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.
Yesterday on Twitter I noted that the last time a top four cabinet appointee was rejected by the Senate was in 1989, with recently retired Sen. John Tower. President George H.W. Bush nominated Tower for Secretary of Defense and he was rejected by the Senate on a 53-47 vote. Notably, the Democrats controlled the Senate in 1989 and Tower and Bush both came from Texas. Read More
Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee does not seem down with the attacks on Chuck Hagel.
At 4pm eastern today, healthcare reform expert Aaron Carroll is joining us in the Prime Blog to answer your questions. Submit your questions now.