Since this is now the most important story in the universe and Juan Williams has been christened the new Elian Gonzalez, I thought I’d should share my opinion on the drama.

I’m seldom very comfortable seeing anyone on the receiving end of one of these public cannings. But this struck me as an excessive response. Simply on the merits, Williams’ remarks seemed more ambiguous to me than some people have portrayed them. I’m not defending them. I’m saying it seems reasonable, or at least plausible, to read his remarks as conceding an impolitic but candid instinctive fear born of the threat of terrorism by Muslim radicals. Read More

My friend Josh Green is down in Kentucky getting the local flavor of the Paul-Conway race. And he’s got a fascinating take from a couple days reporting on just how it’s playing down in the state. The gist is that while the national media has moved on from Aqua Buddha (believe me, I’ve been trying to keep the conversation going but it ain’t easy) down in Kentucky it’s still all Aqua Buddha all the time. As Josh describes it, it’s basically all anyone is talking about. Read More

Virginia Thomas’ ill-advised phone call to Anita Hill has shaken loose some other cobwebs from the Clarence Thomas attic.

We’ve been trying to get a clearer picture of what exactly goes on at those election law seminars the Republican National Lawyers Association is conducting in key states right before the midterms. Now we’ve obtained a copy of the agenda for the one held in Florida last month. Rachel Slajda has more on this particular seminar. It’s an interesting read. I’m curious what other lawyers think about the CLE agenda.

When I wrote last night it seemed like the Juan Williams saga was one in which no one came out very well. But the light of a new day has changed the picture dramatically. Bagging the lucrative new contract with Fox News is only part of it. It’s also become a moment where Williams can come out of the closet as a full-on wingnut cartoon character. No more living a lie as a one-time journalist playing a fake liberal on Fox News.

I’m feeling an “It Gets Better” video coming soon.

Here’s Juan from this morning on the events of recent days: “This is evidence of one-party rule and one sided thinking at NPR that leads to enforced ideology, speech and writing. It leads to people, especially journalists, being sent to the gulag for raising the wrong questions and displaying independence of thought.”

One-party rule? The Gulag? The gulag of Fox News chat millionaires. Like I said, a cartoon character. About all we need now is to hear Juan go into truth teller mode about the scourge of vote fraud in the inner city. I told you last night, I think Tomasky pretty much has Juan’s number.

But really, everyone wins. Juan can stop living a lie. Tongues untied, baby.

One more point to make on these pre-election seminars put on by the Republican National Lawyers Association: The RNLA has been putting on these kinds of seminars for a while.

They held a national election law conference in St, Louis back in the summer of 2008, for example, that included John Ashcroft and Trevor Potter, the former FEC chairman who was then general counsel for John McCain’s presidential campaign. Read More

For the second day in a row, the Muhlenberg daily tracking poll has Sestak and Toomey tied at 43%. That comes after two other polls that showed the race essentially tied.

GOP House candidate Jon Runyan (NJ) may be surprised to learn that in St. Louis they’re already planning to erect a statute of Dred Scott, the litigant in that ‘recent‘ Supreme Court case.

To paraphrase Jesse Jackson, I think God may be finished with Jeff Perry, or at least his run for Congress. You may not have heard of him but he’s running for Congress to succeed Bill Delahunt in Massachusetts 10th district. Back a couple decades ago when he was a police officer he was in the business of enabling and then covering for one of those crooked cops who views it as one of the perks of the job doing unwarranted strip searches of pubescent teenage girls.

The basic outlines of the story have been out there for months. In at least two instances, in one case with a 14 year old and in another with a 16 year old, Perry was on the scene as a police officer under his command, Scott Flanagan, decided that in order to find out whether the girl in question was hiding any drugs he had to search her vagina.

In one instance, according to a civil complaint filed by the girl’s parents, the 14 year old girl was near a cranberry bog in Wareham when they were approached by a group of police officers including Perry and Flanagan. Flanagan asked the girl whether she had any drugs. He then ordered the girl to unbutton her pants or he would arrest her. He then placed his hands inside the 14 year old’s underwear. After this he ordered her to raise her shirt until her breasts were exposed, presumably because he suspected she was hiding drugs in her breasts. No drugs were found. Read More

Texas congressional challenger Stephen Broden says violent uprising is “on the table” if election doesn’t go well enough for the Tea Party.