Perhaps the entire manner in which critics of the war in Iraq has just been plain off beam. Maybe even overwrought and overthougt — what with all the fancy tap dancing about “phased redeployment,” “benchmarks,” “drawdown,” and “dates certain.” Maybe we should have gone Hollywood instead and insisted that our aid agreement with Iraq carry [...]

My very good friend and official blogfather, Micah Sifry, has posted one of his trademark very good pieces on something he’s calling a new Democratic Philantocracy. These are the 100 so wealthy liberals of the Democracy Alliance who have pledged a million bucks or so each to fund “progressive” think tanks and advocacy groups. Problem [...]

I’ve found one good use for the Democrats. No more than 5 minutes into last night’s 437th presidential debate/forum, this one in New Hampshire, I was soundly dozing. The answer to the first question posed by moderator Tim Russert, whether each candidate would really get all American troops out of Iraq by (are you ready?) [...]

The House has passed an expansion of the children’s health insurance program. The Senate will do the same in the next few days. The measure would reduce the number of America’s uninsured children by 1/3, providing an additional 3 million with medical coverage. And then the President of the United States will veto the bill. [...]

The third-running John Edwards campaign may have hit a definitive speed bump last nite when the much-coveted endorsement of Big Labor’s biggest union seemed to slip one notch closer toward never happening. Once again the top council of the SEIU met and once again it failed to endorse anybody. Might not seem like much to [...]

I have allowed a decent interval to pass before finally commenting on last week’s MoveOn kerfuffle — one that apparently now has a new and unfortunate twist. Let’s start backwards. The vote last week by the Senate to condemn the Petraeus/Betray Us ad was a definite new low point for what has demonstrated itself to [...]

My Brilliant Daughter finally reveals herself in all of her natural born glory:

In light of announcement below, I’m busy doing transitional things. See you Monday.

As Captain Willard said in Apocalypse Now: “For my sins, I have been given a mission.” Here’s a new announcement about your genial host. Here’s a longer version. Maybe we can recruit you?    MARC COOPER JOINS OFFTHEBUS.NET AS EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Veteran Political Journalist to Direct Coverage of 2008 Presidential Campaign and National Politics, and [...]

Pinch me! Tell me I’m dreaming… O.J. is back and covering the tube. Hallelujah! In my just-posted L.A. Weekly column I write: It was wonderful to see OJ in handcuffs, getting hauled off to the cooler by the rough and tumble boys of Vegas Metro. Not so much because a lying, conniving double slash-murderer was [...]

John Edwards’ stalled presidential campaign might be on the verge of a major breakthrough. Or it might not. Edwards gave a rousing speech Monday before a political convention of the 1.9 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) where he has long been favored for its endorsement.  But so did several other of his Democratic [...]

Michael Mukasey? He’s going to be the next Attorney General? Filling those dainty little slippers left behind by “Fredo” Gonzalez? Who is this guy, anyway? Apparently someone the fierce Democratic opposition has already given the wink and nod to and against whom they promise no real resistance. Maybe hit him on the snout a couple [...]

There was that great moment back in the 1992 Jerry Brown presidential campaign, I have been told by someone in the room at a time, when the former California Governor had a bit of a primary surge and was headily heading into New York. His advisors were bickering about how to take the Big Apple, [...]

General David Petraeus was the trick pony. George W. Bush was the wonder dog. What a show. I watched the former for a couple of hours earlier this week. I missed the latter when he came out barking Thursday night on national TV. I was stuck in a meeting during the President’s speech but probably [...]

I had the misfortune of catching Tony Snow’s final White House press briefing (transcript here) yesterday and let me count the ways I found it so depressingly sad. Sad because, as disagreeable and abhorrent as Snow might be, I couldn’t help but feel deep sympathy for a fellow human being in such troubled straits. His [...]

Like you, I’m still floating in the backwash of reaction to the second day Petraeus/Crocker testimony, this time before the Senate. The moment that jumped out at me was the General’s refusal to say whether be believed the war in Iraq was making America safer — something, he said, he had not yet focussed on.  [...]

A 12 hour workday, plus 3 hrs of freeway commuting all peppered with fragments of Monday’s congressional hearings on the Iraq reports have left me rather bone-tired petrified. I’m pretty much gonna take the night off from blogging other than to state the obvious: The Bush Administration has failed to halt the creation of its [...]

America’s first-ever Spanish language presidential debate was real siesta fiesta — a snoozer in any language. My full report on the HuffPost.

One thing we know for sure, history will be considerably less kinder to General Petraeus than is the current American political class. You will remember that when he was named commander of our forces in Iraq, there was nary a murmur of skepticism –even from Democrats– even though by then the war was clearly collapsing. [...]

A few non-political items on this Sunday. First off, my latest piece in the Los Angeles Times Travel section which answers this burning question: Just how close can you get to Margaritaville on a half a tank of gas? Then there’s the vexing issue of what’s better: An iPhone or a Blackberry? Duh. But for [...]