Mike Huckabee’s latest ad is many things, but subtle it ain’t: Clearly, this ad is targeted directly at social conservatives, who are Huckabee’s best shot at taking the nomination. (And, in all fairness, out of all of the Republican candidates running, Huckabee clearly deserves those votes, seeing as how he’s actually a social conservative.) Still, [...]

Joe Nye, the premier soft power theorist, defends the United Nations from its critics from the Right, arguing they don’t understand the value of international legitimacy. After the failure of the League of Nations in the 1930’s, the UN was designed to have the Security Council’s permanent members act as policemen to enforce collective security. [...]

In an incredibly hyperbolic piece with the over-the-top headline “The Coup at Home,” NYT columnist Frank Rich draws an equivalence between the coup in Pakistan and the incremental decline of freedom in the United States in the name of counter-terrorism. The gist of the piece: The Pakistan mess, as The New York Times editorial page [...]

A little more than six years into the U.S.-NATO mission in Afghanistan, we have reached a critical juncture, Caroline Wadhams and Lawrence J. Korb argue in a new report, “The Forgotten Front.” The executive summary highlights five steps: 1. Build Afghan Government Capacity The Afghan government is unable to provide rule of law and services [...]

John Murtha gets more pork for his district than any other Representative. If John Murtha were a businessman, he’d be the biggest employer in this town. The powerful U.S. congressman has used his clout on Capitol Hill to create thousands of jobs and steer billions of dollars in federal spending to help his hometown in [...]

Tennessee revenuers are waiting at the borders to arrest people with cigarettes. Starting [Thursday], state Department of Revenue agents will begin stopping Tennessee motorists spotted buying large quantities of cigarettes in border states, then charging them with a crime and, in some cases, seizing their cars. Critics say the new “cigarette surveillance program” amounts to [...]

Bill O’Reilly made some, um, interesting comments on his radio show Wednesday that have sparked some controversy in the blogosphere after being highlighted by Media Matters. Here, in context, is what he said. All emphases from the Media Matters transcript: O”REILLY: Now, how do we get to this point? Black people in this country understand [...]

Hillary Clinton will give back $850,000 in bundled funds raised, apparently illegally, by Norman Hsu. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign said Monday it will return $850,000 in donations raised by Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, who is under federal investigation for allegedly violating election laws. Clinton, D-N.Y., previously had planned only to give to charity [...]

A blue ribbon commission chaired by former Supreme Allied Commander James Jones* has concluded that the Iraqi national police are so corrupt that they should be disbanded and recreated from scratch and that the Iraqi army is still more than a year away from being able to operate independently. Karen DeYoung‘s report on A1 of [...]

Foreign Affairs is giving each of the major 2008 presidential candidates space to write a manifesto of their views on international relations. Rudy Giuliani has weighed in with “Toward a Realistic Peace.” [Also at RCP.] It is not particularly realistic — let alone Realist — and certainly does not contemplate peace. Highlights: “We have responded [...]

Bill Richardson sets forth his foreign policy vision in a piece called “New Realism: Crafting a US Foreign Policy for a New Century” published in the Harvard International Review. The beginning is standard boilerplate, with plenty of sops to the base thrown in: US foreign policymakers face novel challenges in the 21st century. Jihadists and [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight at 7 Eastern. Alex Knapp and Dave Schuler will co-host with me. We’ll be talking about Fred Thompson’s campaign woes, the Obama-Clinton foreign policy showdown, the Pat Tillman investigation, and more. We’ll also be taking your calls at (646) 716-7030. [...]

Corruption scandals involving two-thirds of Alaska’s congressional delegation make the GOP’s bid to reclaim the majority in 2008 even more unlikely. Two Republicans, Sen. Ted Stevens and at-large Rep. Don Young, have dominated Alaska politics for nearly four decades. The idea that either would face electoral difficulties in 2008 seemed inconceivable — until the two [...]

When Democrats were running against the “culture of corruption” that plagued the Republican-led Congress last fall, they often cited the “revolving door” through which Congressmen and their staffs left for lucrative jobs as lobbyists and lobbyists came to Capitol Hill to help write legislation. Shockingly, the Democratic takeover of Congress has not ended the influence [...]

David Broder argues that, despite “out of touch politicians” being crowd pleasing fodder for stump speeches, modern communications have actually made decision makers too responsive to a poorly informed, emotional public’s will. From Aristotle to Edmund Burke, philosophers have written of the healthy tension that normally exists between the understanding and strategies of leaders and [...]

