Roundup: Media's Take

Andrew Leonard: Too Much Is Being Made of How Conservative the New Southern Conservative Democrats Are

Florida Gator fans, among which proud group I count myself, have always been a little suspicious of Heath Shuler, the former quarterback for the University of Tennessee Volunteers, a hated Florida rival. But if one was to believe the talking heads from Tuesday night's election coverage, good old-fashioned liberals should be even more wary of the newly elected Democratic House representative from North Carolina. That's because, as was repeated ad infinitum by the likes of Candy Crowley and

Jason Leopold: Gates Has History of Manipulating Intelligence

[Jason Leopold is a former Los Angeles bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswire. He has written over 2,000 stories on the California energy crisis and received the Dow Jones Journalist of the Year Award in 2001 for his coverage on the issue as well as a Project Censored award in 2004. Leopold also reported extensively on Enron's downfall and was the first journalist to land an interview with former Enron president Jeffrey Skilling following Enron's bankruptcy filing in December 2001. Leopold has appe

John Ellis: All that negative advertising is having an effect on our politics

[Mr. Ellis, a former columnist for the Boston Globe, is a partner in Sand Hill Partners, a venture-capital firm.] Glad it's over? You're not the only one. Voters in six states with closely contested U.S. Senate races were recently asked by the Gallup Organization their opinion of the political advertising they'd seen this year. The vast majority, in every state surveyed, described it as either "somewhat negative," "very negative" or "extremely negative."

Christopher Hitchens: What Algeria’s past can—and can’t—tell us about the present day

It was arguably fair, when André Maurois finished his Histoire de la France, to permit him a small allowance of la gloire and to agree with his conclusion that “The history of France, a permanent miracle, has the singular privilege of impassioning the peoples of the earth to the point where they all take part in French quarrels.” And it was certainly true, when Alistair Horne began his long study of the Algerian war (or the Algerian revolution), that no sentient person could fail to share his co

Alan Dershowitz: Was Saddam's Trial Fair?

The Nuremberg trials it is not. But then again, Saddam Hussein is no Hitler or Goering. He was a regional tyrant whose invasion of Kuwait was turned back by the U.S., whose effort to develop nuclear weapons was thwarted by Israel, and whose war with Iran proved mutually destructive. He did succeed in murdering, torturing and terrorizing thousands of his own people, and for one small part of that -- the murder of 148 men and boys in the town of Dujail -- he was placed on trial, convicted of crime

Tim Wise: Affirmative Action for Whites

[Tim Wise is an antiracist activist.] Ask a fish what water is and you'll get no answer. Even if fish were capable of speech, they would likely have no explanation for the element they swim in every minute of every day of their lives. Water simply is. Fish take it for granted. So too with this thing we hear so much about,"racial preference." While many whites seem to think the notion originated with affirmative action programs, intended to expand opportunities for histo

Jacob Laksin: Saddam gets what he deserves

[Jacob Laksin is a senior editor for FrontPage Magazine.] Last December, in the course of one of his inveterate harangues to the Iraqi tribunal adjudicating his fate, Saddam Hussein haughtily demanded, “Why don't you just execute us?” Twelve months, much agonizing deliberation, and countless courtroom theatrics later, the toppled tyrant may finally get his wish. The same tribunal whose authority he defied at every turn yesterday sentenced Saddam and his co-defendants -- Barza

Norman Solomon: Saddam’s Unindicted Co-Conspirator: Donald Rumsfeld

[Norman Solomon’s latest book, “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death,” is out in paperback. For information, go to: www.warmadeeasy.com] Saddam Hussein has received a death sentence for crimes he committed more than a year before Donald Rumsfeld shook his hand in Baghdad. Let’s reach back into history and extract these facts: * On Dec. 20, 1983, the Washington Post reported that Rumsfeld “visited Iraq in what U.S. officials said was an attem

Jack Beatty: War and the American Voter

In the five wartime congressional elections since 1860, the"war party" has always taken a shellacking. Discussing plans for the Allied invasion of North Africa, President Franklin D. Roosevelt put his hands together as if in prayer and pleaded with Army chief of staff George C. Marshall,"Please make it before the election." Alas for the Democratic party, as David M. Kennedy writes in Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945,"On Election Day, November 3,

Mark Thoma: How Much Do Election Shakeups Affect the National Economy?

