All disagreements, I can honestly say that no one is happier than I am to see my one-time college classmate (one year off, but who’s counting) Ted Cruz announce his run for the presidency. One point stuck out for me. As we know, the FEC has created a formal “testing the waters” phase of a presidential run in which the candidate creates a so-called exploratory committee. Admittedly, this is often a nominal effort. But the notional purpose is to create a period of investigation, self-reflection and canvassing for support to see if I, fill-in-the-blank, should really seek the highest office in the land.
In an act of daring act of characterological appropriateness, Cruz has decided this is simply unnecessary. Of course he should run for president. What is there to find out? (I’m not sure any major candidate has ever done this before; though it seems others may follow.)
This will be awesome.
Far right Congressman Steve King (R-IA) again attacks Jews who support the Democratic party.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) denounces “Jews in America” who are “Democrats first and Jewish second” when it comes to supporting Benjamin Netanyahu.
It really is true that for conservatives of a certain stripe, like King, Huckabee and others, Jews are little more than a kind of yahwistic lawnjockeys, mascots for a certain type of militant defense policy and museum pieces in the historical imagination of right-wing Christianity.
Some interesting news out of Israel. And before getting into it, I want everybody to be emphatically clear that no one should expect that Netanyahu will be unable to form a government. But Moshe Kahlon, the ex-Likud centrist candidate, who was touted as the kingmaker for either Netanyahu or Herzog, is putting the the PM through his paces.
Federal prosecutors open start probing a whole new part of their Christie Bridgegate probe. (Note the news about Baroni turning over a sheaf of documents to the feds voluntarily last year.)
You may have seen that Israeli officials announced this evening that US House Speaker John Boehner will leave at the end of March for a 10 day victory tour through Israel. The trip, purportedly, was planned during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington earlier this month, which is to say, before Netanyahu’s election victory. But it seems clear that had Netanyahu gone down in defeat, the trip might have been reconsidered. In any case, the announcement is being treated in DC and media circles as another headache, defeat, setback – what have you – for President Obama. This probably makes sense if you operate in DC’s win-the-day mode. But by any real measure of the fundamental security relationship between the two states, that idea is nonsense.
Sahil Kapur, TPM’s expert in all things Capitol Hill, will take questions from Prime members (sub req) today at 1 p.m. EST in The Hive. Come chat with him about coverage of the Supreme Court case on Obamacare, the anti-abortion provision of the anti-human-trafficking bill, the Loretta Lynch nomination, the new House Republican budget.
I did not see the Mitchell/Netanyahu interview live. And I guess this got lost in the deluge of guffaws over Netanyahu’s epic ‘nevermind’ about putting the kibosh on a Palestinian state. But he actually tried an amazingly hilarious explanation for his election day warning to rightwing voters that “The right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls. Left-wing organizations are busing them out.”
The White House’s readout on the President phone call with Prime Minister Netanyahu (emphasis added) …
“President Obama spoke today by telephone with Prime Minister Netanyahu to congratulate the Prime Minister on his party’s success in winning a plurality of Knesset seats. The President emphasized the importance the United States places on our close military, intelligence, and security cooperation with Israel, which reflects the deep and abiding partnership between both countries. The President and the Prime Minister agreed to continue consultations on a range of regional issues, including the difficult path forward to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The President reaffirmed the United States’ long-standing commitment to a two-state solution that results in a secure Israel alongside a sovereign and viable Palestine. On Iran, the President reiterated that the United States is focused on reaching a comprehensive deal with Iran that prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and verifiably assures the international community of the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program.”