TPM Editors Blog

Racist Email Doc Resurfaces as Expert on Glenn Beck


Dr. David McKalip

Back in July we brought you the story of Dr. David McKalip, the Tea Party movement anti-anti-reform activist who was caught circulating a racist email with a photo of loincloth wearing President Obama in the guise of a witch-doctor.

After we publicized the email, McKalip apologized, later said he was withdrawing from the public debate over health care and felt compelled to resign as the head of the local medical association.

So we were surprised when TPM Reader JG let us know that last night McKalip resurfaced as an expert on health care reform for none other than Glenn Beck at Beck's town hall style meeting to discuss the horrors of reform.

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A First Time for Everything

I'm going to go way out on a limb here: Professional wrestling and necrophilia have never come up together in a political campaign before today.

Now the YouTube videos of those old WWE sketches that Connecticut Democrats were flagging to reporters as a hit on Linda McMahon have been yanked after WWE complained of copyright infringement.

The Big Issues

The NRA asks the question on all our minds: Should Hillary Clinton team up with third-world dictators to take away our guns?

Hard Bigotry

A former Bush II official who's also Muslim decries the GOP-led witch hunt for Hill interns/Muslim "infiltrators," in an interview with TPMmuckraker: "Really what they're trying to do here is to scare otherwise thoughtful members and chiefs of staff from hiring Muslims."

Undercover Intern Speaks!

Justin Elliott interviews Chris Gaubatz, the insurance salesman turned fake Muslim intern:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Change your name. Grow a beard and learn the ways of Islam. Present yourself at the Council on American Islamic Relations. Acquire an internship. Wear a wire. Take whatever isn't bolted down.

Read the rest of Justin's report ...

McAuliffe Not Optimistic

Terry McAuliffe tells TPMDC that as much he hates to admit it, he doesn't see a public option making it into the final version of a health care reform bill.

Rearguard Action

Progressive groups prep ad campaign in Nevada to pressure Harry Reid on public option.

Ends With A Whimper

For the past few years, as the Jack Abramoff corruption investigation and its various spinoffs threatened to consume the entire decade, it had become pretty obvious that the feds' main remaining target was a relatively unknown Abramoff protege by the name of Kevin Ring.

The feds had brought case after case against those who Ring had come in contact with during the GOP lobbying heyday of the early 2000s -- and one by one they had pleaded guilty, avoiding trial and hoping to lighten their sentences. But long after Jack Abramoff had been carted off to jail and others had paid their debt to society and tried to resume their lives, Ring still held out, declining plea offers and eventually taking the case to trial.

But the biggest fish in the Abramoff saga to actually go to trial slipped away yesterday when the judge declared a mistrial on seven of the eight charges implicating Ring. Zack Roth takes a look at what went wrong with the Ring prosecution.

It's Not WWE "Raw" For Nothing

Connecticut Democrats, anticipating a tough re-election fight for Sen. Chris Dodd, are in oppo research heaven digging through World Wrestling Entertainment clips for material to use against GOP candidate Linda McMahon, a former WWE CEO and wife of WWE principal Vince McMahon.

New Jersey's Battle of the Bulge

Chris Christie, on the campaign trail: "I'm gonna let you in on a little secret ... I'm overweight."

Copycat?

In a possible echo of the death of the census worker in Kentucky who had "Fed" scrawled across his chest with a felt tip marker, a California man was indicted today for an email threat to kill President Obama "then write 'fed shit' on his chest with a felt tip."

You've Got Fail

Jon Stewart joins in the fun at the expense of the RNC's new GOP.com website. Watch.

Alternative Realities Collide

The key findings in a new report from Greenberg and Carville on the GOP's conservative base: They are more intensely anti-Obama than liberal Democrats were anti-Bush, and their antipathy is not driven by racial prejudice.

Who's Your Daddy Now?

Campaign contributors abandon Sen. John Ensign (R-NV).

Steele: "Moo, Moo!"

The RNC chairman livens up his self-declaration as the cow on the tracks stopping the train of health care reform -- with sound effects.

Squeaky Wheel Gets the Moola

Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson (R-SC) wound up out-raising his Democratic challenger Rob Miller in the third quarter despite the big nationwide fundraising push against Wilson over his outburst.

All Knotted Up in N.J.

Two new polls on the New Jersey governor's race: Corzine ahead in one, Christie in the other -- both within the margin of error.

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Why has Obama managed to get just three of his 23 judicial nominations through the Democratic-controlled Senate? That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.