The New Republic

Fighting Back: [Anne E. Kornblut and Dan Balz, The Washington Post]: "Clinton (N.Y.), the front-runner criticized for sounding evasive during the last debate, on Oct. 30, was much more aggressive, repeatedly challenging her rivals by name, as she had not done in past debates"   READ MORE >>

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Makeover: [Alec MacGillis and Perry Bacon Jr., The Washington Post]: "As Clinton (N.Y.), the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, seeks to solidify her position atop the race, her main rivals are reshaping the arguments for their candidacies and sparking a broader debate about the future of their party."   READ MORE >>

Earlier this afternoon, I received an e-package consisting of three articles from The Current, a journal of politics, culture and Jewish affairs at Columbia University, edited by David Feith.  These rather compact essays are judicious and invariably fair.  They represent academic controversy at its best.At the core of these writings is the case of Nadia Abu Al-Haj who recently recently received tenure in archaeology at Barnard College.  The authors of these articles put this case in the context of Edward Said's legacy that, well, here it is straight-up, "there really are no facts."  Everyth READ MORE >>

Punching Bag: [Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post]: "Earlier this year, the senator from New York was the subject of an occasional laugh line from former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Now, the trickle has become a torrent as the leading GOP candidates seek to one-up one another in a Clinton-bashing contest aimed at energizing their party faithful."   READ MORE >>

New Life: [Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times]: "The political arm of the National Right to Life Committee is scheduled to endorse Thompson this morning."   READ MORE >>

Last October, Dr. Jack Ludmir, the head of obstetrics and gynecology at Pennsylvania Hospital, oversaw the emergency-room treatment of a young woman who was seven months pregnant, hypertensive, and convulsing. Although her condition was, according to Ludmir, "rarely seen in the United States," his team diagnosed it quickly: She was suffering from eclampsia, a severe pregnancy- related disorder that can lead to premature birth, seizure, stroke, even death. In this country, the condition is usually caught in its READ MORE >>

Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's from 1976 to 2006, is starting a new magazine, humbly titled Lapham's Quarterly. It aims to "place current political events within the context of their historical antecedents." I haven't yet seen the first issue, "States of War," but the endeavor seems interesting—forgiving the frequently flat quotations and hollow historical name-dropping riddling the site. ("A library," wrote Henry Ward Beecher, "is but the soul's burial-ground. It READ MORE >>

War of Words: [Christine Hauser, The New York Times]: “Senator Barack Obama kept on the attack against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton … Mrs. Clinton, of New York, who has been coming under fire from Mr. Obama and Mr. Edwards, sought to deflect the criticism by urging Democrats to refrain from attacking one another and instead to ‘turn up the heat’ on Republicans.”   READ MORE >>

Tip of the Iceberg: [Robert Stein, Connecting.the.Dots]: “America's Mayor has already admitted a ‘mistake’ in recommending his old friend for the Bush Cabinet position of Director of Homeland Security, but there are booby traps galore in the history of their post-9/11 partnership.”   READ MORE >>