Livni: “The ties between capital, government and [gambling] chips are destroying our vital relationship with the United States and undermining Israel’s security. Netanyahu and Adelson conceal the amount of money spent on Israel Hayom’s election propaganda. Adelson is a casino magnate who, with his billions, controls the Republicans in the United States, and here, he controls Netanyahu. And as in a puppet show, he pulls the political strings both there and here.”
Tzipi Livni is the number two candidate on the ‘Zionist Camp’ ticket. In effect she is running as a joint ticket with the Labor Party, headed by Yitzhak Herzog.
Ed Kilgore reviews the new mini-debate about whether the American constitutional order is in fact doomed (I’m skeptical) and offers his own take. My own take is that the structure of American government (presidential vs parliamentary systems) is relatively unimportant. I’m closer to Chait in thinking the driving issue is the rise of conservative absolutism, grounded in white identity politics, coming into its own in mid-90s and growing, more or less, ever since.
TPM’s Sahil Kapur will be at the Supreme Court at 10 a.m. ET for the oral arguments in King v. Burwell, the big Obamacare case. Look for his initial report later this morning. Meanwhile, here’s his final dispatch before arguments, and if you’re catching up, here’s a one-stop shop for all our coverage of King v. Burwell (and the related Halbig case).
It now seems like at least technically Hillary Clinton’s use of her own private email system during her tenure as Secretary of State may not have violated any law. But according to this new AP report, she was apparently running her own private email server, possibly even out of her own house in Chappaqua.
Looks like the Justice Department is going to come down hard on Ferguson.
Ex-U.S. Senator John Danforth (R) was the political mentor of Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich (R), who committed suicide last week. In his eulogy today at Schweich’s funeral, Danforth called out John Hancock, head of the state GOP, for the anti-Semitic whispering campaign which preceded Schweich’s death.
Everything you should know about King v. Burwell, with oral arguments before the Supreme Court set for tomorrow.
Pelosi says she’s “saddened” by Netanyahu’s “condescension” toward the United States.
I’ve written at great length about this speech, in anticipation of it, and about the Israeli election, to which it is inextricably connected. If you step back, it is amazing that this even happened. A foreign head of state gave a speech to the US Congress explicitly criticizing and trying to block the diplomacy of a sitting U.S. president. Having said all that, what about the speech itself?
Earlier this morning we published this story about how AIPAC had invited Steve Emerson to this year’s conference even after he’d gotten in all the trouble a few weeks ago for his bogus claims about Birmingham, England (“totally Muslim”) and no-go zones in Paris – statements which led the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to call him an “idiot” and which he himself later apologized for. The piece triggered a blizzard of amazing emails from Emerson in which “challenge[d]” us to publish the questions below and which I am actually eager to publish.
I’ve used bold to add emphasis to the good parts.
You won’t want to miss this.