(Joe posted earlier today on Kristol’s departure from the Times. Here’s my take, focusing more on his new gig at the Post.) The New York Times, like Time before it, has dumped neocon extraordinaire Bill Kristol following a relatively brief op-ed tenure writing what Steve Benen rightly calls “misguided, predictable, and dull columns.” (Check out Mustang Bobby’s great post from this morning on the occasion of Kristol’s last Times column.) But it looks like we’ll...

Here’s what (still) Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich told the AP a couple of days ago: Dec. 9 to my family, to us, to me, is what Pearl Harbor Day was to the United States. It was a complete surprise, completely unexpected. And just like the United States prevailed in that, we’ll prevail in this. (TNR’s Isaac Chotiner calls it the Quote of the Century. At the very least, it’s our Quote of the Day.) I don’t know about you, but I’m really looking forward to the...

I quote Chait, who quotes Wilkinson: In today’s Washington Post, conservative judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III appeals for an ideological truce in appointments that just happens to coincide with the exact moment Democrats have retaken the nominating power: So the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is set for a takeover. Popular commentary has it that the court, on which I serve, is a fortress or bastion or citadel of conservatism. Discussion of coming changes suggests more the fruits of...

It was supposed to be Caroline Kennedy, or so it was thought, given how hard she was campaigning for the job, and given her last name, but she suddenly withdrew from contention on Wednesday, reports conflicting, and since then it has been all about the spin. The reason was Uncle Ted’s health, but that wasn’t really a valid reason, given that Uncle Ted has been unwell for some time and that Caroline isn’t exactly his only caregiver (and it’s an excuse that has apparently aroused...

It’s over, at long last. Eight years of a disastrous presidency, one of the worst in history, an embarrassment to the United States, a country I love, with so much harm done both at home and abroad. I’ve thought about writing a post about it all, some sort of summation, but what more is there to say? What more can I add to what others have written? What more can I add to what I have written here, at my place, and elsewhere during my nearly four years as a blogger? It feels like the Bush...

I really don’t think the GOP could do much better than Blackwell, currently a candidate for the chairmanship of the RNC. As I put it last week, there may actually be no worthier leader for the Republicans. He’s just about perfect for them, because he is what they are — to the max. For one, we know he’ll do just about anything to win (see Ohio, circa 2004). For two, he’s proven himself to be an unabashed ignoramus — not least when it comes to the right’s #1...

You heard about his dinner with conservatives and his meeting with “liberals”*, but, just as much, one of the more intriguing meetings Obama has had recently was with Lee Hamilton and a group of foreign policy experts, mostly on the Middle East and South Asia, who work outside “the presidential bubble that is rapidly closing around him,” as Laura Rozen put it. It is, needless to say, astonishingly difficult for a president to avoid being trapped in the bubble, but it does...

So Obama, it is being reported, intends to do away with the military’s (and Clinton’s) ridiculous “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, one that allows gays to serve in the military only if they remain in the closet and everyone else remains in the dark. When asked about it directly, soon-to-be Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gave a direct answer: “Yes,” meaning, it will be be gotten rid of. Good enough, right? Well, not for Fox News, which, in reporting the...

So said President Bush in 2005 (when asked about reports of secret CIA prisons). And yet, in truth, the U.S. does torture. So says Susan Crawford, the convening authority of the Guantanamo military commissions, a Gates appointee and Bush administration official: The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks,...

Bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie annoy me, she told Esquire, in yet another of her post-election blame-everyone-else-but-me sessions. It is Andrew Sullivan who has been all over the is-she-really-Trig’s-mom story — like the rest of us, he just wants the truth, and Palin has been nothing if not sketchy about the whole affair (hence the lingering suspicions) — but I for one, if I may defend myself, am not an anonymous blogger (that’s my real name up there) and do...

Well, you knew this was coming. As the Times puts it, “the banks need more taxpayer money,” “a lot more money.” Isn’t this partly why so many of us were against the bailout, at least in principle, from the start? It wasn’t just that it’s a bailout of Wall Street instead of Main Street, which is to say, a bailout of the stinking rich, of those who are at the very core of the financial meltdown and who are very much to blame for it, it was that it was never...

I still think Senate Democrats should have said no to Burris. He wasn’t elected. Surely there should be room to block questionable appointees (by soon-to-be impeached governors looking to stick it to anyone and everyone). Could there not have been a special election? Still, now that it’s almost over — that is, now that Burris is set to be sworn in — I suppose I’m with Bowers: Hard to imagine that there will be any objections from Republicans. If anything, they will salivate...

Bush held his final press conference yesterday and was, according to the easygoing NYT, “by turns impassioned and defiant, reflective and light-hearted.” Surely, though, few people were paying attention to this last gasp of a failure of a president, so eager are so many to see him go, with Obama the de facto president ahead of his inauguration, set to undo so much of the failure of his predecessor. But Bush was indeed defiant, or rather self-defensive. He may have “confessed a litany...

