February 2015

We've just finished tabulating the results an online poll conducted during the last week of WEEKLY STANDARD readers. They were given a chance to let us know who would be, as of now, their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices for the GOP presidential nomination. We want to thank the 3,700 readers who…

Lost in much of the reporting about CPAC is that almost all of the likely presidential candidates—really, all of them, with the exception of Rand Paul—seemed to place themselves at the Reaganite hawkish-internationalist end of the foreign policy spectrum. The much-heralded return of Republican…

The Democratic National Committee is already asking its supporters to "Stop Scott Walker." That's the subject of an email sent along this afternoon to supporters.

Over the past few days at CPAC, Sean Hannity has asked various prospective Republican presidential candidates to list their “top five agenda items.” Former governor Jeb Bush’s list did not include repealing Obamacare.

The latest ad from the Emergency Committee for Israel asks whether Hillary Clinton stands with the supporters of Israel, or whether she stands with the boycotters. Watch here:

There will come a time when the survivor of the circular firing squad that is commonly known as the Republican primary debates will square off against Hillary Clinton. That survivor will have to grin and bear seeing multiple videos of his Republican opponents attacking him for one thing or another.…

The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue is out. The gender police are not amused. The Factual Feminist explains the theory of the “male gaze.”

By most accounts, former Florida governor Jeb Bush performed well (to some observers, “very, very” well) in his Friday appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington. The likely presidential candidate succeeded in defying expectations by receiving a warm reception at…

The tenuous (and likely temporary) truce in Ukraine may have put another feather in German chancellor Angela Merkel’s cap: It seemingly vindicates her Diplomatie statt Waffen (“diplomacy instead of weapons”) stand against Obama. And it’ll be a while before everyone wakes up to how Russia uses the…

Some walked out of Jeb Bush's CPAC speech earlier today outside Washington, D.C.:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Hillary Clinton. 

Kentucky senator Rand Paul strolled onto the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington Friday as a committed crowd of supporters cheered. Wearing a light blue Brooks Brothers shirt (sleeves rolled up), a red tie, and blue jeans, Paul made a case for his…

Thomas Joscelyn talked on Fox News today about newly uncovered documents from the Osama bin Laden compound in Pakistan that reveal a direct connection between al Qaeda and Iran:

This week, prosecutors in New York introduced eight documents recovered in Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan as evidence in the trial of a terrorism suspect. The U.S. government accuses Abid Naseer of taking part in al Qaeda’s scheme to attack targets in Europe and New York City. And…

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker received a warm reception from the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday evening, but faced a lot of criticism for his response to a question about what he would do to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. "I want a commander in chief…

Matthew Continetti, writing for the Washington Free Beacon:

Not long ago, Harvard Law School's Charles Ogletree told Politico that Eric Holder "is a race man":

When is a tax break really just government spending? When it's a "refundable tax credit."

The economy did not grow as robustly in the 4th quarter as had been thought.  Bloomberg reports that:

President Barack Obama will not be meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week when the Israeli leader comes to Washington. Neither will Secretary of State John Kerry. And though Netanyahu will deliver an address to a joint session of Congress (thanks to an invitation from Republican…

Al Sharpton met with the president of the United States yesterday. "President Obama met with African American civil rights and faith leaders to provide an update on the Administration’s priorities as described in the State of the Union. The meeting was also an opportunity to have a dialogue with…

Usually when the Obama administration is discussing doctors and health issues, Obamacare is on the table. Thursday, however, the White House threw a curve by linking health to climate change. In a new blog post, the White House declares that "7 out of 10 Doctors [say] Climate Change Is Already…

On January 6, less than a week after Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas signed the treaty to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon announced the PA will become a member of the international tribunal on April 1. As a member, the PA would…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Elliott Abrams from the Council on Foreign Relations on his recent item "U.S. and Israel: The Manufactured Crisis."

The Washington Post is up with a doozy of a story showing some serious and troubling financial conflicts of interest during Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State. Read the whole thing, but here are some key paragraphs:

ISIS continues its war on civilization by burning:

Next Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether the Obama administration has been illegally providing taxpayer-funded subsidies in 36 states under the guise of implementing Obamacare, and there’s been much debate about what Congress should do if the Court rules that the…

The recovery may be slowing and the end of the Fed’s QE efforts receding further into the future.

Amid reports that a nuclear deal with Iran may freeze that country's ability to produce nuclear fuel for only ten years in exchange for sanctions relief, President Obama appeared to soften his words on the Iran negotiations if not his position. Following a meeting with the Amir of Qatar earlier…

The crisis between the United States and Israel has been manufactured by the Obama administration. Building a crisis up or down is well within the administration’s power, and it has chosen to build it up. Why? Three reasons: to damage and defeat Netanyahu (whom Obama has always disliked simply…

... “getting worse every day” and Western efforts to deter Russian intervention are having little effect … That was the testimony of NATO’s top military commander, Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, on Wednesday.  As the Washington Post reports, General Breedlove told the House Armed Services…

The Obama administration in recent weeks has been trumpeting the number of signups for health insurance through the Obamacare marketplaces for 2015, but at least 90,000 consumers who had coverage last year are losing it. In this week's Affordable Care Act open enrollment report, the Department of…

In a town hall in Miami, President Obama encouraged probable Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush to lobby folks in his party to support immigration reform:

President Obama warned workers at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: implement executive amnesty, or else. He made the comments in a town hall event on immigration on MSNBC.

In an MSNBC townhall in Miami, President Obama vows to fight the court ruling against the executive amnesty he adopted last year.

The Washington Post has found us out.  We Americans are Philistines and slobs, utterly lacking in refinement.  

A great Gary Schmitt line Peter Baker's piece on presidential powers in the New York Times today:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Mark Hemingway on Obama's Keystone veto, and the attack of the environmentalists on sensible energy policies.

Over at Reason, Pete Suderman has a great piece about how Japan is looking to robots to help care for its geriatric citizens. It’s funny and creepy and you should totally read it.

Dieudonne, the alleged “comedian” whose performances have been banned across France on account of his anti-Semitism, may not have won any Oscars this week, but he was given another award recently. In Tehran earlier this month, Iran’s Holocaust-denying former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, gave…

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and eight other members of a congressional delegation that recently headed to Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti, spoke positively of the trip at a press conference on Tuesday. They not only met with government officials in each country, but they also visited…

Hillary Clinton took a strong position in support of so-called net neutrality in an appearance yesterday evening in Silicon Valley:

On his blog this morning, Roger Pielke Jr. at the University of Colorado, a respected climate scientist, reveals that he was one of seven academics being being investigated by Rep. Raul Grijalva, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources. Grijalva wants to know all university…

The Obama administration’s line on the economy appears to be that it has finally turned the corner and things are truly humming.  And maybe so.  But there are signs of trouble amid all the good cheer.

President Obama is holding a closed-door White House meeting with "immigration advocacy leaders" this morning, the White House announced. Later today the president will hold an immigration townhall in Miami, which will be broadcast on MSNBC.

Supporters of Ready for Hillary, the super PAC pushing Hillary Clinton to run for president of the United States, received an email last night with this subject: "FLASH SALE: Huge savings on the entire store!"

Hillary Clinton gave a paid speech in Silicon Valley Tuesday. But before her public remarks to the Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women, the Democratic presidential candidate met with her daughter's boss.

Supporters of Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO and Republican Senate candidate from California, have started a new political action committee ahead of a possible Fiorina presidential run. The PAC, called Carly for America, will be separate and distinct from Fiorina's Unlocking…

Hillary Clinton has been accused of borrowing lines from Carly Florina, a possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate. The accusation was made on Twitter by Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman for Fiorina. Tweet Tweet Tweet Tweet Tweet

Yesterday, writing in his weekly "Kristol Clear" newsletter, the boss sent around an updated straw poll to gauge who readers think, at this point, should be the 2016 GOP nominee.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with associate editor Ethan Epstein on his recent item "The Uselessness of Selecting a ‘Useful’ College Major."

