The Never-Ending Jersey Corruption Beat
We've got a new featured pol on the TPM Jersey Corruption Beat today: Bob Menendez. Brian Murphy's got the story.
Shocking, Tragic
A Republican aide was on the phone with late Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich just before he killed himself. He told her about his outrage over a whispering campaign about his religion, threatened to kill himself and then handed the phone to his wife. Seconds later, Schweich's wife Kathy said, "He shot himself!"
Third Israeli Poll: No Help For Bibi
I mentioned yesterday that the first two post-Speech polls out of Israel showed a modest bump for Prime Minister Netanyahu — neither the no-effect Zionist Camp/Labor was hoping for or the big bump Likud wanted. Now we have a third poll and it shows no effect at all.
Welp
"Despite a small minority of Democrats and Israeli reporters seeking to curry favor with Obama, Netanyahu's speech to Congress elicited overwhelming support."
Israel Hayom (Israel Today) is the money-losing free news daily which Sheldon Adelson set up in 2007 mainly to support Benjamin Netanyahu. In Israel it is often mocked "Bibiton" (The Bibi News, roughly). But through a mix of being free and popular it rocketed to being the most-read news daily. Netanyahu's opponents — not unreasonably — complain that the entire thing is a massive campaign/propaganda contribution to Netanyahu. In any case, I was looking at its English language version today and here's the 'deck' for their lead article on the site ...
Things Getting Weird
Budget crises affect people in weird ways. A top Brownback aide who is now a key lobbyist/advisor on the outside and apparently being investigated by the FBI went off on a Topeka Model UN coordinator for purportedly disrespecting the governor in her model UN speech.
Backstory
Netanyahu said Iran would develop its first atomic bomb by 1999 in 1991.
Guess What? Chris Christie Has Launched a Whole New Scandal
Feeling Bridgegate was out of the news, Chris Christie has cued up what looks to be another mega scandal.
Split Decision ... So Far
I mentioned earlier this week that the 'Zionist Camp'/Labor party had again opened up a very thin lead over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party in the fast-approaching Israeli election. Now we're two days post-Apocalypse Speech. So how has it played so far in Israel?




