 | Editorial Board: Death of a toddler raises questions in Montgomery, Pr. William Nov 27th 2012, 00:52 PRINCE McLEOD RAMS, age 151 / 2 months, was taken off life support after being declared brain-dead at 8:38 p.m. Oct. 21 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. A day earlier, paramedics had found him unresponsive, cold and without a pulse at his father's home in Manassas, where he had been on his fourth unsupervised visit permitted by Montgomery County Circuit Court amid a bitter custody battle. His mother had fiercely opposed unsupervised visits. "If anything happens to Prince, he can't say anything. He's not old enough to be talking," Hera McLeod of Gaithersburg testified at a court hearing on July 12. Read full article >>   | | Breaking Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge Nov 27th 2012, 00:19 Maybe the fever is breaking. Maybe the delirium is lifting. Maybe Republicans are finally asking themselves: What were we thinking when we put an absurdly unrealistic pledge to a Washington lobbyist ahead of our duty to the American people? Read full article >>   | | James Bond and the new sex appeal Nov 26th 2012, 23:43 In the new James Bond movie, "Skyfall," Daniel Craig takes off his shirt and examines his wounds. There appear to be two of them — small holes on his skin from bullets fired at the beginning of the movie. He touches his wounds and winces. So do I. Bond is in pain from his wounds. I am in pain from all the hours he has spent in the gym. Read full article >>   | | Politics with a purpose Nov 26th 2012, 23:43 It is Steven Spielberg's singular achievement to have made a heroic movie about compromise and petty corruption. In "Lincoln," he pans away from a field of corpses in Petersburg, 130 miles down the road from Washington, and puts a tight frame on the Cabinet meetings, legislative debates and backroom confrontations where the final, decisive battles of the Civil War were fought. Combat determined the outcome of the War Between the States. Politics determined its meaning, culminating in passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Spielberg focuses on the peculiar process that brought down the peculiar institution. It is an epic staged in cramped, Victorian rooms. Read full article >>   | | Editorial Board: U.S. must move to foster democracy in Egypt Nov 26th 2012, 23:43 EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT Mohamed Morsi sounds plausible in claiming he is not attempting to establish an Islamic dictatorship. The Muslim Brotherhood nominee, who won a two-round free election this year, issued a sweeping decree last week exempting his decisions from court review — thereby giving him more power than ever wielded by Hosni Mubarak, or any other modern Egyptian ruler. Yet his main aim appeared to be to block reactionary judges from dissolving an assembly now writing a new constitution. Having already dismissed a democratically elected parliament on a technicality, the Mubarak-appointed Supreme Court was threatening to derail the long-delayed transition to a new political system and, perhaps, to tip the country back toward chaos. Read full article >>   | | The Susan Rice I knew Nov 26th 2012, 23:13 In his Nov. 18 Sunday Opinion column, "The wrong person to fight for," Dana Milbank joined the chorus of those calling U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice unqualified to be secretary of state. I was privileged to teach Ms. Rice in two high school history courses at the National Cathedral School in Washington. She excelled in both courses. As a ninth-grader, Ms. Rice was already a writer of superb essays. I taught her again in a difficult AP course when she was a junior. Her performance was again excellent. Read full article >> | | Greg Sargent: Full speed ahead on filibuster reform? Nov 26th 2012, 22:04 On the Senate floor today, Harry Reid offered the clearest confirmation yet that he will move forward with filibuster reform at the start of the new Congress. He confirmed he is proposing to "do away with filibusters on the motion to proceed," which was already known. He added that under proposed reforms, Senators who want to filibuster will have to "stand up and talk about it." That means Reid supports the "talking filibuster," the proposal to force filibustering out into the open — on the theory that this will make it politically more difficult. Read full article >>   | | Alexandra Petri: The War on Men — Straw Feminism 101 Nov 26th 2012, 21:03 If you want to understand "Straw Feminism," look no further than this piece on FoxNews.com by Suzanne Venker about the War on Men. This article appears in the dictionary next to the words "Straw Feminism." Venker's image of feminism hits all the high (low?) notes. This is the nightmarish menace that marches fulminatingly in the dark streets, illuminated only by the fitful light of a burning bra. It articulates all the darkest fears about what women's equality has wrought. Read full article >>   | | Jennifer Rubin: An interview with Sen. John Cornyn Nov 26th 2012, 19:45 Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) is the new minority whip in the U.S. Senate. Unfortunately for the GOP, he'll have two fewer Republicans to keep track of due to a terrible 2012 election. In an extended conversation with me this morning, he candidly says that under-performing candidates did in the Republican candidates for Senate in many cases. "At least in Missouri, Indiana and North Dakota, if we had different candidates and ran better races," he says those seats would have gone for the Republicans. As head of the Republican National Senatorial Committee, Cornyn wryly notes that some insurgent groups had a "pretty poor" record in picking candidates. "Todd Akin couldn't raise money and shot himself in the foot." Indeed, many Republicans have observed that another problematic candidate, Richard Mourdock, is a nice guy and solid conservative, but mistakenly thought he could outtalk anyone. Read full article >>   | | Greg Sargent: Yes, elections do 'have consequences' Nov 26th 2012, 19:39 It is likely to become the next big talking point: Republicans are acquiescing to the will of the people by agreeing to an increase in tax revenues, via the closing of loopholes, if not in tax rates. Some Republicans are arguing today that the public actually endorses the closing of loopholes over raising tax rates on the rich. Read full article >> | | Jennifer Rubin: Dennis Ross and Washington's distracted Middle East policy Nov 26th 2012, 18:44 President Obama's former Middle East adviser Dennis Ross pens a curious commentary that highlights the underlying defect in Obama's approach to the region and much of the punditry attendant to it. Ross writes, "[I]t's precisely now that the United States needs to survey the new landscape that has emerged in the Middle East, and determine how it can shape it going forward. The place to start is with the most obvious question of all: who won and who lost? In this particular case, there is an irony: Israel, Hamas, and Egypt all gained something." He completes his piece without any mention of Iran, the most destabilizing force in the region, or Syria. Read full article >>   | | Fox News guest slams Fox Nov 26th 2012, 18:35 What happens when you agree to come on Fox News and then proceed to hammer the network for serving as a "wing of the Republican Party?" Answer: You don't stay on the air too long. Military expert Tom Ricks chatted today with Fox's Jon Scott about the Benghazi situation. Ricks was asked about how Sen. John McCain appears to be backing off of his criticism of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who made some much-criticized statements about Benghazi in a series of Sept. 16 interviews. Read full article >>   | |
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