Legal Research

Who Runs Gov

By Simon Fodden

The Washington Post has started a website that aims to give you the lowdown on the people and deals in the new administration in Washington D.C. Who Runs Gov leads today (sadly) with a profile on Michelle Obama that asks such penetrating questions as “[S]hould she advise her husband? should she stop working? should her primary role be as a mother to the couple?s two daughters?” Fortunately, there are profiles of others that may be more to the point: e.g. Richard Holbrooke, Linda Douglass, and Eric Holder. One feature of the site that has me scratching my head a bit is the ability to see every last edit that editors make to a profile and to compare versions; thus, for example, the profile for Jason Furman has been edited nearly two dozen times, and we are invited to compare versions 15 and 16 to see which single word was added. Clearly some people need to get a life and not just a profile.

In addition to the long list of profiles of all and sundry, there’s a blog, The Plum Line by Greg Sargent that looks like it might attract some interesting commentary, and the now seemingly obligatory blog about the site itself, Who Runs Gov Blog.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on January 25, 2009 (boomark / email).