I was a bit (pleasantly) surprised to see this article by Kurt Loder. Loder takes a critical look at Moore’s latest film, ‘Sicko’ and finds it lacking in terms of facts. Michael Moore may see himself as working in the tradition of such crusading muckrakers of the last century as Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell and [...]

A NYT editorial calls for an investigation into the successful prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman. It is extremely disturbing that Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, was hauled off to jail this week. There is reason to believe his prosecution may have been a political hit, intended to take out the state’s [...]

Foreign Policy has published the latest edition of The Failed States Index 2007. It is not a cause for celebration: Few encouraging signs emerged in 2006 to suggest the world is on a path to greater peace and stability. The year began with violent protests that erupted from Indonesia to Nigeria over the publication of [...]

The editors at the Washington Examiner wonder how it is that politicians who come to office with little money leave it as millionaires. They intimate that it’s good old fashioned bribery, although the examples they give are far afield and rather inconclusive. They rightly note that Bill and Hillary Clinton’s “worries about paying off a [...]

I had a 20-minute conversation this morning with COL Michael Everett, Chief of the Political Division of the Multi-National Force – Iraq, who was calling from Baghdad. He was remarkably candid about the challenges faced while expressing optimism that things can be turned around given the time and commitment. We first talked about this morning’s [...]

Mixed news this morning on the fight against al Qaeda in Iraq. John Burns and Alissa Rubin report that arming relatively friendly Sunni groups to fight the terrorists is showing promise. American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province west of Baghdad and have held talks with Sunni groups in at [...]

Today’s Washington Examiner editorial argues that the convictions of Bob Ney and Randy Cunningham and the criminal indictment of William Jefferson may well be just the tip of an iceberg of corruption in Congress. While federal prosecutors don’t claim Jefferson used earmarks in his solicitations, let it be noted that the same disdain for the [...]

Following up on Steven Taylor’s post from this morning, the International Herald Tribune and others are reporting that former U.S. trade negotiator and deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick will replace Paul Wolfowitz as the president of the World Bank. Zoellick appears to be highly qualified for the position, and his apparent support from the [...]

Newt Gingrich is disgusted with the pathetic, bizarre, and shallow manner in which the current crop of Republican candidates are conducting the campaign. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says the 2008 White House candidates are “demeaning the presidency” by focusing on the race rather than ideas. “We have shrunk our political process to this pathetic [...]

Paul Wolfowitz’s tenure as president of the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (better known as the World Bank) appears about to end after a scandal over preferential treatment of his girlfriend. The bank’s staff association and the Financial Times are calling for his resignation, which I suspect will coon be forthcoming. AP’s Jeannine Aversa [...]

Last Friday, WaPo’s Dana Milbank, Mystery Pollster Mark Blumenthal, and American Association for Public Opinion Research president-elect Nancy Mathiowetz (cited by Blumenthal) took issue with a John Zogby survey commissioned by Judicial Watch using loaded questions in a poll about Hillary Clinton: 304. Some people believe that the Bill Clinton administration was corrupt. Whether or [...]

Some of the liberal bloggers that conservatives actually read, notably Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein guest poster Brian Beutler, are touting a study by University of Minnesota communications profs Donald C. Shields and John F. Cragan which finds that from the start of the Bush Administration in January 2001 through December 2006, “the offices of [...]

Michael Kinsley praises a David Brooks column that’s behind the NYT subscription firewall, for nailing a distinction that many have failed to make in the controversy over the administration’s firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. Brooks’s distinction is between two different conceptions of the word “political.” Or rather, like most nice clear distinctions, there actually is [...]

WaPo’s Dan Eggen reports suspicious circumstances in the firing of former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam: The U.S. attorney in San Diego notified the Justice Department of search warrants in a Republican bribery scandal last May 10, one day before the attorney general’s chief of staff warned the White House of a “real problem” with her, [...]

Lee Hamilton and Ed Meese have told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the training of Iraq’s police and judges has been mishandled. The U.S. erred by first assigning the task of shaping the judicial system in a largely lawless country to the State Department and private contractors who “did not have the expertise or the [...]

TNR has a cover story by Damon Linker which takes a detailed look at Mormonism and how that may affect the candidacy of Mitt Romney for president. Within days of stepping down as governor of Massachusetts on January 4, Mitt Romney is expected to announce his candidacy for president. Shortly after that, Romney will almost [...]

The Justice Department has teamed with police departments from around the country to create the OneDOJ database. People are concerned about the privacy implications. The Justice Department is building a massive database that allows state and local police officers around the country to search millions of case files from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and [...]

Anthony Cordesman argues that the trends are going the wrong way in Afghanistan but that we can still win there if we act fast. The challenges in Afghanistan, however, are very different from those in Iraq. Popular support for the United States and NATO teams has been strong and can be rebuilt. The teams have [...]

