The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

On the Scene in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa — Friday, I visited the Iowa HQs of the Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain presidential campaigns, and then attended a Christian music festival in West Des Moines where Bachmann spoke. Bachmann poses for a photo with a boy and his frog. Bachmann poses for a photo with a family. The man in […]

VIDEO: Bachmann Demands Resignation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

DES MOINES, Iowa — As reported last night at The American Spectator and at Libertarian Republican, here is video of Bachmann’s statement: The text of Bachmann’s statement: “Tonight’s decision by S&P to downgrade our credit rating to AA+ is a historically significant and serious event for the United States. The United States has had a […]

Fear and Loathing at the Quality Inn

DES MOINES, Iowa Just got off the phone with Dale Peterson, who’s meeting with agriculture groups — including the Iowa Turkey Federation — on behalf of the Herman Cain campaign today. Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out the logistics for the rest of my trip. Right now, I’m staying at the Quality Inn downtown, which […]

Long Knives in Iowa

Michelle Bachmann pushed “a pardon … for a convicted drug dealer/money launderer in 2007”? They’re bringing it all now — as predicted — and check out this bit buried in today’s Wall Street Journal profile of Bachmann: Ms. Bachmann has gone through four chiefs of staff and two acting chiefs in less than five years […]

Cain, Corn and … the Phantom Menace

My American Spectator column: DES MOINES, Iowa — Highway 193 runs nearly flat and straight some 60 miles southeast from the state capital in Des Moines to the Mahaska County seat of Oskaloosa, where the monument in the town square honors the tribal chieftain for whom the county was named. Chief Mahaska? “lived at peace […]

Fear and Loathing on Highway 193; Pawlenty Aiming at Bachmann?

DES MOINES, Iowa Got back from Oskaloosa — an hour away on Highway 193 — about 6 p.m. local time and spent hours struggling to upload video and photos. Now I’m just a couple hours aways from my deadline for The American Spectator, and so there’s only enough time for a couple of pictures and […]

‘Neo-Confederate Sex Panic’ Becomes the Biggest Political Punchline of the Year?

DES MOINES, Iowa Little did I suspect this morning when I boarded my flight at Reagan National that, by the time I reached Iowa, the nation would be deep in the grip of a hitherto unknown political fever: Neo-Confederate Sex Panic! “It was like the secessionists .. . Even as [Obama] was being inaugurated, the […]

‘That Evil Hour …’

How long, O Lord, how long? Where will it end? All I ever wanted out of this campaign was enough money to get out of the country and live for a year or two in peaceful squalor in a house with a big screen porch looking down on an empty white beach, with a good […]

« go back — keep looking »