There are a thousand reasons Nancy Pelosi might have decided not to push for a greenhouse gas cap & trade scheme by July 4, her timeline for global warming legislation. None of those reasons are compelling. I’ll be doing some fairly in-depth writing on climate change and energy policy on this site.

I’ll be watching closely on Thursday morning as Zalmay Khalilzad runs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gauntlet. Acting Perm. Rep. Alex Wolff has been doing, by all accounts, a fantastic job at the U.S.

Former State Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson taught me a term recently that I did not know about — the “non-paper” paper.

I’ve been in Senator Harry Reid‘s territory for the last day and a half — enjoying watching the unlikely co-mingling of a massive number of NASCAR fans mixing with tweed and tie-wearing academics from the Western Political Science Association.

When Matsushita purchased MCA/Universal Studios in 1990, many worried that the Japanese business would distort, censor, or otherwise direct creative content at the giant movie and entertainment house towards politically safe — rather than provocative and edgy — material.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has told a number of senior national security officials — current and former — that he is shutting down (or at least significantly shrinking) the Rumsfeld-Cambone-Feith-Boykin intelligence operation.

I’m a big Chuck Hagel fan. His roll call votes rarely turn out the way I’d like since he’s been a party loyalist for most of his career, but he’s been an important voice for comity in the political process and multilateralism in foreign policy for a long time.

(Keith Ellison taking oath of office on Thomas Jefferson’s Quran) Why not arrange a “conversation” with the increasingly popular first Muslim Member of the U.S.

The Washington Post‘s Dafna Linzer gets senior U.S. official to confirm that General Asgari left Iran voluntarily and is “cooperating” with Western intelligence agencies.

General David Petraeus believes that the U.S. must talk to all key parties inside Iraq — particularly the most militant groups that have been opposing the U.S.-backed government.