Gene Healy has an excellent article about historians’ fascination with activist Presidents. Whether they’re liberal or conservative, presidential scholars seem to prefer militant presidents who stretch against constitutional bounds — or break them. [...] But is that the right lesson to draw? Is there something wrong with limited-power republican presidents? Or does the fault lie [...]

Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is sponsoring legislation that would keep individual congressional staff salaries private. Wicker introduced legislation last week that would prevent the names of House staffers from being listed in the public reports on chamber disbursements. His bill is a direct response to such salary data finding its way onto the Internet, Wicker [...]

Aside from the generic reservations about blue ribbon panels I’ve expressed here and elsewhere over the last several days, I’m working my way through the full text of the Iraq Study Group Report [PDF, HTML] in preparation for a conference call this afternoon with commission members Alan Simpson and William Perry. Below the fold are [...]

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has been seriously exploring an run for the presidency as a third party candidate. A long cover feature in New York Magazine outlines a “withering indictment of the political class, Democrats and Republicans alike, slamming its members for pandering, myopia, and borderline corruption” that author John Heilemann correctly notes [...]

Nancy Pelosi has told Alcee Hastings that he will not be chair of the House Intelligence Committee in the new Congress and he has dropped his bid for the office. Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, impeached as a federal judge in 1989 on corruption charges, dropped his bid under pressure on Tuesday to chair [...]

Some may not be aware of this but there is a rather tragic story unfolding in Atlanta Georgia. An 88 year old woman was shot in what looks like (at best) a botched no-knock raid (link to original story) Here are the facts that I am aware of. An elderly woman, Kathryn Johnston, lived alone [...]

Weekend Caption Jam Linkfest. . . and now also Saturday Traffic Jam for those who wish to link. Rodney is taking the pledge. Wizbang knows corruption when he sees it. The Right Place is in need of a new sidekick. Willisms is suffering from de-feet. The Man is having a pe-lousy day. Bullwinkle is going [...]

Wal-Mart is outing former Senator John Edwards for trying to cut in line to get a PlayStation3 while continuing to campaign against the retail giant. Yesterday, a staff person for former Sen. Edwards contacted a Wal-Mart electronics manager in Raleigh, North Carolina to obtain a Sony PlayStation3 on behalf of the Senator’s family. Later that [...]

John Murtha is charging his Democratic critics of Swift Boat tactics for pointing out multiple ethical questions surrounding his candidacy for House Majority Leader. Rep. John Murtha, the anti-war congressman who is the likely new House speaker’s pick for majority leader, fended off what he called “swift boat-style attacks” on his ethics record Tuesday. [...] [...]

Via WaPo: In Backing Murtha, Pelosi Draws Fire Murtha, a longtime senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, has battled accusations over the years that he has traded federal spending for campaign contributions, that he has abused his post as ranking party member on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, and that he has stood in the [...]

Kevin Drum analyzes the exit polls from 2004 and 2006 and finds that “It turns out that the big lesson is that there’s no big lesson.” Basically, Democrats did about 5 percentage points better than last go-round overall and between 2-7 percent better with all regional and social cohorts except a few: Group Gain No [...]

Betsy Newmark believes Tuesday’s results “contradicted several points of conventional wisdom about what takes place in elections.” 1. Incumbents have an almost insurmountable advantage and their defeat is a rare, special event. This is still manifestly true. The stars were spectacularly aligned for a whuppin’ of the Republicans. Having majorities in both Houses of Congress [...]

An interesting article in the Economist (via Instapundit) suggests that this was indeed the case. Libertarians are a generally Republican-leaning constituency, but over the last few years, their discontent has grown plain. It isn’t just the war, which some libertarians supported, but the corruption and insider dealing, and particularly the massive expansion of spending. Mr [...]

I’ve finally managed to get set up at the CNN election party on a borrowed laptop (long story). Lots of televisions and other bloggers, although the cacophony of sound from the latter is drowning out the audio from the former. No closed captioning as of yet for the suddenly hearing impaired. I’ll be posting updates [...]

Adam Nagourney argues that expectations are so high for the Democrats that anything short of overwhelming victory will look like failure. In most midterm elections, an out-of-power party picking up, say, 14 seats in the House and five seats in the Senate could call it a pretty good night. But for Democrats in 2006, that [...]

Sunday’s Washington Post rounds up the evidence supporting a Democratic takeover of both chambers of Congress: Two days before a bitterly fought midterm election, Democrats have moved into position to recapture the House and have laid siege to the Senate, setting the stage for a dramatic recasting of the power structure in Washington for President [...]