Roundup: Media's Take

Media Matters: Bill Clinton opposed the Iraq War from the start

The November 28 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe featured a discussion of former President Bill Clinton's November 27 comment that he"opposed [the war in] Iraq from the beginning," which contributor Willie Geist called"revisionist history." Similarly, in a November 28"On Deadline"

Steve Benen: Rove puts on his revisionist-historian hat

[My name is Steve Benen. I’m a freelance writer, researcher, and political consultant, working in politics in one capacity or another for about 10 years. My articles and op-eds have appeared in a variety of publications, including Washington Monthly, The American Prospect, The Gadflyer, and Church & State.] One of the more painful political moments of Bush’s presidency came in the immediate run up to the 2002 elections. Bush was desperate to pin Dems down in support of an Iraqi-invas

Dick Morris: Mike Huckabee is a fiscal conservative

As Mike Huckabee rises in the polls, an inevitable process of vetting him for conservative credentials is under way in which people who know nothing of Arkansas or of the circumstances of his governorship weigh in knowingly about his record. As his political consultant in the ea rly ’90s and one who has been following Arkansas politics for 30 years, let me clue you in: Mike Huckabee is a fiscal conservative. A recent column by Bob Novak excoriated Huckabee for a “47 percent increase

Dick Morris: Hillary will go negative now

As her once-formidable lead in national polls dwindles and Barack Obama moves ahead of her in the all-important Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton will likely intensify her negative campaign against her rivals. The Clintons' political MO has always had a good dose of negative campaigning, especially when the going gets rough. There's no reason to assume that they will alter their game plan now.... How will they do it? Their favored method of getting out

Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz: How the World Helped Pakistan Build Its Bomb

[Douglas Frantz, the former managing editor of the Los Angeles Times and a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, is a senior writer at Conde Nast Portfolio. Catherine Collins, a former Chicago Tribune reporter, is now a Washington-based writer. They are co-authors of The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets… and How We Could Have Stopped Him (Twelve, 2007).] Glo

Paul Rogat: Hillary Clinton and the Politics of Disappointment

[Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association. His previous books include Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. See www.paulloeb.org To receive his articles directly email sympa@lists.onenw.org with the subject line: subscribe

Congressman Ike Skelton: Mind the Gap: Post-Iraq Civil Military Relations in America

Congressman Ike Skelton (D-Mo) is Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He is a graduate of Wentworth Military Academy and the University of Missouri at Columbia, where he received A.B. and L.L.B. degrees. He gave this keynote address at the conference, “Mind the Gap: Post-Iraq Civil Military Relations in America, sponsored by the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the Reserve Officers Association, held October 15, 2007, in Washington, D.C. Videotapes, a conference repo

Vincent Rossmeier: The Republicans who would've impeached Bush?

[Vincent Rossmeier is a graduate student in the Cultural Reporting and Criticism Program in New York University's Journalism School, and a research assistant for Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald.] During the past six years, leading Republicans in Congress have prioritized allegiance to a Republican president above all other governmental and constitutional concerns. But there was a time when U.S. lawmakers, regardless of party affiliation, actually voted the way of their conscience.

Media Matters: California would still be mostly ignored by presidential candidates even if electoral votes were awarded by district

Summary: Reporting on a Republican-backed California ballot initiative that would award the state's electoral votes by congressional district, NPR correspondent Ina Jaffe aired an audio clip of Republican consultant Dave Gilliard, who asserted:"We want [presidential candidates] to come out here and actually campaign throughout California. We want them to go to the Central Valley, and Inland Empire, and the North Coast, and talk to Californians about what's important to

Robert McHenry: Political Labels ... Are You a Right-Wing &#!@% or a Left-Wing &#!@%?

