On Friday, President Obama took the unusual step of sending video greetings to the people of Iran to mark the celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Unsurprisingly, many on the right were quick to scoff at Obama's call for "engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect" and paean to "the true greatness […]

The right-wing blogosphere is predictably abuzz in the wake of President Obama's shockingly insensitive off-the-cuff joke comparing his bowling to the Special Olympics. Following as it did Joe Biden's request at a rally last year that a wheelchair bound man "stand up," Obama's unfortunate appearance with Jay Leno isn't going to help matters for the […]

On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war, Condoleezza Rice joined the long list of Bush White House figures taking to the airwaves to rewrite their boss' tragic legacy. "No one," she told Charlie Rose last night, "was arguing that Saddam Hussein somehow had something to do with 9/11." Of course, Rice […]

This has been a busy week for journalistic conflicts of interest. Over the weekend, former MSNBC host Tucker Carlson blasted Jon Stewart as a "partisan hack," a charge made without noting either his own 2004 bludgeoning at Stewart's hands or his ceaseless advocacy on behalf of Scooter Libby, a man whose legal defense fund was […]

During his first post-presidential appearance yesterday in Canada, George W. Bush said he would refrain from criticizing his successor, insisting President Obama "deserves my silence." Apparently, Dick Cheney did not read the memo. In a blistering attack on Obama just two days earlier, Cheney ignored Bush's Golden Rule. And as I noted Sunday, Dick Cheney […]

As part of his effort to earn "ridiculous" amounts of money and "replenish the ol' coffers," George W. Bush Tuesday headed to Calgary for his first post-presidential speech. But while lawyers and shoe throwers gathered to protest the man many north of the border now view as a war criminal, most Americans have largely forgotten […]

Around the blogosphere, readers were shocked - shocked! - to learn that Fox News had deceptively edited a six-month old video to create the false impression that Vice President Joe Biden believes "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." But while Fox is guilty of ham-handed splicing, it's worth noting that the network is a […]

One day after Dick Cheney claimed President Obama is making the nation less safe, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs joked that CNN invited the former vice president only because "Rush Limbaugh was busy" and Cheney was "the next most popular member of the Republican cabal" available. But when CBS' Chip Reid protested the "sarcastic" […]

Among the least compelling story lines in the continuing internecine Republican conflict is the war of words between Meghan McCain and Laura Ingraham. After Ingraham dissed as "plus-sized" the presidential candidate's daughter turned blogger, McCain responded by telling her to "kiss my fat ass." When McCain asked on ABC's The View, "What kind of message […]

Just days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pooh-poohed the escalating chaos in the streets of Baghdad, saying with a shrug, "stuff happens." Now six years later, former Vice President Dick Cheney has elevated Rumsfeld's flip response to the level of theory in defending the Bush administration's eight-year record of failure. […]