The Daily Digest

1. "Ashley Dupre Offered $1 Million by Girls Gone Wild."

2. Julie Bosman, "As Campaign Drags on, Aides Put Lives on Hold."

3. Jonathan Martin, "Anti-Obama Video Crafted by Talk Radio Producer."

4. Peter Wehner, "The Wright Stand."

5. Jim Newell, "Former Fred Thompson Manager Shamelessly Begging for Employment."

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The Daily Digest

1. "Kristen Is Rich."

2. James W. Antle III and Matthew Continetti, "Conservatism's Heart and Soul."

3. Jeffrey Rosen, "Supreme, Inc."

4. David Pogue, "Hello BlackBerry, Meet the iPhone."

5. Allison Klein, "D.C. Seeks Consent to Search for Guns."

6. Ben Wallace-Wells, "How America Lost the War on Drugs."

7. Benjamin H. Friedman, "Air Force vs. Taxpayers."

8. Patrick Ruffini, "John McCain, Vlogger."

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The Daily Digest

1. This—she—is why I'm voting for McCain.

2. Incompetence or bureaucracy? Next week, the Bush administration's solicitor general will argue a case before the Supreme Court. Vice President Cheney, acting on behalf of the president, has submitted a brief for the other side.

3. New York Sun to Elliot Spitzer: Resign, you hypocrite.

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The Daily Digest

1. Larry David, "On the Red Phone."

2. Patrick Gavin, "Journos Hang with McCain."

3. Jim Newell, "Will the NRCC Stop Sending Their Sleazy E-mails?"

4. "Senator McCaskill Speaks in Support of DeMint Earmark Moratorium."

5. Andrew Roth, "Obama Swears Off Earmarks for FY09."

6. McCain Promises Clean Campaign.

7. Randall E. Stross, "They Criticized [Microsoft] Vista. And They Should Know."

8. "Eliot Spitzer's Kristen: Meet the Woman Spitzer Liaised with February 13, AKA Ashley Alexandra Dupre."

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The Daily Digest

1. Radley Balko, "William F. Buckley, Jr., RIP."

2. David Boaz, "Bill Buckley Is Dead. Has Conservatism Died with Him?"

3. Maeve Reston, "McCain's Team Forged Loyalty in Collapse."

4. How Bloggers Live and Work in Washington, DC. [NYT]

5. How and Why RealClearPolitics Does What It Does.

6. Hula Hooping for the Troops. [Rock of Love 2]

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The Daily Digest

1. "Man in the Arena."

2. Wil S. Hylton, "Meltdown."

3. "Lobbyists Get Taste of Their Own Medicine."

4. Elissa Gootman, "At Charter School, Higher Teacher Pay."

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The Daily Digest

1. Heather Timmons, "Online Scrabble Craze Leaves Game Sellers at Loss for Words."

2. Jennifer Skalka, "Pregnant Pause."

3. David Lat, "Facebook Banned Me! Worst. Week. Ever."

4. John Koblin, "Supreme-Court-Whisperer Linda Greenhouse Takes $300K Times Buyout."

5. John F. Harris, "How the Sausage Gets Made."

6. Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin, "Reality Show Reels in Risque Web Site."

7. Samantha L. Quigley, "MySpace Set to Rock Troops in Kuwait."

8. Todd Zeigler, "Does Good Design Matter?"

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The Daily Digest

1. James Joyner, "David Horowitz at CPAC."

"[T]he vast majority of the speakers at CPAC are much more mainstream and gracious. For every Horowitz, there are a half dozen Mark Tapscotts and Mike Pences. But it would be much more comforting if the radicals generated less enthusiasm."

2. Mark Blumenthal, "The Secret Lives of Pollsters."

"If pollsters disclosed more about how their polls were conducted, we would be in a better position to know which polls are likely to be right, and which ones can be safely ignored."

3. Deroy Murdock, "McCain Could Become the Reagan of Fiscal Discipline."

"McCain largely has refused to be led into temptation. He supported 2001’s $143.4 billion No Child Left Behind Act, but fought 2002’s $180 billion farm bailout, 2003’s $558 billion Medicare drug entitlement, and 2005’s $286.4 billion highway bill, which contained 6,371 earmarks worth $24 billion. 'Those were the four biggest budget-busting bills of the Bush presidency,' notes Heritage Foundation fiscal analyst Brian Riedl. 'And McCain voted against three of them.'"

