Politics & Government

Newton, Mass.

The Scrapbook likes to think of itself as sophisticated, although we realize that we’re probably not as sophisticated as we like to think. Having just read a book review by Howard Kurtz in the Daily Beast, however, we’re feeling especially urbane, all-knowing, well-schooled, and, well, sophisticated.

America needs to break up its biggest banks, but not for reasons likely to give a tingle to Occupy Wall Street’s remnant rabble (or its Great Everywhere Spirit, Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts). This isn’t about some political exercise in election-year demonization. Bankers, as a class, aren’t villains. They’re not “banksters” grifting money from middle-income pockets. And they’re certainly not vampire squids on the collective face of humanity, as Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi has infamously described Goldman Sachs.

The Republican Senate primary in Texas has long been a battle between establishment favorite and lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst, and the conservative challenger, former solicitor general Ted Cruz. But Dewhurst, who has lead in the most recent polls ahead of the May 29 primary, has launched a last-minute ad campaign against former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert, who himself is running at a distant third.

I received this smart email from a reader:

When dealing with budgets, a spending cut is routinely defined as a reduction from previously planned spending, i.e. if we planned for spending to increase by 4% and it only increases by 3% there's been a spending cut.  

This morning on CNN, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was asked, "Why is it not hypocrisy for the president to take campaign donations from private equity when he's attacking private equity making that an essential part of his campaign?"

Very preliminary returns in the first round of Egypt's presidential election suggest that the official Muslim Brotherhood (MB) candidate, Mohamed Morsi, came in first, with Ahmed Shafik in second place. Shafik is a former Air Force general and was briefly prime minister as the old regime was collapsing.

Steve Hayes, with Juan Williams and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News: 

Also, check out Special Report, on whether Joe Biden is helping President Obama's chances for reelection:

In 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson inaugurated his “War on Poverty,” he travelled to the heart of coal country in eastern Kentucky, one of the poorest regions in the country. It was, until recently, most reliably Democratic: In the 20^th century when Democrats won the presidency, they almost always won Kentucky, thanks to strong support from the east.

Best political ad this cycle?

False alarm--Arizona Democrat "clarifies" that he does support Obama.

With just days until the May 29 Texas Republican primary for U.S. Senate, former state solicitor general Ted Cruz is focused on one thing: denying his opponent, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, the 50 percent share of the vote needed to win the GOP nomination outright. "Politically, the only thing that matters is, does this race go to a runoff?," Cruz says in an interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren refused to answer local reporters' questions about her claims to Native American heritage and minority status in a tense exchange in Brookline.