This commentary on embryonic stem cell research caught my attention for two reasons. First, its tone is perhaps the most even-handed and civil that I’ve read to date; it pays considerable respect to all points of view on the subject. Second, its author, Eric Mink, is a journalist who was not-long-ago caught in the crosswinds battering the newspaper industry. I have great respect for Eric. His columns are regularly anchored by more fact than opinion, a trait that strikes me as increasingly...

Chris Cillizza tosses a spotlight on Sen. Evan Bayh, whose centrist instincts are making the once-rumored VP contender a fly in the soup of Obama’s administration: Bayh’s actions have caused some grumbling — privately, of course — among some in the White House who view his freelancing as less than helpful in seeking to push Obama’s legislative agenda through Congress. A friendly suggestion for these anonymous grumblers: Re-read the frickin’ Constitution. Neither...

I’m a little too late to the Chas Freeman dust up to add incremental value to the postmortem. But the debate surrounding Mr. Freeman and his attitude toward Israel did force me — even as a consistently, instinctively pro-Israel observer — to ask: Is it ever appropriate to criticize Israel’s government? If it is, under what conditions; i.e., who can articulate such criticism, and how they can do so without getting reflexively trashed? Those questions prompted me to recall a book...

(Warning: Imbedded in this post is an act of shameless self promotion.) Despite my flirtation with Web 2.0, I’m a bit old fashioned. My favorite media remain newspaper and radio — especially intelligent, reasonable, non-Limbaugh radio, which explains (in part) my growing love affair with National Public Radio (NPR) and its affiliate in my area, KWMU. Late last year, this love affair induced an “itch.” Twenty-four months earlier, a similar itch drove me to start blogging....

That’s how one reader characterized my recurring hope that the Republicans will regain the Senate in two years and thus provide the counterbalance every great President needs, even one with the exceeding skills and exceptional character of Barack Obama. This reader/critic has a point. Thirty-five Senate seats will be contested in 2010. (Normally, it would be 34, but VP Biden’s vacated Senate seat will be subject to a special election in 2010. His named replacement, Democrat Ted Kaufman,...

David Brooks updates today his Tuesday column of concern, which I commented on not once but twice that day. Tuesday, Brooks argued that “the Obama budget is a liberal, big government document that should make moderates nervous.” This argument apparently riled up the Administration enough that they called Brooks in for a convincing session. But the columnist wasn’t easily dissuaded from his starting assessment: I didn’t finish these conversations feeling chastened exactly. The...

Stephen Chapman misses him. So do I. Even during the 90′s, when I was still an adamant Republican, I had great respect for President Clinton’s modest approach to government — an approach that stood in stark contrast to the immodesty with which he conducted the rest of his life. And yes, I thought the Republicans at the time were idots for trying to make Clinton’s personal immodesty a focal point of their campaign to return to the White House, ignoring the productive relationship...

Dick Cheney may have been (snark alert) the most wildly popular vice president of the last century, but that doesn’t mean he knew what he was talking about when he purportedly said, “Deficits don’t matter.” According to Harvard Econ Professor Greg Mankiw, more than 80 percent of economists beg to differ with his Cheneyness; in fact, that super-supermajority believes a “large federal budget deficit has an adverse effect on the economy.” Of course, TMV readers —...

No surprise. David Brooks has taken his lumps today, from both ends of the political spectrum. On the left, Steve Benen labels Brooks current opining a “very frustrating column.” On the right, Allahpundit gives Brooks clinched props before scolding him “for not realizing sooner … that ‘Barack Obama is not who we thought he was.’” I feel your pain, Mr. B. One right-leaning commenter on my comment about your commentary lumped me in with other “moderates...

So suggests David Brooks: Moderates now find themselves betwixt and between. On the left, there is a president who appears to be, as (Clive) Crook says, “a conviction politician, a bold progressive liberal.” On the right, there are the Rush Limbaugh brigades. The only thing more scary than Obama’s experiment is the thought that it might fail and the political power will swing over to a Republican Party that is currently unfit to wield it. Those of us in the moderate tradition — the Hamiltonian...

RALPH WALDO EMERSON Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. RUSH LIMBAUGH Be a man all you want, but if you’re non-conforming to my opinion, I don’t want to hear from you ever again. KEVIN MCCARTHY, chairman of the ’08 Republican Platform Committee, citing the platform’s preamble As the party of ideas, rather than a mere coalition of interests, we consider vigorous debate a strength, not a weakness. RUSH LIMBAUGH Yeah, right, like anyone’s going to believe that. ______________________________________________________________...