[Mr. Thoma is associate professor of economics at the University of Oregon and an economics blogger.] In the last 30 years, a considerable amount of work has been devoted to an area of economics known as "political business cycles." Researchers in this area look at the relationship between electoral outcomes -- the outcome of elections and the economic policies of the party in power -- and the subsequent performance of the economy. Broadly stated, there are tw

Ryan Lizza: James Baker Returns

He has met with every significant figure in the Iraqi government and even with members of anti-occupation militias. He has quietly reached out to representatives from both Syria and Iran. He has begun discussions with Jordan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to lay the groundwork for internationalizing the Iraq crisis. According to The New York Times, he meets regularly with President Bush. It's widely expected that, after the election, he will offer the definitive blueprint for how to move forward on I

Sidney Blumenthal: It's Rove's midterm to lose

Karl Rove remains supremely confident, assuring fretful party leaders that Congress will continue to be under their control despite the stream of new polls revealing previously impregnable Republican incumbents suddenly vulnerable. "I believe Karl Rove," President Bush's chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, proclaimed in a faith-based confessional. While hardly any Republican candidates are running on the Bush record, many are airing TV commercials separating themselves from Bush, and few w

David Brooks: Iraq's always been a violent place

Policy makers are again considering fundamental changes in our Iraq policy, but as they do I hope they read Elie Kedourie’s essay, “The Kingdom of Iraq: A Retrospect.” Kedourie, a Baghdad-born Jew, published the essay in 1970. It’s a history of the regime the British helped establish over 80 years ago, but it captures an idea that is truer now than ever: Disorder is endemic to Iraq. Today’s crisis is not three years old. It’s worse now, but the crisis is perpetual. This is a bomb of

Anne Applebaum: What have we learned from the Hungarian revolt of 1956?

... as the anniversary [of the Hungarian Revolt of 1956] moves into its second week, I'd like to ask what, if anything, we in the West have learned since 1956. As many have observed, the U.S. role in the Hungarian Revolution was hardly admirable. Although U.S. governments had spent much of the previous decade encouraging Hungary and other Soviet satellite states to rebel, no one was prepared for the real thing. As late as June 1956 a clueless CIA (sound familiar?) published an internal document

Robert J. Samuelson: Public Opinion and Muddled Policies (what if we're to blame?)

"Towering over Presidents and [Congress] . . . public opinion stands out, in the United States, as the great source of power, the master of servants who tremble before it." -- James Bryce, "The American Commonwealth," 1888 The problem of American democracy is (of course) democracy. We are on the cusp of an election that commentators have already imbued with vast significance if Democrats recapture part or all of Congress -- or if they don't. But here

Michael Barone: Democrats may take Congress, but will it matter in the long run?

[Mr. Barone is a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report and coauthor of"The Almanac of American Politics" (National Journal Group).] As Democrats begin, in George W. Bush's words, "measuring the drapes" in the offices of the House speaker and Senate majority leader, it's worth looking back on the history of sixth-year-of-the-presidency off-year elections. Have big gains for the out party been a harbinger of future voting patterns? And have opposition victories in those electio

Noah Feldman: Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age

[Noah Feldman, a contributing writer, is a law professor at New York University and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.] For nearly 50 years, worries about a nuclear Middle East centered on Israel. Arab leaders resented the fact that Israel was the only atomic power in the region, a resentment heightened by America’s tacit approval of the situation. But they were also pretty certain that Israel (which has never explicitly acknowledged having nuclear weapons) would no

Patrick Cockburn: Iraq ... 'The Greatest Strategic Disaster in American History'

[Patrick Cockburn is a reporter for the The Independent and is author of, most recently, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Verso, 2006).] The following is an excerpt from Patrick Cockburn's new book, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Verso, 2006). It has been the strangest war. It had hardly begun in 2003 when President George W. Bush announced on May 1 that it was over: the American mission had been accomplished. Months passed before Washington and

Gabor Steingart: America's Middle Class Has Become Globalization's Loser

[Gabor Steingart, 44, heads DER SPIEGEL's Berlin office. His last book was titled "Germany: The Decline of a Superstar" and, like "World War for Prosperity," was a bestseller in Germany. Steingart was chosen as "The Economic Writer of the Year" in 2004.] At the beginning of the 21st century, the United States is still a superpower. But it's a superpower facing competition from beyond its borders as well as internal difficulties. Its lower and middle cla

Charles Krauthammer: Losing in '08 will put Obama on a path to the presidency

... The reasons for running are clear. First, at a time of ideological weariness, he has the persona: an affecting personal history, fine intelligence, remarkable articulateness and refreshing charm. Second, this is a uniquely open race. Not since 1952 has there been a presidential election with no incumbent president or vice president running. Right now there is no serious challenger to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. The Democrats' quadrennial great whi