Was Phil Gramm right about America being a nation of whiners in a mere mental recession? Will John McCain continue to receive his advice? We take a look at the weekend’s continuing Phil Gramm fallout in today’s Sunday Show Roundup episode of TPMtv …
High-res version at Veracifier.com.
It’s that time of year.
TPM brings on a new class of interns each season. And we’re now taking applications for our Fall 2008 cycle. TPM interns are probably as intimately and rapidly involved in the preparation and production of news coverage as interns at any other news organization. And that ranges from work on the news section of the front page to research for our news blogs to video editing to bylined articles. Needless to say, this fall is going to have no shortage of political news. The application deadline is July 25th. To find out details for how to apply, click here.
From UPI …
Homeland Security officials are looking into allegations that a member of the department’s advisory council offered to arrange meetings with senior administration officials in exchange for a large donation to the Bush presidential library.
Stephen Payne, a major GOP fundraiser and international affairs lobbyist, also touted his success in getting an Uzbek opposition leader removed from the U.S. terrorist watch list and issued a U.S. visa.
“This is a horribly unfortunate story,” said Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner. “We are looking into the facts.” She declined to comment further.
A new Quinnipiac poll puts Obama up 9 points on McCain nationally. That and the day’s other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.
The AP‘s Ron Fournier: I regret my sycophantic email to Karl Rove.
The House oversight committee and the Department of Homeland Security are launching inquiries into the alleged cash-for-access scheme being run by Homeland Security adviser Stephen Payne.
As we reported yesterday, Payne, who works for an “international relations and energy development” consulting firm in Houston, has circulated in Bushworld for years. He served as the President’s traveling aide during his father’s 1988 campaign and popped up again as a “Pioneer” fundraising bundler during the 2000 election.
The White House yesterday issued a pretty weak denial regarding Payne’s recent contacts with the President and any role he might have in raising money for the President’s planned library at SMU in Dallas. On the video, Payne was offering access to high level officials, including Dick Cheney, in return for donations to the presidential library.
The President is holding a press conference shortly. We’ll be curious to see if he gets any questions on Payne.
Replace Iraq/Afghanistan war czar with separate war czars for each country — just now in his war policy speech.
Obama doubles down on 16-month withdrawal timetable in big Iraq speech.
It’s become something of a GOP talking point: Offshore drilling is environmentally safe because even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita didn’t cause spills in the Gulf of Mexico.
Here’s McCain picking up that line today, declaring that “the environmental side of it is pretty well OK”:
Think Progress has been dutifully covering this revisionism. Here’s some video of one of the biggest Katrina-related spills, which occurred onshore in Louisiana.
Late Update: Former Sen. John Breaux (D-LA) knows better than this. Here he is on MSNBC a short time ago with his new lobbying partner, former Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), while Lott says not “one drop of oil” was spilled by Katrina:
What are they thinking?
[Thanks to TPM Reader HF for the tip.]
A lobbyist with ties to former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) was charged today with destroying evidence during the FBI investigation into Weldon. Here are the clever tactics she used to avoid detection:
According to court documents, Cecilia Grimes received grand jury subpoenas for documents related to Weldon and quickly threw out the documents. FBI agents found the documents in her garbage cans. Authorities say she also threw out her Blackberry at a fast-food restaurant to keep the FBI from retrieving her e-mail.