This would be a candidacy really worth getting excited about. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) says he’s considering a run for the US senate seat of retiring Sen. Frank Lautenberg.
Holt has represents his central New Jersey district since 1999. Prior to that he was the Assistant Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab at Princeton University.
Mayor Cory Booker and Rep. Frank Pallone have already signaled they intend to run.
I’m not sure House Republicans realized how large an error they made by kidnapping and then releasing the debt limit earlier this year. By admitting their bluff, they effectively confessed to having misled conservative members, and those members needed to be mollified.
That created a new problem: How could they appease conservatives while lacking the power to satisfy any of their substantive demands? So they offered up grandiose symbolism: A raincheck on the brinksmanship (the current fight over the sequester) and a promise to pass a budget that would wipe out the deficit in 10 years if enacted.
But it’s not clear that they counted their votes, or considered the budget math when they made that promise. Read More
More to come on this, but federal prosecutors announced charges this afternoon against former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL). For now, you can read the documents, and his statement.
Update: Prosecutors have also charged Jackson’s wife, former Chicago Ald. Sandi Jackson.
The hole left in an ice-covered Russian lake by one fragment of today’s meteor.
Young artist who designed the “Be Mein” Hitler valentines finds tea party’s aborted use of his work “hilarious.”
Another day, another pissing match between Nate Silver and a Politico reporter.
Jersey’s golden boy may not have a gilded path to the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.
As we noted yesterday, Republicans are officially slow-walking Chuck Hagel’s confirmation — they filibustered him yesterday but have publicly pledged to end that filibuster in about 10 days, after the Senate returns from recess.
In all likelihood, that means he’ll be confirmed the Tuesday or Wednesday after next. But every day of delay is a day during which some genuine issue might arise and derail his nomination. I don’t think that’s going to happen — if the oppo scavengers haven’t found a bombshell at this point, they’re probably not going to — but it’s something to watch for. Read More