Supreme Court term-ending consensus: Chief Justice Roberts steadily moving the court rightward. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Former CIA counter-terrorism expert and bin Laden tracker Michael Scheuer seems to have become unhinged, telling Glenn Beck last night: “The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.” Watch.
Joe Lieberman: I stand with the small minority of Americans who oppose public option.
With a headline like “Reading Barack Obama’s mind on health care,” you knew it was gonna be good:
The Obama doctrine on bipartisanship becomes clearer with every major issue he tackles – and it’s a shell of what he advocated during the campaign.
As a candidate, Obama promised to unite a coalition of Republicans, Democrats and independents behind an agenda of sweeping change. As president, he likes Republican votes and hopes for the best, but not so much that it stops him from pushing ahead with what he wants.
TPM Reader CM flags a couple of unequivocal statements on health care by Joe Lieberman during his 2006 campaign against Ned Lamont. They’re pretty interesting in light of Joe’s low profile on this issue of late — well, until he announced his opposition to a public option yesterday:
July 6, 2006 primary debate:
And what I’m saying to the people of Connecticut, I can do more for you and your families to get something done to make health care affordable, to get universal health insurance, to make America energy independent, to save your jobs and create new ones. That’s what the Democratic Party is all about.
Sept. 21, 2006, during the general election campaign:
After spending most of his Senate career advocating piecemeal health care reforms, Joseph I. Lieberman said Wednesday he strongly supports universal health care.
Lieberman devoted a conference call with reporters to an issue that his main rival in the U.S. Senate race, Democratic nominee Ned Lamont, has highlighted in recent days.
“I have long supported the goal of universal health care,” Lieberman told reporters. “Ned Lamont can talk about it. I’ve been doing something about it all the time I’ve been here.”
Of all the problems Republicans face today, effective recruitment of non-ridiculous whistleblowers and cause celebre federal bureaucrats has to be rated high on the list.
First we had fired IG Gerald Walpin, whose supporters may now be considering firing him themselves. And now we have EPA climate scientist Al Carlin, whose critical report on the scientific basis of global warming was suppressed by officials at the EPA. It’s been all over Fox for the last few days. And Sen. Inhofe says there must be a criminal probe into the suppression of Carlin’s finding.
Only Carlin isn’t a climate scientist at all. He’s not even a scientist. He’s an economist at EPA, who’s been there since 1971 and recently took up climate science as a hobby. Details, details … He decided to submit a report on his own initiative that no one seems to have asked him to write. Zack Roth has the shocking story.
I take it as a sign of progress that Jews in America can now not only be doctors and lawyers and entertainers and professors but also borderline fascistic right-wing radio maniacs. All the jobs are now open to us.
The George W. Bush-not-conservative-enough meme is finding traction in an internal GOP memo that blames “The Great Bush-Obama Economic Intervention” for making the financial crisis worse.