On the second anniversary of the Tucson massacre, one Arizona lawmaker wasn’t going to let the city get away with what he called a “do-gooder, touchy-feely” gun buyback. So he held his own rival event. To buy guns for his own collection.
For years, there’ve been marginalized and generally unsuccessful efforts to build a Republican pressure group to nudge the party back toward the middle or mainstream or American politics. The model is virtually always the Democratic Leadership Council which in various ways — some under-appreciated, many over-appreciated — repositioned the Democratic party in the late 80s and early 90s. After the 2012 election, there was another hue and cry that such a group had to come into existence. But, it isn’t looking good. Read More
From TPM Reader PM …
I’m a longtime reader of TPM who also works in NYC as an advocate for low-income people. And I think your comments about Bloomberg fundamentally miss how damaging and harmful his mayoralty has been for working class and poor people and New Yorkers of color – and with all due respect, also speak to the disconnect between white professionals’ views of Bloomberg and the real-life impact of his policies on millions of people.
Weekend Washington Post article on the range of gun control measures being considered by the White House “was a Molotov cocktail right into the middle of this thing,” a former NRA board member tells TPM. “That lit the fuse, it really did.”
So whose face is going to be on the trillion dollar platinum coin?
There’s an amusing, fascinating article here in the Times meant to capture Team Bloomberg’s collective musings about who should succeed Mike Bloomberg. It’s broadly believed that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has supported Bloomberg avidly enough in recent years to earn his de facto blessing, though there’s been a persistent backbeat of stories suggesting he’s not really that into her and pines for someone else to come in the race. Read More
According to Jim Fallows, Richard Ben Cramer, author of the seminal What It Takes, has died of lung cancer at age 62.
Eli Lake, national security reporter at the Daily Beast, says AIPAC is sitting out the Hagel fight. And with Eli’s sourcing, he would know.
The gist seems to be that it’s not worth it. The White House is going to win this fight. Not easily necessarily. But they’re going to win. And there’s nothing to be gained by fraying the relationship with a Hagel Pentagon or with the White House for that matter.