As if there wasn't enough to follow this week with Petraeus and Crocker hitting up Capital Hill for political support and cash, we've got two amazing features here at TPMCafe.

In the Book Club, we've assembled a pretty incredible group of folks to debate Jon Chait new book The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics. Joining Chait will be Paul Krugman of Princeton and the NYTs, Stephen Moore of the WSJ and formerly of the Club for Growth, Ezra Klein of the American Prospect, Will Wilkinson of the Cato Institute, and Megan McArdle and Ross Douthat both of the Atlantic Monthly. It's a brilliant and intellectually diverse group from which we expect some entertaining fireworks.

At the Table for One, we're thrilled to have Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie Savage here to talk about his new book, Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy. Savage won his Pulitzer for being one of the only major American journalists to, as Glenn Greenwald put it, simply "look at the public record of what the White House was doing, figure out what it meant, and report what the government was doing." As his editor put it, "he covers what the White House does, not just what it says."

Enjoy both of them, we're proud to have them. And let me know what you'd like to see in the future and we'll work with you to make it happen.

Megan McArdle:

I'm pretty sure I'll hate whoever gets elected. Rudy might be funny just to see the ACLU get all misty and nostalgic about the current administration, but that probably won't make up for having to wear uniforms and go to bed at 10 o'clock every night.

I've yet to decide whether or not she's one of those "interesting because we disagree bloggers" or just "so so so wrong." But with zingers like this...

Eric Kleefeld:

Well, it looks like despite Larry Craig's best efforts, he's going to have to resign today because of this bathroom business. He just can't keep stalling forever.

You know you love it.

Remember how Google's motto is "Don't be evil" but they allowed Chinese censors to block out "harmful" stuff like the history of the Tiananmen Square massacres of 1989? Well, they're at it again.

Boing Boing links to a report that Google's new property YouTube has cut a deal similar to Google's in China in which the site will be unblocked on the condition it agrees to work with the government to take down videos "deemed offensive to Thai people or those that violate Thai law." Read: dissident postings that speak negatively of the Thai Monarchy like those that originally caused the site to be blocked.

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Field organizing in the Democratic Party for the last 20 years has been built around a marketing model in which the candidate is a product to be sold. First you collect information on a voter by finding out what magazines they subscribe to, what organizations they are a part of, who they've voted for in the past. Then you solicit them for their support with a piece of mail, a knock on the door or a phone call in which your candidate just happens to care most about whatever random issue that person is most likely to care about. If the consumer sounds like they want to buy, they go in the database. Approaching election day, you call (and now email) them to remind them to vote, offer a ride to the polls, and emphasize that your candidate cares about what you believe they care about based on the data you've collected.

It's a charming process that has the three-part effect of losing elections, deadening our civic culture and forcing the progressive movement to rebuild itself from a list of names and preferences every two or four years. And it's got to end.

Luckily, there's a contingent of Democratic operatives and activists (of which I consider myself a semi-absent member) at war with the traditional model. Instead of treating voters like consumers, we believe they should be treated like citizens. It's a radical idea, but it just might work.

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A perfect example of why I will be reading local blogs for primary coverage, Iowa political sage David Yepsen explains why the International Association of Fire Fighters union endorsement will help Dodd:

In a precinct caucus fight, support from a local fire fighter can prove pivotal. The neighborhood fire fighter is usually a respected person who is trained to act quickly in a crisis. In the hectic commotion of a Democratic caucus, having that leadership take charge and rally your people can attract others to your preference group. Just ask Kerry.

Seems kind of obvious when you read it. But I would have otherwise thought of the endorsement as a nice media event, a cool picture, a flexing of political strength. But if Dean's failure in Iowa teaches us anything, it's that the caucuses are about very intimate local settings, in which people judge each other as people. With that in mind, a local firefighter is obviously a good ally. Update: Karen Tumulty should read local blogs.

Passport:

With parliamentary elections due next year, Iran's center-left coalition might be the latest victims of the YouTube effect. The would-be reformers are crying foul over the above video, which has been posted on a number of conservative Web sites and allegedly shows former President Mohammed Khatami shaking hands with a female supporter on a recent trip to Italy.

Somehow the new media gotcha is not quite as satisfying when used by fundamentalists, but democracy's a bitch that way. The video is after the break.

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Indeed:

Via Yglesias via Tech Liberation Front.

