Nick Baumann

News Editor

Nick is based in our DC bureau, where he covers national politics and civil liberties issues. Nick has also written for The Economist, The Atlantic, The Washington Monthly, and Commonweal. Email tips and insights to nbaumann [at] motherjones [dot] com. You can also follow him on Facebook.

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Iraq: Dems' Dreams Dashed?

When the Democrats took back Congress they promised a "new direction" in Iraq. What happened?

—By Nick Baumann

| Thu Jan. 31, 2008 1:00 AM PST

On Monday, Senate Democrats held a "media summit" for reporters, where they outlined their agenda for the coming year. They promoted all their plans for creating economic stimulus, protecting civil liberties, and pushing health care reform. But when it came to the Iraq war, they had nothing new to say. The senators expressed a general commitment to ending the war and called for Iraqis to take more responsibility for their future. But as George W. Bush enters his final year in office, the Democrats appear to have no good ideas on how to confront him on Iraq.

[Read the full article]

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Bring Back Jim Webb!

—By Nick Baumann

| Mon Jan. 28, 2008 8:11 PM PST

It's hard to be a worse speaker than George W. Bush. But Kathleen Sebelius, the Democratic governor of Kansas, gave it a shot. Sebelius gave the Democratic response to the State of the Union. She's not a good speaker—she's obviously glued to the teleprompter, and the speech itself is awful. It's really too bad, because this could have been a great moment for the Democrats. Bush's speech is already being dismissed as a lame duck's list of unfulfilled plans and missed opportunities. Democrats could have capitalized on that. But instead of trying to draw a clear election-year contrast between her party and the huge numbers of congressional Republicans who are still loyal to Bush, Sebelius mailed it in.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

Analysis Shows Possible Pattern in Missing White House Emails

—By Nick Baumann

| Fri Jan. 25, 2008 2:20 PM PST

Since last Spring, the White House has repeatedly told the press and Congress about a potential problem involving millions of missing emails. But last Thursday the story changed: An administration spokesman told reporters "we have no way of showing that any emails at all are missing."

(You can find all of our past coverage of this issue in our missing White House emails index.)

Rep. Henry Waxman, the Oversight Committee chairman, was understandably concerned by the sudden change in the administration's story. They had originally told him that there were 473 days for which no email was archived; now they were saying they weren't sure if any were missing at all. So Waxman and the Oversight Committee scheduled a hearing on February 15 to clear up all the confusion. He quickly fired off letters to White House counsel Fred Fielding (PDF) and Allen Weinstein, the National Archivist (PDF), requesting their testimony. Also invited to testify is Alan Swendiman, the Director of the Office of Administration.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

White House: What Missing Emails?

—By Nick Baumann

| Thu Jan. 17, 2008 5:43 PM PST

Today, the White House dramatically changed its tune on the 5 to 10 million emails reportedly missing from its servers. Since early 2007, the administration has repeatedly acknowledged (to the press and Congress) that it had experienced a "technical issue" and that a still unknown quantity of emails might not have been archived, as required by the Presidential Records Act. But, asked by reporter about the missing emails today at a White House press conference, Tony Fratto, the deputy press secretary, contradicted the administration's previous statements.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill)

By David Cay Johnston. Portfolio. $24.95.

—By Nick Baumann

| Thu Jan. 17, 2008 1:00 AM PST

For its first 280 pages, the new exposé from this Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter is an engaging look at how the superrich consistently—and outrageously—rely on public handouts while preaching about free markets and wasteful entitlement programs all the way to the bank. The villains in David Cay Johnston's tales run the gamut from railroad executives to sports-franchise owners to hedge-fund managers, all joined by a willingness to take enormous sums from public coffers while providing little or nothing in return.

[Read the full article]