ubad Talabani is one of those cultural anomalies who somehow seem like natural creatures of Washington. Few twenty-nine-year-olds are trusted to serve as the top envoy of a foreign entity to the United States, as Talabanithe son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabaniis by Iraqs Kurdistan Regional Government. But Talabanislim, goateed, English-accented, a onetime Italian-car mechanic […]
Laura Rozen
Posted inMagazine
Condis Conundrum
In 2005, when Condoleezza Rice became secretary of state, she took over from someone with whom she shared more than a few similarities: Colin Powell. Like Powell, Rice enjoys popularity beyond that of anyone else in the administration. Like Powell, she was schooled in the realist tradition of foreign policy thinking. And, like Powell, she […]
Posted inMagazine
Cheney’s Dead-Enders
With the departure of his longtime friend Donald Rumsfeld, John Boltons resignation as U.N. ambassador, and Democrats taking over Congress, times seem grim for the Dick Cheney wing of the Bush administration. The vice presidents vision of a unitary executiveotherwise known as the imperial presidencywill almost certainly be challenged by congressional oversight committees, and perhaps […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
BEFORE KEVIN takes away the keys, let me thank him and Washington Monthly readers for the chance to post here. It’s among my most favorite and frequently visited sites, and I’m looking forward to typing in the url and getting Kevin’s take on the news again, as no doubt, is everybody else. I also wanted […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Maureen Freely, the translator for among others Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, writes in the (August 13th) NY Times book review about Turkish writers on trial: To date, there have been more than 60 cases brought against [Turkish] novelists, publishers, journalists, scholars, politicians and cartoonists. Hrant Dink, the editor of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, currently has […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
GOP CAMPAIGN PLAYBOOK: IRAN AND JUDGES. Just over two months to go, and the Weekly Standard‘s Fred Barnes writes that prospects for the GOP in November have improved in recent polls, but not enough. Where can President Bush start to rouse Republicans to get to the polls? Barnes: “The place to start is Iran.” Here’s […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
BARRY GOLDWATER, liberal hero? An interview in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine with C.C. Goldwater reveals that her HBO film to be aired Sept. 18 paints her late grandfather, Sen. Barry Goldwater, “as a kind of liberal,” with testimonials from Al Franken, Sen. Ted Kennedy, James Carville and Sen. Hillary Clinton. In fact, Hillary […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
IRAN’S BACKYARD. Britain’s Chatham House has released a report, “Iran, its Neighbors, and Regional Crises” (.pdf), that bluntly states that, as a result of the US’s elimination of its chief regional rivals, the regimes of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and the Afghan Taliban, “there is little doubt that Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
SLOPPY BROCHURE? It is worth reading this NYT editorial, “Wanted: Scarier Intelligence,” on the strangely amateurish, hyped-up House Intelligence committee report (.pdf) on the strategic threat posed by Iran: [The report] is partly a campaign document, a product of the Republican strategy of scaring Americans into allowing the G.O.P. to retain control of Congress this […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
EPISTOLARY DIPLOMACY. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad writes more letters: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that their countries had been subjected to tyranny from World War II victors and that they should cooperate to end the imposed world order. Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a letter to Merkel in July. A copy […]
