John Aloysius Farrell By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
That's a typically great photograph on the front page of the New York Times today by the newspaper's Pulitzer Prize-winning Stephen Crowley.
I have spent a lot of time on White House pool duty with the photo dogs over the years, which generally requires that one linger in a van for hours while the president enjoys his morning jog or bike ride, spends the afternoon playing golf, or attends a fundraising dinner in the evening—all off camera.
Typically, the best a White House photographer can hope for is that there are some speeches to be made or foreign dignitaries to greet, with the requisite ceremonial presidential stiffness. The thrown shoes are rare indeed.
...continue reading. Tags: art | Burris, Roland
Tools: Share | |
By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
As I have reasoned here before, Barack Obama's now unofficially announced decision to put a popular middle-class tax cut in the upcoming economic stimulus package looks like smart politics.
He's keeping his campaign vow to cut taxes.
He's stimulating the economy.
He's using the tax cut as an offering to win Republican votes for the stimulus deal—or, if they turn him down, to appear to the country as a reasonable centrist bedeviled by GOP extremists.
He's making the package more appealing to conservative Democrats, whose ranks have swelled in the last two elections, and will have this to take home to their more moderate constituencies in the purple states and districts.
And by packaging the tax cut with other sweeteners in a time of fiscal crisis, Obama may avoid a months-long war (with the media ruthlessly keeping score) with GOP obstructionists over every obscure clause and comma of a stand-alone tax bill.
The key, of course, is to get it done quickly.
And I'm thinking that this puts the ladies from Maine—and maybe our old pals John McCain and Joe Lieberman—in mighty good bargaining positions.
...continue reading. Tags: Obama, Barack | Obama transition
Tools: Share | |
By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia has never been afraid to march to the beat of his own drum.
The decorated Vietnam War veteran who served as Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan, then got elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 2006, has his own views on things, and his own way of stating them.
...continue reading. Tags: Senate | Webb, Jim | leadership | prison sentences
Tools: Share | |
By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Have I missed something?
In our recent past, did Time magazine columnist Joe Klein take a swipe at Michael Gerson that cut the former Bush speechwriter to the quick?
Or was the devastating slash served upon Klein by Gerson in this morning's Washington Post the start of a new, juicy journalistic feud?
Illuminate me, readers.
...continue reading. Tags: media
Tools: Share | |
By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
It is sad, but not particularly surprising, to read that the big U.S. television networks are closing up shop in Iraq.
Revenue is down, and war correspondents are terribly expensive, especially in a place like the Middle East, where they have to protect themselves from kidnapping, IEDs, and suicide bombings.
...continue reading. Tags: Iraq | Iraq war (2003-) | media
Tools: Share | |
By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
There was less than a minute left in the game against Toronto when one of the other Washington Capitals found Alex Ovechkin, unguarded, with nothing but ice between him and an empty net.
Another score would be gravy. The Caps led 3 to 1, on two goals by Brooks Laich, and a nifty shot by Ovechkin at the close of the second period. Now, as the Capitals superstar turned toward the Toronto net, he could see Laich streaking down the other side of the rink, ready for the feed that would give him a hat trick.
Instead of passing, Ovechkin took the easy goal himself. He said after the game that he saw a blue Toronto jersey closing on Laich. If so, he has remarkable peripheral vision.
Being a superstar has its prerogatives, as well as its demands. The real greats in sports are selfish, driven, greedy. They want to score, and they know they are paid for spectacular performance. And the Laiches of the sporting world recognize that the Ovechkins are the meal tickets—that the fans paying exorbitant ticket prices do so to see Ovi perform.
Allowances are made. Especially since, aside from Ovi and the other remarkable young Capitals (who are in first place in their division and on a hot streak, despite a rash of injuries), the sporting scene in the nation's capital is so terribly, awfully dismal.
...continue reading. Tags: sports | football | baseball | basketball
Tools: Share | |
By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Karl Rove gives us an interesting column in the Wall Street Journal today, in which he describes a book-reading competition he conducted with President Bush over the past three years.
Their rough goal was to read at better than a book-a-week pace. To make sure that neither cut corners with slim volumes, they would measure a book's physical, as well as intellectual, heft.
Rove disappoints, in that he doesn't list the books that he has been reading, but he does provide a rather lengthy list of what the president has read on Air Force One or in quiet time at the White House and Camp David.
There are immediate observations to be made about the Bush reading list. It is classic and conservative in its selections and heavy in biography and history. Bush and Rove are apparently believers in the Great Man view of things, in which leaders like Andrew Jackson and Mao and Lyndon Johnson transform societies, and not so much the other way around.
...continue reading. Tags: Rove, Karl | Bush, George W. | books | history
Tools: Share | |