4. Fred Kaplan, "What's Really in the U.S. Military Budget?"

"As usual, it's about $200 billion more than most news stories are reporting. For the proposed fiscal year 2009 budget, which President Bush released today, the real size is not, as many news stories have reported, $515.4 billion—itself a staggering sum—but, rather, $713.1 billion."

5. Chris Wilson, "Testify Before Congress, Meals Not Included."

"Even if a congressional committee forces you to testify in Washington, the government is not obligated to pay your way. The Committee on House Administration's handbook for such matters calls reimbursements to witnesses an 'extraordinary measure' that must be authorized by the chair."

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The Daily Digest

1. Paul Krugman, "The Edwards Effect."

2. Edward Morrisey, "Has Ann Coulter Finally Jumped the Shark?"

3. Evan Thomas, "What These Eyes [John McCain's] Have Seen."

4. Ed Lasky, "Murdoch Takes on the New York Times."

5. Robert Bluey, "Romney Thinks Some Bloggers Are More Equal Than Others."

6. James Kirchik, "I Would Take Stronger Medication."

7. Amy Waldman, "The Truth About Jena."

8. Michael Barbaro, "Wal-Mart: The New Washington."

9. Steven Levy, "Yahooligans at the Window."

10. Richard Perez-Pena, "Frontline Blogger Covers War in Iraq with a Soldier’s Eyes."

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The Daily Digest

• "Photographer of Death," by Doug Bandow

• "Kathryn Johnston: A Year Later," by Radley Balko

• "lib*er*tar*ian," by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch

• "Justice Served: Litigious Judge Off the Bench," by Doug Bandow

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The Daily Digest

Ice Hotel in Sweden

How would you feel if your advocacy of the Iraq war directly inspired someone to enlist—who shortly thereafter perished from an IED? Christopher Hitchens measures his words against a family's grief and a young man's sacrifice.

Josh Levin laments what Sports Illustrated has become: "Sports Illustrated is allowing market research to masquerade as editorial judgment. Perhaps it's effective from a business standpoint—the mag has maintained its huge circulation lead over ESPN the Magazine, and a recent industry survey showed an increase of 14 percent in readers between ages 18 and 24 the last two years—but it's making the magazine an inferior product. . . . The old SI used sports as a window onto life and culture beyond the playing field or, failing that, as a vehicle for great writing. The new SI uses sports as a window onto itself or, failing that, as a vehicle for cringe-inducing anecdotes."

Mrs. Jerry Seinfeld tells the NYT how she met her husband.

What does it mean to be an American? Surely one of our defining characteristics is productivity, such that multimillionaire 30-somethings, instead of basking in their earned retirement, continue to work 15-hour days, in search of the next big thing.

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The Daily Digest

Jonah Goldberg explains why he's pro-life: "In death-penalty cases, 'reasonable doubt' goes to the accused because unless we’re certain, we must not risk an innocent’s life. This logic goes out the window when it comes to abortion, unless you are 100-percent sure that babies only become human beings after the umbilical cord is cut. I don’t see how you can be that sure, which is why I’m pro-life—not because I’m certain, but because I’m not."

Anheuser-Busch boasts one of the best MySpace profiles I've seen. The reason: It looks nothing like MySpace.

Reason's Michael Moynihan takes on Jon Stewart.

Rudy and Fred offer fiscal conservatives much to like.

Jon Henke, Fred Thompson's new-media consultant, live blogs Fred's first debate with his fellow Republicans. Jon employs just enough Dave Weigel and Ana Marie Cox wit to keep things interesting, without degenerating into Wonkette.

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The Daily Digest

Quin Hillyer elucidates Rudy's success vis-a-vis the religious right.

Kos traffic number inflated by 60%, reports Patrick Ruffini.

Google's growth is prompting the usual antitrust hysteria: "[B]y acquiring DoubleClick, Google will jump so far ahead of the pack with the technology and knowledge to be the only place marketers have to go to reach you and just about anybody else."

Clark Hoyt, the NYT's ombudsman, details how good journalists can and should call someone a "lair" without employing that epithet.

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The Daily Digest

Maureen Dowd reviews Rudy's performance at the recent NRA conference.

Shorter David Broder: Newt is good for America. Shorter Debra Saunders: But not as a politician.

