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From Red Meat to Haute Couture
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2006 Comment (24)The conservative American Enterprise Institute has scrapped its magazine and replaced it with a new glossy, The American. Unlike the think tank's old political rag, the jazzy new one is all business and economics, six times per year. "Our perspective," says editor James Glassman, "is not partisan, but it is rooted in liberal, free-market economics." There are no editorials and foreign-policy manifestos. Instead, Reaganite Michael Ledeen writes about why Naples became the center of men's high fashion. It's an old model: The lively conservative American Spectator tried the same thing before finally switching back to politics.
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The Ragin' Cajun, Frothing Over '08
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2006 CommentWhile he doesn't plan to join up with any of the 2008 presidential candidates, Clinton political adviser James Carville is giddy with anticipation. "We'll have more run in 2008 than we've ever had," he says. Carville has the primaries mapped out and predicts "larger than life" candidates will emerge. His Democrats: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, and former Vice President Al Gore. On the Republican side he sees Sen. John McCain, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Speaker Newt Gingrich fighting for the nomination. And there's a "real, real, real" chance of a third-party move.
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Worse Than the White House Press
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2006 CommentFormer President Clinton is probably rethinking just how tough his White House press corps actually was. His office tells us that after he spoke in Mexico last week, reporters blocked his motorcade, then kicked and punched his security agents, prompting one to draw his weapon and order them out of the way. Clinton was fine. So what was the problema? Clinton's Jay Carson says, "Who knows?"
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Out Loud
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2006 Comment"It's not a Brokeback Mountain situation."
Sen. Harry Reid, the incoming Democratic majority leader, on his friendly relationship with fellow Nevada Sen. John Ensign, a Republican"Each one contained enough poison to kill the entire membership of the court."
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, using an example of a batch of home-baked cookies sent to the court to explain threats to judges"I don't see you sweat."
NBC News reporter David Gregory, to President Bush during an outdoor press conference in Vietnam after the president had complained about being in the hot sun"We ought to take the money changers out of the temple in
terms of student loans."Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, incoming chair of the Senate's education committee, on his plans to target the student loan firm Sallie MaeSources:Las Vegas Review-Journal, Star-Telegram, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post
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Globe-trotting the Middle East
Tweet Share on Facebook November 17, 2006 CommentIt probably doesn't feel much like basketball season to the troops in Iraq and other hot Middle Eastern cities, but that should change right after Thanksgiving. Because that's when the fabled Harlem Globetrotters hit the area in a 21-day, 12-city tour with stops in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Djibouti. Owner and former college ball star Mannie Jackson plans to lead 10 members of his team into the area, where they'll play some games, shoot hoops, and conduct "meet and greets" with the troops. The Globetrotters even plan to perform on an aircraft carrier. The team has a long history of entertaining the troops; this will be the third straight year the team has visited troops right before Christmas.
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Howard Dean for President
Tweet Share on Facebook November 13, 2006 CommentCome on, join the bandwagon for Howard Dean for president. OK, the crowd so far is small, but once he starts to get the credit he deserves for last week's Democratic takeover of the House and Senate and major gains in statehouses and state legislatures, the bandwagon will be off and running. Here's what we learned last week: Dean's not in over his head at the Democratic National Committee and, in fact, may turn out to be one of the best chairs ever. And his 50-state strategy, which was sneered at in Washington, worked.
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T-Paw and Others You Need to Know
Tweet Share on Facebook November 9, 2006 CommentThose midterm elections Tuesday continue to help weed out and build up the list of candidates expected to run for president in 2008. Let's start with the growing list of big losers. You can add Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who whined about the travel, and two foot-in-mouth senators, Republican George Allen and Democrat John Kerry.
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Why 'Macaca' Is a Good Word
Tweet Share on Facebook November 7, 2006 CommentAt the risk of angering everybody happy to see another election season fizzle out, here's an idea for a new constitutional amendment: Hold midterm elections every year. That's right, instead of electing the House and a third of the Senate every two years, split it up so we have elections every year. And here's why: It will greatly help to weed out all the dopey presidential candidates who make stupid comments on the campaign trail. And it will also show some of those White House hopefuls who think that they can get away with just a little travel and fundraising just how hard it is to run for president.
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When Capture and Trial Aren't Enough
Tweet Share on Facebook November 3, 2006 CommentHere's a rare chance to help write a new book and humiliate Enemy No. 1, Osama bin Laden. World Ahead Publishing tells our Suzi Parker that it's collecting ideas for 101 Uses for Osama bin Laden. Until November 12, the conservative publisher is soliciting your ideas at usesforosama.com. While hounding him militarily is the Pentagon's job, says the firm, "doling out the humiliation he so richly deserves, well, that's our job," adds the publisher. "The flea-ridden beard, the shifty eyes, the dime-store turban, the lousy videos, the camels, the Whitney Houston obsession," says World Ahead. "If the guy wasn't a grotesque mass murderer, he'd be a joke." And once it's published, some of the proceeds will go to the National Military Family Association.
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Yet Another Way to Predict Tuesday
Tweet Share on Facebook November 3, 2006 CommentIt only makes sense that candidates who see lots of Internet searches are high in voters' minds, right? Well, Ask.com thinks so, and it's telling us that "query volume" is a great election predictor. The popular website checked out search data results last month in the top eight Senate races: Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia. Their offbeat result: Most incumbents win, and only one seat switches parties. Here are the predicted winners:
–Sen. James Talent, Missouri Republican
– Sen. Conrad Burns, Montana Republican
– Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican
– Sen. Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island Republican
– Sen. George Allen, Virginia Republican
– Sen. Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat
– Democratic Rep. Harold Ford wins Tennessee.
– The Ohio race between Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown and Republican Sen. Mike DeWine is too close to call.
