Monthly Archives: April 2007

Light Bulbs Going On

Mark Steyn: Everything’s difficult, isn’t it? In the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate, Sen. Barack Obama was asked what he personally was doing to save the environment, and replied that his family was “working on” changing their light bulbs. Is this the new version of the old joke? How many senators does it take to “work on” changing a light bulb? One to propose a bipartisan commission. One to threaten to »

Watch This Space!

Actually, watch this space–the Power Line Forum. Within the next few days, we’ll be announcing one of our most exciting initiatives ever. In the meantime, you can register to participate in the Forum by going here. It takes only a moment. At the Forum, participants are talking about our Power Line posts, the 2008 election, the Global War on Terror, media bias, the culture, and much, much more. Whatever the »

Scandals and “Scandals”

Eleanor Clift’s current column in Newsweek is unremarkable, but I was struck by this line: With an unpopular war, scandals consuming the White House and a two-party system paralyzed by partisanship, voters are looking for an outsider, somebody who »

No Comment…

…on the resignation of AID head Randall Tobias after ABC News called him to say that his phone number was in the records of Washington D.C. madam Deborah Palfrey. According to ABC, Tobias says he used Palfrey’s escort service, but only for legitimate massages. Well, OK, just one small comment: with Ms. Palfrey’s records reportedly containing the names of thousands of Washington customers, do you think any of them might »

The real Mahatma Jimmy

Why does Jimmy Carter’s concern about human rights in the Middle East end with the alleged depredations of the state of Israel and the Jewish people? Occam’s razor would come in handy here, but Alan Dershowitz’s most recent column on the subect suggest to me that the answer to the question is, in Freudian parlance, overdetermined. Until Steven Hayward’s forthcoming essay on Carter’s book sees the light of day, see »

Bill Frist: In the clear

We think extremely highly of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. We are therefore not the least bit surprised, and we would like the rest of the world to know, that he has apparently been cleared of wrongdoing by the SEC and by the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. (Thanks to reader Ginny Desiderio.) »

Tehran calling

The Weekly Standard has printed excerpts of General Petraeus’s Pentagon briefing for the benefit of those members of Congress who were “too busy” to attend. Among the highlights is this morsel: We do definitely see links to the greater al Qaeda network. . . . There is no question but that there is a network that supports the movement of foreign fighters through Syria into Iraq. . . . The »

Trifecta

Yesterday’s British newspapers had more information on the capture of Abd al-Hadi. Among other things, al-Hadi is credited with planning the London subway bombings of two summers ago. From the London Times: The al-Qaeda leader who is thought to have devised the plan for the July 7 suicide bombings in London and an array of terrorist plots against Britain has been captured by the Americans. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a former »

How to write a Nick Coleman column

Nick Coleman is the former St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist who now hangs his shingle out at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Today Coleman hits bottom with yet another column on United States Attorney for Minnesota Rachel Paulose. The column consists of questions that Coleman proposes be asked of Paulose and Monica Goodling by the House Judiciary Committee. The questions range from the easily answered — easily answered if you bother »

Tim Pawlenty as a leading indicator

Tim Pawlenty is the remarkably talented Republican governor of Minnesota and and co-chair of the McCain presidential campaign. Last month the Weekly Standard’s Matthew Continetti came out to Minnesota to interview the governor and spend a day with him in his element as he traveled from St. Paul to rural Minnesota. (I had lunchwith Matt to talk about the governor and Minnesota politics before his initial interview with Pawlenty.) Matt’s »

Impressions of John McCain

I was on a blogger conference call with Senator John McCain this afternoon. Much of the conversation was about foreign policy, and McCain was stalwart as usual. I want to comment on two other aspects of the call. First, McCain takes generally solid positions on domestic issues, but for the most part, he doesn’t seem to want to distinguish himself on those issues. He was asked whether he would favor »

Democratic intelligence, then and now

A friend writes: Senator Durbin says Intelligence Committee Members were aware that the Iraq Intelligence didn »

Buy This Book!

We are delighted to see that Bill Bennett’s new book, the second volume of his history of the United States titled America: The Last Best Hope, is being advertised in our premium Blogad spot. Paul wrote about the book here. I’ve read the first volume, which is excellent. Volume II would make an ideal graduation present for any high school or college student–especially if you think there may be some »

Top al Qaeda Operative Captured

The Pentagon announced today the capture of Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, described as “one of al-Qaida’s most senior and most experienced operatives.” Where and when al-Hadi was captured has not been disclosed; he is a native of Iraq who served in Saddam’s military before going to Afghanistan to join bin Laden. Al-Hadi was apparently trying to return to Iraq from an undisclosed country when he was apprehended. The Wikipedia entry on »

Paulose v. Swanson: Compare and contrast

Local Minnesota media have devoted thousands of words to alleged “turmoil” in the United States Attorney’s office for Minnesota under my friend Rachel Paulose, mostly based on the self-demotion of three supervisory attorneys who have returned to work on the line. Office turnover has nevertheless been essentially nil, KSTP Eyewitness News to the contrary notwithstanding, with the resignation of only three attorneys in the year-plus that Paulose has been on »

A Searing Self-Indictment

Dick Durbin accused himself of political cowardice yesterday during the Senate debate on the surrender/pork bill. The Washington Times reports: The Senate’s No. 2 Democrat says he knew that the American public was being misled into the Iraq war but remained silent because he was sworn to secrecy as a member of the intelligence committee. “The information we had in the intelligence committee was not the same information being given »

General Petraeus’s Briefing

General David Petraeus gave a press briefing in Washington this morning. You may have seen news accounts of it; the headline generally was along the lines of “Petraeus Says Things May Get Worse.” If you want to see the whole thing–it’s a little over an hour–here it is. Needless to say, there is a great deal more information than can be conveyed in any news story. This video comes from »