A top progressive blogger has resigned from John Edwards’ campaign. And despite the controversy and point/counterpoint that continues to rage over her previous writings , one thing appears clear: The resignation will likely usher in a new era in which bloggers from all sides who want to work for political campaigns must now have to take care in re-examining their previous posts and comments for writings...

And his style will not be conciliatory or to try and forge consensus. Can you guess who it is and what the strategy is? He has had success before. Details HERE.

The Washington Post reports that the Army is working to fill a shortfall of thousands of advanced Humvee armor kits designed to reduce U.S. troop deaths from roadside bombs, including those particularly lethal weapons linked to Iran known as “explosively formed penetrators” (EFPs) that are now inflicting 70 percent of the American casualties in Iraq. The additional protection is needed for thousands...

I’ve expounded at some length before on the state of coinage in America, but will comment again using David Margolick’s intersting NYT op/ed from yesterday as a starting point (I thought it appropriate to wait until today, Lincoln’s birthday, to weigh in). Margolick’s piece begins as quite an interesting brief history of the Lincoln penny, discussing well the great clamor its introduction...

Uh, oh: in a post below we just talked about bloggers have an excess of outrage, and now we’re going to have to show you some as well. Dear Prime Minister John Howard of Australia: We truly don’t care who you want or don’t want to be the President of the United States in 2008 or which party you like better. Many Americans who support and many who do not support Barack Obama would echo our...

Time’s Joe Klein is blogging here on the newsmagazine’s Washington-beat “Swampland” blog and he is struck by the nastiness of blog posts and discussions. His comments are pegged to the mini-firestorm over John Edward’s hiring of two progressive bloggers. His post should be read in full but he makes two excellent points to take up here. He notes how our political culture has changed...

Why we are courting disaster in next year’s presidential primaries February 8, 2007 – In 1968 the country had 14 state presidential primaries, scheduled rather sensibly and intermittently between March and June. In 2008 a minimum of 42 primaries will be held, possibly as many as 47, beginning in January, or even earlier, and stretching out for six long months. Even worse, the ‘08 schedule...

Fred Barnes writing in the Weekly Standard praises Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell’s superior political skills: Mitch McConnell runs rings around Harry Reid. McConnell’s first major venture in exploiting minority rights in the Senate came in 1994 when Democrats still had a majority. A campaign finance reform bill that would have imposed public financing on congressional races had passed both...

So. He’s in. Barack Obama’s theme — the underlying core message — is so radically different from what we’re used to hearing from politicians, I can’t help but respond to it. It’s a visceral reaction — a balm to a wound I didn’t even realize I had. Of course, how he intends to implement his visions are another matter. Health care, foreign policy,...

And (to use a bit of classic understatement) did not convince the host in her comments about her longtime friend “Scotter” Libby and Plamegate. (Note to readers: We have added The Imus Show Blog to our blogroll under Other Voices)

I’m sure many of you are already familiar with the details of the Edwards-Marcotte-McEwan scandal (or “scandal,” pseudo-scandal that it is) that has been brewing over the past couple of days. You know, the John Edwards campaign hired two prominent progressive bloggers, Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon and Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare’s Sister, Catholic extremist William Donohue called them...

Close the Bundling Loophole It’s no secret that lobbyists currently hold fundraisers and direct gobs of cash to both candidates and elected officials. What is secret is just how much cash is collected by lobbyists. Currently, they collect or arrange for cash to be sent to federal officeholders, candidates, leadership PACs and party committees. This funneling of money is called “bundling,” and...

THIS JUST IN from investigative reporter Andy Borowitz: Biden Returns to Campaign Trail With Duct Tape Over Mouth New Strategy to Keep Candidate On Message In a bold new strategy to keep his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination on message, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del) returned to the campaign trail today with a strip of duct tape over his mouth. Political veterans were hard-pressed to think...

In an email from the Hillary campaign team was the following problem statement: It’s time to end our country’s dependence on foreign oil. Unstable prices at the pump are a burden for families. Our dependence props up extremist regimes that threaten our national security. And the threat to our environment from burning fossil fuels is very real. Hillary is proposing a plan that puts “some of...

The Senate is locked in stalemate, a great deliberative body ground down by procedural minutiae, but, beyond the immediate politics of resolutions, debates on resolutions, and debates on debates on resolutions, where do the one hundred members of that august body stand on Iraq? As MyDD’s Chris Bowers is reporting, The Politico has conducted a survey of all senators, asking each one a series of four questions...

I linked to chapter 6 of The Event yesterday, right after Mick LaSalle published it. A week ago, we had a long and passionate debate about The Event, some people liked it, some people didn’t. Anyway, from now on I will link to the new chapter whenever it is published and, the next day, after everybody read the chapter, I thought it would be a good / fun idea to publish another post in order to ask some...

With John Kerry out of the picture, it is difficult to find a Democrat whose political stock has fallen more than Joe Lieberman. There is much to admire about Lieberman, but much to dislike, and the portrait that Jeffrey Goldberg paints of the self-described “independent Democrat� from Connecticut in a New Yorker profile titled “The Lorax� (after the Dr. Seuss character) is not flattering. An...

The Politico reports that top GOPers have begun to fear that New York Senator Hillary Clinton may have what George Bush I called “Big Mo” — big momentum that will not only win her the 2008 Democratic nomination but propel her into the White House: What many conservatives regard as the nightmare scenario — President Hillary Rodham Clinton — is increasingly seen by veteran Republican...

People: Mick LaSalle just e-mailed me that he published the sixth chapter of The Event. I – being addicted to it – read it immediately and… it’s a great chapter. President Lyle B. East is… starting to act more and more “scary”. Some people are seeing him for what he really is: the beast. The one who attacks East most aggressively, however, is not someone people would...

Yes — as the other Michael reported earlier — it looks like Rudy Giuliani is running for president after all. (Maybe.) (By the way, did you know he was actually the mayor of New York on 9/11? Huh. I had no idea. I mean, he could have told us or something.) He polls well — vague memories of heroism and all — but I’m with Kevin Drum on this: “The average voter has vague, positive...

John Edwards came out yesterday with a plan for what he calls “universal health care through shared responsibility”. As he put in in an e-mail to supporters: “47 million people are uninsured, while uncertainty grows and costs spiral for nearly everyone else. To fix this crisis, we don’t need an incremental shift, we need a fundamental change.” 47 million people are uninsured: This...

The Washington Post’s David Broder believes after watching Democratic Presidents-to-be talk this weekend that the race remains wide-open: The good news for the nation’s Democrats is that neither of the supposed front-runners for the party’s 2008 presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, stole the show when all 10 of the likely contenders spoke last weekend to the Democratic...