One of the rules of Washington sports reporting is that it's critical not to state the obvious concerns with the hometown teams. Any reporter that does so finds that his or her editors don't back them up, and pretty soon they are off the beat, assigned to far-off Fairfax County or the forgotten continent of the business section.

The two current examples are the Wizards and the Redskins. The big unreported story (you can only see hints) is the downside of the return of Gilbert Arenas. He's back after a long injury lay-off. And when he's in the defense disappears. Perhaps he cannot move laterally. Perhaps he should rest the knee until the next year. Or perhaps, as a former Wizards coach told me one time, he is death to any team because for him there is never a thought about the team because the whole world revolves around his ego.

Read more »

So Harold Ickes, wooing superdelegates for Clinton, has admitted to our TPM colleague that he tries to gain superdelegate votes for his candidate by explaining that Republicans will use unfair and factually groundless linkages between Obama and Reverend Wright to defeat Obama in the fall. Therefore, he says to the superdelegates, they should pick Clinton not Obama.

All's fair in love, war, and campaigns, which are of course about love and war. But I know Harold Ickes. I've supported Harold's causes. The Harold Ickes I know helped Jesse Jackson, tirelessly fought for civil rights again and again, constructs the proverbial big tent and gathers all Democrats under it ever four years, is a monumentally tolerant person. He is a tough and brilliant fighter; anyone would want him on their side.

Read more »

It's very hard to obtain an understandable picture of the fighting in Iraq. But it's possible that Maliki has brought about a kind of self-inflicted Tet Offensive. Even if the American-backed Maliki-led government establishes some sort of order in Basra, Baghdad and other cities, the battles of the last week must have shaken the American media into a recognition that there's no peace at hand in Iraq, and certainly no widespread support for the Maliki government.

When I was at the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington a few weeks ago, I was struck by the reporters'

Read more »