In the fall of 1991, the political right was gunning for Arlen Specter. Four years earlier, he’d infuriated them by lending a critical assist to the successful campaign to kill Robert Bork’s Supreme Court nomination and he’d done little in the intervening time to make peace with them. Now, with Specter facing reelection Read More
It's easy to brand Arlen Specter's decision to leave the Republican Party—a move directly precipitated by his realization that his career would end with next year's Pennsylvania Senate primary unless he left the G.O.P.—a nakedly unprincipled act of political survival.
And that's just what Specter's critics, on the right, on the left, and in the Read More
Arlen Specter and the Democratic Party leadership cut a deal that makes plenty of sense on the surface: Specter is rescued from a doomed Republican primary campaign that would have ended his 30-year Senate career next year, while Democrats pick up what will be (after Al Franken is finally seated) their 60th vote in the Read More
“I grew up in Lousiana and I learned a little bit about milking a cow,” said Lt. Gen. Joe Ballard on a Clinton campaign conference call today, referring to Barack Obama’s record on Iraq. “Just because you recognize the cow doesn’t mean you know how to milk it.”
“No one can tell you how Read More
“I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation,” said the President of the United States, sounding as peevish as a toddler banging his silver spoon on the high chair. “But I’m the decider, and I decide what’s best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as Read More
“I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation,” said the President of the United States, sounding as peevish as a toddler banging his silver spoon on the high chair. “But I’m the decider, and I decide what’s best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain Read More