Yesterday, the Council for National Policy issued a resolution that “if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate [i.e., Rudy] we will consider running a third party candidate.” The NYT's David Kirkpatrick reports (see also WorldNetDaily and Salon), "The group making the threat . . . includes Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who is perhaps the most influential of the group, as well as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, the direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie and dozens of other politically-oriented conservative Christians, participants said. Almost everyone present expressed support for [the] written resolution."

George Will poses 17 questions for Obama. For example: "You advocate leaving in Iraq 'some' U.S. forces for three missions—fighting al Qaeda, training Iraqi security forces and protecting U.S. forces conducting those two missions. . . . What is your estimate of the numbers required by your policy? How, and in consultation with whom, did you arrive at your estimate? As to fighting terrorists but not insurgents—how would soldiers and Marines tell the difference? If, while searching for terrorists, they make contact with insurgents, would your rules of engagement call for a full-force response? You say all 'combat brigades' should be out of Iraq 'by the end of next year.' Even if al-Qaeda is still dangerous? Who, after the end of next year, will protect U.S. noncombat forces that you say 'will continue to protect U.S. diplomats and facilities' and to 'train and equip' Iraqi forces?"

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The Daily Digest

"What [Larry] Craig did in that men's room isn't an offense," observes Frank Rich. "He didn't have sex in a public place. He didn't expose himself. His toe tapping, hand signals and 'wide stance' were at most a form of flirtation. As George Will has rightly argued, if deviancy can be defined down to 'signaling an interest in sex,' then deviancy is what 'goes on in 10,000 bars every Saturday night in our country.'"

Dana Milbank (whose new book hits bookstores in January) retorts Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "'Our people are the freest people in the world,' said the man whose government executes dissidents, jails academics and stones people to death. 'The freest women in the world are women in Iran,' he continued, neglecting to mention that Iranian law treats a woman as half of a man. 'In our country,' judged the man who shuts down newspapers and imprisons journalists, 'freedom is flowing at its highest level.' And if you believe that, he has a peaceful civilian nuclear program he wants to sell you."

Of Ahmadinejad's visit, Reason's Jesse Walker concludes, "For a few days in September, the president of a repressive . . . regime actually had to engage his critics." The disappointing (though perhaps inevitable) part, as Anne Applebaum points out, is that "[i]nstead of debating freedom of speech in Iran, here we are once again talking about freedom of speech in America."

Michael Kinsley continues his pursuit of transparency in the intersection of politics and religion: Every candidate claims that God is a personal adviser and inspiration, so "I want to know what God is telling them—just as I would want to know what Karl Rove was telling them if they claimed him for an adviser. If religion is central to their lives and moral systems, then it cannot be the candidates' 'own private affair.' To evaluate them, we need to know in some detail the doctrines of their faith and the extent to which they accept these doctrines."

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The Daily Digest

The school-choice movement has found a home in New Orleans, which, in the wake of Katrina, has become a magnet for innovation.

Michael Tanner paraphrases Randolph Bourne for Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson: "It's hard to be a small-government conservative while favoring more widespread military intervention. War is a big-government program.

Radley Balko explains to Rudy and Fred why you can't be both a federalist and drug warrior: "If ever there were an issue for which federalism would seem to be an ideal solution, it’s the medical marijuana issue, which touches on crime, medical policy, privacy and individual freedom—all the sorts of values-laden areas of public policy that states are best equipped to deal with on a case-by-case basis, and for which a one-size-fits-all federal policy seems particularly clunky and ill-suited."

Obama's new-media team is innovating with LinkedIn.

Alexa is no longer the gold standard for measuring Web site traffic. I prefer Compete.

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The Daily Digest

At the end of the day in one of the Swedish Riviera's tranquil nature reserves

Senator Tom "Coburn feels about pork spending the way liberal environmentalists do about greenhouse gases," writes Stephen Moore: they're both a gateway drug, to deficits and global warming, respectively.

Front-runners are cautious, which is probably why Rudy has yet to setup a blog. Yet for whatever criticism his reluctance generates, the fact remains, He's winning. On the other hand, his continued frankness on the war is beginning to alienate his supporters.

