This gives a bizarrely comic new meaning to government transparency and good government generally. Open records requests, FOIAs and the like are meant to keep those in power accountable and allow citizens to know what governments are doing in their name. There’s always a balance between legitimate secrecy and the people’s right to know; almost all people in power want to keep information tight. But things take a bizarre new turn when the most powerful elected officials use open records requests to find out what people and the press know about them. (Think about that for a second.) The private legal team representing the office of Chris Christie has in recent days been making open records requests to city officials in Fort Lee and Hoboken, New Jersey to find out what they’ve been telling and what documents they’ve been giving to members of the press, among other things. Eric Lach has the full story.
Republicans gear up new Benghazi-oriented Swift Boat group to dog Hillary Clinton’s incipient presidential campaign.
What is the GOP doing to crush the Tea Party? Here’s a good walk through.
Former Bush Advisor says McConnell won’t be in the Senate next year.
New Jersey State Police issue a pretty flat denial that Gov. Chris Christie’s helicopter flew anywhere near the George Washington Bridge the week of the lane closures.
Guy in Texas wearing a banana suit and carrying an AK-47 gets cited — but not for wearing a banana suit or carrying an AK-47.
Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee weigh the debate economists chew over in their excerpt from The Second Machine Age today: Is innovation slowing — or speeding up?
House GOP leadership told its members in a meeting this morning that they will bring a CLEAN debt limit bill to the floor Wednesday. More soon …
Ed Kilgore: “On issue after issue, congressional Republicans have struggled to do nothing without doing damage to themselves.”
Disappointing as some of the reactions to college football player and soon to be NFL draft pick, Michael Sam, coming out of the closet have been, I must say that when the battle for equality has moved to the pro-Football locker room, the antis are way back on their ten or maybe 5 yard line.