This Saturday has been globally designated “Rare Disease Day.” The purpose: “to call attention to the public health issues associated with rare diseases, which affect nearly 30 million Americans and countless others around the world.” My son is one of those 30 million Americans, as is the youngest daughter of a friend and former colleague. You might be surprised to learn which diseases are considered rare, and who you know that fits into this category. From our family to yours:...

I can’t add much to this from Andrew Sullivan. It is, precisely, how my under-educated mind views the current economic maelstrom and all the “solutions” offered for it.

Call it “hostage taking” or “blackmail” or whatever you like, but California State Senator Abel Maldonado (great first name, by the way) has given us all much to think and talk and write about: Perhaps most controversial of Maldonado’s terms … was that the Legislature sponsor a ballot measure calling for open primaries. Such a proposition would mean the top two vote-getters in a primary election, regardless of their party, advance to the general election. Nate...

For those who hope for the return of a robust, viable, inclusive GOP — a revitalized party that can more effectively counter today’s Democratic Party — take note of this story at Politico on the competing GOP factions represented by Florida Gov. Crist and South Carolina Gov. Sanford. The latter is old school; the former, more contemporary, more forward-looking. The Politico story’s writers suggest that … … the varying approaches adopted by Sanford and Crist reflect...

I noted yesterday my evolving fascination with the increasingly counter-intuitive nature of the debate over nationalizing U.S. banks — in particular, the openness to this option expressed by a prominent Senate Republican and the outright endorsement of it by two free-market economists. And now we learn that former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has added fuel to the fire: ”It may be necessary to temporarily nationalise some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring,” he...

Who said this? I would not be for nationalizing [the banks] … I don’t think government is good at making these decisions. And what about this? I’m very much afraid any program to salvage the banks is going to require the government … I would not take off [the table] the idea of nationalizing the banks.” Would it surprise you, as it did me, that the first comment was made by a leading Senate Democrat and the second by a leading Senate Republican? WTF? Don’t believe...

Thursday night last week, as the stimulus bill was winding its way to final form, my wife and I drove to Union Station, in the heart of St. Louis City, to pick up our son. He was headed into town via bus for a get-together with our extended family. We arrived at Union Station two hours prior to our son’s scheduled arrival, having decided to enjoy an early Valentine’s Day dinner, knowing that our time Saturday would be superceded by family time. As we walked through the historic St....

No, I don’t agree with everything Andrew Sullivan writes — only about … 90 percent; and on the 10 percent where I disagree, I really disagree. That said, you can count among the 90 percent my reaction to Andrew’s wonderfully concise take on how the R’s (and some D’s) are reacting to Obama, pegged to today’s news re: Sen. Gregg. —————- Looking back at some of the details here, I could probably count among the 10 percent where...

In a post billed as a defense of Obama’s Treasury Secretary and his “revised financial bailout plan,” Nate Silver freestyles an argument on the merits of restraining ideology and moderating our respective tendencies to believe that (i) we each know what we’re talking about, regardless of the subject, and (ii) we each have a corner on absolute rightness. Money quote: I’m sorry, but somewhere between 99.9% and 99.999999% of us are severely underqualified to be making policy...

If you’re seeking, as I have been, a more detailed comparison of the competing House and Senate stimuli than is typically available in the MSM, check out this post at ProPublica. Reviewing that analysis, one would think the right leaners would be quite pleased with the compromise version, especially the increase in “Tax Cuts,” the total for which is up nearly $76B in the Senate versus House bill. But apparently, many of the right leaners — save Sens. Specter, Snowe, Collins,...

I agree with Andrew that the following words from President Obama should make every conservative’s heart sing, and I suspect no conservative’s heart will sing louder at these words than the heart of Mickey Edwards. Thus said Obama: … I value the constructive criticism and the healthy debate that’s taking place around this [stimulus] package, because that’s the essence, the foundation of American democracy. That’s how the founders set it up. They set it up to make...

Along with David Gergen, Campbell Brown is indisputably one of CNN’s smartest, most even-handed political commentators. She demonstrated why last night.

From a Tribune Co. report, this passage seems to signal the most reasonable and promising path forward: [Obama] met Wednesday with two Senate Republicans and a Democrat considered to be key moderates: Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both Maine Republicans, and Sen. Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat. The three are part of a group of senators seeking to “scrub” the bill to remove programs that are not likely to give the economy an immediate boost. Snowe, who spoke with reporters afterward,...

Joe noted the meme on Sunday. Justin Gardner picked up on it today, prompted by yesterday’s Chris Matthews interview with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Justin applauds Crist’s willingness to buck many of the Republicans in Congress, despite the Governor’s potential 2012 presidential aspirations. Meanwhile, I’m prompted to unproductively ponder the imponderable — i.e., how different John McCain’s fate might have been had he picked Crist rather than Palin as his...