Quote of the Day – Iraq Edition
"After almost 6 1/2 years, and 4,327 American dead and 31,483 wounded, with a war spiraling downward in Afghanistan, it would be indefensible for the U.S. military -- overextended and in need of materiel repair and mental recuperation -- to loiter in Iraq to improve the instincts of corrupt elites. If there is a worse use of the U.S. military ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 4, 2009 06:53
Fire David Keene – The ACU Pay-for-Play Scandal
David Keene and the American Conservative Union offered to take sides in an NLRB dispute between rivals UPS and FedEx based on who would pay to play. FedEx refused to pay the bribe of $2 to $3 million, so ACU supported UPS. FedEx went public, turning over the letter outlining ACU's extortion request to POLITICO's Mike Allen. Doubters ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 17, 2009 10:32
Hilzoy Retires
Since I check Memeorandum before Google Reader most mornings, I saw Hilzoy's post "Bare-Faced Go-Away Bird" there first. I glanced at it before going on to other posts but resolved to write something snarky about how it was quite likely that it was the first time the phrase "I'm going to Rwanda this weekend, on vacation" had ever been ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 14, 2009 08:40
‘Conservatives’ Obama Listens To
Marc Ambinder has compiled a list of "The Six Top Conservatives Obama Listens To." As several of those who saw the link via Twitter have noted, arguably none of them are conservatives: The Mainers, Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe Dick Lugar John McCain David Brooks Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith A perfectly fine list of Republicans to whom I'm perfectly happy the president is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 10, 2009 11:54
Just Prisoners There, Of Their Own Device
Jon Henke Twitters: "The California referendum proves that what voters want to spend is not well-connected with what voters are willing to pay." Quite right. Californian Kevin Drum takes as a given that his state is "broken" but sees no solution in sight. While he's in favor of Governor Schwarzenegger's idea of a constitutional convention to fix some of the institutional ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 21, 2009 09:29
No Such Thing as Race: So Say We All?
The juxtaposition of George Will's latest column, "The Wreck of the Racial Spoils System," and this odd appearance by Edward James Olmos and the cast of BSG at the United Nations (via Charli Carpenter) bitterly arguing that "there's no such thing as race" except for, naturally, "the human race," is startling. Now, the idea that "race" is a social construct undefinable ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 26, 2009 14:40
Ezra Klein to WaPo
The Washington Post company continues its consolidation of the media universe with the hire of Ezra Klein. Politico's Michael Calderone breaks the news: The American Prospect's Ezra Klein, one of the top bloggers on politics and policy, is heading to the Washington Post. Rumors about Klein's upcoming move spread on Wednesday night during a reception thrown by The Nation magazine in honor ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 23, 2009 12:07
George Will – Never in Blue Jeans
George Will hates the fact that Americans wear blue jeans. So intense is his white hot anger that he's recycled a two-week old WSJ column by Daniel Akst on the same subject. Not only is denim a faux populism adopted by a decadent elite, it makes it impossible to distinguish parents from their children, what with them all decked out in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 16, 2009 08:35
These Kids Today: Conservative Politics Over?
Paul Waldman fleshes out a theme that many observers have made in passing: The young voters who helped propel Barack Obama to the presidency could create a "permanent" realignment in American politics. In 1984, 59 percent of the nation's Alex P. Keatons voted for Reagan, an extraordinary percentage for a Republican (and just over his proportion of the popular vote ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 17, 2009 14:51
Obama Dines With Will, Kristol, Krauthammer, and Brooks
The hottest story at memeorandum today is a remake of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," with Barack Obama in the Sidney Poitier role and George Will as Spencer Tracy. Or something like that, anyway. Obama had supper at Will's Chevy Chase manse and Bill Kristol and David Brooks were on the guest list. As John Kennedy might have observed, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 14, 2009 10:12
Checks and Balances, RIP
George Will has a column in today's WaPo, "Making Congress Moot," that I've been making about the Bush administration's dubious use of TARP funds to bail out the auto companies. Congress's marginalization was brutally underscored when, after lawmakers did not authorize $14 billion for General Motors and Chrysler, the executive branch said, in effect: Congress's opinions are mildly interesting, so we ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 21, 2008 08:49
Obama Shafts Progressives, Campaign Loyalists
Two reports in the British press indicate that Barack Obama has shunted aside key campaign advisors and given the back of his hand to his most ardent supporters in the liberal wing of his party. Leonard Doyle of The Independent reports on the machinations necessary to get Hillary Clinton on board as Secretary of State. The advisers who helped trash the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 23, 2008 08:17
Will Blogs Kill Political Magazines?
Andrew Sullivan, who was editor-in-chief of The New Republic when he was 12 and now works at The Atlantic, notes that the websites of conservative opinion magazines National Review and The Weekly Standard get no more traffic than the top conservative blogs. So the competition for the opinion-reader is intense. And the financial edge of individual bloggers with relatively no overhead ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2008 12:13
Electoral College: A Defense
George Will argues that the 2008 election demonstrates precisely what the Framers sought to prevent with the Electoral College. In a Presidential contest replete with novelties, none was more significant than this: A candidate’s campaign—for his party’s nomination, then for the presidency—was itself virtually the entire validation of his candidacy. Voters have endorsed Barack Obama’s audacious—but not, they have said, presumptuous—proposition, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 11, 2008 14:31
Palin Last Nail in Republican Coffin?
Quite a few reports came out yesterday buttressing rumors that there were tensions between John McCain and Sarah Palin which caused a feud within the campaign team. It's only fitting, I suppose, since the selection of Palin has highlighted and exacerbated a growing fissure within the Republican Party itself. Fox New's Carl Cameron dished last night about rumors that Palin was ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 6, 2008 08:06
