US Politics Today: Check it Out!! Jude Wanniski December 10, 2003

Memo To: Political Junkies
From: Jude Wanniski
Re: A New Website

Unless you are a real political junkie, you probably have never heard of Joe Rothstein, one of my oldest friends in the political world. In 1958, we were the two most liberal grad students at the UCLA graduate school of economics, Democrats to the core. When we got our Master degrees in 1959, we hiked ourselves to Anchorage, Alaska, to seek our fame and fortune in the newest state in the Union (with Hawaii). By hook and crook, we landed jobs with the Anchorage Daily News, circulation 8,000 at a stretch in a town of maybe 100,000. A year later, I skipped town to seek fame and fortune in warmer climes, but Joe stayed on. In a few years time, he ran up the promotion ladder and became editor in chief of the paper. In 1968, he got behind the candidacy of a young Anchorage land developer named Mike Gravel, a Democrat who came out of the blue to become a United States Senator. Joe quit the paper and came to Washington with Gravel as chief of staff. In January 1971, Gravel asked me to be his Legislative Assistant. I was still a card-carrying Democrat, working as political columnist for the Dow Jones National Observer). I almost took the job, but at exactly the same time, Bob Bartley was named editor of the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal and when he called to offer me a job with him in NYC, writing editorials, I had to tell Gravel my choice was clear, in my chosen profession. The rest is history, as Bartley and I teamed up to put supply-side economics on the map.

The rest is history except for Joe Rothstein, who went on to a respectable and distinguished career as a political consultant to Democratic candidates for high office. We are both old geezers now, but that old UCLA journalism spark still keeps us going when others our age have hung it up. It may be that Joe has been inspired by this website, which he follows religiously, but he has gone a step further, producing a website of his own for political junkies that from the git-go has got to be the best, FREE, political website in the country.

It is still a work in progress, as publication of US Politics Today has just begun. But I guarantee you that once you click into it to see what he offers, you will not only bookmark it, but also sign up to get it on a daily basis. How can he do it for free? You will notice that there will be links to other political websites that deliver original reports and charge for their service. It does tilt to the left, as you will see, but not so far as to be knee-jerk. Joe does think for himself and has even shown some respect for supply-side economics. I’m adding it to my list of favorite websites on my home page.

Please check it out. http://www.uspoliticstoday.com