If you’re a politician and you get ripped by the Ethics Office, why not just shut down the Ethics Office?

That seems to be Rep. Marcia Fudge’s (D-OH) approach.

Having been admonished by the new Office of Congressional Ethics, Fudge, along with twenty other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, is sponsoring legislation strip the office of much of its power.

How Harry Reid went from dead as a doornail to back in it to win it in the Nevada senate race.

I can’t get my mind off this story about the “giant shears” BP used at 5,000 feet under the sea after the diamond-tipped saw broke while they were trying to slice off a pipe down at the spill site. I just wouldn’t think the physics or the leverage of shears would work at such a scale or such a depth. And who ran it? I can’t get this image of a giant BP contractor squid operating the thing down there.

Late Update: I really prefer to stick with my vision of the giant BP contractor squid. But TPM Reader BH points me to this graphic at the NYT which seems to illustrate how it works.

Later Update: Maybe it’s just me. But squids aside, if this were a 70s era disaster movie, wouldn’t this be the point where Allen and BP had to call in the dolphins?

I’m really not sure why former Sen. Larry Craig sat down for an interview with the Daily Show’s John Oliver. But he did. Here’s the video.

It’s too for the ages not to think that Craig was playing along.

We still don’t know what’s going on down in South Carolina, the Palmetto sex farm. But there was governor’s race debate scheduled last night. And you can imagine that the latest accusations against Nikki Haley came up pretty quickly. See the video here.

Late Update: Sarah Palin comes in with a last-minute robocall for Haley.

There’s a bunch of edifying new articles in the Israeli press this morning about the Flotilla incident earlier this week. But I think the most apt may be Gideon Levy’s column in today’s Ha’aretz, not because it sheds any new particular light on the raid itself but because of what it says about the big picture which is basically that Netanyahu’s vision of Israel living in an ‘everybody’s against us’ world is drawing the country closer and closer to a world in which that’s the reality. Read More

Trying to set her sights on the general election, California Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina has released a new ad ridiculing Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) for talking about the climate change issue. Only problem is that until this until she got into this tough primary, Fiorina thought climate change was a big deal too.

If chivalry were still alive and well anywhere, I’d expect it to be in South Carolina. But clearly South Carolina politicos cannot keep their mouths shut about who they’ve slept with.

You’ll remember that in one of the text messages Nikki Haley’s first accuser, Will Folks, released, another politico texts Folks: “I just don’t know who has told more people, you or Nikki.”

The latest affair allegation against Nikki Haley comes from Republican lobbyist Larry Marchant, who was forced to resign from a rival campaign to Haley’s when a reporter came around asking questions about the alleged affair. (Haley’s camp maintains it’s all a dirty trick.) Reporters are usually the last to know, so someone was flapping their lips big time.

Marchant, being the swell guy he is, went on camera yesterday with a local TV station and detailed his alleged one-night stand with Haley. What is wrong with these people?

Longtime TPM reader checks in:

Granted the administration has been ham-handed in how it has handled some of this stuff, but isn’t it ironic that a DC press corps that could barely muster a collective yawn when Karl Rove was moving U.S. Attorneys around like political pawns, is hyperventilating about the White House making it known to potential candidates that there are other ways to serve beyond being a Senator?

We’re going to have a longer feature piece on this later today. But there’s new polling out this morning that confirms how the Nevada Senate race has changed dramatically from the last winter when Harry Reid looked like he would be very hard pressed to hold on to his senate seat this fall.

Now the Chickengate fiasco and a handful of smaller and less noticed self-inflicted wounds appear to have basically killed establishment candidate Sue Lowden’s chances. The new leader is harder right candidate Sharron Angle, who’s had the aggressive support of the Club for Growth and looks poised to win the nomination in Tuesday’s primary. Read More