The etiquette of celebrity death brings the usual talking head tributes to Ted Kennedy but largely unseen is Joe Biden with an authentic outpouring of human grief. In an era when empathy is an accusation, the Vice President is an anachronism–a politician often demeaned right and left for speaking his mind and heart, exposing himself to political ridicule. Yesterday morning, in a routine appearance at...

Carnage outside the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad, August 19. At least 100 were killed. For those tempted to think that America’s involvement in Iraq is drawing to a close, this article by Fateh Abdulsalam of Iraq’s Azzaman newspaper might come as a rude awakening. According to Abdulsalam, the government is either winking at or directly involved in the truck bombings and attacks of recent...

Nerilicon, CagleCartoons.com, Mexico City This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Continuing with our global coverage of the reaction to Ted Kennedy’s death, this article by Laurent Joffrin of France’s Liberation frames the saga of the Kennedy clan as one of redemption from a merciless thirst for power. For Liberation, Laurent Joffrin writes in part: “In the 1940s and 50s, There wasn’t a clan that was more cynical or more determined in its quest for glory. A brutal...

Embarrassing for the Republicans: RNC Chair Michael Steele on NPR. Embarrassing for the Democrats: Rep. Pete Stark calling moderate Dems “brain dead.” Some of you might challenge the inclusion of one or both of these moments on this list. Some of you might argue that one is more embarrassing than the other, and they thus don’t belong on the same list. I won’t weigh in on the latter...

In some ways, I had to suppress a bit of a nostalgic smile when I saw my friend Ed Morrissey at Hot Air picking off the scab of an old wound from the 2004 presidential campaign today. You see, Ed and I have been agreeing on so much lately when it comes to health care reform and dire economic news that people tend to forget that we used to fight tooth and claw, hammer and tong over many issues prior to the age...

Speaking as one who was a moderate, Northeastern member of the Republican party (generally referred to in abusive terms as a “RINO” by the party faithful) for many years, I find that I can definitely relate to the Blue Dog Democrats these days. It’s not easy when you decide to eschew the most radical, fringe ideas of your party and attempt to reach across the aisle and work with “the...

Believe mewhen I tell you I am writing a column about a review by Jessica Bennett of Newsweek about psychologist Robert Feldman, the author of a new book, The Liar in Your Life, the inspiration for a new film, The Invention of Lying, as well as a Fox TV series Lie To Me. We are a nation of liars, Feldman is quoted. Writes Bennett: Time and time again, public-opinion polls show that honesty is among the top five...

Guest post by John Malone John Malone, a VP/Senior Analyst with John S. Herold, an energy investment research firm in Connecticut, is a Truman National Security Project fellow. In the world of renewables, most of the attention is on the wind and the sun. Geothermal power just hasn’t gotten the same respect. That could be changing, as both the Obama Administration and Silicon Valley are considering the...

Hanna Rosin posted yesterday on this NPR interview with James Morone, one of the authors of The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office. In that interview, NPR cites Ronald Reagan, opposing the creation of Medicare, thus: One of the traditional methods of imposing statism, or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian...

Give Chuck Schumer credit. He was trying really, really — yes, really — hard to pretend that the President hasn’t waffled on the public option, backing away from his commitment to liberal reform. Here’s Schumer and David Gregory on Meet the Press: MR. GREGORY: You’re not backing away from [the public option], but there is concern within the Democratic Party that President Obama...

I’ve been looking for some clarity on our strategy in Afghanistan. The President seems to have one foot on each side of the fence. Now it seems the military brass is a bit confused. Here’s Adm. Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Meet the Press: MR. GREGORY: We’re rebuilding this nation? ADM. MULLEN: To a certain degree there is, there is some of that going on. MR. GREGORY:...

Will Inboden ably explores the mystery of what British foreign policy will look like once the Tories take charge (since everyone in London knows the will). Will explains why, from a British perspective, it actually makes a certain amount of sense for the Tories to talk about having a “liberal Conservative” foreign policy.” Still, its contents are more than somewhat vague. Will writes, For...

By Allan Goldstein The news came out of the Kennedy compound Tuesday night. Teddy was dead. You don’t hear much about “compounds” anymore. They seem like a relic of a bygone era, like the trusts and robber barons’ that generated the loot that built them. People who knew him better and admired him more will write his eulogy. That’s not my purpose here. I agreed with him often, disagreed some, admired...

It’s soooooo much easier to just sit back and believe the politically-anchored assertions made on talking (and screaming) head radio and cable talk shows, but T.R. Reid, writing in the Washington Post, says it is not quite that simple.

Patrick Chappatte, The International Herald Tribune This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited

After the flood of reaction from Britain and Ireland yesterday, newspapers in other parts of the world have begun to chime in on the death of Senator Edward Kennedy. In the first Ted Kennedy-related translation we’ve done from Latin America, the editorial board of Colombia’s El Tiempo praises the senator for a number of things that have gone unmentioned in the European press. The El Tiempo editorial...

Domestic automakers General Motors and Chrysler — the two in the biggest world of hurt, financially — had disappointing results in the Cash For Clunkers program. According to Reuters, GM sales accounted for 17 percent of “clunkers” business; however, GM held 21 percent of U.S. auto sales from January to July. Chrysler had a similar tale: the “clunkers” share was 6.6 percent...

Andrew Breitbart seems not to have gotten the memo about treating the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy with sympathy and respect:

If you’ve ever doubted than a black man would be elected president of the U.S. before a white woman assumed that office, just look at the history of voting in America. On this day (26 August) in 1920, women in America were finally given the right to vote; black men had been voting for 50 years. And down under in New Zealand, women had been voting since 1893, although they were not eligible for the House...

In Vanity Fair: CNN changed the nature of politics and political reporting by compressing the time it took for something to happen, for it to become widely known, and for newsmakers and the public to react to it (i.e., the news cycle) to half a day—whereas the newspaper news cycle, from next-day publication to day-after reaction, was 48 hours, and network television’s news cycle, from one day’s evening...

What ran me off the rails was Dr. Melissa Clouthier. She has a post that links to another post by Rachel Lucas about a trip she made to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Lucas’s post is very well-written and very powerful.

Political cartoonists are honoring Senator Ted Kennedy, the last surviving Kennedy brother, who died early this morning. Here are a few of the cartoons: RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com These cartoons are copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction...

Professional journalists in America, those who record the first chapter in the books of history, are challenged writing obituaries of our fallen leaders when the person’s life is filled with complexities, contradictions and accomplishments such as that of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Citizen journalists, those who write blogs, are not constrained by such niceties. They call it as they see it. They come straight...

WASHINGTON — Ted Kennedy was treasured by liberals, loved by many of his conservative colleagues, revered by African-Americans and Latinos, respected by hard-bitten political bosses, admired by students of the legislative process, and cherished by those who constituted the finest cadre of staff members ever assembled on Capitol Hill. The Kennedy paradox is that he managed to be esteemed by almost...