Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), the immigrant-bashing nativist who did not run for re-election in 2008, is threatening to run for governor of Colorado unless the two declared GOP candidates drop out.
President Obama surprises Netroots Nation with a prerecorded video.
Watch the video, and follow our up-to-the-minute coverage of both Netroots and RightOnline today here.
Out here in Las Vegas, the news is coming a mile-a-minute at Netroots Nation.
We’ll be posting this evening but follow every development here.
Just now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised Lt. Dan Choi he’d keep his West Point ring until the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal is signed. See the quotes here. They hugged and the crowd gave a standing ovation.
TPM interviewed Dan Choi after he confronted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at Netroots Nation.
As we told you earlier, Choi gave Reid his West Point ring to make a point that Democrats’ promises to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell haven’t yet panned out.
It can’t be pointed out often enough that in two of the biggest Senate races of 2010 — Kentucky and Nevada — the GOP fielded nominees who were so unprepared (read: unqualified) not merely for the office they were seeking but simply as candidates that the powers/consultants-that-be were forced to hide the nominee from the local and national media for weeks. We’ve thoroughly documented Rand Paul’s disastrous debut in the general election race, but in his meager defense at least he still leads in the polls. Sharron Angle seems to be even less ready for primetime, and it’s basically cost her her lead against Harry Reid. Eric Kleefeld takes a closer look at the Angle media “strategy.”
From the Financial Times:
Private equity group Apollo Management will establish a new bank under an obscure provision buried in the US financial regulations signed into law last week.
Apollo is to take advantage of a change that allows banks to operate in multiple US states without a national charter, lawyers say.
The company, which has about $55bn under management, has hired a team from Countrywide Financial to run the bank, and is awaiting regulatory approval.
Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Colorado turns into tea party pooper: “Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I’m on the camera?”
TPM has obtained a copy of an invitation to an upcoming RNC fundraiser in California headlined by Michael Steele — and Andrew Breitbart.
Ordinarily an event like former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) jumping into the Colorado governor’s race would be cause for celebration at TPM HQ. Not just because it makes for a good story in which The Crazy comes into full bloom, although, yes, that’s a self-interested part of it. But we also subscribe to the theory that The Crazy is diminished by its exposure to the sunlight and the cleansing effect of public scrutiny and mockery.
Here’s the thing though. The virulent nativism Tancredo represents scares me, and as we all know, there is a deep and wide stream of that kind of nativism that runs through American history and persists today. The thought of him as governor of a state, especially one with a 20% Hispanic population, is too sobering for me to fully relish the potential Crazy a Tancredo campaign might yield.