granted the law wouldn't take effect without the ballot measure, but still you had a big chunk of the… More »

We've finally got the release of Dick Cheney's interview with the FBI from the Valerie Plame investigation thanks to the folks over at Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW). I've just taken a quick glance at the documents, but already it's interesting, if not shocking. Cheney describes the situation at the CIA as "amateur hour," not only for its dispatch of Joe Wilson to Niger but also for its handling of the Iraqi intelligence. It'll take… More »

One of the overlooked stories of the week was The Washington Times account of big donors getting special visits and perks at the White House. No reports of the Lincoln Bedroom being used, but the efforts of the Times to stir the outrage that fueled conservative anger at the Clintons in the 90s is not surprising. But it is misplaced. Big donors or bundlers will always be with us, even in the McCain-Feingold era. They will get special treatment from presidents. The… More »

The House ethics panel's investigations remind us that corruption is a fact of life in the lower chamber More »

David Plouffe, the Obama tactician, has a new book out and it's excerpted in Time. Crossing genres between political memoir and business advice book, it's called "The Audacity to Win." The new excerpts seem appropriately kind to the boss who brilliantly takes charge of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright affair with an oh-so-brilliant speech on race and who magnanimously considers Hillary Clinton for veep even while Plouffe and David Axelrod don't take the idea seriously. The… More »

And perhaps it's too much to expect, after 10 months in office... More »

Wow. I clicked on one of those banner ads on the Drudge Report, which are usually right-wing but innocuous enough. This one, though, was for some crazed game called "The United States of Earth," a computer game that imagines an Obama coup that suspends civil liberties, sees Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh imprisoned and Cass Sunstein die. Sicko stuff. See it here.Read a gamer mag's take on it here. Wow.As one who covered nuttiness like the Jerry Falwell implication… More »

Even politicos sometimes forget how much Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay and the GOP House leadership of the 90s was liked by moderates. They may not have agreed ideologically, but the aggressive conservatives always took care of moderate members, making sure they were protected on their right flanks, not pushing them into too many painful votes. DeLay was known as the Hammer, but he was also a courtier, too. That tendency is on display today as Newt Gingrich makes the… More »

The throw-Creigh-Deeds-under-the-bus moment will be one of the more memorable from this off-year election. Last week, the Washington Post cited a White House official already distancing the president from the Virginia Democrat running for governor. Obama is in Virginia today, trying to drive up minority turnout in the Norfolk area. Polls, though, show Deeds is slipping and seems unlikely to win against his Republican rival, Bob McDonnell, who has portrayed himself… More »

The Fox News kerfuffle continues. Rachel Maddow made the point last night that Fox stopped being a regular news network when it moved into advocacy for the Tea Partiers. I'm not sure I buy that. If it wasn't an advocacy network before, that was hardly the turning point. I'm in the camp, as I've written, that most MSM journalists are: this was probably a mistake for the White House. That's not because I think Fox is fair and balanced--it's not--but because it looks… More »

Harry Reid weighed in on health care today, saying he'd advance a health care bill with a public option that allows states to opt out of the program. It seemed the surest way to hold together a coalition that could support a bill. The move must mean that Reid thinks he can keep 60 members of the Democratic caucus together to support bringing the bill to the Senate floor even if some vote against the measure on final passage. We'll see where all this goes in the… More »

Can the 350 protesters capture the same attention as tea parties? More »

Mickey Kaus has a smart take on the Fox News flap here. He makes the point that there's a distinction between conservative and independent. Conservative doesn't bother him (or me) but lack of independence does, and thus the White House is right when it says Fox is not a standard news organizaiton, not because it's right-leaning but because it's a defacto arm of the GOP. Not entirely sure I buy the argument. But it's an intriguing nuance. In any event, I still don't… More »

A heterosexual Republican veteran's pro-gay-marriage speech goes viral More »

Sen. Lamar Alexander compares Obama to Nixon when it comes to Fox More »