In an interview with conservative John Ziegler, Sarah Palin lashed out at Katie Couric and Tina Fey for exploiting her during the campaign: I did see that Tina Fey was named entertainer of the year and Katie Couric’s ratings have risen. I know that a lot of people are capitalizing on, oh I don’t know, perhaps some exploiting that was done via me, my family, my administration — that’s a little bit perplexing, but it also says a great deal about our society. Right, because Fey...

Needless to say, I’m not alone in my opposition to Sanjay Gupta for surgeon general (though it is evident that it is hardly Obama’s most controversial move thus far, generating comparatively little criticism). As HuffPo reports, Rep. John Conyers has sent a letter to his Democratic colleagues arguing against Gupta: I join in opposition with respected Noble Peace Prize award wining economist Paul Krugman, who has very serious concerns with having Dr. Gupta be the nation’s Surgeon...

I’m still not sold on Sanjay Gupta for surgeon general. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I dislike the very idea of putting Gupta in charge of public health. As I wrote on Tuesday, when the story broke, Dr. Gupta “seems to be very much a part of, as well as a defender of, the status quo, namely, the corporatized health care system controlled by Big Pharma and the HMOs.” And, indeed, more is coming out about his seemingly unethical (or at least questionable) dealings....

What’s worse: a) Chris Matthews on TV (being a blowhard and making millions); or b) Chris Matthews in the Senate (being a blowhard and wielding power)? I’d say the latter, which is why it’s a good thing that he’s decided not to run for the Senate in 2010. I can’t take much of him on TV, but at least I can turn the channel and ignore him. Either way, though, he would have continued to provide a wealth of material to those of us in the commentariat, and we can all look...

Today’s funny, from TNR’s Chris Orr: Dana Milbank hilariously tallies invocations of Ronald Reagan at [Monday]’s debate between the candidates for RNC chair. He comes up with a total of 16, which is fewer than the 22 guns that four of the contenders boast of owning in a comical display of yardsticking. But the most delightful burst of one-upsmanship has to be this: “Let me just say that I have 4,000 friends on Facebook,” contributed Blackwell, putting his hand on Dawson’s...

The WaPo’s Howard Kurtz is reporting that Obama has asked celebrity tele-Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he of CNN and CBS fame, to be the new surgeon general. Now, I’m in no position to question Gupta’s abilities as a neurosurgeon or otherwise his medical qualifications. He may very well be an excellent doctor, as he seems to be (he performed brain surgery during the Iraq invasion in 2003). Furthermore, there is no doubt that he is telegenic and that he would make an excellent spokesman for...

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I read this headline at the BBC yesterday: Gay groups angry at Pope remarks. Really. You don’t say. Now, these “gay groups” have good reason to be angry not just at the pope’s remarks but at the pope himself: Speaking on Monday, Pope Benedict said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour was as important as protecting the environment. The comments were “irresponsible and unacceptable”, the UK’s Lesbian...

Why crazy? For writing, in response to conservative “snobs,” that Sarah Palin and Margaret Thatcher “have a great deal in common.” Honestly, I can’t bring myself to quote from, let alone comment on, this ridiculous piece. Well, okay, here’s the kicker: But she has plenty of time, probably eight years, to analyze America’s problems, recruit her own expert advice, and develop conservative solutions to them. She has obvious intelligence, drive, serious moral...

As you’ve probably heard by now, Time’s Person of the Year for 2008 is, as was fully expected and as is richly deserved, Barack Obama. Seriously, did anyone even come close this year? The runners-up are an interesting bunch: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, and someone named Sarah Palin. It’s far too early to assess Paulson’s impact, though there’s no denying his influence on the political and economic...

At WaPo’s The Fix on Monday, Chris Cillizza asked if Republicans are “on the march” and concluded that the recent Republican victories in Georgia (Senate) and Louisiana (House) “give Republicans something to rally around” and “lay the foundation for at least the possibility of a comeback in 2010 and beyond.” Oh… really. While I do not deny that things can change quickly in politics, and that the GOP could make a comeback within the next few years, I’m...

Sorry again to be so self-promotional, but, if you’re interested, my latest piece at The Guardian on Canada’s rather exciting political situation was posted this morning: Ignatieff’s moment. It looks like the new leader of the Liberal Party will be former Harvard professor and noted international relations expert Michael Ignatieff. Ignatieff was first elected to Parliament in 2006, from a suburban Toronto riding. Although a relatively new parliamentarian, he is seen by many Liberals...

Michelle Goldberg, author of the fantastic Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, had a must-read guest post at TNR’s The Plank a couple of days ago on Newt Gingrich’s latest contribution to the far right’s seemingly endless culture war in support of “religious fundamentalism and sacralized nationalism.” It involves “Gingrich hawking a full-length documentary called Rediscovering God in America,” an ugly assault on liberalism and secularism that...