I think I now understand what James O’Keefe and his pals from the Fearsome Four were trying to do with Sen. Landrieu’s phones. I believe the definition for this sort of activity is: vandalism.
What’s the usual punishment for entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent to commit acts of vandalism?
The New Orleans “plumbers” weren’t trying to bug Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office phone system, they were merely trying to disable it, NBC is reporting, citing unnamed sources.
Ben Bernanke’s renomination as fed chair faces a crucial Senate procedural vote today. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Look at this line from the email John McCain sent out tonight to curry favor with Tea Partiers whose support he needs to keep to ward off a primary challenge from J.D. Hayworth …
During his first year in office, President Obama and Congressional Democrats have amassed a $12.4 trillion deficit that is growing each day.
$12.4 trillion deficit? Obama? He’s borrowed a trillion a month?
In all the rush of the State of the Union craziness tonight, I wanted to make sure you saw this latest turn in the Landrieu/WingNerd story down in New Orleans. It’s still not clear what the Fearsome Four were trying to do. But it’s no longer clear that they were attempting to bug Landrieu’s phone. Some sort of tampering. But not clear it was bugging.
Our Christina Bellantoni was in the House press gallery watching tonight’s speech and filed this bird’s eye view report on what the different folks in the audience were doing while the cameras were fixed on President Obama.
Chris Matthews: He did so well “I forgot he was black tonight.”
Late Update: This was actually one of those great Chris Matthews moments. And I don’t mean that snarkily or critically. It’s one of the reasons I’ve come to like him a lot — something I couldn’t say in the Clinton years. He’s just so honest and genuine, sometimes painfully so. And for someone of Matthews generation, talking about race, it often leads him into some rather awkward and cringey quotes. Here’s Matthews clarifying the statement a bit later in the evening.
A moment of drama for the evening was the set-to between President Obama and Justice Alito. Jeff Zeleny at the Times thinks it was Obama’s reference to the opening the new decision gives to foreign spending into US campaigns that Alito said wasn’t true. But he then seems to misstate or perhaps misunderstand what Obama was referencing, claiming that the majority didn’t find a constitutional right for foreign companies to spend on US elections. For more on how the new decision does open the floodgates to foreign financing of US elections see this Monday post by our Zack Roth.
Meanwhile, Linda Greenhouse of the Times thinks it was Obama’s reference to a “century of law” which Alito was quibbling with.
Who would have thought that the kinder, gentler “You Lie!” moment would come from the folks in the robes?
That’s not judicial restraint I can believe in.