Hank Paulson: I sure could have used these new financial reforms when things were melting down.
As much as I delighted in seeing David Vitter pick up a serious primary challenger, I can’t say that I expected former Supreme Court Justice Chet Traylor to go right after Vitter’s personal scandals. Thank heavens I appear to be wrong.
Stephen Largen reports in the Monroe News-Star, the largest paper in the northeastern part of the state where Traylor hails from, that the Traylor campaign admits there’s little difference between the two Republicans politically and it all comes down to Vitter’s personal foibles: Read More
After a flurry of unconfirmed reports, the family of George Steinbrenner has confirmed to the New York Times that The Boss, the legendary and often notorious owner of the Yankees, has died after apparently suffering a massive heart attack last night at his home in Tampa, FL.
There’s a flurry of news reports right now — many of them unconfirmed — that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has been hospitalized in Tampa. One local TV station is reporting that he has died (*Late Update: The station has since pulled back that report and now simply says he’s been hospitalized.), but CNN says he’s in critical condition.
WABC in New York reports that Steinbrenner, who turned 80 on July 4, suffered a “massive heart attack.”
The New York Daily News is now reporting that Steinbrenner died this morning around 6:30 a.m. The AP is also reporting that Steinbrenner has died. There has been no official confirmation.
More soon …
First the Russian deep-cover spy ring. Now that Iranian scientist “missing” for the last year has turned up in the Pakistani embassy in Washington. The Iranians claim he was kidnapped by the CIA; the U.S. denies that and suggests (without officially saying so) that the scientist defected.
The Pakistani Iranian interests section is the proxy for the Iranians in Washington since the countries do not maintain diplomatic relations. It now appears that the scientist wants to return to Iran, and Iran says it’s making arrangements to repatriate him.
But the circumstances of his disappearance remain murky at best. As the New York Times puts it: “If the Iranian version is true, it is not clear how the man escaped his alleged captors to reach the Pakistani Embassy. If the second version is accurate, it is not clear why he would want to escape, or whether he had been taken under duress.”
Today is the runoff in the Republican primary for governor of Alabama, and it’s hard to imagine the GOP could have wound up with two bigger goofs than Bradley Byrne and Robert Bentley. One has defended himself against charges that he’s an evolutionist; the other has embellished his stateside military service during the Vietnam era. The sad part is one of these guys will actually win.
Greetings TPM Readers. This is just a short note to let you know that I’m going to be stepping away from the site for a little while, taking some time away with my family. The last day off I took was back in April 2009 as we were gearing up for the relaunch and expansion of the site. And I confess the grind has worn me down a bit. So as hard as I find it to pry myself away from TPM, I’m looking forward to a little time away to recharge my batteries. We have a lot of exciting stuff planned for the rest of the summer and the fall. And I’m looking forward to discussing it with you when I get back.
I usually think of plagiarism as something that brings down journalists. But I guess that’s old fashioned thinking: Candidates for Governor of Colorado can get caught doing it too.
In a late afternoon blog post, the Denver Post reports that numerous portions of essays ‘written’ by former Rep. and now gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis (R) appear to have been lifted more or less in their entirety from essays written years ago by a guy named Gregory Hobbs, who is now a Justice on the state Supreme Court. Bad guy to plagiarize, right? Read More
GOP congressional candidate in Missouri: The growth of government under Obama takes away the freedom to find Jesus Christ.