A round up of recent reporting and commentary by a few centrist, moderate, and independent bloggers. John Cole considers who’s (really) to blame for the most recent installment in the saga of the fired US Attorneys. Among a series of subjects, Dick Polman continues his examination of “Clinton fatigue” among Democrats, essentially asking (in the words of a TV commercial too old for some TMV readers and contributors to remember) “Is it real or is it Memorex?” Upon completing...

A round up of recent reporting and commentary by a few centrist, moderate, and independent bloggers. McQ examines the verbification of “swift boat” and one of its most recent applications. Justin Gardner riffs on Bill Maher’s death wish for VP Cheney. The Angry Independent highlights a chilling story about the murder of another critic of the Russian government. Libby Spencer comments on the DOJ’s attempts to justify their wish for enhanced surveillance of Internet behavior....

Do you know the man in this picture? He apparently wants to be your next President.

Regarding our “Facing the Music” project, we wanted readers to know that — through a combination of tactics — we have made at least one contact with the campaigns of each of the following. This list is focused on the contenders who have issued a “Statement of Candidacy,” according to the WaPo’s tracking list, which seems to be generally up to date. For the Democrats: Gravel, Kucinich, Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Obama, and Richardson. For the Republicans:...

In Washington yesterday and today on business, I took a break last night to attend a Congressional reception hosted by TSA, the Tourette Syndrome Association. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was an honorary co-chair of the event, for which she helped arrange the LBJ Room in the U.S. Capitol. She also delivered brief remarks at the very beginning. Unfortunately, I was about 15 minutes late and missed her talk. But I did have the honor of hearing remarks from an amazing cast of Congressional leaders,...

A round up of recent reporting and commentary by a few centrist, moderate, and independent bloggers. Dennis Sanders nods to yet another atypical Republican. (It may be time to officially start calling this phenomenon “The Arnold Effect.”) Andrew Sullivan examines the lives of children in Uganda — a chilling contrast to just how fortunate many of us and our own children are. Simon at Stubborn Facts highlights a story on the conundrum of regulatory overkill in Europe — a...

Every election needs its maverick. Some random speculation at Central Sanity …

Some extra attention for a few centrist, moderate, and independent bloggers … Orlando Machete wonders if U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, has jumped off the deep end with her apparent, newfound love for the Land of Hugo Chavez. At The Reaction, Libby Spencer examines questions about the utility of killing al-Qaeda leaders, including the Grand Poobah (bin Laden) himself. Nancy Hanks flags a Fredericksburg, Virginia paper’s report on local GOP resistance to open primaries...

What do you get when you throw Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a moderate Democrat from northern California, into a pit with a few ultra-liberal activists, online and off? The answer, apparently, is political road kill. As recounted in the WaPo earlier this week, that situation is neither a work of fiction nor a twisted childhood riddle. It’s very real and remarkably sad, and it’s precisely why I have such distaste for partisan politics and extremists on both the right and left. Note, in particular,...

Based on the approving comments we received yesterday regarding our draft of five policy questions — and an overwhelming lack of disagreement about those questions — we have now moved on to the second step; namely, posing these questions to the presidential candidates. A friend and former colleague who worked on Senator Kerry’s campaign in 2004 and served previously in the Clinton Administration has offered to help with outreach to key staffers on the campaigns of the D’s....

Last week, inspired by a reader’s comment, we suggested a three-step exercise to help us learn more about how the various presidential candidates, if elected, would actually govern. Step #1 was to compile a list of five questions to pose to each of those candidates. From a pool of nearly 50 suggested questions we received from TMV readers and contributors, we applied a bit of democracy to the process (with help from an Excel spreadsheet) and culled the list back to our original target of...

I’m updating and republishing this post from yesterday, to be sure we give all potential contributors ample opportunity to participate in Step #1 of the exercise described below. As you can see in the comments section, we’ve already received a rather impressive set of suggestions from various TMV readers and authors, and we hope others will take this opportunity to contribute. Going into the weekend, we’ll edit the list then publish it early next week (so everyone knows the final...

I long for the day when rational people resume control of the GOP and put an end to the fundamentalist influence described so well by Andrew Sullivan in The Conservative Soul. I long for that day because I am sick and tired and more-than-a-shade furious about the debates that are distracting the party’s attention from governance issues (like how to balance the federal budget while still providing for those who cannot provide for themselves). Sadly, no debate seems to distract the party more...

Last month, I prompted the conversation with the first soldier, who was somewhere in his early 40’s, methodically circumspect, on his way home to see his wife and teenage kids after his latest tour in Iraq. Last night, the second soldier both started and dominated the conversation. He was in his mid-20’s, winging his way home from DC to Wichita via Chicago to see his parents. While he was in Iraq, a bomb had detonated, flipped over his Humvee, catching him underneath, cracking a rib...

I’m back on the CoA beat, today, for Michael vdG. Did you miss me? Don’t answer that. But please do give some extra attention and a little love to these generally Centrist blogs. At Left of Centrist, Robert Rouse has finally had it with reality TV. Earlier this week, another Robert re-visited the subject of payroll disparity, i.e., the grand-canyon gap in compensation between CEO’s and their average workers. At We the People, Charles Amico asks readers “to help make...

Bipartisanship can work, sometimes. From today’s WaPo … Democratic and Republican opponents of President Bush’s troop-buildup plan joined forces last night behind the nonbinding resolution with the broadest bipartisan backing: a Republican measure from Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) announced the shift, hoping to unite a large majority of the Senate and thwart efforts by the White House and GOP leaders to derail any congressional...

In a long-ago interview with David Broder on “Meet the Press,” then presidential-hopeful and budding-eccentric Ross Perot was challenged to provide details of a proposal he had made to trim government healthcare costs. In response, Perot argued that Broder had ambushed him, unfairly asking a question for which he (Perot) was not prepared. But Broder kept at it, to prove a point (namely, that Perot was systematically vague in many of his proposals), until Perot broke and said, “You...

Fans of the Rolling Stones should recognize the title of this post, from the song, “Mother’s Little Helper.” Of course, the Stones are now old enough to actually be the parents of the middle age mothers who are addicted to little yellow pills. And naturally, many of their fans, who once protested the Vietnam War, have aged right along with them, as freelancer Jack Langer illustrates, with a wink and a nod, in his post about last weekend’s Iraq war protests, published yesterday...

What does Gandhi have to teach us about today’s world? More than you might imagine.

I really want to see the President’s surge strategy accomplish in Iraq what every other effort has not. I really want to believe my former-Marine nephew, and his friends who are still in the Armed Services, when they say we need to be there and be there in force. I really want to. But it’s difficult to do so when I read AP reports like this one, wherein the President … (a) demands that his opponents in Congress either support his plan or “put up their own plan as to what...