An email we’ve obtained shows that the Obama campaign is spreading a negative (and ultimately false) story to reporters about Bill Clinton.
Update: Here’s a dispiriting postcript to this whole affair.
Can’t say I’m surprised exactly.
According to a 2005 complaint submitted to the DOJ’s inspector general’s office, voter suppression kingpin Bradley Schlozman was purging female minority lawyers from the appellate section of the Civil Rights Division — each of whom had been hired under Democratic administrations — and replacing them with what he called “Good Americans”.
Dallas may become the first of the top ten largest US cities to elect an openly gay mayor.
AP: “In his first public comments on the Bush administration’s surprise decision to replace him as chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace disclosed that he had turned down an offer to voluntarily retire rather than be forced out.”
It’s an overstatement to call Mike Gravel a minor Democratic presidential candidate. But it seems that he’s finally found a way to set himself apart from the pack: by crafting the most befuddling campaign ad in history.
His campaign spokesman explained to us the intent behind the ad, in which Gravel stares silently into the camera lens for a full minute, then walks off into the distance, pausing only to hoist a rock into a lake: “It’s interpretational.”
Reader interpretations of Gravel’s ad are welcome.
Update: TPM Reader HS sees Gravel’s opus as an existential statement on pop culture:
The key to the ad is the person in the background with the Members Only jacket (I think that is what it is.) It is a homage to the final scene in The Sopranos. The ad, like Gravel’s campaign, has no point because life is pointless.
Joe Lieberman clarifies his views on our impending war with Iran.
BREAKING: Yet another U.S. attorney purge casualty at the Justice Department.
Michael Elston, the chief of staff to the deputy attorney general, is resigning, the AP’s reporting.
Update: More here. Thanks for the memories.
Obama talks about the absence of his father in eloquent Father’s Day weekend speech. That and other political news of the day in today’s Election Central Happy Hour Roundup.
White House Counselor Dan Bartlett, who recently announced his departure, reflected on his tenure and his boss on CNN the other day. (via Tim Grieve) Bartlettâs perspective was so odd, I initially thought he was kidding.
“[T]he good thing about this president — and I think this is the reason why he was re-elected, is that, when he’s finished here, and at the same time I’m finished here in a couple of weeks, I can look in the mirror and say, I think we did what was best. I think we looked at all the issues. We tried our best to do the right thing for the country.
“And I think the president will have the same mindset when he returns to Texas at the end of his presidency. And at the end of the day, that’s all you can expect.
“You may not always agree with him. But I think he’s demonstrated that he’s doing something — the things that he is doing, however bold or aggressive or wrong-headed that some people think they are, he’s doing what he thinks is best for this country.” (emphasis added)
I can just imagine the 2009 headlines: “George W. Bush: He failed, but it wasn’t on purpose.”
I highly recommend this post by MJ Rosenberg on the backstory behind the Hamas takeover of Gaza.