Ian Talley of the Wall Street Journal writes that according to Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund:

Lindsey Graham is no one’s idea of a hot presidential candidate. Pulling in 1 percent support in the mid-February CNN/ORC International poll of prospective Republican nominees, he’s at the very bottom, alongside Carly Fiorina and Bobby Jindal. But South Carolina’s senior senator has an edge that…

A bipartisan group of mmore than eighty influential national security experts, from former Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Michèle Flournoy to Bill Kristol, have written a letter to congressional leadership to urge increased defense spending. 

Muslim political and religious leaders in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is partitioned between a “Republic of Serbs” and a “Muslim-Croat Federation,” have taken firm measures to stop agitation and recruitment for ISIS.

Morgan True who writes for Vermont Digger  the state’s premier news website, reports that Jonathan Gruber, who so famously helped design Romneycare and Obamacare then bragged about how the “stupidity” of the American voters helped make the creation of his masterworks possible, is in a spot of…

The same day the White House renewed a push to increase the federal minimum wage, an announcement appeared on the White House blog for the Summer 2015 White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders [AAPI] Internship Program -- all unpaid positions. Even in prior administrations,…

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey will announce in a speech in Trenton Tuesday that the New Jersey Education Association has endorsed the Republican's "roadmap" for pension reform. Christie, who made a national name for himself over his public battles with teachers unions in the Garden State,…

Democrats have not had to answer for the actions of Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (who offered to change a policy position in exchange for not being criticized, and threatened to paint President Obama as anti-Semitic and anti-women). Or for the Bill, Hillary, and…

MNSBC's Morning Joe reported this morning that President Bill Clinton hosted an Israeli prime minister, Shimon Peres, in his election against Benjamin Netanyahu. President Obama is refusing to meet with Netanyahu next week because, he says, it's too close to Israel's election day.

Today, the Republican nomination process is a muddle. The Washington Post recently christened Jeb Bush the frontrunner, and for good reason. He is pulling in the top Republican talent -- the donors, consultants, and various policy advisors necessary to fund and run a top-notch campaign.

The Veterans Affairs secretary lied about serving in the special forces, a report in the Huffington Post alleges.

The CBC reports that:

In today’s edition of Kristol Clear, the Boss notes an interesting exchange on This Week with George Stephanopoulos:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on Scott Walker and his battle with the D.C. press corps, all while President Obama capitulates to Iran.

The country’s incoming college students have been exhorted, repeatedly, to major in something “useful,” rather than something intellectual. The idea is that there is a split between “useful” majors, which teach a specific skill (like marketing, computer science, or architecture) and “useless”…

Monday, Louisiana's Republican governor Bobby Jindal defended the thrust, if not the word choice, of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's critique of President Barack Obama. Jindal, speaking outside the White House following a meeting between the nation's governors and the president, said…

Someone in the Pentagon, speaking on background (which is a pretty crowded place, these days) has let the world, and our enemies, know when and where the offensive is coming. According to the New York Times, “The assault to retake Mosul, Iraq, from the Islamic State will require 20,000 to 25,000…

In 1993, Terry McAuliffe authored a memo that would essentially turn the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House into a hotel for top campaign donors. It would "be an excellent opportunity to energize our key people for the upcoming year," McAuliffe wrote. Now McAuliffe, who is currently the governor of…

In his multiple Sunday talk show appearances this week, Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson echoed the defenders of the Obama administration’s refusal to use terms like “radical Islamism” to refer to the likes of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Johnson argued that a debate over what…

In an email to supporters, Chelsea Clinton is asking for donations to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

How are the ongoing nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran playing out in the Iranian press? Well, the U.S. is being portrayed as desperate.

Secretary of State John Kerry continued to beat the drum on the dangers of climate change Friday, noting that "there is no Planet B." The secretary made the remarks at the swearing-in ceremony for Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom David Saperstein. He drew a religious connection to the…

While answering questions from service members in Kandahar, Afghanistan, newly sworn-in Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter revealed that he is "open-minded" about transgendered individuals serving in the military, adding, "I don't think anything but their suitability for service should preclude…

It’s still two years before the next president takes the oath of office, but the contest that will determine who raises his right hand that day started in earnest last month for Republicans, with a grassroots gathering in Iowa and a meeting of high-dollar donors in California.

In malls today it is inhuman

If the truth be told, The Scrapbook has been relatively unengaged by the Brian Williams crisis. Yes, the revelation that Williams is a serial fabricator​—​inventing details about wartime exploits and brushes with death​—​is a problem for his employer, NBC News. Its earnest, upright corporate face…

The Supreme Court won’t hear arguments in King v. Burwell, a lawsuit challenging the legality of subsidies in the federal Obamacare exchange, until early March, but The Scrapbook is already eagerly anticipating the suit for no other reason than that it is shaping up as a case study in the lawyerly…

David Axelrod is the man who, more than any other, could be called Barack Obama’s brain (though Axelrod would be publicly horrified by the honorific, and would hasten to assure Valerie Jarrett that he has never been in communication with the editors of this magazine). In his new book, Axelrod…

According to my mechanic, that burning smell emanating from my car’s vents was caused by an oil leak near the camshaft synchronizing sensor underneath the right side of the engine. Unfortunately I had no idea what he was talking about. He lost me at camshaft.

For Coco Chanel, the Duchess of Windsor’s declaration that “you can’t be too rich or too thin” was holy writ. Born into poverty in 1883, she was worth the equivalent of almost $1 billion before she was 50. To the age of modernism, she contributed a streamlined female silhouette that radically…

In 1732, Jonathan Swift wrote a friend that, while he had lost all hope of favor with those in power in Dublin, he had won “the love of the Irish vulgar” and inspired “two or three dozen signposts of the Drapier in this city.” Here, he was referring to Dublin’s gratitude for the eloquent stand he…

This month, the Canadian Supreme Court trampled democratic deliberation by unanimously conjuring a constitutional right to “termination of life” for anyone who has an “irremediable medical condition” and wants to die. Note the scope of the judicial fiat is not limited to the terminally ill: The…

Rivers have rights, they say down in Mora County, New Mexico—“inalienable and fundamental rights,” beyond the power of any government to touch. Aquifers, too. Wetlands, streams, ecosystems, and even “natural communities,” whatever that undefined term means: All of them have rights to “exist and…

President Obama’s claim to have disapproved of gay marriage until he changed his mind in 2012 has been exposed as a lie. It was a small, politically expedient lie, but it got a lot of attention last week. Meanwhile a bigger lie hovers over the Obama presidency like an avenging angel, unseen and…

Although Bernard Bailyn is one of the most distinguished historians in the Western world, he is not as well known as he should be. He rarely appears in the popular media, and he has never published a book that has sold millions of copies. But all those who are seriously interested in the history of…

Obamacare is an affront to American principles. It amounts to an unprecedented consolidation of money and control in the hands of the federal bureaucracy. It forces private citizens to buy a product or service of the government’s choosing for the first time in history, and it bans millions of…

What is it about airlines that we find so aggravating? Let us count the ways: There’s the baggage fee, the too-small seats, the $8 sandwich, that special dirty-red carpet at the gate that only elite fliers get to walk on. And then there’s the waiting list for seat upgrades. As noted in the Wall…

The portmanteau novel—the work of fiction that follows the interlocking lives of a group of characters,  once practiced by writers from John Galsworthy to Scholem Asch—has all but disappeared. But the republication of Olivia Manning’s Fortunes of War in two luxurious volumes serves as a welcome…

Time and again it is reported that Muslim terrorists in the process of inflicting lethal bodily harm (with firearms, explosives, knives, or by running over people with cars) shout “God is Great!” (Allahu Akbar). It is a remarkable and seemingly puzzling phenomenon that has received little…

I don’t remember when I have been more deeply affected by a film than I was by The Last Five Years, a jewel box of a movie-musical that is unquestionably the best of its kind since Chicago was released in 2003. It is at once a tiny slip of a thing and an emotional blockbuster. Over the course of a…

The recent controversy over a Fox News segment on “no-go zones” in France, culminating in Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo’s threat to sue the American channel, was a surreal experience for French-speakers, connoisseurs of France, and, above all, the French themselves. For while the original remarks by Fox…

In case you haven’t noticed, the Constitution is being amended​—​though not according to the process our supreme law actually provides for. Which is, first, that two-thirds of both houses propose the amendment and, second, that the amendment then be ratified by the legislatures of three-quarters of…

Since the founding of our nation, political defeat has been a catalyst for innovation. Federalist triumphs in 1796 and 1798 prompted the Jeffersonian opposition to develop the first party organization. The collapse of the Whig party, morally ambivalent on the issue of slavery, in the early 1850s…

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons accepted his best supporting actor award by telling everybody to call your parents:

Department of Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson basically warned against going to the Mall of America today, after threats of a terror attack by al Shabaab. " I would say that, if anyone is planning to go to the Mall of America today, they have got to be particularly careful," said Johnson.

