The problem for the GOP congressional leadership on the Hill is that when you put the facts together it’s clear that it didn’t occur to them that anything to do with Abdulmutallab’s handing was a problem until days later when Dick Cheney started gunning them up over the red herring of ‘mirandizing’ him.
So basically all the stuff about what Brennan told them or didn’t tell them in that briefing is beside the point. They knew exactly how Abdulmutallab had been handled. And they didn’t think it was a problem until days later when Dick Cheney told them it was. Then they went back and came up with a story about how if they only would have known they would have been screaming to high heaven.
We’ll have more on this on Wednesday.
Okay, Bob Dylan performing live at the White House tonight as part of a celebration of the music of the Civil Rights movement.
Not sure what else to say beside that.
(Lotsa others beside him, needless to say.)
Can’t help but remind me of this…
“But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.”
Watch it live after the jump. Read More
You’ve probably heard of Lt. Dan Choi, a gay West Point graduate and New York National Guardsman, who was recommended for discharge after publicly coming out of the closet and becoming an advocate for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. He’s become a very public advocate for repeal all across the media over the last year.
He’s now back on duty with his National Guard unit.
As you can read in the piece at TPMMuckraker, it doesn’t seem to stem from an explicit change of policy at the Pentagon. But it does seem like a sign of which way the winds are now blowing, and an assumption, based on last week’s events, that Choi’s discharge may never go through.
Chris Matthews has gotten to a whole new level on how crazy Sarah Palin is, calling her “frightening” a short while ago on Hardball for her discussing President Obama needing to “declare war” on Iran to buoy his political standing. An even more dramatic moment came a moment later, though. Palin’s so crazy now that even Mark Halperin thinks she’s nuts and out of her depth. Truly a watershed moment. Read More
I’m not sure how reliable this number is, or could be, but Haiti has raised the death toll from the January earthquake to 230,000.
Steny Hoyer says his members are ready to debate the GOP Shadow Budget, asks why Republicans don’t seem to want to discuss it.
A classic moment during today’s press briefing when Robert Gibbs flashed his palm to show he’d written “Hope” and “Change” there, among other reminders, a la Sarah Palin. It might have even overshadowed the President’s surprise appearance in the briefing room.
This happened last week. But it was just too classic to let slip into the ether. GOP Chairman Michael Steele was up at Harvard last Wednesday. And a questioner got on his case about him and his party referring to the health reform bill as “socialism” and asked him to defend the language.
This was clearly a dangerous moment. Since it prompted Steele to take a shot at discussing Marxist theory. My favorite part was his arguing that the word was right because the Senate bill meant taking over the health care “means of production.”
Presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty showed up to give a speech to GOP activists in Alabama on Friday. But he didn’t just bring himself. He also carried with him a $100,000 check for the state Republican party from a mystery donor.
No one’s saying who it’s from. And it’s also not clear what the check needed a chaperone rather than just being sent in the mail.