Filibuster hawk Jeff Merkley (D-OR) circulates memo to colleagues pushing for action on filibuster reform.
Covering the Duke Cunningham scandal was part of what inspired me to launch TPMMuckraker at the end of 2005. Of course, it was the inspiration for the Golden Duke Awards. And it was the inspiration for so much more, with the sheer level of abject corruption (remember the “bribe menu”), sheer boffo and cartoonish misbehavior and clownishness. Coming in 2005, Duke in many ways was the John the Baptist of corruption paving, a voice crying out in the wilderness of Muck heralding the advent of the Muck Messiah Jack Abramoff a year later. Read More
Randy “Duke” Cunningham was just released to a halfway house last week. So this is a special sixth annual edition of our annual Golden Dukes Awards, celebrating, mocking the year’s great feats in public corruption, muck and general bamboozlement. Tomorrow’s the deadline for nominations. Click here to find out how to get in your slate of nominees today.
Gop Pollster: Republicans have “run out of” white people.
Miami businessman Claudio Osorio, the alleged fraudster who had Jeb Bush on his company’s board of directors, turns out to have been a pretty hefty political donor before his arrest last week. His investors say he used that political weight to lure them into a scam.
We’re now into the implementation of ‘Obamacare’ (aka the Affordable Care Act), with most but not all states setting up health care exchanges but some states refusing to do so and leaving the job up to the federal government. It’s extremely complicated process, with a lot of economic and political questions in the mix. This afternoon at 4 PM we’re doing a Live Chat with Health Care policy expert Dr. Len Nichols at TPMPrime. Have questions about the ACA implementation or other health care policy and economics questions, submit them now and then tune in at 4 PM.
Chris Van Hollen says he thinks Speaker Boehner may be stalling fiscal cliff negotiations so he can get his Speakership election out of the way first.
This isn’t our usual fare. But with the death of singer Jenni Rivera in a small private plane in Mexico, it reminds me again how common these of musical acts in small planes seem to be. It’s almost like a recording industry cliche, though certainly I don’t mean that to diminish the personal tragedy involved.
I also get that it’s very difficult to get a real sense of ‘commonness’ with high profile events spanning periods of many decades. Read More
It hasn’t gotten much attention yet in the mainstream press. But President Obama is planning on making a big push in his second term to reform the nation’s voting system. This is probably one of the first signs.