Former Texas governor Rick Perry is taking on Russian president Vladimir Putin. The possible presidential candidate says that the "peace and security of the world" depends on how America deals with Russia.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with literary editor Philip Terzian on the February 23rd issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD's Books & Arts section.

Hillary Clinton would likely defend her continued spate of high-dollar speaking engagements, according to a New York Times reporter, as follows: "It's expensive to be a Clinton."

In the context of the Washington Post asking possible Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker whether President Obama's a Christian, it's worth remembering when Hillary Clinton was asked if Obama was a Muslim. She "inject[ed] a note of ambivalence," as ABC wrote at the time.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD Casual Podcast, with Victorino Matus reading his casual essay "Car Talk."

Everyone knows that the coming Israel election, to be held March 17, is a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Rand Paul chided Rudy Giuliani for comments the former New York City mayor made about Barack Obama's love for his country. In a television interview with local Louisville station WAVE, Paul said, “it's one thing to disagree on policy” but “it’s a mistake to question people’s motives.”

Markets work. That’s the message from Walmart’s decision to raise its starting wage for 500,000 of its 1.3 million US employees to $10 per hour starting next year. That’s 37% above the statutory minimum of $7.25. No, the notably cost-conscious company, the largest private-sector employer in…

A former IRS tax examiner was indicted Friday along with three conspirators for filing false tax returns and making false claims for lost income related to the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The IRS worker, Jimmie McCorvey of Pensacola, FL, helped the other three obtain $95,200 from…

Lucian Kim at Reuters writes that:

This week's three-day White House summit on "countering violent extremism" ended Thursday, but the community-focused spirit of the summit lives on. In a Friday blog post at the State Department's "Dip Note," the Obama administration asks readers a question: "What Solutions Do You Think Are Most…

On his recent trip to Hungary, Vladimir Putin stirred controversy by visiting the monument erected to the memory of the Soviet soldiers who violently crushed the Hungarian ‘counterrevolution’ of 1956. While his Hungarian hosts remained silent, the symbolic dimension of this act of territorial…

The infamous "Uruguay Six" have turned their up noses at gainful employment, according to their host country's president. So much for Marie Harf's jihadi jobs program.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest twice refused to apologize to the estimate 800,000 Americans who were hit by the latest Obamacare glitch:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on Rudy Giuliani, President Obama, and the Oscars.

Matthew Continetti writes at the Washington Free Beacon:

The Associated Press reports:

Just weeks after announcing a program to make two years of community college free to all, President Obama has doubled down on "free" by introducing a plan to give all fourth-graders and their families a year of free access to all national parks. The "Every Kid in a Park" initiative, introduced to…

Late Thursday afternoon, guards at Venezuela’s infamous Ramo Verde military prison attempted to abduct opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez from the cramped dungeon cell in which he has been held incommunicado. Lopez refused to leave unless he was in the presence of his lawyers and a representative of…

Florida congresswoman and chairman of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz might have been the subject of a federal investigation, suggests a former Democratic politician and ex-con. Politico reports that Wasserman Schultz "offered to change her position on medical marijuana…

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska coherently explains the President Obama's negotiations with Iran, and says that his administration "isn’t negotiating" but getting its "lunch money taken in an alley."

It is said that history is written by the victors. Maybe so, but in the United States over the last century, history has largely been written by the liberals. This inevitably leads to bias, which inevitably operates on even the most impartial of minds. While most historians try to be fair and…

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is up for reelection, and President Obama stopped by his campaign headquarters to praise his mayor.

There was a nugget in President Obama’s widely criticized speech at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month that hasn’t received the notice –- and, frankly, the opprobrium -- that it deserved. (In fact, only Salon.com of all places, seems to have glommed onto it.) Towards the end of his…

Peter Sullivan’s story in The Hill comes with this headline:

Fred Barnes, writing for the Wall Street Journal:

More than three-quarters of likely voters say negotiations with Iran should have the goal of stopping the regime in Tehran from ever getting nuclear weapons capability. According to a new poll from Republican pollster John McLaughlin, likely voters were asked about the United States's current…

In conjunction with the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, Secretary of State John Kerry has written an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal where he argues that when a government provides basic needs and a "chance at a better life," people are much less likely to "strap on an AK-47…

Georgia's new Republican senator David Perdue took his first foreign trip as a member of Congress to Israel. Perdue, the former CEO of Reebok and Dollar General, met with Benjamin Netanyahu and appeared in a video statement with the Israeli prime minister. The Republican said he made his first trip…

Last November, Tennessee’s Republican governor Bill Haslam won his reelection effort resoundingly, taking 70 percent of the vote and every single county in the state. Just six weeks later, Haslam surprised nearly everyone in Tennessee’s Republican-controlled state assembly by announcing that one of…

That is how British defense secretary Michael Fallon describes the threat Putin poses to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. As Reuters reports, Fallon made these remarks as:

On its much maligned Twitter feed, Think AgainTurn Away, the State Department is denouncing higher taxes -- and even asserting they're evidence a utopian society is a pipe dream.

Pennsylvania's Democratic governor Tom Wolf is just shy of a month into the new job, but one his cabinet nominations has raised eyebrows in Harrisburg and across the state. Wolf has nominated Pedro Cortes to be secretary of state, a job Cortes held in the last Democratic administration, two-term…

Conservative website Newsmax has pledged a very large donation to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, a new report in the Wall Street Journal states.

In remarks  at the Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, President Obama warned that one can't profile a terrorist, or predict who will become one. It's not determined by people or any particular faith, the president said.

Megan R. Wilson at the Hill writes that:

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro, have much more in common than failing economies, populist rhetoric, and a penchant for extra-judicial political maneuvers: they are both the first and second (respectively) highest recipients of Chinese…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on the old school politics of Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush

Republican senators Mike Lee, Ben Sasse, and Rand Paul have all been high profile opponents of the Obama administrations current plan to regulate the internet -- in particular, Lee has called the regulation a government "takeover" of the internet and says it amounts to a "a massive tax increase on…

The taxman has stepped in at the eleventh hour to modify a little-known tax law change that is (still) set to impact most businesses across the country.

Jeb Bush, a probable Republican presidential candidate, defended the "hugely important" NSA data collection program in a speech today in Chicago:

Liberal commentator Juan Williams called the foreign donations to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation "rank influence peddling" and "unethical" in remarks today on Fox News:

Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the release of a United Nations’s Commission on Inquiry’s report on human rights in North Korea. The U.N. report laid out, in devastating detail, what we’ve known for all too long: Kim Jong-un’s dictatorship is the Westboro Baptist Church of regimes –…

Vice President Joe Biden met with a Muslim community leader who had suggested Israel might be a suspect in the 9/11 attacks. The meeting took place on the first day of the Obama administration's three-day summit to "counter violent extremism." Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon reports:

Michael Brendan Doughtery had an interesting piece at The Week, in which he calls Andrew Jackson “The Worst Great President.” He writes:

It was more than 20 years in the past that a Bush and a Clinton faced off against each other in a presidential election. Back in 1992, that was incumbent GOP president George Bush and his successful Democratic challenger Bill Clinton. Twenty-three years later, Bush's son Jeb and Clinton's wife…

Encouraged by Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin mocked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her Ivy League degree in remarks posted to Kelly's Facebook page.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who is considering seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2016, will deliver a foreign policy address in Chicago Wednesday morning. Bush is expected to speak about his vision for how the United States can "regain its leadership in the world" and to…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with staff writer Jay Cost on his new book A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of American Political Corruption.

