Pakistan is reportedly backing out of its plan to send its spy chief to India to aid in the Mumbai terror investigation. “A representative of the ISI will visit India, instead of its Director General Lt Gen Shuja Pasha, to help in investigating the Mumbai terrorism incident,” the Times of India quotes a spokesman for the Pakisani Prime Minister as saying.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s (R) prescription for fixing the Republican Party’s problems: A smaller, more ideologically pure tent. That and other political news in today’s Election Central Saturday Roundup.
It’s really, really official: Hillary will be named Obama’s Secretary of State tomorrow in Chicago, a person close to Hillary confirms.
Neal Gabler in the LAT …
But there is another rendition of the story of modern conservatism, one that doesn’t begin with Goldwater and doesn’t celebrate his libertarian orientation. It is a less heroic story, and one that may go a much longer way toward really explaining the Republican Party’s past electoral fortunes and its future. In this tale, the real father of modern Republicanism is Sen. Joe McCarthy, and the line doesn’t run from Goldwater to Reagan to George W. Bush; it runs from McCarthy to Nixon to Bush and possibly now to Sarah Palin. It centralizes what one might call the McCarthy gene, something deep in the DNA of the Republican Party that determines how Republicans run for office, and because it is genetic, it isn’t likely to be expunged any time soon.
Barack Obama is set to announce his whole national-security team tomorrow, most notably including Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. That and other political news in today’s Election Central Sunday Roundup.
I shudder to think that the charlatan Netanyahu could soon again be Prime Minister of Israel.
Obama rolls out his national security team this morning at a Chicago press conference, while Sarah Palin campaigns for Sen. Saxby Chambliss in Georgia. That and the other transition and political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.
It’s being called India’s own 9/11. After a 3-day terrorist siege in Mumbai resulting in nearly 200 people dead, the question now is who is responsible and what are the challenges for the international community to prevent a further escalation of regional tensions?
Full-size video at TPMtv.com.
You may not know this. But an anonymous Republican senator has put a hold on the nomination of the nomination of Neil Barofsky, President Bush’s appointee to serve as the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for the $700+ of bailout money. Having some idea of how we’re spending that money and whether crooks or fraudsters are getting a big chunk of it is a pretty big deal.
So who is it? Who’s preventing the IG’s confirmation? The senate has some very hoary traditions about keeping this stuff secret. But with your help we can at least narrow down the possibilities. Basically, as we’ve done before, if you’re in one of these states, call up your senator and ask them? Some will give a clear no, others will refuse to say one way or another. And from there we’ll start narrowing down the possibilities. We’re organizing the process over at TPMmuckraker.com. Come by and check it out.
I thought it was an article of faith that they would have done it anyway.
From ABC …
“A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein,” Bush said. “It wasn’t just people in my administration. A lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington, D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence.
“I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess,” Bush added.
When pressed by Gibson, Bush declined to “speculate” on whether he would still have gone to war if he knew Hussein didn’t have weapons of mass destruction.
“That is a do-over that I can’t do,” Bush said.