Matt Bai's Blog, page 2

Terry

p. 26,para. 2/the argument....by radically conservative ideology, are you speaking of our Constitution?

Tom O.

I ready your article on the New York time website yesterday and was thinking about while cleaning the bathroom this morning.

What an incredible little pity party you are having for yourself.

You failed to mention the fact that the "free money Loan" your nanny got allowed you to sell your home at exactly the price you needed in order to trade up. No realtors telling you that " new kitchens, new bathrooms and

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Dan Ferralez

I usually don't try to contact journalists or authors in response to what they've written, but in this case I felt compelled to tell you how much I enjoyed this piece. Personally, I know absolutely nothing about the real state market (though I'm in my mid twenties & after reading your piece I'll most likely start learning). Yet the themes of anger and despair that I grasped from reading about yours & Grace's respective plights really reverberated in mind. As in so many aspects of life, it...

Trust, Underwater

In 2004, newly married and having decided to embark on the next phase of adulthood, my wife and I bought a house. This was back in the delirious days of multiple offers and outlandish escalation clauses, when you had to bring your checkbook with you to an open house, just in case someone else tried to buy the place while you were poking around the attic. I called a mortgage broker somewhere in Florida, and she was thrilled to hear from me, practically breathless.

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Kevin Lagola

I agree wholeheartedly that politicians are the final arbiter of decion-making, not the influence lobbyists have through corporate money. After all, who are the lobbyists anyway? They're mostly made up of ex-politicos, White House staff and other entrenched institutionalized persons. The 'one-year' wait to become an 'official' lobbyist doesn't do much.

Here's my syllogistic interpretation of the major and minor premise of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission:

The corporations are...

Jack Tennier

You have the makings of a book. I wrote an extensive e-mail to my family today after sending them your article. I ended up asking why the Supreme Court acts like it does and I ended with this: "The Court adheres slavishly to the precise words of the Constitution as it interprets it and common sense is abandoned resulting in the above absurdities.

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Lee Nason

While I do not always agree with your conclusions, I always appreciate your

careful consideration of political issues. But I was completely in

agreement with your recent op ed from yesterday's NYT. I don't know any

lobbyists but I fully expect that they are no more corrupt than the typical

politician or the typical voter.

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A Lempert

WHY ISN'T A LOBBYIST WHO MAKES OR OFFERS TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO A POLITICAL OFFICE HOLDER OR OFFICE SEEKER IN ORDER TO INFLUENCE A VOTE OF SUCH HOLDER OR SEEKER ENGAGING IN A BRIBE?

Laws for Sale?

Plaintiffs' lawyers must be holding their heads a little higher when they walk into P.T.A. meetings and neighborhood parties these days, knowing that corporate lobbyists have overtaken them as the most despised professionals in America. Lobbyists have never been especially popular, of course; even their most sympathetic pop-culture portrayal, in the book and better-known movie "Thank You for Smoking," focused mostly on their moral depravity. As a candidate, Barack Obama made a point of...

The Brain Mistrust

Republicans are feeling buoyant these days, having managed to cut their deficit in the Senate down to 18 seats, which means they can now be a genuine irritant to the Democrats who run the country. And yet there are still those glass-half-empty Republicans who insist on reminding their colleagues that the party is beset by serious problems. It has no discernible governing agenda, for one thing.

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