Around 20 Democratic members of the Virginia house of delegates twice fled the chamber in Richmond earlier this month during a vote on a resolution supporting the state of Israel. The video below shows the house holding its vote on February 5. The resolution passed 70 to 2, despite there being 100…

CNN's Alexandra Jaffe reports that a new poll shows Americans oppose President Obama's handling of the ISIS threat by a 17-point margin: 

Marc Caputo reports at Politico that Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is eyeing a seat in the Senate:

Joe Biden got a little too close for comfort with another woman who doesn't know him today. At the swearing-in ceremony of defense secretary Ash Carter, Biden put his hands on the shoulders of Carter's wife and apparently leaned in to whisper something in her ear:

The Washington Free Beacon is running an excerpt of Jay Cost's new book A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of American Political Corruption. In this chapter, Cost explains how the staggering growth in the number of registered lobbyists--their ranks have swelled more than 300-fold since…

Anton Zverev of Reuters reports that

A federal judge in Texas issued an injunction Monday to halt the implementation of a December executive order by President Barack Obama on immigration. The Associated Press reports:

New York businessman and former Hillary Clinton bundler John Catsimatidis says he hears from some Iowa Democrats that Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren could beat the former secretary of state and first lady in a Democratic primary. Speaking on Bloomberg News, Catsimatidis said Clinton still…

The Obama adminstration begins its three-day summit on countering violent extremism with a "roundtable discussion" Tuesday afternoon led by Vice President Joe Biden and including "representatives from cities working to address the spread of violent extremism." President Barack Obama will join the…

David Frum at the Atlantic explains the root of President Obama's insistence on downplaying the Islamic element inherent in the terrorism haunting America and the West:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on President Obama, the Copenhagen shootings, and ISIS.

A number of guests at a Politico reporter's wedding this weekend held up campaign signs for Hillary Clinton during one of the party's "wild dances." According to Politico's Mike Allen, there were several "Hillary for President" signs present at the Sunday wedding of reporter Jake Sherman and former…

Last week, the government confirmed that Kayla Mueller had died while in the custody of ISIS. In the weeks prior, we learned about the brutal murders of three innocent people -- the beheading of two Japanese citizens and the immolation of a Jordanian pilot. That followed news that Russia was…

The latest episode of Conversations With Bill Kristol, featuring Bill Bennett:

Nothing like a quiet Sunday with the New York Times. Start with the sports section, as I do, hoping for an escape from the paper’s relentlessly liberal approach to what it calls news. No luck. It seems that James Dolan, owner of the Knicks and Madison Square Garden, host to this year’s All-Star…

Critics, often, are merely bad historians. And just as poor recorders of the past repeat tattered untruths about Christopher Columbus or the Industrial Revolution without bothering to investigate their warmed-over gaffes and inaccuracies, so do arbiters of literature echo the nonsensical opinions…

At what point do we—the institution and our nation—lose our soldiers’ trust? The trust that we will provide them the right resources—the training and equipment—to properly prepare them and lead them into harm’s way. Trust that we will appropriately take care of our soldiers, our civilians, and…

After years of claiming to have come under fire while helicoptering into Iraq in 2003, Brian Williams, the top NBC news reader, admitted to Stars and Stripes last week that the attack had happened to a different helicopter, not the one he was in. In what was perhaps the most gnomic utterance…

Every couple of generations, the West gets lucky. The civilizational collapse of the 1930s, in reaction to the Great War and then the Great Depression, could well have led to an unbelievably brutal world dominated for decades by tyrannical communism, barbaric National Socialism, and fanatical…

A poignant notice from the website of Borderland Books, an independent bookstore in San Francisco’s Mission District:

To judge by what is fittingly called the “head shot” of Frances Larson on the jacket of her book, she is a young and pretty woman with a remarkably long neck. If one were a headsman—that is, if headsmen were still plying their ancient trade, outside the desert wastes of Iraq and Syria and Saudi…

We are in a war with Saudi Arabia—and losing. The Saudis aim to regain substantial control of our oil supply by driving from the industry many of our shale-oil-producing frackers who have reduced the power conveyed to the kingdom’s rulers by the underground ocean of oil on which their palaces sit.…

Boy, that didn’t take long. Over the span of a few short days in late January and early February, three members of the top tier of Republican presidential candidates demonstrated why they’ll never be president. They didn’t do anything to disqualify themselves directly, just revealed the traits that…

If liberal and secular-minded people want a glimpse into the dark and baleful agenda of American evangelical Christians, they should read this book. What they’ll find may shock many of them to the core. 

Researchers at Cambridge and the Complutense University of Madrid recently suggested that two planets larger than Earth might exist in the solar system, beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto. Skywatchers are atwitter, as well they should be. If true, this is major news. 

The Scrapbook was saddened to learn last week of the death, after a long illness, of Sir Martin Gilbert, the British historian. He was 78 years old. Sir Martin, whose grandparents had fled to England from czarist Russia after a pogrom, was an Oxford-educated scholar and writer of exceptional…

Every generation has its geniuses, but some endowments of genius are greater than others. As Harold Bloom once wrote, we can assume that we’ll see another Stravinsky or Louis Armstrong, a Picasso or Matisse, a Proust or even a James Joyce. But “to hope for a Dante or Shakespeare, a J. S. Bach or…

"We can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices.” As recently as two years ago, that’s what the president was saying—with his usual self-assurance—about the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and on oil in general. And he wasn’t the only one. The line was widely echoed on the political left, where…

From almost the moment President Obama assumed office, observers began calling attention to his unusual proclivity to use the pronoun I. In one of the earliest notices of this practice, an alarmed Terence Jeffrey of CNS News counted 34 I’s in the president’s speech on the federal rescue of General…

For eight hectic, bloody years (1532-40), Thomas Cromwell dominated English political life. Prodigiously hard-working—he must have slept even less than did Margaret Thatcher—hyper-astute, and undoubtedly driven by a profound vision of what England could and (he believed) should become, he made a…

Our perceptions of current events are so conditioned by the 24/7 news cycle that we are wont to think of political time in tiny increments. For instance, Barack Obama is up in the polls over the last few weeks, so he is “winning,” in some ephemeral sense. Congressional Republicans are struggling to…

Democrats have moved to the left in the Obama era. And if the party’s base, President Obama, and Senator Elizabeth Warren have their way, they will move even further to the left in the next two years. Liberals will rejoice, but there’s a downside. The Democratic nominee will have a considerably…

Warsaw

There were two seemingly unrelated news stories last week that The Scrapbook has been pondering. The first is about another high-profile campus rape story that seems to be falling apart. A student named Emma Sulkowicz turned her alleged rape in August 2012 into an art project, carrying a mattress…

Anyone who has toured a house for sale in the past few decades knows that walking into a child’s bedroom is a little like entering a trophy shop. The trophies might be neatly arranged on shelves and tabletops, or strewn haphazardly across the floor; and they might be measured in feet, rather than…

Reader Roger H. Madon writes to The Scrapbook:

Yesterday evening’s Copenhagen synagogue shooting is yet another attack on Jews as Jews -- just as we have witnessed such attacks at the Toulouse Jewish primary school, the Brussels Jewish museum, the Paris kosher supermarket, the firebombing of the synagogue in the German city of Wuppertal, and at…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD Casual Podcast, with Philip Terzian his casual essay "Trophy Summer."

In his most recent weekly column, Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Matthew Continetti argues, “Our ISIS problem is a consequence of the American failure to respond effectively to our almost four-years-old Syrian problem.” Obama’s resolution seeking an authorization of military force and his…

In an effort to sign up as many consumers as possible for insurance under the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare), the Obama administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to partner with churches and other faith-based groups, even publishing sample church bulletin inserts, flyers, and scripts for…

In the latest Likud ad for the upcoming Israeli elections, a group of ISIS terrorists (played by actors, of course) are seen asking for directions to Jerusalem. Likud is led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Elections there are a month away. 

