The New Republic

Presidential politics can get very ugly, but in the current contest I don't think we've heard any slogans as vicious as the one leveled in 1972 against George McGovern, who died this past weekend at age 90. The South Dakota senator was, his opponents sneered, the candidate of "Acid, Amnesty, and Abortion." READ MORE >>

Randy Lavallee is a proud member of the American working class. A New Hampshire resident, he works as a calibration inspector for a jet-engine plant just across the state line in Maine. Four years ago, the plant went through a downsizing that resulted in the layoffs of one-sixth of its 1,600 workers. After the cuts, Lavallee told me, the “CEO and management got big bonuses.” READ MORE >>

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This Caroline Kennedy farce will drag on a little longer, but in the meantime Anne Kornblut has a front page story in Friday's Washington Post on whether sexism had something to do with Kennedy's rough few weeks. Kornblut's piece starts off with this shaky claim: READ MORE >>

I'm not sure what to make of this, but it's, uh, interesting. In his new memoir, Bob Shrum says that when he once broached the topic of homosexuality with John Edwards, Edwards told him he was "not comfortable around those people." Now Elizabeth Edwards, in an interview with CNN, has tried to add some context to her husband's remark: READ MORE >>

I've been reading through an advance copy of Bob Shrum's memoir and have a story online today about how harshly Shrum treats his former client, John Edwards. But the book, which goes on sale June 4, is filled with dishy and revealing moments, a few of which I'll post on the Plank today. READ MORE >>

Bob Shrum says he convinced John Edwards to support the Iraq war: READ MORE >>

Snuffle. Snuffle. Snuffle. The little black nose is cold and wet on my arm. "Gracie, stop that!" media writer Michael Wolff scolds the small, spastic spaniel wriggling next to me on the sofa. Gracie tumbles to the floor, but Trixie the cat soon takes her place and delivers an exploratory head butt. "No. No. No. Come on," says an embarrassed Wolff, leaning out of his high-backed red chair and waving an arm.  READ MORE >>

Robert Shrum, John Kerry's chief strategist and speechwriter, is considered the poet laureate of populism--the man who injected the phrase "the people versus the powerful" into Democratic vernacular. Over his 35-year career, Shrum has been responsible for many of the memorable lines to leave the mouths of such Democratic eminences as Ted Kennedy, George McGovern, and Al Gore. But one of his most telling speeches won't ever be collected in an anthology of great oratory. READ MORE >>