[Robert McHenry is a former editor-in-chief of Encyclopaedia Britannica and author of How to Know.] As part of Britannica Blog’s continuing service to those readers who insist on declining to ignore the presidential campaign, herewith a guide to some basic political nomenclature. Use at your own risk. Charles de Gaulle is supposed to have asked the rhetorical question “How can you govern a country that has 246 [or, in other versions, 265, or 300, or 365] kinds of cheese

Mark Matthews: The troubled search for peace in the Middle East

[Mark Matthews, former diplomatic and Middle East correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, is the author of "Lost Years: Bush, Sharon and Failure in the Middle East."] President Bush's father liked to quote the Woody Allen line that 90 percent of life is just showing up. In fact, George H.W. Bush's signal achievement in Middle East diplomacy came from persuading leaders and representatives from Israel and much of the Arab world to show up for a peace conference in Madrid at th

Matt Carr: The parallels between Anarchism and al-Qaeda today

[Matt Carr is an author and journalist. His book The Infernal Machine: a History of Terrorism from the Assassination of Tsar Alexander II to Al-Qaeda is published by The New Press.] It has become something of a cliché to claim that the world has changed irrevocably in response to the unique and deadly threat of al-Qaeda. But if the current crisis appears unprecedented, its essential parameters are not entirely new. The spectre of violent nihilists intent on the destruction of civili

Mark Halperin: How "What It Takes" Took Me Off Course

[Mark Halperin, editor at large and senior political analyst for Time magazine, is the author of “The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President.”] MORE than any other book, Richard Ben Cramer’s “What It Takes,” about the 1988 battle for the White House, influenced the way I cover campaigns. I’m not alone. The book’s thesis — that prospective presidents are best evaluated by their ability to survive the grueling quadrennial coast-to-coast test of endurance required t

WSJ Editorial: Is the Second Amendment an individual, or collective, right?

In recent decades, the Supreme Court has discovered any number of new rights not in the explicit text of the Constitution. Now it has the opportunity to validate a right that resides in plain sight--"the right of the people to keep and bear arms" in the Second Amendment. This week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of District of Columbia v. Heller. In March, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declared unconstitutional the District's near-total ban on handgu

Robert Lipsyte: Why Bowl Games Are the Real Final Exams

[Robert Lipsyte, Jock Culture correspondent for Tomdispatch, is author most recently of the Young Adult stock car racing novel, Yellow Flag. His website is Robertlipsyte.com.] 1. Roar, Lions! "I don't think of intercollegiate sports as something extracurricular." -- Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University. Columbia football was a comforting joke when I was there in the 1950s. We thought losing teams meant we had our priorities straight.

John Brown: The Bush Administration Conquers Washington

[John Brown, a former Foreign Service officer who resigned from the State Department over the planned war in Iraq, compiles a near-daily Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, available free by requesting it at johnhbrown30@hotmail.com.] As I write, on a cloudy Washington afternoon, my"Bush's Last Day Countdown Keychain" tells me there are 433 days, 11

Mike Cox: Second Amendment Showdown

[Mr. Cox is the attorney general of Michigan.] The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case that will affect millions of Americans and could also have an impact on the 2008 elections. That case, Parker v. D.C., should settle the decades-old argument whether the right "to keep and bear arms" of the Constitution's Second Amendment is an individual right--that all Americans enjoy--or only a collective right that states may regulate freely. Legal, historical and even empiric

Peggy Noonan: We're making too much of politicians' religious faith

I was talking with an old friend, a longtime Democrat, and she asked if I knew what religion a certain presidential candidate was. I replied that I didn't know and hoped I'd never find out. We started to laugh, and she nodded. I didn't mean it and yet I meant it, for we have come to an odd pass regarding candidates and their faith. It's not as if faith is unimportant, it's always important. But we are asking our political figures--mere flawed politicians--to put forward and talk abo

Jim Castagnera: The Ancient Order of Hibernians: From the Molly Maguires to Malachy McAllister

[Jim Castagnera, formerly of Jim Thorpe, is the Associate Provost/Associate Counsel at Rider University. His new novel, Ned McAdoo and the Molly Maguires,” is available at www.lulu.com.]       “What do you know about the AOH?” I asked my pal Ned McAdoo during one of our regular Friday lunches, this one appropriately enough at Maggie O’Neil’s Pub in the Pilgrim Gardens Shopping Center in Drexel Hill. 

Paul Krugman: Republicans and Race

Over the past few weeks there have been a number of commentaries about Ronald Reagan’s legacy, specifically about whether he exploited the white backlash against the civil rights movement. The controversy unfortunately obscures the larger point, which should be undeniable: the central role of this backlash in the rise of the modern conservative movement. The centrality of race — and, in particular, of the switch of Southern whites from overwhelming support of Democrats