By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
It's politics heartland style, and there's bacon involved: Republican president hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum may battle mano a mano for the attention of Illinois voters before the state primary Tuesday. But the pair is not battling calorie a calorie.
Is an Israeli attack on Iran in the offing? Recent weeks have been rife with renewed speculation about the possibility of a military strike on Iran's nuclear program. Most famously, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported recently that no less senior an official than Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta thinks Israel could bomb Iran's nuclear facilities by this summer.
Crunch time is coming in Iran, but President Obama and his men act as if they're at the senior prom, trying to dance the minuet without anyone to dance with.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday the key to stopping Iran from getting a nuclear bomb is keeping global support for tough economic sanctions.
Barack Obama was even more prominently featured in the news on Sunday than is usual for a president of the United States, what with his four appearances in Sept. 11 remembrance events. These opportunities afforded him the chance to appear dignified, nonpartisan and, well, presidential. A more illuminating sense of the man and his presidency, however, was provided by a curiously bipolar treatment of Mr. Obama in that day's Washington Post. Call it a tale of two Obamas.
One of the delights of a David Ignatius spy novel is that the reader never knows where the plot is going; further, one emerges unsure as to exactly what he saw along the way.
Last weekend, David Ignatius made a vital contribution to the debt and deficit debate: "Take the deficit pain now. It's a truth of economics and life that if you have bad news coming, take the hit early and get it behind you. You can't start building until the debris is out of the way." Mr. Ignatius offers various examples from history. For example, Fed Chairman Paul A. Volcker's 1979 interest rate hikes caused the recessions of the early '80s, but broke the inflation psychology and (I would add, with Ronald Reagan's policies) built the foundation for 25 years of prosperity.
A sure sign that an administration is in trouble is Beltway buzz about making dramatic changes at or near the top. Lately, there has been increasing chatter about moving Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to a new job. The goal of the musical chairs would be to keep her from challenging the politically flailing President Obama in a Democratic primary in 2012.
First, the disclaimer: I appear on Fox News Channel, one of Rupert Murdoch's media properties, as a paid contributor. I received neither instructions, nor promises of benefits, in exchange for what I am about to write. We now rejoin our regularly scheduled column.
"I was given an exclusive look at some of these remarkable documents by a senior administration official," Mr. Ignatius explained.
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported recently that no less senior an official than Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta thinks Israel could bomb Iran's nuclear facilities by this summer.
