President Obama must understand that foreign wars are the undoing of U.S. Presidents and most domestic agendas. If he hopes to concentrate on getting us out of this deep recession, he cannot spend any more time in Iraq and in particular, enlarge or continue our dead-end involvement in Afghanistan. Perhaps he’s trying to find a way to break the news to the U.S. Military and the American people that we must...

I’m not one who buys into conspiracy theories and I’m not sure that this theory is much more than the musings of a windy Sunday afternoon. But I have been giving some thought to the news out of the election in New York’s 23rd district. The withdrawal of the Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava has led to a great deal of discussion about the war within the party and the split between moderates...

There are a few strong voices in Israel’s media who are willing to call out Israel’s intransigence on issues related to the peace process for what it is — the self-destructive behavior of an arrogant spoiled bully convinced that consequences are for someone else. How did Israel’s leaders develop such an entitlement mentality? Levy’s answer: Washington, D.C.: Now is the time to say...

William Ayers, the former member of the Weather Underground, and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Pres. Obama’s former pastor, did not visit the White House at any time during the nine months Obama has been in office.

Sen. Joe Lieberman told Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation today that Democrats are sabotaging health care reform by insisting on a public option. Schieffer, however, got Lieberman to admit that he would prefer no health care reform bill at all to a health care reform bill that included a public option (emphasis in original):

In northern New York State, they are staging a 21st century version of an American classic, old-time hardball without the Iowa corn. “People will come,” said the prophetic Voice in the 1989 movie. “They’ll turn up not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive as innocent as children, longing for the past. They’ll pass over their money without even thinking...

Frank Rich’s column today is about — as he puts it — the “GOP Stalinist invasion of upstate New York” — and it’s superb:

The Wall Street Journal has a very interesting look at estate taxes (or “death tax” if you prefer) across the nation this weekend. With the federal tax almost entirely going away this year, more and more people are turning to tax and estate planners for help with similar taxes levied by the individual states. (To be clear, the federal estate tax hasn’t disappeared entirely, but the minimum...

Former Congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava has endorsed Democrat Bill Owens over Conservative Doug Hoffman. Her statement read: “In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He will be an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for New York. Bill understands this district and its people, and when he represents us in Congress he will put...

The Watertown Times has endorsed Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate to represent New York State’s 23rd Congressional district seat:

The New York Times notes that there are a lot of nervous Democrats in Washington who have suddenly noticed that the deficit and our national debt have somehow mysteriously spiraled into a range of numbers generally reserved for discussions of the number of grains of sand on the world’s beaches. Is it because of some new found concern for the public purse? Apparently not. But they did remember that many...

It’s clear the White House perceives news from New York about a Republican moderate in effect being forced out of a Congressional race by conservatives who felt she was not conservative enough as a sign that the Republican party is officially shifting further to the right — and comments made by a White House official on ABC this morning indicate this theme that will emerge again as more inevitable...

Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Presidential contender Abdullah Abdullah has announced he won’t participate in the upcoming runoff election, a move that insures a victory for incumbent Hamid Karzai. It is not clear at this point if he will formally withdraw or if he will simply stop campaigning. Abdullah has accused the vote counting commission of being biased in favor of Karzai and thus unable to run a fair election campaign. Most observers...

I thought it might be interesting — now that the Honduran government and exiled President Manuel Zelaya have come to an agreement that will restore Zelaya to the presidency until the legal end of his term — to look back at the reaction around the world when the coup occurred, at the end of June. It’s easy now, four months after the events took place, to forget how united the world was in its...

It’s been a little while since we’ve tried this One of the hardest things is to determine your own political position because it is only natural to assume you are the mainstream/center and everyone else should be left or right of you. There are a number of political surveys out there, and they too have some bias, but this one is pretty good at offering evaluation, and if anything it gives us an idea...

Okay, I’ll admit I’m surprised Hiatt decided to go the route of supporting the democratic rule of law and nonviolent conflict resolution — although he cannot resist a bit of propagandizing about the evil “Chavistas.”

John Hannah is being roundly mocked for his NRO piece today in which he complains that Hillary Clinton is doing harm to U.S. interests abroad by contrasting Pres. Obama’s foreign policies with those of the previous administration, to the latter’s discredit. In her recent trip to Pakistan, Clinton told a group of students that she spent her entire Senate career opposing Bush’s policies, and...

This is not one of the subjects I’ve been following closely, since I don’t live in New York State, but the response to her decision to drop out of the race is interesting. My understanding is that Scozzafava is a moderate Republican — she does not hew to the far right position on abortion and marriage equality, for example. But Michelle Malkin, in her post exulting about the news that she is...

The style book says elected politicians be identified by abbreviations of their political party and state after their names which is why I find it rather amusing that Sen. Joe Lieberman is (I-Conn). That Lieberman is conning progressive Democrats is paramount in their frustration directed at the man selected as their party’s vice presidential candidate in 2000. They overlooked a quirk in Lieberman’s...

It seems like the far right has got it’s wish: Republican Dede Scozzafava has suspended her bid in next Tuesday’s NY 23 special election, a huge development that dramatically shakes up the race. She did not endorse either of her two opponents — Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman or Democrat Bill Owens. The decision to suspend her campaign is a boost for Hoffman, who already had the support...

Per Politico: Republican Dede Scozzafava has dropped out of next Tuesday’s NY 23 special election. She did not endorse either of her two opponents, Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman or Democrat Bill Owens. Scozzafava’s statement here. I think she made the wrong decision, but the statement is pure class. Before this development, the race was neck-and-neck between Hoffman and Owens, polling...

As we dig deeper into the behemoth House health care bill, the blatant honesty of Howard Dean shines through the extensive document. You may recall when the former DNC chair said, “the reason why tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on, and that is the plain and simple truth.” Plain...

Senator Lieberman of Connecticut has angered Democrats in his opposition to the “public option” for healthcare reform. Well this is not the first time he has gone his own way. It is perfectly understandable because he is officially an independent and thus he has no duty to the Democratic Party. He answers only to his constituents and himself. Just because he caucuses with Democrats who foolishly permitted...

Another freedom has been taken away from him: