Jamie Malanowski

Politics

SPITZER’S GAME?

I’m delighted to see that Eliot Spitzer is running for Comptroller of the City of New York. Spitzer was an excellent public servant, especially as State Attorney General, where he reduced corporate big shots to sputtering and perhaps worse. I’m entirely open to the suggestion of the film Client 10 that with his predileciton for …

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WEINER CHANNELS KOCH

(This article originally appeared on washingtonmonthly.com on July 6th.) The New York political campaign season is designed so that the optimistic hothouses of polling firms and campaign consultancies can cultivate exotic candidacies in March and April, and the unremitting glares of voters can cause them to wilt them on the hot, unforgiving sands of Orchard …

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HOW GOOD DO WE WANT OUR POLICEMEN TO BE?

(This piece originally appeared on washingtonmonthly.com on July 7th.) It seems to me that the two potentially big outrage stories of the spring—the politicized IRS story and the data-mad NSA story—now have two things in common. First, they have both petered out as little or no evidence of nefarious activity has been discovered. Second, both …

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EDWARD SNOWDEN, MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY

(This first appeared on washingtonmonthly.com on July 6th.) We woke this morning to find that Edward Snowden (Mr. Around the World in Rrrrrrrrrrr! [sound of a screeching stop]) has been offered asylum first in Venezuela, and then in Nicaragua. Perhaps the only person entirely happy about this result may be John Logan, author of the …

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TAXING SITUATION

The more I learn about the so-called IRS tax scandal, the more I pity the IRS. When this story broke, the story was billed as President Obama was using the IRS against his political enemies. Well, that’s a bad thing! It was so reminiscent of Richard ordering the IRS to go after his political enemies, …

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