Robert Reich responds to Theda Skocpol on what the president should do …
I like Theda Skocpol and consider her a friend, but she’s got this one backwards. It’s not “political lunacy” for the president to take charge of this mess. It’s political lunacy for him not to. Would she propose that if a military contractor accidentally fired off a missile, or a the owner of a nuclear reactor accidentally allowed it to melt down, or a food processor accidentally sent off deadly bacteria into America’s food chain, that the President should not take control because he couldn’t “fix” these disasters right away? Or he shouldn’t get involved because the political right might subsequently use his efforts to reinforce its message that the government doesn’t work?
Linda McMahon, former WWE CEO and Connecticut senate candidate, says the jury’s still out on whether there are long term health risks to steroid use.
Disgraced and now indicted former Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer is now saying, through his lawyer, that Gov. Charlie Crist (R) knew about his diversion of funds plan and that placeholder U.S. Sen. George LeMieux (R) actually came up with the idea.
How long can you pretend the Gulf Oil spill really isn’t such a big deal while you’re the governor of one of the most affected states? Pretty long, it turns out.
Two New Jersey men arrested just before traveling to Somalia as part of what the government alleges was a plan to join al Shabaab, a jihadist group in sympathy with al Qaeda.
It’s been not so much a bad as a surreal two weeks for South Carolina gubernatorial frontrunner Nikki Haley. And the latest poll — the first since the firestorm had any real chance to take a toll — shows the controversies have taken little if any damage on her public standing. She’s twenty points ahead of the guy in second place.
We’ve gone through the last six months or so assuming that Sue Lowden, the establishment anointed Republican in the Nevada Senate race, would be the one to take on Harry Reid this fall. But yet another poll suggests she’ll very likely lose on Tuesday. The latest poll out over the weekend from Mason-Dixon shows new frontrunner and Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle at 32%, followed by Danny Tarkanian at 24% and Lowden at 23%.
Lowden’s downfall started with the chickengate fiasco. But what really hurt her about it wasn’t simply Reid and the Democrats hammering her but her fellow Republicans — Tarkanian taking the lead. Lowden then got hit by a series of other ethics related problems. And the real killer was when the Club for Growth and the Tea Party Express both endorsed Angle, spending about $400,000 and $500,000, respectively, on adds supporting her campaign.
At this point Reid would probably be happy to take on Lowden in November. But I would assume his campaign would be pretty happy with an Angle win too.
The New Jersey men arrested over the weekend at JFK, allegedly on their way to Somalia to join the jihad, had no known ties to terrorist groups but were hoping if they just showed up they’d connect with terrorists. They’d tried a similar tactic in 2007, the feds say, showing up in Jordan but finding no takers for their services and left disappointed.
As you probably saw, we had a couple new arrests over the weekend on the homegrown terrorism front — this time two guys from New Jersey who were trying to go to Somalia and join the local al Qaida affiliate, al Shabaab. Let me preface everything by noting once again that, as we’ve seen, even fairly shambling violent losers who can do a lot of damage, especially if they turn themselves over to more sophisticated terrorists for use as cannon fodder.
But I’m struck again by the pattern of violent and fairly sad-sac losers who look like you might have seen them in some jihadist version of Waiting for Guffman. Alessa and Almonte, the new duo had already tried to join a jihadist group in Jordan. But those guys told them to get lost. The AP describes their preparation for the trip to Somalia …
But their preparations apparently were unsophisticated. They lifted weights, bought military-style pants and water bottles, played violent video games and watched terrorist videos online.