I think the White House went too far by revoking all of Fox’s broadcasting licenses.

Over the last few days we’ve noted that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) appears to be the only high-profile political figure in Louisiana unwilling to speak out against the state Justice of the Peace who won’t marry interracial couples. Clearly, Dems want to hit this as a way to show that Vitter has less than sterling civil rights credentials. And at first I had to assume that some of this at least was just a matter of Vitter’s office not prioritizing the matter or putting out a statement. But here he’s again refusing to say anything negative about the guy or make even a pro forma statement in favor of the right of blacks and whites to marry each other. This shouldn’t be that hard a climb, even for a Republican in a Deep South state.

Late Update: Vitter’s office has finally responded, in a very telling way, Greg Sargent reports: “Sen. Vitter thinks that all judges should follow the law as written and not make it up as they go along.” What? —dk

Special JMM WTF Update: I mean, I keep being surprised at Sen. Vitter’s apparently ingrained unwillingness to say that he thinks people of different races should be able to marry. I mean, that’s so mid-20th century. Even in the South. We’re on to denying marriage rights to gays. Honestly, I’m confounded. What’s his resistance? I’m not even talking about whatever Vitter may or may not think personally. What’s his resistance politically? In case you haven’t seen it, see Vitter’s statement here. –jmm

The FBI is once again looking into a land deal involving Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), an old TPM favorite.

How complicated is intra-Tea Party movement politics?

Well, for starters the more legitimately grassroots faction seems to be the one allied with corporate-cash-backed FreedomWorks. And in the increasingly acrimonious battle, David McKalip, the Florida anti-reform doctor who got caught sending around racist images of President Obama as a witch doctor, has now apparently thrown his lot in with the more bought-and-paid-for consultant run wing of the movement.

Still don’t know who’s who in Tea Party movement land? Zack Roth explains.

Today Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) launched a site to memorialize those who’ve lost their lives in America because of inadequate or non-existent health care coverage. But it seems that allowing any reader to upload names (with no editing) that would then run on the front page of the site was not a good plan.

We’re watching the Obama-Corzine rally live. See it here.

A few more thoughts on this race. I said a few weeks ago that I had the sense that Christie did not know how or have a plan for closing the deal on this race. The race is still basically tied. So it’s not like Christie is out of it by any means. But the final weeks of a campaign is often where you really see what each candidate is made of. And beside falling in the polls (and since Corzine can’t seem to get much above 40%, it really is a matter of Christie falling) almost everything Christie has done over the last couple weeks seems aimed at not only losing the race but zeroing out his own personal dignity in advance of election day. It really does seem like all Christie had going for him in this race was Jon Corzine’s unpopularity. And given how unpopular Corzine is, that ain’t nuthin. But the unpopularity of the other guy is seldom really sufficient if that’s literally all you have.

TPM’s Eric Kleefeld ascends directly to heaven after landing this interview with Congressman and professional quote machine Alan Grayson.

Beneath the pyrotechnics there’s the actually very real and serious issue of people who suffer needlessly and even lose their lives because they lack health insurance.

This afternoon, Chris Christie went on CNN during their coverage of the Corzine/Obama rally and got asked two questions on the ethics scandals swirling around him. The hosts asked the key questions but so loosely and inexactly that he was able, essentially, to just say: ‘No, I didn’t do anything like that.’. But worth a quick look.

I’ve mentioned Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s decision to quite conspicuously refuse to attend the J Street conference next week. Not content to simply plead a busy schedule, Oren suggested that J Street might be anti-Israel and thus an inappropriate forum for a visit.

But Tzipi Livni, head of the main opposition party, Kadima, has just sent a letter just as conspicuously disassociating herself and her party from Oren’s and (more broadly) the Likud government’s position.

That is a decision of great significance.

Quite apart from the policy disputes behind the J Street controversy (and Livni makes clear that she is not necessarily on board with all J Street’s positions), the Netanyahu government’s stance in this case represents a quite novel and very shortsighted decision to, in essence, write off a big chunk of American Jewry and class them amongst Israel’s foes. To be fair, much of the dispute here is about how much of American Jewry J Street represents. My hunch is that Oren/Netanyahu are both trying to answer the question by force, as it were — rhetorical force, but force nonetheless — but also genuinely misreading where the American Jewish community is on the big issues in the Middle East. Now Livni has made J Street a point of division within Israeli politics as well.

Last night my wife and I got a chance to attend the American premiere of Killing Kasztner, a documentary about a scandal from 1950s Israel. The movie opens in New York on Friday.

It’s a topic that is not easy to describe briefly. But the gist is that Rezso Kasztner was a Hungarian Jew who saved at least 1600 and perhaps many more thousands of Hungarian Jews by negotiating with and bribing very high ranking Nazis, including Adolph Eichmann. After the war, in Israel, the entire story was brought to the surface again in a sensational libel trial in which Kasztner, then living in Israel and working as a minor government official, was eventually cast as a collaborator. He was assassinated in 1957 in Tel Aviv before being vindicated a year later by the Supreme Court of Israel. Read More