Interesting debate on the left about Roman Polanski's arrest in Switzerland and his likely extradition to the United States. Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of The Nation, has expressed doubts about the Polanski case in her Tweets. "Polanski should have served time then, but there's evidence of prosecutorial misconduct & victim has spoken." So has Glenn Greenwald of Salon: I agree with most of it - there's just ambivalence about starting to punish someone for… More »
I mentioned on Friday that I'd gone to see Ray LaHood, the Secretary of Transportation. LaHood, as you probably know, was a Republican congressman from Illinois before he was Obama's transportation secretary, and he's a bona fide Republican--he took over the seat once held by House Minority Leader Bob Michel, which includes Peoria. I asked LaHood about health care and he told me that every Cabinet member has been enlisted in selling the package and that he thinks… More »
It'll look bad if the president comes back from Copenhagen empty handed More »
My pals at Talkingpointsmemo.com are doing an ace job tracking the death of that Census worker in Kentucky, the one with the word "Fed" written on his chest. The first gruesome details of the case played perfectly into concerns that an antigovernment atmosphere had led to a murder. But Zach Roth notes that the FBI has not determined if it was a homicide and also notes that the marijuana-and-meth trade in that part of the state raises the possibility he was in the… More »
It looks like Ray LaHood is the latest to join the delegation of Obamaites and Chicagoans going to Copenhagen for a final pitch to get the 2016 Summer Olympics for the windy city. I saw LaHood this morning for an interview and asked if the former congressman from Peoria, Illinois was getting involved in the pitch. He said that he was and would help reassure International Olympic Committee members that Chicago had the transportation infrastructure to handle the… More »
Anyone who's met Paul Kirk knows he's a charmer, an old school lawyer-lobbyist in the vein of Robert Strauss, another former Democratic National Committee chairman. Apparently the Kennedys wanted him in the job, and now he's got it. But was this really the best pick, and what have Democrats done with their chances to appoint five senators since the election? I will be careful here since one of the picks involves my boss's brother. More »
I don't know the answer to the above question. But it's amazing that the idea now gets such serious discussion. Today, the president led the UN's passage of a resolution calling for such a goal. And while resolutions are all well and good, this one comes at a time when serious policy makers and one-time hawks now see the end of nukes as a realistic thing. Reagan's Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci and one of his arms control pointmen, Richard Burt, are on board with… More »
The attorney general could be next in line for the governor's mansion, but he can't be too cheery about it. More »
There's a smart piece in The Washington Post this morning about the effort in Congress to contain some of the more outlandish banking fees being imposed on customers. In particular, overdraft fees, which everyone knows to be high, are targeted. In this case, these are fees banks impose after all but encouraging people to overspend and not telling them that they're overdrawn. It's amazing that we've gotten to this point--trillions in bailouts, an economic collapse… More »
It was sad to hear that Irving Kristol passed away this afternoon. The founding father of neoconservatism leaves behind an extraordinary legacy as a promoter of ideas, as a mentor to so many on the right, and as a father and husband. At a time when neoconservatism is so wildly resented on the left, it's worth remembering the noble tradition that Kristol founded most notably through The Public Interest, the small journal he introduced to the world in 1965 with… More »
I'm not sure what Michelle Obama's most lasting legacy will be. Will she be associated with a cause like Nancy Reagan's just-say-no, antidrug campaign or more broadly iconic like Jackie Kennedy? As the first African-American First Lady, probably the latter. But the marriage of her office and the moment makes me think her interest in what and how we eat may be as enduring as anything else.Known already for fulfilling the dreams of foodies everywhere by planting a… More »
Is the Baucus bill picking up steam? Eh, not so much. But it showed a little more signs of life today when self-styled moderates including hypercentrist Joe Lieberman and the most courted Senator in Washington, Olympia Snowe were among a group to praise Baucus's efforts. Yesterday, Snowe seemed to criticize them. So today's slight praise of the bill seemed to add to the feeling that there was something that might get built upon. Of course, it's not enough to… More »
Sen. Max Baucus has introduced his own health care bill. This is important because he chairs the Senate Finance Committee and because he's pledged to come up with a bill that could attract Republican support. But no Republicans have embraced the measure since it came out this morning, and the ranking member of the committee, Chuck Grassley, distanced himself from it. So does this mean the possibility of a bill that some Republicans support is dead? Who knows? More »
One of the ironies of the CIA leak case was the way the White House half apologized for the president's 2003 State of the Union address claiming that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa. After former Ambassador Joe Wilson wrote his scathing op-ed in which he claimed that he had been dispatched to the African country of Niger to investigate such claims--and found them lacking--the White House did something bizarre. They could have said that Wilson was… More »
Obama will address Congress in primetime. Can he save health reform? More »