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with literary editor Philip Terzian on the February 16th issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD's Books & Arts section.

Vice President Joe Biden will be headed to South Carolina, an important early primary state. He'll make the trip, which includes a stop in North Carolina, on Wednesday and Thursday.

New York Times columnist Gail Collins writes about Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's recent speech in Iowa:

The right and left are moving towards each other, in a sort of pincers movement designed to destroy the army of free traders pressing Congress to give President Obama what is known as fast-track authority. That would permit him to put any trade deals he negotiates with eleven Pacific Rim countries…

As Scott Walker surges in the 2016 GOP primary polls, Democrats and the mainstream media have taken a newfound interest in the well-known fact that the Wisconsin governor never received a college degree. The Washington Post asserts there are "lingering questions" surrounding Walker's departure, but…

From the Foreign Policy Initiative:

Prompted by the death of two children in recent years, Senate Democrats are taking a stand on the issue of the appearance of laundry and dishwasher detergent pods.

Texas senator Ted Cruz mocks the FCC Internet regulations, supported by President Obama, in a newly released video:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Senior Fellow and frequent contributor Thomas Joscelyn on the fight against ISIS.

Jesse Byrnes of The Hill writes that:

Benjamin Netanyahu is not the first Israeli prime minister to find himself at odds with Washington. In fact, several prime ministers from the Labor Party, Netanyahu's traditional rival, have suffered the wrath of an angry American president.

ISIS has made its greatest gains and won its most significant victories in Iraq’s Anbar province.  This is where the offensive against ISIS is expected to begin, sometime in the next few months, with an attempt to retake the city of Mosul.  But while preparations for that campaign are underway,…

Vice President Biden spent about a day and a half in Belgium in early February to meet with various European leaders, but his entourage, security team and other delegation members required up to 209 rooms for up to three weeks surrounding the visit. While the estimated tab was $690,507, this cost…

The Washington Post has a long article up about Scott Walker's formative years. It has some fine reporting, but the overall tone and headline are curious: "As Scott Walker mulls White House bid, questions linger over college exit." 

 Lisa Zyga writes at phys.org that

In the month of February, Americans reflect on the contributions that African Americans have made over the course of our history. Of course, February is also host to President's day -- a joint celebration of the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

President Obama has received a lot of well-deserved criticism for his recent remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. After condemning terrorists who “professed to stand up for Islam,” he told the largely Christian audience:

On Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, which really does merit a federal holiday, it’s worth noting that there is no federal holiday called “Presidents’ Day” — nor should there be.  The lone federal holiday in February is “Washington’s Birthday.”  (If only more Americans would call it that!)  Many states,…

Speaking today in Iowa, Vice President Joe Biden called out to his "old butt buddy" Neil Smith, wondering whether his friend was in attendance for his speech:

BuzzFeed has released the video the website shot this week with President Obama, showing the commander in chief smiling for a selfie stick photo:

The Republican National Committee will release a web ad today that hits Hillary Clinton for "hiding" and for "infighting and "backstabbing" in Hillaryland. The ad draws a parallel between the mistakes Clinton made last time she unsuccessfully ran for president in 2008 to how her unnanounced 2016…

Elise Viebeck of The Hill reports that:

The unraveling of Nightly News anchor Brian Williams's accounts of his reporting in Iraq and Katrina-ravaged New Orleans has become a black mark on NBC News's reputation. A detailed account in Thursday's Washington Post of the decision to suspend Williams for six months without pay appears to…

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, says that "ground troops are necessary" to defeat ISIS. "But," Power insisted this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe, "they're not going to be American ground troops."

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a possible Republican presidential candidate, is using a crowdsourcing platform to try to reach dissidents and human rights activists in autocratic regimes. In particular, Rubio is trying to help those oppressed by the governments of Iran and Cuba.

Hillary Clinton is being urged to attend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to a joint session of Congress. 

Late-night cable comedian Jon Stewart announced he would be leaving The Daily Show on Tuesday night's broadcast, and Democrats are not too happy. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising email Wednesday asking supporters to "Sign our card for Jon Stewart." See a…

Missy Ryan of the Washington Post reports that:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on the ISIS AUMF, President Obama, Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu's U.S. visit.

The tragic slaying of three Muslim college students in North Carolina is dominating the headlines today. According to his Facebook page, the killer was a committed atheist and a political liberal. I think it's very rarely helpful or fair to connect political beliefs to the acts of possibly deranged…

House speaker John Boehner criticized President Obama's ISIS war authorization, saying that it does not go far enough.

As a “millennial” (roughly speaking, someone between the ages of 18 and 29), I’ve grown used to being tarred with fallacious accusations. We millennials are spoiled and mollycoddled! (Nope.) We’re tech-obsessives who would never even think of picking up something as fuddy duddy as a book! (Wrong…

In a recent interview with BuzzFeed, President Obama mistakenly gave Vladimir Putin a promotion in the Russian president's previous career in the KGB, saying that Putin "ran the KGB."

The tragic slaying of three Muslims in North Carolina is understandably dominating the headlines this morning. According to his facebook page, the killer was a devout atheist and political liberal. I think it's very rarely helpful or fair to connect political beliefs to the acts of possibly…

Here is the full text of the proposed war authorization bill sent to Congress by President Obama: 

In January, the State Department signed contracts for an estimated $1,690,000 million for hotels for President Obama's trip to India. Two of the contracts were for the New Delhi stay, and another two were for Agra, the location of the Taj Mahal. That latter leg of the trip was cancelled when…

The enemies of Israel are the greatest beneficiaries of campaign against Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's scheduled address to a joint session of Congress, say William Kristol, speaker here as chairman of the Emergency Committee for Israel, and Gary L. Bauer, chairman of Christians United…

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow complained on her TV show tonight that no one from NBC would come on her show to discuss the suspension of anchor Brian Williams:

Since Politico, a politics-focused website and newspaper, launched its subscription-based news service Politico Pro in 2011, government agencies have increasingly turned to the service to keep abreast of the latest developments in their spheres of policy. Government records show fiscal year 2011…

In a readout to the press, the White House described President Obama's meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus earlier today.

NBC News has just sent out this statement stating that anchor Brian Williams has been suspended for six months:

In his weekly newsletter, the boss, just back from the Munich Security Conference, shares his big takeaways:

Obamacare requires employers to provide "affordable" health insurance to full-time employees, and for the purposes of the law, the word affordable is defined very specifically: 

Obamacare requires employers to provide "affordable" health insurance to full-time employees, and for the purposes of the law, the word affordable is defined very specifically: 

President Obama referred to the Islamic terrorists who killed several French Jews last month as people who "randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris" in an interview with liberal website Vox.com. In Tuesday's press briefing, ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl asked White House press…

The Supreme Court is about to hear King v. Burwell, a case that threatens to seriously undermine Obamacare. As the plaintiffs of the case have pointed out, the text of the law doesn't allow the federal government to provide health insurance subsidies to people who purchase insurance through the…

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post writes that:

Kayla Mueller, an American aid worker who became a hostage of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS, has been killed while being held by her captors. President Obama released an official statement Tuesday morning on Mueller's death, asserting that the "future belongs not" to terrorists like those…

On February 4, we reported that U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) was continuing to suggest that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was "conducting airstrikes" in Syria against the Islamic State (ISIL) despite an apparent suspension of flights by that country since late December. After a Jordanian…

The Supreme Court is about to hear King v. Burwell, a case that threatens to undermine Obamacare. As the plaintiffs of the case have correctly pointed out, the text of the law doesn't allow the federal government to provide health insurance subsidies for people on a federal insurance exchange. The…

If you ignore the cringe-worthy opening line of this article from the Pew Research Center – the Holocaust did far worse than “decimate” Europe’s Jewish population – you will find some interesting facts. In a nutshell, Europe’s Jewish population continues to decline. There are now approximately 1.4…

The Republican National Committee is looking for Hillary Clinton. Which is why, according to a memo they've sent to the press, they're asking, “Where’s Hillary?”

