The New Republic

Two months ago, I began reading the newspaper with a new set of eyes. That's when The New Republic launched The Plank (www.tnr.com/blog/theplank), a crackling blog to which I regularly contribute. Before my new career, I had largely consumed the Times, the Post, and the Journal in search of information. Now I read them in search of items. This eternal quest for Plank grist has changed my relationship to these papers. They used to be my Starbucks buddies, but now I treat them more as adversaries, to be debunked READ MORE >>

The title of the book Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime hardly sings. But, like buried Civil War bullets or tarnished World War I medals, this fusty essay collection on the great political philosopher is a curio sought by war buffs. On Amazon.com, a used copy sells for as much as READ MORE >>

In 1994, the eminent evangelical historian Mark Noll wrote a scorching polemic about his own religion called The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. The book lamented the "intellectual disaster of fundamentalism" and its toll on evangelical political and theological thought. All around him, Noll saw "a weakness for treating the verses of the Bible as pieces in a jigsaw puzzle that needed only to be sorted and then fit together to possess a finished picture of divine truth." READ MORE >>

If Harriet Miers didn't exist, conservatives would need to invent her. Five years into the Bush administration, they are stuck with an uncomfortable fact: They have fervently supported a president who has not only failed to deliver many lasting victories to their movement, but who has also saddled the reputation of the American right with what will (in all likelihood) be regarded as a losing war.That's not to say that they don't have sound reasons for howling about President Bush's lackey-cum-nominee. The selection of a bona READ MORE >>

Everyone who watched this summer's race for College Republican National Committee (crnc) chair with any detachment has a favorite moment of chutzpah they admire in spite of themselves. Leading the count are the following: speaking sotto voce of your opponent's "homosexuality"; rigging the delegate count so that states that support your candidate have twice as many votes as those that don't; and using a sitting congressman to threaten the careers of undecided voters. I can understand the perverse appeal of each of READ MORE >>

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The press has spent the past week congratulating itself for awakening from its long slumber. After years of credulously reciting administration talking points about WMD and candy-throwing Iraqis, the corpse-lined streets of New Orleans have spurred reporters to finally get feisty with mendacious officials and slippery politicians. The most celebrated hero of this resurgence is CNN's Anderson Cooper. READ MORE >>

Last fall, a Bush-bashing ad in The New York Times included among its signatories the name of Norman Pattiz, the celebrated creator of Radio Sawa, a radio network fashioned to win hearts and minds in the Muslim world. This year, some say as a result of the ad, Pattiz has found himself battling for his seat on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent government commission that oversees the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/ Radio Free Liberty, and Radio Sawa and its sister TV network, Alhurra. READ MORE >>

Last fall, a Bush-bashing ad in The New York Times included among its signatories the name of Norman Pattiz, the celebrated creator of Radio Sawa, a radio network fashioned to win hearts and minds in the Muslim world. This year, some say as a result of the ad, Pattiz has found himself battling for his seat on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent government commission that oversees the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/ Radio Free Liberty, and Radio Sawa and its sister TV network, Alhurra. The READ MORE >>

Daniel Lapin is an unlikely business guru. He doesn't have an MBA or a distinguished record of financial wizardry. His largest venture into the world of commerce, running a firm that traded in second mortgages, ended in bankruptcy court, with Lapin owing nearly $3 million. Yet this history hasn't stopped Lapin from dispensing business wisdom, and it hasn't stopped corporations from paying him thousands of dollars to give motivational speeches. That's because Lapin draws on another source of authority when making his READ MORE >>