Howard Kurtz names an unpleasant truth: "Everyone who is defaulting on a home mortgage is not necessarily a victim. I feel sorry for anyone in that situation. Losing a home is an awful thing. Some were undoubtedly pressured into buying by unscrupulous lenders. Too many greedy players on Wall Street got away with making shaky loans for too long. They sliced and diced mortgage debt into increasingly exotic paper and lost sight of the risks involved, figuring the Fed would bail them out if things got out of hand. But let's face it: Most of the people who took out home mortgages for no money down knew that this was a roll of the dice. Who gets to buy a house without a down payment? And most of those who took out adjustable-rate mortgages knew that their rate would balloon in a couple of years, and could do so at a level that would be hard to afford. They took the risk anyway. No one forced these folks to take on big mortgages they could barely handle."

Why do we call those who write about the media and movies "critics" instead of something more neutral-sounding, like "observer," "analyst" or "reviewer"?

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The Daily Digest

The long-awaited successor to ABC PAC has arrived: Rightroots. Congratulations to Patrick Ruffini, who designed the site, and to the blog advisory board: N.Z. Bear, Lorie Byrd, Soren Dayton, Mary Katharine Ham, Patrick Hynes, Matt Lewis, Liz Mair, Ed Morrissey and Kavon Nikrad.

Meet Megan McArdle, aka Jane Galt, of the Asymmetrical Information blog, courtesy of Cheryl Miller, the new editor of Brainwash.

Meet Matt Drudge, courtesy of the LA Times.

Another gaping loophole in congressional ethics reform: executive branch officials can still, and routinely do, accept trips from companies and trade associations with a stake in their agencies' decisions.

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The Daily Digest

A hang glider soars off a cliff in the Osterlen region of the Swedish Rivera

Attention Becki Donatelli and David All: "Which political action committee gave the most money to congressional campaigns in 2006? MoveOn.org? EMILY's List? The National Rifle Association? Nope, nope and nope." ActBlue—the Web-based bundler—was the single biggest PAC contributor in the last cycle," according to the Democratic Strategist.

Soren has christened him Governor Reverend Huckabee. Matt Lewis prefers William Jennings Huckabee (though Reason's Jesse Walker reminds us that real populism is much more than a "vague willingness to align yourself with the common man").

Ed Kilgore, a former speechwriter and legislative counsel for Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA), reflects on his old boss's credentials for a third-party presidential run. My take: policy-wise, Nunn offers a lot to like, but simply put, third parties fail.

Blogger John Henke once observed, "I'm never more interested in, and excited about, the Republican Party than when they are the opposition party." In a recent cover story, the Economist elaborates: "[T]he conservative movement is at its most deadly as an insurgency. The movement was born during the 1964 Goldwater campaign as a revolt against the liberal establishment. It enjoyed its glory days when it was battling Hillarycare and trying to impeach Bill Clinton. A[nother] Clinton presidential nomination would undoubtedly reunite and re-energize the movement."

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The Daily Digest

The Washington Post recently reported that a clutch of PACs founded by Linda Chavez serve mainly to enrich the Chavez family. Of the $24.5 million raised by four Chavez PACs (above) from 2003 to 2006, $242,000—or 1 percent—was passed on to politicians. Even less—$151,236—was spent on independent political activity, like mailing pamphlets. For comparison, David Freddoso, a newly named staff reporter for NRO, reports that in 2005 and 2006, the National Right to Life PAC raised $3.1 million and spent $2.7 million on independent expenditures and candidate contributions, while the Susan B. Anthony List PAC raised $292,000 and spent $248,399 on such activities. In the same period, the Pro-Life Campaign Committee (PLCC), a PAC run by Chavez's husband, raised $1.95 million and spent $14,432.

Why don't Democrats have an Ames straw poll?

Time for some tough love toward Korean peninsula: let's end Seoul's military dependence on America, recommends Doug Bandow. Counterargument: independence would spur an arms race between the South and North. Do we really want another country to go nuclear?

Mitt Romney today became the fifth Republican presidential candidate to undergo the scrutiny of the Club for Growth. The Club's conclusion: "His record on trade, school choice, regulations and tort reform all indicate a strong respect for the power of market solutions. At the same time, Governor Romney’s history is marked by statements at odds with his gubernatorial record and his campaign rhetoric." Given this mixed assessment, Jonathan Martin induces that "unless [Fred] Thompson tells them what they want to hear, it seems like Rudy [my link] has the inside track on getting the Club's support."

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