This is how to interview a politician. Leigh Sales of Australia's ABC interview Prime Minister Tony Abbott after he barely survived the spill motion (61-39):

House conservatives complained loudly about the Export-Import Bank during last year’s midterm campaign. The hope was, with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, that conservatives could find the will to kill the program -- which, by the way, should be relatively easy. If Congress does…

Fox News host Megyn Kelly encouraged embattled NBC anchor Brian Williams to come on her show for an interview. She said "the desire by so many to tear him down is also somewhat discomfiting."

David Axelrod defended Rev. Jeremiah Wright and President Obama's relationship with Al Sharpton in an appearance on the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News:

Marco Rubio told radio host Hugh Hewitt that Jeb Bush entering the presidential race doesn't hold him back from running:

In news that is sure to shake the earth, Judy Kurtz of the Hill reports that:

The editors at National Review Online offer praise to a newly modified Obamacare replacement plan backed by Republican senators Richard Burr and Orrin Hatch:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on Scott Walker's path to the 2016 GOP nomination.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee famously shed more than 100 pounds before his first White House run in 2008. The story of his weight loss was part of Huckabee's political identity during the GOP presidential primary.

Munich

One of the underappreciated problems of the growth of the regulatory state is that rather than clarifying the rules of the road for companies and consumers, regulations often simply beget more regulations. A textbook example can be seen in the evolution of so-called "sharing economy" firms, and how…

President Obama says the United States should reallocate defense resources to foreign aid efforts. He also added that most Americans misunderstand how much of the federal budget goes to diplomacy.

CNN is reporting:

The Huffington Post’s Jeffrey Young and Jonathan Cohn declare that “putting together a real Obamacare alternative will take more time — and more genuine interest — than Republicans have.”  In truth, such Obamacare alternatives are already available to Republicans.  These include the 2017 Project’s…

In response to the Islamic State’s horrific burning of a pilot, the Jordanian government has released from prison one of the most influential al Qaeda-allied ideologues in the world. Sound strange? It is.

When I finished The Kills, it was not with the sense of the world made right, or understood rightly, that the traditional novel aspires to, nor with the contemporary recognition that the author and I—ironists both!—share a cynical disillusionment. It was with a profound sense of loss, even anger,…

In one of the biggest Supreme Court cases of the year, Justice Antonin Scalia seems destined to cast the critical vote. Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, argued late last month, concerns the Fair Housing Act of 1968, specifically its prohibition…

Last week, the Obama administration succeeded in pressuring Democrats to insist there not be a vote on the Senate floor in support of the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2015 until after the March 24 deadline for negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear weapons program. Lacking the votes in the…

The director of the new Russian movie Leviathan now lives in Canada. This was a wise decision on Andrey Zvyagintsev’s part—because even though Leviathan received grants from the Russian government and was officially selected to represent the country in this year’s Oscar race, at some point in the…

Our first national government—the one established by the Articles of Confederation—was notoriously weak. Congress wasn’t much good at administering the laws it passed or at conducting foreign affairs. The government lacked what the Framers of the Constitution said it sorely needed: energy. As James…

President Obama can’t run again, as he noted in the State of the Union last month, but he sought to use his address to set the tone for the 2016 campaign. His repeated references to “middle-class economics” were tactful code, speaking in front of a Republican-controlled Congress, for that perennial…

Does anyone in the policy world still give credence to the Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column? We’ve sounded this note before but are driven to reiterate: This ostensibly impartial referee is in fact a liberal column that operates under the guise of being above mere partisanship. 

The world of beer, like the parallel worlds of wine and spirits, has become more crowded and interesting in recent years. In 2010, for example, the District of Columbia had three brew pubs, all part of larger chains. Five years later, there are five brew pubs and five breweries, rapidly growing…

The itinerant sing-for-your-supper bunch who travel the country sharing wisdom for a fee have a dirty little secret. As a member of the fraternity, I have found that I learn as much as I teach, maybe more, during speaking engagements. But don’t tell those who hand over rather large sums of money to…

The Scrapbook is pleased to note that Philip Anschutz, chairman and CEO of The Weekly Standard’s parent company, has just written a book that not only adds some authorial luster to our own ranks but makes a genuine contribution to our understanding of America. Out Where the West Begins: Profiles,…

Are we allowed, in 2015, to like Thomas Hart Benton? And if so, are we allowed to admit in public that we like him? 

In his foreword, this book’s excellent translator, Robert E. Goodwin, describes the author, Rüdiger Safranski, as a “raconteur.” This is an apt characterization: Highly intelligent and extraordinarily well-read, Safranski brims with intellectual self-confidence. He is firm in his convictions and in…

Two friends of mine, Walter Berns and Harry Jaffa, died on January 10. They had not been on friendly terms for many years, but death took them together. They were joined also by being leaders, with Herbert Storing, Martin Diamond, and Ralph Lerner, of a group of a dozen or so students of Leo…

Are you middle class? Upper middle class, maybe? Do you think you and your family are the people being talked about when politicians debate solutions for the middle class and its problems?

Meet the real Mitt Romney. The Mitt Romney you thought you knew from 2012, from 2008, from his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, from his run for the Senate against Teddy Kennedy—those versions of Mitt Romney were the constructs of political consultants, artifices designed to win elections but…

In Athens in mid-January, two weeks before the election that would make 40-year-old engineer Alexis Tsipras Greece’s new prime minister, a bunch of cleaning ladies explained to me why they planned to vote for his party, the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza, for its Greek acronym). We met where…

There’s an old saw in Washington that every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Utah’s Mike Lee doesn’t, though you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Over the past two years, Lee has been delivering speeches and introducing policy proposals at a pace that far outstrips his tenure…

"More than 13 years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in a world still menaced by terrorists and in a city at risk of attack as few others, how is it possible that basic radio communications used by the District’s first responders could fail in an emergency?” asked the Washington Post editorial…

Last October, The Scrapbook took note of Politico’s curious decision to hire Mike Elk as one of the publication’s labor reporters. Aside from the fact that Elk has a long history of questionable labor activism that makes impartiality impossible, he also has a history of erratic behavior and has on…

Scott Walker has proposed higher education budget reforms and many people in higher education are unhappy.

President Obama offered this taped public service announcement at the Grammy Awards:

Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was spotted in the background of the Red Carpet show leading up to tonight's Grammys. She was joined by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. 

THE WEEKLY STANDARD Casual Podcast, with Philip Terzian reading Irwin M. Stelzer's casual essay "Listening Tour."

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg criticized pot legalization in recent remarks in Aspen. "This is one of the stupider things that’s happening across our country," said Bloomberg.

John Kerry told NBC's Chuck Todd this morning that he won't say "never" to running for president again. But, Kerry said, he's been "pretty busy."

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former director under President Obama for the Defense Intel Agency, criticized America's terrorism strategy this morning on Fox:

President Obama, Michelle Obama, and Malia Obama are dining at the home of CNN executive Virginia Moseley tonight, according to the White House pool report. Moseley's husband is Thomas Nides, a former (and probably future) aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with literary editor Philip Terzian on the February 9th issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD's Books & Arts section.

Brian Williams is benching himself. The NBC newsreader made the announcement just now in a statement released by NBC.

Vice President Joe Biden had an interesting exchange with the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. The two were speaking in front of reporters at the Munich Security Conference. 

Sir Martin’s passing was a sad day for who call ourselves Churchillians. His 8-volume biography of Sir Winston Churchill and the Companion volumes are the Everest of all biographies, and an indispensable source for anyone interested in the great man’s life and achievements. That this quiet,…

We should “stop thinking about the economy as being in a perpetual crisis” commented Charles Plosser, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, after the government announced on Friday that the private sector added 267,000 jobs in January, and that upward revisions to November and…

Politico is reporting:

In today’s Wall Street Journal, my friend Tevi Troy and Scott Gottlieb unwittingly demonstrate why King v. Burwell has always been a dangerous case for advocates of repeal.  As they highlight, a favorable ruling at the Supreme Court may give Republicans just enough rope to hang themselves. 

