Do Democrats Want to Lose the War on Terror?

Retired fighter Jock Robert "Buzz" Patterson has made a name for himself by churning out books about how Democrats hate America and want us to be weak. His first two efforts, Dereliction of Duty: How Bill Clinton Compromised America's National Security and Reckless Disregard: How Liberal Democrats Undercut Our Military, Endanger Our Soldiers, and Jeopardize Our Security were New ...

More Directions on Iraq

Back in December of last year I hosted something I referred to as a “blog colloquium”, “Directions on Iraq”. At that time I attempted to recruit contributors who could present practical alternatives other than slogging through for dealing with the situation in Iraq. I received several dozen polite refusals (and a good number of tacit refusals as well), ...

Branding The Candidates

Patrick Ottenhoff reports that "NationalJournal.com recently emailed wordsmiths Frank Luntz, a Republican, and Andrei Cherny, a Democrat, a series of short questions on messaging." The results are behind a subscription wall, but here's a preview: I'm not sure the "best describes" list tells us much about the candidates as much as how Luntz and Cherny see them. Still, it's ...

Did General Petraeus Snub Congressional Democrats?

Redstate's "RS Insider" notes a kerfuffle brewing among the Netroots: Think Progress, the Booman Tribune, the Carpetbagger Report and a herd of Democratic bloggers are criticizing General Petraeus for allegedly having a partisan meeting for Republicans. One blogger even suggests General Petraeus should be “relieved of his command”. He asserts, linking to an old post of his own, that Democrats ...

Clinton Would Keep Troops in Iraq if Elected

Hillary Clinton says she will keep troops in Iraq indefinitely if elected president, albeit with a much more restricted mission. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton foresees a “remaining military as well as political mission” in Iraq, and says that if elected president, she would keep a reduced but significant military force there to fight Al Qaeda, deter Iranian aggression, protect the Kurds ...

Journalist Makes News, Apologizes

Politico editor-in-chief John Harris takes pride in having coined the phrase "slow-bleed" to describe John Murtha's plan for forcing the Bush administration out of Iraq while punching up the story in which that phrase debuted. At the same time, he expresses remorse at having inadvertently become part of the story. It is Murtha's job to defend his own policies. ...

Jeb Bush as a Last Minute Candidate?

The American Spectator's Quin Hillyer thinks there's a strong possibility that Jeb Bush, who has repeatedly said he isn't running, could emerge as a "white knight" candidate and carry off the 2008 Republican nomination at the last minute. How so? Hillyer believes that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the front-loaded primary system could mean a messy, drawn out contest. [I]n ...

Caption Contest Winners

The Spam King and I Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over. (AP Photo/Sang Tan) The Winners: First: DaveD - The 2008 federal budget is sent to the White House for the President's signature Second: McGehee - "But Sen. Clinton, your husband was happy to accept campaign contributions from us!" Third: FormerHostage - Brittany Spears suffers a wardrobe malfunction at the ...

Jack Murtha New Commander-in-Chief?

Dale Franks explains why Congressman Jack Murtha, despite his powerful position as chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, is not, as Bob Novak suggests, "moving close to command over U.S. policy on Iraq." Not by a long shot.

Pentagon Rebuffs Pelosi Plane Upgrade Request

The Defense Department has denied Speaker Pelosi's request to have a C-32 at her disposal and laid down some stringent guidelines for the use of a smaller plane, ABC's Jake Tapper reports. The source said that Pentagon officials and the Bush administration have instead offered Pelosi use of the same plane made available to former Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.: a C-20, ...