It doesn’t take much scratching below the surface to find actual Republicans, including a former Bush official, behind the case of Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, the Army doc turned birther who’s facing possible court martial for refusing to follow deployment orders. Justin Elliott does the scratching for us.
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In our ed meetings over the last few days we’d picked up hints that the White House and Senate leaders were concerned that Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), currently fighting an uphill reelection battle, was going to try to water down the big financial services regulation bill, particularly as it applies to the trading of derivatives. (For a complicated set of reasons, her post as Chair of the Ag Committee puts her in a good position to do this.) Now, this had me scratching my head a bit. Arkansas has turned into an awfully conservative state. So I can get her running against the liberals and the unions and Health Care Reform and Cap and Trade. But, she needs to cozy up to the big investment houses and hedge funds in Little Rock?
It turns out though that everybody had this one figured wrong. Rather than tacking right and trying to cut a deal with Republicans, Lincoln has gone the other direction, announcing that the administration wasn’t tough enough and calling for even tighter regulation of banks and derivatives trading.
Is it possible that Kirsten Gillibrand may end up with no opponent at all in November? Former Gov. Pataki, who probably had the best chance of any Republican to beat her, has taken himself out of the running. From inauspicious beginnings she really is turning out to be Sen. Kryptonite (D-NY).
Looking at the American Patriot Foundation’s representation of Lt. Col. Terence Lakin, it occurs to me, what’s more patriotic than an active duty member of the military refusing to obey a lawful order?
An Army spokesperson is being pretty cryptic about it, but from what we can make out the Army has commenced an investigation into a lieutenant colonel who has refused to follow orders that he redeploy from Washington, D.C., to Fort Campbell, Ky., on the grounds that Barack Obama doesn’t meet the constitutional requirements to be President.
Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin is a physician who has been stationed at the Pentagon in a clinic run by Walter Reed Army Hospital. When we called the Pentagon, we were directed to the Army, which in turn directed us to Walter Reed. A spokesperson there says, “Lt. Col. Lakin will be assigned to duty at Walter Reed pending investigation.”
It’s not clear from that statement — and the spokesperson won’t elaborate — whether Lakin has been reassigned from the Pentagon to Walter Reed proper or what type of investigation is underway. The American Patriot Foundation, which is supporting Lakin, issued a press release today claiming that Lakin’s commanding officer told him on Monday the he had “the ‘right to remain silent’ because LTC Lakin is about to be charged with serious crimes.”
Late Update: NBC, citing “military officials,” reports that Lakin will face court martial.
Gary Stein, founder and leader of Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots, sends out statement offering reassurance that his group is not calling for a military uprising and recognize Barack Obama as the legitimate Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces.
We now have another Republican (albeit one in the House) saying that the seemingly preposterous claim that Health Care Reform is unconstitutional will be a key issue in the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
The Washington Post has new details out on former Rep. Eric Massa’s pattern of hitting on male staffers and others, including the incident that finally led his staff to blow the whistle: Massa allegedly hitting on a bartender at the wake for a Marine killed in Afghanistan.
TPM Reader VL looks at the intriguing possibilities behind Nevada senate candidate Sue Lowden’s suggestion that we use barter as a way to contain ever-rising medical costs …
I found myself intrigued by the suggestion that we should barter (or even bargain) for our health care. My first thought was of my great grandfather, a country doctor in upstate New York in c. 1880. We still have his account books.
The many farmers in the area did, indeed, pay him by barter. Some of the entries make for good reading. Clearly, a few farmers felt a life long obligation, as they are recorded as dropping off two dozen eggs weekly for years in exchange for a difficult birth. Others, not so much: terse commentary alongside some entries indicates that the doctor did not expect to see anything after this one chicken, despite the complexity of the case.