Kevin Drum and Henry Farrel are batting around the possibility that Alberto Gonzales took the relatively unique opportunity of a vacationing Jon Stewart to announce his resignation. As sound a guess as any, I think. And that's why close readers of TPMCafe will know that you heard it here first, in a comment by Miesjhel. I can only assume this will be the beginning of my awareness that much of the political blogosphere's insights come from TPMCafe threads.

As a part of the soon-to-come relaunch of TPMCafe's design, I'm going to revive this House Brew blog to be a place for management news, my reactions to the variety of content floating around these parts, and other more random ramblings. The relaunch of this site won't be happening for another week or two, but between now and then I'm going to try to get back into this whole "regular blogging" thing so that once folks actually start to read me, I won't be taking my first crickety steps back into the light. Here goes nothin'.

The Wall Street Journal's "The Informed Reader" blog is doing my job for me.  Their summary of our debate on globalization:

The discussion was kicked off by Jeff Faux, an economist who says globalization has pitted the world’s poor against the rich, symbolized by the accords struck between American executives and Chinese “capitalist commissars.” Mr. Faux, who founded the Economic Policy Institute, which advocates environmental and labor safeguards in trade rules, contends that the expansion of trade has put an unfair burden on American working families who “sacrifice their future in order to raise up the living standards of poor Chinese.”

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What a week! Sorry I wasn't around more, illness struck and put me out of commission for a few days. Looks like there was lots going on in my absence, but a few quick management updates:

• We're looking forward next week to a visit from Jeff Faux, founder and senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, to discuss his new argument that the global economy (and therefore the globe) is run by an investor elite he's named "The Party of Davos." Check out his previous piece in Democracy Journal and come prepared with thoughts for him on Monday.

• A warm welcome to Katha Pollitt, who joined us on Wednesday as a Special Guest and will be joining to Coffee House as a regular contributer in March.

• Special thanks to Amanda Marcotte for joining us for the week to share her thoughts on blogging, religion, political debate and presidential politics. Those were some amazingly long discussion threads...
  

• And, a happy announcement that literature professor and retired solo blogger Michael Berube will be joining the Coffee House in March to share his thoughts. But warning: he's one of the 100 most dangerous professors in America.

I hope everyone had a good week and shared some wisdom. I'm sure it'll be a busy weekend and then back to work on Monday!

Jessica Valenti, Executive Editor of Feministing.com, has agreed to join us as a regular contributer to the Coffee House. You can read about her here or here.

Josh and I are excited to have her with us, so give her a wonderful Cafe denizen welcome when she starts writing (hopefully later today!).

Next week at TPMCafe, former Edwards Campaign and and current Pandagon blogger Amanda Marcotte will be joining us to discuss political culture clash. But maybe not the culture clash you're expecting...

As Amanda's brief foray into presidential politics exposed, there appears to be a deep division between the wide open debate culture of the emerging blogosphere and the high-stakes, tightly controlled world of electoral politics. Must every writer tamp down the free flow of thoughts and ideas to have a future in politics? Or maybe our politics can be more accepting of the occasional controversial idea. Is there a middle ground in which the blogosphere and electoral politics can meet, or are we beginning to see a division within the public debate?

Amanda will share her thoughts starting Monday.

As I noted yesterday, Senator Schumer will be joining us for a live chat this afternoon. At 3 (note your calendars, it was originally scheduled for 2:30), the Senator will jump into the fray and answer your questions for an hour. We've got a good list of 26 questions to choose from already, but the more the merrier. What are you going to ask? Do you have thoughts on his book? update (3:10 pm): The Senator is running a little bit behind but the thread will be up soon.

New York Senator Charles Schumer will be joining us this week at TPMCafe to discuss his new book and the future of the Democratic Party. He'll be posting on his book today, and then joining us tomorrow from 2:30 to 3:30 pm for a live discussion. He's the Senior Senator from New York, the Chairman of the DSCC, and the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus. And, for an hour tomorrow he's all yours. What would you like to ask him?

Chalmers Johnson, the acclaimed author of Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, will be joining us next week to discuss his new book. In Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, he argues that "America is saddled with an empire that is fatally undermining its republican government." We're excited to have him to joining us and hope you'll do the same.

His visit to the Coffee House is especially interesting in light of where last week's conversation ended about the New Left and the Netroots.

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TPMCafe was buzzing last night with debate about Matt Stoller's case for the Netroots as a new political movement of the Left. After tracing its birth from Clinton's impeachment through the Iraq War and Howard Dean to the 2006 midterms, Stoller argues that, in contrast to the New Left of the 1960s, this new political movement is diverse in age, concerned with economics and willing to take over institutions to build power.