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on the week that was for Brian Williams and Barack Obama.

Matthew Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon:

At this point, not even the self-styled Wonk Class was staying up late in anticipation of the Obama Administration’s release of its long-overdue National Security Strategy (NSS), which has at last been published. The last one came out five years ago, and the president has been promising an update…

The Rick Perry reboot is well underway. There are the glasses of course. And, according to Politico, the longest-serving governor in Texas history is now casting himself as a more “moderate” politician.  He’s now more pragmatic and pro-compromise, Politico reports. 

The latest episode of Conversations With Bill Kristol, featuring Fred Kagan:

The Washington Post editorializes:

Bloomberg’s headline has the jobs report “crushing” expectations. The number came in more than 20,000 ahead of the 230,000 that had been widely expected. And the number for the previous month was crushed upward. As Bloomberg reports:

Vice President Joe Biden is in Europe today where how spoke out against Vladimir Putin's aggression toward Ukraine.

President Barack Obama has promoted his recent executive action on immigration by arguing that he’s only deferring action – holding off on enforcement of the current immigration laws until an immigration reform he approves of passes Congress. But that's not really true; in fact there’s a way for…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior editor Lee Smith on the administration's chief Middle East policy goal: Teaming up with Iran.

Bobby Jindal isn’t as close to announcing a run for president as some of his other would-be GOP rivals, but that hasn’t kept the Louisiana governor out of the news. In recent weeks, Jindal has spoken out on terrorism (he says, contra Obama, Islam “has a problem”), vaccines (he’s unequivocally for…

Jonathan Easley of The Hill writes:

At a hearing this morning conducted by the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Tom Cotton, a war veteran, chided the Obama administration's justification to close the detention facility that has housed terrorism suspects since 2002. The administration's witness was Principal Deputy…

Lee Smith, a senior editor at THE WEEKLY STANDARD, writes at Tablet:

That, according to CNN, is how one “senior State Department official describes things in Ukraine.  This is, the official say, because:

A new report, Understanding the Federal Government’s ‘IT Insecurity’ Crisis, released today by the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers (IAITAM), has the group claiming that "half or more of the $70-$80 billion the U.S. government spends each year on Information…

The pope will address Congress in September, a press release from the speaker of the House announced today. 

Although the White House has declined so far to release the names of the "Muslim leaders" who met with President Obama at the White House Wednesday, according to comedian Dean Obeidallah, he and Farhana Khera, a lawyer and executive director of Muslim Advocates, were two of the fifteen.

At this morning's National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama talked about people using Islam to justify violence -- and said that Christians had done the same. "People committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ," the president said.

The passing of Sir Martin Gilbert at the age of 78 marked a sad milestone. He achieved popular acclaim as the official biographer of Winston Churchill, the man whose in-depth eight-volume biography served as the gold standard reference work about the greatest statesman of the twentieth century. He…

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker leads an early poll of New Hampshire Republican primary voters, NH1 reports:

In an email sent out this morning to customers, Anthem president and CEO Joseph Swedish addresses the cyberattack on the insurance company he runs. Swedish also reveals that his information was hacked too, not just the information of millions of customers. 

Media reporter Howie Kurtz talked about the Brian Williams affair last night with Fox News's Megyn Kelly:

In 2013, NBC newsreader Brian Williams re-told the fake story of how his helicopter was shot down in Iraq. The story, which he passionately retells to David Letterman, begins about the 3 minute mark, with many details that we now know do not reflect reality:

The Oregonian, the biggest paper in the state, is calling for the resignation of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber as a result of shady dealings related to his longtime girlfriend and fiancée:

Brian Williams admitted today that he lied about being aboard a helicopter that was shot down by an RPG in Iraq in 2003. The NBC News anchor retold the story as recently as last week:

About a year ago, the government of Washington, D.C., introduced a lottery system to allocate lunch hour parking spots for the city’s booming food truck industry. The one-year retrospectives have been almost uniformly positive, with the government, the media, and the food truck vendors themselves…

Jeb Bush had fighting words at his Wednesday speech at the Detroit Economic Club. The former Florida governor, who is actively thinking of running for president, said he was down for a rumble—at least, if anyone tried to say a bad word about his father, George H.W. Bush.

As the prime minister of constitutionally pacifist Japan, Shinzo Abe cannot sound belligerent notes—even when his citizens are beheaded by ISIS, as occurred this past weekend. Still, the Financial Times (note: I'm a subscriber and a big fan) may have been overstating the case a bit with its choice…

Ramesh Ponnuru is no fan of the bizarre, anti-intellectual jeremiad that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal launched in Politico Magazine early this week. At Bloomberg View, Ponnuru writes:

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) suspended participation in coalition airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State in December after a Jordanian pilot was shot down and captured, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The Defense Department, however, continues to include the UAE in its daily report on…

If Pyongyang has an equivalent to the late Richard Helms, the Nixon era director of central intelligence who kept the secrets on Vietnam and Iran, that would be Kim Yong-chol, a four-star general and Kim Jong-un confidante. Kim, a former bodyguard of late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il, is now…

Edward-Isaac Dovere and Jake Sherman Politico write that:

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough went to San Francisco last week to count the homeless. The San Francisco Chronicle called the move the "opposite of a publicity stunt."

The Wall Street Journal has a revealing report on the hedge fund Eaglevale Partners LP, which is run by Hillary Clinton's son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky. The fund, it turns out, bet big on a turnaround in the Greece economy -- and lost.

Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard and 2010 Republican candidate for Senate in California, is moving closer to a formal run for president. According to someone close to her, Fiorina will make an announcement about her candidacy in late April or early May, shortly before the release of…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with staff writer Jay Cost on whether the GOP will take the Obamacare fight to insurance companies

Republican senator Jeff Sessions will be releasing this statement responding to the Senate blocking a vote on Homeland Security funding:

The Islamic State, a self-proclaimed “caliphate” that rules over large portions of Iraq and Syria, has released a video showing a Jordanian pilot, Mu’adh al Kasasibah, being burned alive. He is shown standing and praying in the middle of a cage as a fighter sets fire to him. The video is horrific,…

The annual Distilled Spirits Council industry review has just been released: As it turns out, Americans like to drink. No, seriously, we really like to drink. Last year, U.S. distillers cranked out 210 million cases of liquor, up 2.2 percent from 2013. Supplier revenue is up to $23.1 billion. An…

On Tuesday, Democrats took advantage of the Senate's filibuster rules to block a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security through the fiscal year. The bill, which passed the House of Representatives last month, would fund the department at current levels but block funding for…

Following the death of King Abdullah Bin Abd Al-Aziz, at 90 or 91, on the night of January 22-23, Saudi Arabia is very likely to continue its policies of opposition to Iran and the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, and its participation in the coalition effort against the Islamic State. These…

After the Factual Feminist spoke at Yale last month, the Yale Women’s Center pronounced her views “potentially dangerous” and “xenophobic.” Yikes! See if you agree:

Even as a report has come out that "talks about talks" are taking place with North Korea regarding denuclearization, recent remarks by Sung Kim, the U.S. State Department's Special Representative for North Korea Policy, seem to back up that assertion. 

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a new TV ad, which features the Likud party leader babysitting (or "Bibi-sitting") for a family. Watch the ad below:

ABC reports on suspicious visas being fast-tracked -- and the role played by the top Democrat in the Senate, Harry Reid. First, the report explains the program:

Despite raised tensions between the U.S. and North Korea recently, there are secret "talks about talks" taking place behind the scenes between the two countries, according to a new report.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is working on a solution to a problem faced by a growing number of Americans as the population ages and relies more on prescription drugs: "What is this pill?" Much in the way a Google image search looks for similar images in Google's vast caches, the…

President Obama's proposed defense budget is well below what former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates proposed. 

