Jon Stewart replays his live reaction to Sean Hannity’s admission that The Daily Show busted him for splicing in crowd footage to make the Michele Bachmann tea party last week appear bigger than it actually was. Watch.
Oops, the RNC quickly drops abortion coverage in the health insurance plan it offers its employees. That and the day’s other news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
After birther attorney Orly Taitz fails to pay a $20,000 fine for filing frivolous motions in a failed birther lawsuit, a federal judge in Georgia orders the U.S. attorney to go collect the money from her.
The big Oprah interview with Sarah Palin doesn’t air until Monday, but Oprah is dribbling out excerpts in advance.
Michael Steele, on the RNC quickly dropping abortion coverage from its health insurance plan:
Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose. I don’t know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled.
The RNC isn’t the first conservative organization to get busted for this — busted in the sense that the Republicans’ recent anti-abortion argument in opposing health care reform has been that any federal money that goes to purchasing insurance that covers abortions amounts to the federal funding of abortions. Read More
Read Gregory Craig’s letter of resignation as White House counsel. More here.
There was some word the CBO would come back today with its scoring of the Senate Democrats’ health care bill. But we’ve just found out it won’t be today but is expected next week.
A lot will pivot on what CBO says.
Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart bid farewell to the man, the legend, and the award-winning xenophobe: Lou Dobbs.
I didn’t live in New York on 9/11, though my wife did and was down there near the base of the buildings before they fell. I moved here in 2004. But as someone who lives here with his family, someone who’s made his life here, I feel really good that the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks are going to be brought back here to the scene of the crime to face justice as criminals. This isn’t just a matter of wanting to see punishment. It also vindicates our system of justice and values — and for it all to happen here, the scene of the crime, among the people of this city, not out on some island or in some secret jail. Read More
The Obama Office of Personnel Management has issued new regulations to crack down on the notorious process of ‘burrowing in’. That is, political appointees who try to worm their way into the permanent civil service.
The new regs have caused a storm on the right with wingers arguing that it’s the beginning of a purge of Bushies who did this under the Bush administration — and though the practice is by no means new, the Bush administration was particularly egregious at it. When we first looked at the story I was interested to see whether this was actually the case because it would pose a really interesting and important question about how to balance contending interests in good government. On the one hand, the Bush administration did this so egregiously, a lot of these folks probably should be removed. On the other hand, doing so would set a very troubling precedent, with each new administration, potentially, beginning with a review of new federal bureaucrats whose views they don’t like.
Alas, it turns out that this isn’t even what the administration is doing. So the right-wing criticism seems to be bunk, thus depriving us of an interesting reporting question.