Informed Speculation

Hillary got mixed reviews from Iowa activists, according to Dan Balz of the Washington Post: Widely admired and seen as strong and intelligent, Clinton nonetheless engenders substantial doubts among people who, by virtue of Iowa’s place at the front of the nominating calendar, could play an outsized role in selecting the next Democratic presidential nominee. “Competent [...]

McCain’s Iowa Coalitions Director Marlys Popma makes the case in an exclusive interview at Race 4 2008…

I present to you the great Frank Sinatra, performing Lerner and Loewe’s I’m Getting Married In The Morning, backed by the Count Basie band at Kiel Opera House in St. Louis, Mo., 06/20/65, at a benefit for the Teamster’s favorite charity (!) and introduced by one Johnny Carson (!!)…fantastic stuff…

…and by the way, please make it go away before I have to lead: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton called today for President Bush to “extricate our country” from Iraq by the time he leaves office in 2009, and she also said she knew enough about “evil and bad men” to protect the country from its [...]

It’s been far too long since we’ve had stories like this to celebrate: US and Iraqi troops have killed about 250 militants in fierce fighting around the holy city of Najaf, police say. The battle has been raging all day as US-backed Iraqi army units fight the unidentified group in orchards on the northern outskirts [...]

If Democrats seriously wanted to do anything about the culture of corruption, they’d start with the Senate Majority Leader: It’s hard to buy undeveloped land in booming northern Arizona for $166 an acre. But now-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid effectively did just that when a longtime friend decided to sell property owned by the employee [...]

It’s getting drowned out by events in Iraq, of course, but there is a deadly struggle going on in the Palestinian territory right now between the radical Hamas and the relatively moderate Fatah: Gunmen from the rival Hamas and Fatah movements battled in Gaza City for a third straight day on Sunday, firing mortars and [...]

Andrew Sullivan, the victim: Mickey Kaus, the victor…

The social conservative wing of the party is about to get their best candidate: Republican Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and a favorite of conservatives, will take the first step in a 2008 presidential bid, an official told The Associated Press on Friday. Huckabee, 51, plans to file papers on Monday establishing an exploratory [...]

God, the man just never shuts up: Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry slammed the foreign policy of the Bush administration on Saturday, saying it has caused the United States to become “a sort of international pariah.” The statement came as the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee responded to a question today at the World Economic Forum’s annual [...]

…as you can read about here… So, does this mean a lot of Obama-butt-kissing coverage from the supposedly independent ‘progressive’ outlets that depend on his largesse? As sure as night follows day…look for the long, passionate love letter to Obama from Duncan “Atrios” Black (aka The World’s Laziest Blogger) soon (of course, for Atrios, long [...]

I’ve been prodding him for a while, and have stated elsewhere that he had until the end of this month (not hard and fast, obviously, but I do feel he has to decide quickly).  Sam Roberts brings up the concerns in the New York Times today: Rudolph W. Giuliani, who developed a national reputation for [...]

…as Tom Maguire has been from the beginning on both PlameGate and now the Libby Trial, it’s impossible to single out a post for recommendation…so just buckle your seat belt, head over to Tom’s place, and catch up on everything you’ve missed…

I join Tom Bevan in his amazement at Kevin Drum’s assertion: [Just Say No] to whatever Kevin Drum was on when he wrote this about 2008: “…[T]he Republican field is remarkably weak this cycle. Compared to Democrats, who have half a dozen genuinely strong contenders, John McCain (news, bio, voting record) is really the only [...]

I love the idea of a UN resolution condemning Holocaust denial, not because the message is needed (thought it is), but because it provides a handy guide to nations that give quasi-official status to anti-Semitism.  The rogues gallery includes much of the Middle East and a good deal of leftist Latin America: The U.N. General [...]

…with, as always, apologies to James Taranto: Liz Taylor backs Hillary Clinton in Presidential Race  Talk about the answer to a question no one’s asking!… UPDATE 1:34 p.m.: From the “great minds think alike” department – Taranto actually did chose it as one of his bottom stories of the day!  I think that’s the second [...]

Lefty opponents will have a heyday with this one: President Bush, on a collision course with Congress over Iraq, said Friday “I’m the decision-maker” about sending more troops to the war. He challenged skeptical lawmakers not to prematurely condemn his plan. “I’ve picked the plan that I think is most likely to succeed,” Bush said [...]

Does this man really have a chance? His Republican colleagues regard him warily. The White House barely speaks to him. He is reviled by his party’s conservative base. Looks as though Sen. Chuck Hagel is on a roll. Both parties have their Iraq war contrarians. For the Democrats, it is Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of [...]

Those who are opposed to the surge are not going to like this: The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran’s influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to [...]

If you live in Austin (or if you read my blog) you might remember a little scare a couple of weeks back when some birds showed up dead and downtown was evacuated.  Well, it was no big deal, after all: The Great Austin Grackle Kill of ’07 had all sides engaged. Had the birds, which [...]