McAllister may ask Boehner for FBI probe into security video leak.
I wanted to update my update on comments. Technical builds and how long they’ll take are inherently unpredictable. However, we are tentatively planning to move into a short beta testing phase of the new system with a subset of readers starting tomorrow evening. That will allow us to make any final changes based on code behavior/reactions out in the wild, rather than in the lab. Then we’ll push them live to the whole community.
Kilgore: You don’t have to be a racist to practice racism.
Gets into that harrowing, controversial and really must read Chait piece on race and partisanship.
This is a must read on the Obamacare front. One of the most detailed studies to date says that the number of newly insured Americans is likely dramatically higher than all recent estimates have suggested.
Yesterday afternoon, I asked Louisiana native David Kurtz if I was right that the upstate 5th District, in terms of progressive values and good governance, was basically the Louisiana of Louisiana. He acceded to this characterization. And now we get some taste of why.
Clearly, freshman Rep. Vance McAllister (R-LA) was snogging with a member of his staff. And no one forced him to do that. (Not to worry, the woman in question has now been fired – so I guess that settles that.) But from the start yesterday, given where the video surfaced, it looked a lot like the local Republican establishment taking the opportunity to take McAllister out.
Eeesh. Not sure I’ve ever seen anyone react this badly at a roast. But then it’s Chris Christie. Watch.
Former Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, a Republican Senate candidate in Michigan, said in 2010 that women are “more interested in flexibility in a job than pay.” As if women have the luxury to choose.
Amazingly candid quote from a GOP aide on the Hill who works the health care portfolio on why it’s so hard for Republicans to craft an alternative to Obamacare, via TPM’s Sahil Kapur:
There have to be 500 jokes possible about this deal. About 350 of them really bad. About 75 wildly Anti-Semitic. But let’s just put it out there. Bain Capital is buying up all the Matzo. WTF, right?
Okay, not all the matzoh. But pretty much all the matzo. If you’re a member of the Hebrew tribe living in America you know that Manischewitz (nice Polish name) pretty much makes all the matzo. And most of the gefilte fish (rare treat) and even manages to make some seriously unfortunate wine. And now it’s all owned by the private equity spawn of Mitt Romney. (Unhelpful disclaimer: Mitt no longer runs Bain.)
Vance McAllister (R-LA) is the freshman Rep caught in that grainy surveillance camera video smooching a member of his staff. According to an interview in the local paper, McAllister says he plans to run for reelection this November “unless there is an outcry for me not to serve, and so far there has been an outpouring of support, not for my actions, but for me to continue to represent the people.”
But this part caught my attention …
The video, which came from a surveillance camera at the congressman’s Monroe district office, shows McAllister in an embrace and passionate kiss with one of his staff.
The former staffer who McAllister is with in the video is Melissa Anne Hixon Peacock, 33, of Sterlington.
Adam Terry, McAllister’s chief of staff, said Peacock was taken off of the payroll during the past 24 hours.