Soothsaying raconteur Martin Peretz has a little story for you. Come children, gather ye rosebuds, for it is time to hear the sorry tale of Sidney Blumenthal, who is, at this very moment, maybe already on Hillary Clinton’s travel diplomacy team! You see, Blumenthal once worked for Peretz at the New Republic magazine, a “The Spine” avant la lettre, if you will. Despite knowing absolutely nothing about foreign policy (or literally anything) and overcoming his debilitating addiction to borrowing $3000 from Peretz and not paying him back, Blumenthal ascended the ranks of Peretz’s Arabic-language fiction quarterly!  Sacre Blume! MORE »

New Republic editor-in-chief Marty Peretz, known for his colorful view (complete hatred) of Arabs, read in an Israeli newspaper that Dennis Ross was being replaced as “Iran Czar” or whatever. Granted the State Department has denied this news report, and Dennis Ross never even held the position Peretz claims he did, but still, did Barack Obama do this because he’s an anti-Semite or a pussy or both? MORE »

Ace national security journo Spencer Ackerman quit his editing gig at The New Republic this week, announcing it officially with a tiny little note on his brand new, aptly titled blog. Considering that we’d been told it would happen a month ago, the lack of shock echoing throughout the DC mediasphere is hardly surprising. Why’d Spencer leave? MORE »

New Republic owner/editor Martin Peretz is a man of many descriptions. We like this one from Jack Shafer: “Self-promoter, braggart, Arab-hater, name-dropper, and bad writer.”

So what’s Marty up to these days, beyond writing unreadable love letters to himself (and Israel!) in his magazine?

He’s writing unreadable love letters to himself (and Scooter Libby!) on a crappy new blog!

Painfully collected samples, after the jump ….

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