If Republicans need any more evidence to see why they need to get out of the way of or onto the immigration reform train before it’s too late, they need only look to that annual rite of sports-lovin’, corporate, Americany fest of Americaness, the Super Bowl (and, oh yeah, concussions), which conservatives now routinely end up protesting because of one commercial or another that either features people who don’t only speak English, aren’t white enough, boink the wrong people or are cheering for the future of America in a way that might somehow, someway redound as praise to something Barack Obama may have had something to do with. The latest example is conservative outrage over last night’s multicultural ad from Coca Cola, the well-known subversive force in American life.
In case you missed it over the weekend, a former employee of BridgeGate figure David Wildstein tries to make sense of Chris Christie’s weird email tirade over the weekend. And my explanation of why, whether he or the pundits realize it yet, Christie’s already toast for 2016.
While news comes this morning that the abortion rate has reached a 30-year low in America, it’s worth looking at how abortion is (mis)represented on TV and in movies.
If you’re a Prime subscriber and you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, definitely take some weekend time to read Sahil Kapur’s great history of the death of the filibuster, Requiem for the Filibuster (sub req).
Philip Seymour Hoffman found dead in his New York apartment, an apparent drug overdose. He was 46.
If you haven’t had a chance to look at Brian Murphy’s take on Christie’s desperate email fireball thrown at David Wildstein yesterday, definitely give it a look. In addition to having a really strong grasp of New Jersey politics, Murphy used to work for Wildstein. So it gives him a unique perspective.
But there’s another aspect of this. The more I think about this letter, I don’t think it’s from Christie and Co. I think the author is Chris Christie. He may not have typed it out himself. But down to pretty specific details included I think this came from him.
As I wrote below, before Wildstein’s accusations, before this afternoon’s email, I thought Christie was toast. I think’s clear for the reasons I wrote, even if Christie is totally innocent and even if no smoking gun emerges. But I hadn’t sat long enough with the Christie letter to fully digest its implications. This email is purportedly if not from Christie himself then issued in his name and from his closest advisors. On that basis it reads like it’s coming from a person or a team who is way, way further gone than I had realized.
Early last week I started writing a piece about how Christie was already toast as a 2016 candidate; most people just didn’t realize it yet. I set it aside because I couldn’t get the writing quite right (a perk of being your own boss and editor). Yesterday I thought: this piece is going to get easier and easier to write the longer I let it sit! But of course the point of writing it also diminishes. Because people are starting to get that he’s done. (In other words, I missed my chance.)
Now we have Team Christie’s blistering retort to David Wildstein, published originally through Politico’s Mike Allen (errr, ‘leaked’, sorry). It only drives home the point more clearly: as a 2016 presidential candidate, he’s done.
In case you missed them last week, two pieces on Pete Seeger. Here’s the the essay I wrote the day after Seeger died and here’s a remembrance of Seeger by Bruce Springsteen, with some thoughts of my own on the man who threaded the two lives together, John Hammond.
Ice fishermen reel as FAA shuts down beer-delivery drone service.