Ed Kilgore

Gage Skidmore/Flickr According to the most authoritative account we have of what went down when House Republicans met last night, from WaPo’s Robert Costa and Mike DeBonis, Paul Ryan’s agreed to be Speaker if and only if an unprecedented array of “conditions” are met. Some involve his much-reported demands for free weekends back in Wisconsin […]

Blues/Southern Rock guitarist Elvin Bishop is 73 today. Here he is with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band on “Double Trouble,” from the 1967 album The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw (Bishop’s nickname).

Sorry for the late finish today, but my weekly TPMCafe column took a little longer than usual. Here are some remains of the day: * Still another national poll, this one from Monmouth, shows Trump riding as high as ever over the GOP field with 28%; Ben Carson second at 18%. Establishment faves Rubio and […]

Both Greg Sargent and Ezra Klein drew attention today to an apparent effort by Joe Biden to contrast himself with Hillary Clinton in terms of how he feels about Republicans. Here’s Greg’s characterization: Hillary Clinton’s Democratic rivals are now faulting her for joking (sort of joking, anyway) during the Democratic debate that she is proud […]

As usual, even if he’s late to a party, Michael Lind arrives with lots of party favors. So now, long after most of us gabbers have used the hard times of Rand Paul’s presidential candidacy to mock “the libertarian moment,” the erudite if sometimes cranky Lind has an interesting piece up a Politico Magazine that […]

Valsts kanceleja/ State Chancellery/Flickr So we are now being told by WaPo’s Robert Costa and Mike DeBonis that the House Republican Conference will meet tonight to discuss the Speakership, at which time we will probably find out if enough members of the the House Freedom Conference will tug their forelocks to enable Paul Ryan to […]

Last night’s news made me nostalgic for Canada. Anyone up there wanting to cover my expenses for a speaking gig can feel free to set it right up. Here are some cross-border midday news/views treats: * Canadian-born David Frum makes dubious argument that Liberal win (attributable in part to collapse of social-democratic NDP) another sign […]

Gage Skidmore/Flickr Any Republicans pondering a frontal assault on Donald Trump should take a long look at how that’s worked out for Louisiana’s least favorite son, Bobby Jindal. To be sure, Bobby’s had at least three separate personas since he began lusting after the presidential nomination. At first he was the Brainiac offering succor to […]

Gage Skidmore/Flickr After the second Republican presidential debate last month, there was considerable angst as most polls showed three candidates with exactly zero experience in public office, Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Dr. Ben Carson, together holding half or more of the total vote. In a survey conducted from September 17-19, for example (immediately after […]

Rob Shenk/Flickr We may get a presidential candidacy announcement today after all: former Senator Jim Webb is going to fold his barely breathing Democratic presidential nomination campaign, according to Politico‘s Nick Gass. Webb will not, apparently, say much about his own campaign’s suggestion yesterday that he’s now exploring an independent presidential bid. You could see […]