Carl M. Cannon
Carl M. Cannon is the senior Washington correspondent for PoliticsDaily.com. Previously, Carl was the DC bureau chief for Reader's Digest... moreShadow on the Sun Bowl: Nine Questions for Notre Dame (and One for the Media)
Most college football fans, whether they root for or against Notre Dame, keep tabs on what is happening in South Bend, Ind. -- such is the shadow the Fighting Irish have long cast on the sport. And on New Year's Eve, first-year Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly will lead his team onto the field in El Paso, Texas, for a Sun Bowl matchup against another storied program, the University of Miami Hurricanes. Some of the questions surrounding Notre Dame's football program will be answered in the Sun Bowl. Unfortunately, other questions -- much more serious in nature -- will not even be ...
Michigan Hacking Prosecution Against Husband Opens U.S. to Ridicule
Is Leon Walker of Rochester Hills, Mich., a hacker or a hero? And has the criminal prosecution of Mr. Walker for reading his wife's e-mail made American jurisprudence into an international joke at the very time in history when life-and-death decisions depend on fostering respect around the globe for the U.S. legal system? The first question will apparently be put to a Michigan jury in the New Year. The second question is already before the court of world opinion -- and the verdicts being rendered are not flattering to the United States. "They can't blame Mr. Assange for this, can they?" ...
Year in Review: 13 Most Memorable Political Quotes of 2010
The year now coming to a close was a rewarding one for collectors of political quotations. This is not the same thing as saying that most memorable lines of 2010 were uplifting. Many of the utterances that entered the lexicon were unrefined, simplistic or just plain mean. Women in the political arena were insulted and put upon, often by other women -- and sometimes by themselves. And the most inspiring campaign speech was given by a cable television comedian. It was that kind of year. Typically, many of the quotes we think we remember – "don't touch my junk," for example – were ...
President Obama Praying for Richard Holbrooke
Eminent U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's point man in Afghanistan and Pakistan, remained in critical Sunday after undergoing some 21 hours of surgery to fix a tear in his aorta. "Ambassador Holbrooke underwent an additional procedure to improve circulation following yesterday's surgery," a State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said in a statement. The seriousness of the situation was conveyed by the concern expressed publicly by President Barack Obama, who said in a statement released by the White House, that he and first lady Michelle Obama were praying ...
Obama: Letting Middle-Class Tax Cuts Lapse 'Unacceptable to Me'
With the clock ticking on tax increases unless Congress acts this month, President Obama insisted Saturday that his compromise with Republicans is the best deal he could have gotten – and called on members of both political parties to "do the right thing" and pass legislation keeping federal tax rates at the low levels they've been since 2001. "All told, this will not only directly help families and businesses," the president said in his weekly radio address. "By putting more money in people's pockets, and helping companies grow, we're going to see people being able to spend a little ...
Mohamed Osman Mohamud: What Made Him Hate?
Once again, the troubling question arises: How can someone come to these shores, accept the hospitality and bounty of a new country, swear fealty to its people and Constitution, then plan to commit mass murder in the name of religion? And once again, leaders of a local mosque – this time in Portland, Oregon – warily attempt to reassure their fellow Americans that one disturbed and dangerous young Muslim does not speak for their community. The alleged plot interrupted by the FBI was shocking even in an age in which we have become inured to indiscriminate terror: Mohamed Osman ...
FBI Thwarts Planned Portland Bombing at Christmas-Tree Lighting
A 19-year-old Somali-born resident of Corvallis, Oregon, who until recently had been a part-time student at Oregon State University was arrested Friday evening for attempting to detonate what he believed was an explosives-laden van parked amid a huge holiday throng attending a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, law-enforcement authorities said. Mohamed Osman Mohamud was arrested at Union Station in Portland at 5:40 p.m. just after he dialed a cell phone that he allegedly believed would kill or maim hundreds of innocent people, including children, the authorities said. Prosecutors ...
Mark Twain, Tom Friedman, and Quotations Too Good to Be Correctly Attributed
One of the hazards of fact-checking others -- or dressing down politicians who peddle preposterously bogus material -- is spreading your own misinformation while doing so. This was the booby trap Thomas L. Friedman and the New York Times set for themselves Tuesday in a column headlined, unfortunately, "Too Good to Check." I yield to no one in my admiration for Friedman, with whom I covered the White House in the Clinton years and later interviewed. As far as I know, I'm the only one who ever put forward Tom's name for consideration of the Nobel Peace Prize -- my thought being that he hardly ...
'And Then President Bush Said . . .' Dubious 'Quotes' Attributed to Dubya
When he was president, Gerald Ford and his aides marveled at an "Oval Office Effect" that would make even seasoned political insiders quite passive when they called on the president. Intending to give Ford candid -- or even unwelcome -- advice, they would instead discuss their golf games and families. This effect wasn't limited to Ford -- or to allies of presidents. In their book "Tell Newt to Shut Up!," authors David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf relate Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich's cringe-worthy confession to White House chief of staff Leon Panetta regarding President Clinton: "I ...
Midterm Elections 2010: Ugly Campaigns, Scared Incumbents and Angry Voters
For more than half a century, the reigning ethos in Washington was neatly articulated in the succinct wisdom of Speaker Sam Rayburn, words imparted to freshmen members of Congress when they first arrived in the nation's capital: "If you want to get along, go along." A sprawling congressional office building is named after the former speaker from Texas, and in January some of the new members of the congressional class chosen Tuesday by voters will set up shop in the Rayburn House Office Building. Some of them, however, will know in their hearts that they got here on the strength of a ...
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