Nathan Newman takes exception to Stoller's history. Newman argues that what Stoller describes as a political drought between 1970 and 1997 for the Left was actually a time marked by tremendous progress for causes like environmentalism and feminism. He cautions against taking many of the post-60s institutions that do exist for granted.

Like Newman, Max Sawicky focuses his critique on Stoller's historical narrative.

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Barack Obama:

“When you watch Clinton vs. Gingrich or Gore vs. Bush or Kerry vs. Bush….you feel like these are fights that were taking place back in dorm rooms in the sixties.”

Matt Stoller:

But instead of coming up with new ideas, the New Left turned inward and the liberals were scared away from political combat. You can see this today in how the new and progressive movement is basically without institutional help, mentorship, or funding. Retreat to academia and the personal sphere happened because the 1960s left ignored economics and failed to defend the public as a meaningful concept.

The first post-boomer generation of political leaders is chomping at the bit. And with the possibility of a generation political realignment and power in the Democratic Party shifting significantly in just a few years, we here at TPM thought it would be interesting to bring Netroots activist and super-blogger Matt Stoller to the Coffee House to build on his past writing on the Netroots and the New Left.

Matt will post his first thoughts soon, and for the rest of the week he'll be spending some time engaging you and other Coffee House writers on how he understands this new progressive movement. If you would like to contribute a longer thought, please feel free to compose a blog post and send me the link to be included with my daily summaries.

Iraq is on everyone's mind today at TPMCafe. At America Abroad, Bruce Jentleson questions the "moral responsibility" case for surge and Ivo Daalder has two thoughts about Bush's soon-to-come "old-wine-in-new-bottles Iraq strategy." In the Coffee House Jo-Ann Mort is agreeing with Todd Gitlin and Josh Marshall that it's the Administration's lack of sanity, not management skills, that have brought us to where we are in Iraq and Steve Clemons is calling for people to attend a protest against McCain and Lieberman's announcement of their surge policy. Finally, at Election Central Eric Kleefeld has a quote opposing the surge policy from none other than Oliver North and at the Democrats Discussion Table readers are discussion Murtha's efforts to defund the war. Let me know if I missed anything good and share some wisdom with us.

Today at TPMCafe, Nathan Newman has "an honest bravo" for a newly green Wal-Mart, Ivo Daalder has thoughts on the ongoing Bush buck-passing, Reed Hundt offers Coach Gibbs as a political metaphor, Bruce Jentleson is unconvinced by the case for surge, M.J. Rosenberg is asking Why Not Gore?, and Greg Sargent has the latest on Edwards's anti-McCain rhetoric and Rudy's misplaced memo.

As always, let me know if I've missed anything good, stay caffeinated, and share some wisdom.

Two years ago, there was talk of a permanent GOP majority. The president had been reelected despite an increasingly unpopular war and the GOP political machine had an air of invincibility. Then it all fell apart.

This week in the Coffee House we've been discussing what happened these past two years that so dramatically turned the political tides. Todd Gitlin, Jo-Ann Mort, Ed Kilgore, E.J. Graff, and Reed Hundt each cite major events: Katrina, Iraq, Katrina and Iraq, Katrina and Terry Schiavo, and Falluja . Mark Schmitt and Greg Anrig, on the other hand, see the political collapse as an inevitable result of the conservative movement itself; Schmitt puts the blame on their high-risk political strategy and Anrig on the wrongness of the movement's basic ideas. Steve Clemons, though, questions the premise of the conversation and argues that "until Dems forge a compelling alternative and sell that to the nation, Bush will remain powerful by default."

What do you think? Were there one, two, or five events that you think explain the difference between the politics of 2004 and the politics of 2006? Or was the difference simply the inevitable pull of gravity on the conservative machine? Or is GOP power still alive and kicking despite the midterm loss? Write up your thoughts and post them to your TPM blog. I'll add a link on this post to whoever wants to join the conversation.

Today at TPMCafe, Greg Sargent is compiling obits of Gerald Ford (and I'm watching pre-obits), reader Jose Luis Fernandez is explaining how Bush's Internationalism has led us to "dark and turbulent waters," and Jo-Ann Mort and Todd Gitlin are riffing on Josh's question about what turned the political tides these past two years. If you've got an answer to Josh's question, post it in the Reader Blogs (post to your TPM blog and it will go there). If we have enough, I'll do a wrap-up of everyone's thoughts later today. That's it for the House Brew. Stay caffeinated and share some wisdom.