TPM Reader PR: “Will Obama invite Shirley Sherrod and Tom Vilsack over for a beer?”
The AP is reporting that in a very early morning statement Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is “willing” to reconsider the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod. But I’m not sure what to make of this line that AP quotes from the statement: “I am of course willing and will conduct a thorough review and consider additional facts to ensure to the American people we are providing services in a fair and equitable manner.”
Hasn’t he figured out yet that this isn’t about “providing services in a fair and equitable manner”? Hello. That’s the manufactured Breitbart/Fox narrative. Vilsack still seems stuck in the wrong narrative.
Josh Green, on Andrew Breitbart’s three-ring circus.
Scott Bloch, the former chief of the Office of Special Counsel in the Bush Administration most notorious for using Geeks on Call to scrub his office computers, may end up getting probation when sentenced later this week.
Roy Blunt is using Obama’s campaign stop for Robin Carnahan against her in a new ad in the hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Missouri.
At the beginning of 2010 the emerging threat to John McCain on his right flank looked to be one of the defining stories of the midterm elections, Exhibit A for the Tea Party insurrection against the establishment GOP. But six months later McCain looks to have the GOP nomination all but locked up. Eric Kleefeld takes a look at McCain’s abrupt change of fortune, which can be attributed to several causes — not least of which is that the man spearheading the flanking maneuver was the deeply flawed former Rep. J.D. Hayworth.
Nearly all signs point to Elizabeth Warren not getting the nod from Obama to head up the newly created consumer financial protection bureau.
It appears that the White House and Senate Democrats simply don’t have the stomach for a fight over this position, and they anticipate — probably correctly — that picking Warren would spark a fight.
Warren would be a fine candidate for the job, but she’s not the only person with real teeth who could do the job. So the issue isn’t whether it’s going to be Warren or not, but does the White House put a serious, vigorous regulator in the post. What’s less clear is whether any legitimate candidate would spark the kind of fight Democrats are looking to avoid.
The leading potential Republican candidate for the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s seat, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), has opted out of the race, putting Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin in a very strong position to win the special election.
David Frum, on the shame of the right wing media.