Homer Bound… In filling in for Kevin this week, I had to promise not to reveal where he’s spending his vacation. All I’ll say is that I’m sure he’s enjoying the baklava. Just kidding. I don’t actually know where Kevin is. But I do know that if I were on vacation this week, I’d be […]
Paul Glastris
Paul Glastris is Editor in Chief of the Washington Monthly, founder of the magazine’s alternative college rankings, and president of the Washington Monthly Institute. He was previously a speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and a correspondent and editor at U.S. News and World Report. He is a co-founder of the National Vote at Home Institute and co-author of two books, “The Other College Guide: A Roadmap to the Right School for You,” and “Elephant in the Room: Washington in the Bush Years.” He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications.
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Perverse Polarity
In one sense these descriptions reflected a certain objective truth: Campuses were indeed polarized. In another sense, though, they missed the story completely. The ideological gulf on campuses did not result from the right and left tugging equally hard in opposite directions. It resulted from the extremism of the academic left, which was seeking both […]
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Vision Quest
Listen a little closer, however, and you may pick up a subtle but important difference in the Shrumian phraseology this time. Unlike past Democratic hopefuls, Kerry more pointedly distinguishes who he thinks the bad guys are: not corporations or the rich per se, but “lobbyists,” “the privileged,” and others who “cut corners and break laws […]
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First Draft
In a taking-the-temperature-of-Washington sort of way, this is unquestionably true. The president, his cabinet, the Pentagon brass, and leading members of Congress remain adamantly opposed to conscription. Though a handful of lawmakers have signed on to Rangel’s bill, established opinion has written off the measure as noble-but doomed. A headline from a Buffalo News editorial […]
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Why Can’t the Democrats Get Tough?
Bush’s White House is partisan, imperial, and ruthless—but not invulnerable.
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Who’s Who?
Postmaster General John Potter drew a hail of criticism for his lax response to the anthrax contamination that swept post offices. If George W. Bush is inclined to replace him, he might consider National Journal publisher David Bradley. Bradley was so spooked by anthrax that he arranged for two physicians to hold open hours for […]
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How Democrats Could Have Won
Well said. So, Frank, got any ideas? Apparently not, at least none that he chose to share with his readers. Pretty much every other pundit in America responded the same way: with contempt for the Democrats’ message, but without saying precisely what a winning alternative message might have looked like. My colleague Jonathan Rowe once […]
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Now Do You Believe We Need A Draft?
Not only are we not drafting our young men. We are not even planning to draft them. Elected leaders are not even talking about the possibility of drafting them. That terrorists might poison municipal water supplies, spray anthrax from crop dusters, or suicidally infect themselves with small pox and stroll through busy city streets, is […]
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Who’s Who?
President George W. Bush and most of his White House staff are winning extraordinary praise for their job performance since September 11. The same cannot be said for press spokesman Ari Fleischer. His public reputation took a hit when he censoriously warned that people like TV talk show host Bill Maher “need to watch what […]
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Who’s Who?
Days prior to the attack, Republicans were beginning to panic amid signs that the economy is doing worse, not better, since President George W. Bush signed his big tax cut. At a private dinner at Washington’s Metropolitan Club, senior Bush adviser Karl Rove was subjected to what The New York Times calls an “unvarnished critique” […]
