Liz Elsewhere

Wasteful government spending is a pet peeve of most voters. But it's also something we're guaranteed to see more of as Congress moves to pass a glut of fiscal year 2008 appropriations bills over the coming weeks.
After all, those bills contain vast numbers of earmarks -- those pesky legislative provisions dishing out money to specific companies, organizations or localities and all too often associated with waste and corruption. For that, readers can thank the D.C. crowd as a whole...

Earlier this month, Sen. Hillary Clinton lost her cool with Randall Rolph, an Iowa voter who dared to ask about her vote in favor of a resolution seen by anti-war activists as a pretext for war with Iran.
It was a chilling moment, and one that likely made Clinton's campaign team recoil in horror. But it was also a heads-up to campaign observers that Clinton, who espouses the need for change, hates the unpredictable as much as President Bush. Next year, America could be in for a...

Global trade talks are once again stalling over agricultural subsidies.
The Doha Round of global trade talks is once again at risk, with U.S. officials blaming several developing countries - namely India, Brazil, and South Africa - for demanding more opt-outs from proposed tariff reductions on industrial goods. The Americans have a point: without real concessions from such emerging economies, it's hard to see how the industrialized nations will make good on their promises to slash...

As the fight for the 2008 Democratic nomination continues, "change" has emerged as a central theme. Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign banners read "Ready for Change, Ready to Lead" and she recently put out an ad entitled "Ready for Change." Sen. Barack Obama's website refers to a "Countdown to Change" and his campaign is running an ad in Iowa called "Change."
But for all the talk about "change," there is a marked distinction between the two candidates where the meaning of that term is...

Britain's National Health Service needs root-and-branch reforms. But that's not what the new Labour government is advocating.
Last week, at the annual British Labour Party conference, Health Secretary Alan Johnson unveiled a series of reforms designed to rejuvenate the country's National Health Service (NHS) and make the socialized regime of medicine more "personalized." It was the latest in a decade-long string of efforts by Labour to improve a public system that, almost 60 years after...

Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate passed the fiscal year 2008 Defense Authorization bill.
It was a largely unremarkable event, except in two respects. The Democratic-moved bill contained no language to force President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq; and the bill passed by a 92-3 margin, with just two Democrats opposing it.
The vote should have the Democratic base, and anti-war voters, more generally, asking questions -- especially in Washington, home of Sen. Patty...

Yesterday, New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici announced that at the end of his current term (expiring in January 2009), he will retire.
The announcement opens up another Republican-held Senate seat as the 2008 election approaches -- and it will generate new headaches for Republicans, already facing the prospect of losses in the Senate, who would no doubt have liked to run the incumbent, even given his alleged involvement in the firing of Albuquerque U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, for a...

Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate passed the fiscal year 2008 Defense Authorization bill.
It was a largely unremarkable event, except in two respects. The Democratic-moved bill contained no language to force President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq; and the bill passed by a 92-3 margin, with just two Democrats opposing it.
The vote should have the Democratic base, and anti-war voters, more generally, asking questions -- especially in Washington, home of Sen. Patty...

Just over a week ago, third-placed Democratic presidential candidate, ex-Sen. John Edwards, broke with tradition and went to campaign in... Montana.
It was an odd move, but perhaps also a savvy one. After all, Edwards's advisers are surely aware that heading into 2008, the Mountain West will be a key battleground -- and one that Edwards evidently aims to claim as his own.
The Mountain West is traditionally Republican territory. Three of its core states -- Arizona, Montana and...

Heading into 2008, Washington's 8th Congressional District is set for round 2 of last year's Darcy Burner-Dave Reichert battle -- and attention is already focusing on the question of whether Reichert's Democratic challenger can reverse last year's result.
In 2006, Burner came close to unseating Reichert, forcing him to take less than 52 percent of the vote. Yet, in an extremely anti-Republican year, and in a district that went to Al Gore and John Kerry and was won by Sens. Patty...