Weighing In: Why Weiner Should Stay
Anthony Weiner is not a model of family values. He is a good politician, and he should stay in office.
Post Tagged with: "Scandal"
Memorial Day Reading
This afternoon, I came across George Orwell’s “Revenge is Sour” in a collection of his essays. Originally published in the Tribune in November 1945, it speaks to the emptiness of revenge and — more topically for today — to the disconnect between civilians and soldiers in war. Below is the final paragraph: The Belgian averted his face as we went [...]
Blumenthal Follow-Up
Like Scott Lemieux and Nate Silver, I foolishly trusted the New York Times bombshell about CT attorney general Richard Blumenthal. I jumped immediately to the question of what should be done about Blumenthal assuming he lied about his military service. It’s very easy to assume the worst about politicians, but sometimes (probably not too often) their denials and explanations can [...]
Scandals: Three-for-One Sale!
It’s scandal day in the world of politics. First, Sue Lowden, the front-runner in the Nevada Republican primary, looking to replace Harry Reid, seems to have broken campaign finance laws by accepting a luxury campaign bus from a donor. This could be good news for Reid because Lowden has been performing better in polling match-ups against Reid than have either [...]
Corruption is Hardly a Third-World Phenomenon
Recent news that BHP Billiton and Hewlett Packard are now under serious investigation for bribery should serve as a reminder that corruption at the highest level is not reserved for developing countries. Although whilte-collar crime in Wall Street has been well-known for a long time and, indeed, bankers and financiers have never had a worse reputation, we tend to reserve [...]
The Climate Is Getting Overheated
On Tuesday night I went to the Harvard Political Union’s discussion on climate change, which was centered around the question of what steps the University should be taking to be greener and on the issue of global warming in general. As part of what seemed to be a minority of non-affiliated observers at the event — i.e. not being part [...]
Conservative Revolutionaries
How the European right wing have become unlikely innovators in the worldwide financial crisis The economic crisis the world is currently experiencing has been the worst since the Great Depression. In such a period, nothing could be easier than pointing out market failures and the inefficiencies of deregulated capitalism. Indeed, it should be the perfect setting for an increase in [...]
Re: A Reactionary Party
Chris, I fear, has read too much into my use of the word “reactionary.” I meant only to suggest that Republicans have gone with libertarianism over, say, Huckabee-ism or Olympia Snowe-ism, because they are reacting to Obama’s ambitious economic progressivism. This is exactly what we would expect from a minority party: the majority gets to lay out its agenda first, [...]
The 28th Amendment?
Feingold proposes ban on Senate appointments Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) has introduced a constitutional amendment that would require elections to fill vacant seats in the Senate, prohibiting governors from filling the seats by appointment. The proposal has its downsides, but it will quite possibly become our 28th amendment, a fact we have good reason to cheer. A Little History Prior [...]
Sex and Taxes
How Obama is riding out the Democratic storm of scandals From Tom Daschle’s taxes, to Charlie Rangel’s apartments, to Rod Blagojevich’s hair, scandals have recently shaken the Democratic Party. Yet polls show that President Obama and the Democratic brand remain relatively untarnished by this long train of embarrassments. His widespread pre-existing popularity has certainly helped Obama limit the fallout from [...]
A Ticking Mandate
Historic challenges await America's new leader
The More Things Change
A new history of the disputed election of 1876
Bernie Madoff & The Fiscopalypse
The scandal surrounding Bernie Madoff’s bilking of all those nice people is, in the grand scheme of things, not that consequential. But I think it’s unsurprising that it’s sucking up a lot more press attention (for the moment) than the ongoing slow-motion collapse of our economy. After all, the Madoff story has a villain, victims, and is a straightfoward and [...]