Hillary Clinton has responded to questions about vaccines raised by Senator Rand Paul and Governor Chris Christie with a tweet saying unequivocally that vaccines works. "The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let's protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest,"…

President Obama's budget is not likely to be passed by Congress. But if it did, the U.S. would be about $26.3 trillion in debt. 

Senator Jeff Sessions, the former ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, says President Obama's proposed budget "raises taxes by $2.1 trillion."

Don’t be confused by the Obama administration’s Iran policy, warns Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Doran on the Mosaic website. It may look like random ad-hocery, but writes Doran, “Obama does have a relatively concrete vision. When he arrived in Washington in 2006, he absorbed a set of…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with staff writer Michael Warren on the GOP's strategy going into 2016.

The website Vox.com appears to still be thriving, despite my best efforts to warn people off of their willfully ignorant "explanatory journalism." As I have previously observed, we're on the tail end of a media "golden age for liberals where, to paraphrase Kipling, all the young turks were paid for…

The first number in a week that will produce many of them, culminating with monthly non-farm payrolls, is not promising for the recovery.  As Bloomberg reports:

The headline on this Justin Sink piece in The Hill reads:

President Obama's former campaign manager, Jim Messina, said today that it was Hillary Clinton's "turn" to be the next president of the United States:

There’s no doubt that convicted felons often face a difficult time reentering society after leaving prison. One particular difficulty is finding gainful employment. But while the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not break down employment stats for felons, in 2011, the New York Times reported –-…

Barack Obama told Republicans that they should not risk "national security" over their disagreements on the president's executive amnesty.

Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be rising in the polls after being blasted by Obama administration officials for accepting John Boehner's invitation to address a joint session of Congress. Netanyahu is currently up for reelection in Israel.

The White House has submitted its latest budget proposal to Congress, and the Republican chairs of the budget committees in both the Senate and the House are criticizing the plan for increasing spending and raising taxes. In a joint statement House budget chair Tom Price of Georgia and Senate…

President Obama told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that 99.9 percent of Muslims reject radical Islam. He made the comments in response to a question about the White House avoiding using the phrase "Islamic terrorists."

In post-game remarks, Patriots owner Bob Kraft compared his team overcoming the scandal known as deflategate to when the Patriots won the first Super Bowl after 9/11:

Along with the individual mandate to buy insurance, the employer mandate has been one of the more controversial aspects of Obamacare. Implementation of the employer mandate has been delayed twice, and other aspects of the law are being phased in, with "transitional relief" to help businesses cope.…

President Obama told parents in America to "get your kids vaccinated" in an interview with NBC's Savannah Guthrie:

I have just finished a new book on political corruption. The book takes a broad overview of corruption, across the whole history of the nation, explaining its typical patterns over time.The most pertinent revelation is how the government captures private interests, which in turn capture the…

The first laser-guided bombs operated on what was known as a “bang bang” guidance system. After the bomb’s sensor detected a laser designator’s reflection off a target, its fins would all flip in one direction, and then all in another. After zigging and zagging back and forth, the bomb would, in…

In last week’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama came across as the ultimate class warrior. His domestic agenda consists of more spending on roads and infrastructure, new entitlement programs for community college and preschool, and tax preferences targeted to low- and…

Sorry I’m a little late. The National Association of Police Chiefs was being given a tour of the White House just when I was showing Joe Biden my new backswing—HANDS UP. They must have fired 600 rounds. The Blue Room—we’re renaming it the “Swiss Cheese Room.” Good thing they all made lousy shots.

The almost numberless foreign policy fires raging worldwide that affect the United States are the purview of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and its new chairman, Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee. The Islamic State continues its violent attempts to enlarge its self-proclaimed caliphate…

The Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) is a federal program that, since its establishment by Congress in 2001, has granted millions of dollars—$47,750,971 through 2013—to about 800 projects of foreign governments seeking to preserve historic structures and institutions. Administered…

In the official Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, newly elected Iowa senator Joni Ernst stressed the importance of combating liberals’ “stale mindset” that has “led to failed policies like Obamacare,” while reaffirming Republicans’ commitment to…

Congressional Republicans can reasonably be accused of prioritizing issues about which middle-class voters care little. The president can reasonably be said to have his priorities perfectly in order, with counterproductive proposals that won’t achieve them.

The overwhelming American Sniper is cast in shadow from start to finish by two real-world tragedies, one very broad and one very precise. The first is the irresolution of the Iraq war, the conflict to which the film’s titular character—Navy SEAL Christopher Kyle—was deployed four times. The second…

In ancient warfare, the phalanx was a specific kind of troop formation in which armed soldiers were arrayed closely together in multiple rows and then advanced as one in battle. As Chris Walsh describes it here:

When House speaker John Boehner invited Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress in the coming weeks, the reaction from the White House was swift. In background interviews with reporters, top Obama administration officials made clear that they considered the invitation itself…

The film Selma, which chronicles the pivotal battle in the civil rights movement, is currently in theaters and has even garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The film has an unlikely critic, however—PBS host and former White House aide to Lyndon Johnson Bill Moyers. Moyers accuses…

There are four 20th-century writers who are widely considered to be the gold standard in American journalistic criticism of the arts and intellectual life: H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, James Agee, and Virgil Thomson. Now Thomson (1896-1989) joins the other three in the Library of America, with a…

Otto von Bismarck may never have said what’s often ascribed to him: “There is a special Providence for drunkards, fools, and the United States of America.” But he could have, and it probably sounds even better in German. In any case, one can certainly see, looking back, why the apparently…

"North Korea and the Berlin Film Festival have resolved their ‘misunderstanding’ over ‘The Interview.’ The North Korean government had issued a statement Wednesday alleging that screening the film at the festival would encourage ‘terrorism,’ but the festival said no such screening had been planned.

The death of Sir Winston Churchill, 50 years ago last week, reminds The Scrapbook that, while a half-century is a very long time, Churchill’s lifetime is closer to us than we suspect. Indeed, in the words William Faulkner gave to Gavin Stevens in Requiem for a Nun, “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t…

"I've never been a fan of global conferences to solve problems, but .  .  .” (Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, January 20). 

All these years later, the New York Times accepts the Laffer Curve: “But other parts of [Greek opposition leader Alexis Tsipras’s] agenda aim to roll back many cost-cutting measures, gradually restoring salaries and pensions and lowering the tax on heating oil to make it more affordable (which…

"Some have questioned why we preachers have not used our pulpits to condemn terrorism as strongly as we do gun violence or racial profiling in our own land. .  .  . Why do preachers persist in talking about violence on American streets and cities rather than about ISIS beheadings or the Charlie…

"So-called ‘sand movies,’ the term Hollywood sometimes uses for films set in Afghanistan and Iraq, have a terrible box office track record,” noted the New York Times. Or rather, they had a terrible box office track record. The release of American Sniper, a biopic about Iraq war veteran and…

It has long been the conceit of Iran specialists and political commentators that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was not informed that militant students intended to take over the U.S. embassy in Iran in 1979. The Western intelligentsia has vouched for the Islamic Republic and claimed that the hostage…

It is autumn and I am making a pilgrimage by sea to a literary gravestone. On my left rise the primeval, groined, and gullied mountains of Skye; on my right is the wild coast of Knoydart, one of the least populated regions of western Scotland. The colors of the land in this season are…

If you skipped President Obama’s State of the Union address on TV last week, you missed something. It was long (61 minutes) and uninspiring. Yet as the Obama presidency enters its seventh year, the speech was revealing. Here are a few things we learned about Obama’s thinking.

President Obama gave a pre-Super Bowl interview in the White House kitchen to NBC's Savannah Guthrie, where the two talked about (and drank) beer:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD Casual Podcast, with Claudia Anderson reading her casual essay "Say Yes to the Dress."

Associated Press White House reporter Julie Pace said on Fox News Sunday that she believes some in the White House want to see Elizabeth Warren challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic primary nomination.

Scott Walker told ABC that he would not rule out putting "boots on the ground" to fight ISIS: