Alan J. Cohen, 1938-2006

In a much more confrontational weekly address than we've been used to, President Obama sought to combat what he called the "willful misrepresentations and outright distortions" in the health care debate. That and other political news in today's TPMD Saturday Roundup.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: The Wee-Wee Zone

Before all that sparking started, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was about to publish a serious book, as befits anyone with serious presidential aspirations. But then Sanford went hiking the Appalachian Trail. His wife left him, the press hounded him, his presidential hopes evaporated, and his book deal was cancelled.

Unfortunately for the publisher, Viking, the proofs for its Spring 2010 catalog had already gone to press, complete with a glowing write up of Within Our Means.

TPM has now obtained the entry from the catalog, which was apparently just released. Touting the book as "a conservative manifesto from one of the Republican Party's rising stars," the catalog anticipates "national publicity," "author tour," and "radio interview campaign."

Sanford would have explained through "personal" examples "how the GOP went astray over the last eight years." One can only imagine.

"Governor Sanford's down-to-earth voice and common sense principles will give conservative readers a much-needed sense of hope," the catalog promises.

You can read the entire entry here.

Politico:

And this week, [Obama] returned to an argument Democratic strategists said shouldn't be part of the pitch this year -- trying to convince Americans they have a "moral obligation" to help people without insurance, a discredited argument from the reform effort under President Bill Clinton.

Turns out "Chris", the guy who brought the assault rifle to the Obama event in Arizona, is a member of the same far-right political organization as the guy who brought the gun to the Obama event in New Hampshire.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

From Greg Sargent ...

A major factor in President Obama's slide in today's big Washington Post/ABC News poll, which is preoccupying the political classes today, is his surprisingly sharp drops among Democrats and even liberals, according to crosstabs that were sent my way.

Much talk today has focused on Obama's difficulties with independents. But the drop among Dems and liberals is also a key driving factor in the President's skid, according to WaPo polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta, who graciously provided the additional data.

Reich: Why are six senators in charge of health care for 300 million Americans?

Good few hurricane years for Florida?

Gov. Charlie Crist (R) is telling supporters that that's because of a personal request he put in to God back in 2007.

He had some friends follow up in 2008 and 2009 to keep up the trend.

Slideshow: The amazing Usain Bolt.

TPM Reader JZ adds more on evangelicals and Israel ...

A couple of things about this -- one on language, one on substance.

First, I think it is quite wrong to say that Evangelical "support" for Israel has any real meaning within the normal definition of the word "support." The evangelical/Likud position will actually hasten Israel's destruction because of demographics. As a Zionist, I reject the notion that it is in any way good for Israel to become either 1) an Arab state because a majority of its residents will be Arabs; or 2) an apartheid state in which a majority (or large minority) cannot vote based on ethnic identity. On the latter point, as an American I fail to see how "supporting" a country means making it undemocratic. Evangelicals are NOT pro-Israel: they are anti-Israel. They do not "support" Israel: they hasten its destruction. And we should not be afraid to say so.

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Gibbs: Obama is willing to be a one-term President to get health care reform done. Watch.

Nullification, the constitutional theory that states can block enforcement of federal laws they find objectionable, was crackpot from the start and hasn't been seriously entertained anywhere in the county since the Civil War (with the exception of feigned attempts in the South during the Civil Right Era). Nullification, to give you a thumbnail idea, is sort of like secession a la carte.

But Jim DeMint and Michelle Bachmann are now saying that Tea Party-loving states around the country should band together to block enforcement or implementation of health care reform if the federal government passes it.

Should be interesting.

Late Update: As someone who spent a good deal of time studying the Nullification Crisis, I'm chagrined that I failed to note that Sen. DeMint (R) is himself from South Carolina, the cradle of 'nullification' and the original seedbed of the treason that threatened to flair up in 1833 and finally did in 1861.

An important addition to the comments earlier about Huckabee from TPM Reader PD ...

As one Landsman to another, may I disagree strongly with Huckabee's comments?

The American Jewish community is divided about lots of things, it's our nature. One thing we tend NOT to be divided about is support for Israel. But support doesn't mean merely blind acceptance, which is something Republicans never seem to understand in general. We can support Israel while disagreeing--loudly and forcefully at times--about specific behaviors of its government. As an American Jewish liberal Democrat, I can support a 2-state solution (which, to my knowledge, remains official Israeli government policy), oppose the expansion of settlements, rail about Bibi's government or at least his governing style, and still wholly, fundamentally support the state of Israel. And, you know what? I resent Huckabee and his ilk for implying that my support of Israel is anything less than total just because it doesn't fit into his narrow prism of what he perceives that support should be.

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Bush Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend appeared on CNN this morning to deny Tom Ridge's claims of political motives behind terror alerts and seemed to provide two somewhat contradictory explanations: 1) that politics never came up at all, and then 2) that the only discussion was that it might hurt President Bush "because people might perceive it as being political."

The two points are not necessarily contradictory, if you allow a generous interpretation of her meaning. And she also had some new alleged details on the meeting in question.

Palin cleaning up in all-important birther primary; Romney on the skids.

Mike Huckabee just told CBN: "One of the things I find most interesting is that generally Evangelicals are so much more supportive of Israel than the American Jewish community."

This is true on many levels. But it also gets at deeper issues. One of which is the inability of the Republican party to attract substantial numbers of Jewish voters. This is treated as odd by many political observers, reasoning that the GOP has adopted such hard line positions on the Arab-Israeli conflict that surely this should lead to an increasing number of American Jews voting for the Republican party.

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As funny as he is, Jon Stewart is often at his best when he drops the comedian schtick and just goes with his whip-smart 40-something Jew routine, like he did last night with GOP whackadoodle Betsy McCaughey. Watch.