The Right
An open letter to Andrew Sullivan
Dear Andrew, You have written approvingly (here and here) of John Mearsheimer’s recent speech in which he divided American Jews into three camps: “New Afrikaners,” or right-wing supporters of Israel; “righteous Jews,” i.e., critics of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians; and the “great ambivalent middle.” I’d like to focus on something that you glossed over entirely in your remarks: Mearsheimer’s
Obama’s Cantor smackdown
Conventional wisdom remains that our president is a wimp, spineless, etc., which flies in the face of jujitsu moments like this (hat tip Marc Cooper): And that’s not to deny that Obama, in his way, makes use of political theater, which is what that health care summit was. But taking the opportunity to call out Republicans on their nonsense for
Ron Paul redux
His speech at CPAC has Andrew Sullivan gushing once again. Given Sullivan’s laudable and oft-stated contempt for the tea party right, it’s odd he should still be so taken with Paul, whose backers are at the very core of tea party lunacy, according to Tom Schaller and Dana Goldstein. And let’s not forget that after dropping out of the 2008
Hands, teleprompters
“Which is more egregious?” [McCain] asked reporters. “Reading a word from your hand or from a teleprompter?” From this story on the increasingly odious John McCain and his bumbling, near-pitiable defense of Sarah Palin. (Hat tip Marc Cooper.) I’m stating the obvious but I can’t help myself: President Obama, like his predecessors, and like Palin herself at the 2008 Republican
Giuliani vs. the facts
Via Andrew Sullivan.
Haiti reflections
About 15 years ago, when the Clinton administration sent troops to Haiti to restore the democratically elected left-populist Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, I joined a small group of hard-left demonstrators in a number of pitiful marches against the intervention. For the life of me, today I cannot tell you why. George Packer, writing in Dissent, supported the intervention, and soon
Johnny hates jazz
Via Peter Hum and Patrick J. — John McCain has taken to the Senate floor to mock federal funding for jazz: “Next time you’re in New York, go to the Lincoln Center. You’ll see that we’re spending $800,000 of your money for jazz at the Lincoln Center. Jazz lovers rejoice.” As Patrick notes, the federal sums going to jazz institutions
“A breathtaking piece of dishonor”
Andrew Sullivan on Dick Cheney, who has once again accused our president of giving aid and comfort to the enemy: If you truly use a position of such authority to show contempt for the sitting president, to accuse him of treason, to attack him on the day he addresses the nation in a critical address, to divide him from the