Addressing the Minnesota GOP convention over the weekend, Norm Coleman rallied the troops around denying Dems a magical 60th vote in the Senate.
For much of the weekend it seemed that the Iranian reformists were set for one of those righteous defeats, in which a united phalanx of state power stands down rioting protesters who must be content that their defiance will lay the groundwork for change not today but at some unknown point in the future. But this morning we awoke to word that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has directed the country’s Guardian Council to review claims that the election was tainted by fraud. And Mousavi himself reportedly appeared at a rally today in Tehran, his first appearance post-election. Read More
The guy on the right is defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi. The guy on the left? Not sure who he is. But Fox News ran video of him at the big rally in Tehran today, and anchor Bill Hemmer identified him as Mousavi. Watch here. (Note that in a wider shot in the video a protester right next to our mystery guy is holding up a picture of the real Mousavi.)
Late Update: A TPM reader emails in to say that the guy on the left is Mohammad-Reza Khatami, and the resemblance seems pretty striking. So not a random protester, but another significant figure in the reform movement.
Sen. Grassley is asking for more details on President Obama’s firing of that Inspector General.
Some people still find “blacks as lower order primates” jokes funny enough to tell them publicly — and aim them at Michelle Obama.
An AP photographer on the scene reports at least one fatality and others with serious gunshot wounds after what appears to have been pro-government militia members opening fire at the aforementioned Mousavi rally in Tehran.
Malcolm Hoenlein seems to have taken it upon himself to project his hostility to President Obama as the opinion of most Jews.
As you can see from our news update down to the right, Reuters has just moved a news alert quoting Mousavi saying he’s not optimistic about the results of the review of the election results. That’s probably a sensible viewpoint. But in a climate of crisis of course words are not simply isolated statements of opinion. They can have a profound effect on shaping the course of events. And it seems like a very funny thing for him to say in this context and at this moment since it seems to lower expectations for a reversal of what he and his partisans claim is a fraudulent election result.
Speaking entirely as an outsider to the intricacies of this drama, I would think he would want to be raising expectations, setting a high bar, to keep pressure on the regime.
Late Update: It’s worth noting that this could well be a case where the nuance is lost in translation — hypothetically he could be expressing contempt for the review, assuming it will amount to nothing and demanding more.