This has been 90s flashback day so far for me. I just got back from listening to Bill Clinton speak at an event here in DC commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. And now I see former LAPD chief Daryl Gates has died. Read More

As he prepares to enter federal prison next month, Bernie Kerik has set up a blog, posted pics from his salad days on Flickr (his account name is “BernardKerik2001” — get it?), and talks to TPMmuckraker.

Some cool shots of the erupting Icelandic volcano:

Obama says he’ll veto a financial regulatory bill that doesn’t control derivatives.

All 41 Senate Republicans sign on to Mitch McConnell’s letter formally opposing the pending financial regulatory reform bill.

A fourth New Orleans cop has been charged by the feds with covering up the police shooting of unarmed civilians on Danziger Bridge a few days after Hurricane Katrina.

Never one to lead the charge — or be left behind — Mitt Romney decides now’s the time to contribute some money to Marco Rubio’s Senate campaign in Florida. Rubio has gone from distant underdog a few months ago to a 31.2-point lead in the current TPM Poll Average.

Meanwhile, Rubio opponent Charlie Crist isn’t exactly quashing the rumor that he’s going to abandon the Republican primary and run in the general election as an independent.

It seems another claim of right-wingers getting beat up by marauding liberals is swirling down the drain. More shortly.

This story had been bubbling around the fever swamp for a few days before breaking into what’s left of the mainstream media today and then self-destructing on the big stage. Briefly, as part of the festivities surrounding the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last weekend, a fundraiser for Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and the fundraiser’s boyfriend were involved in some sort of altercation outside of a French Quarter restaurant. And they both sustained real and serious injuries. (To be clear, it seems amply clear the two were beat up; the only question is, by who?)

Since then the story has been making the rounds of the right-wing interwebs. The claim was that the assailants were anti-Palin, anti-Jindal liberals attacking conservatives. A conservative blogger even published what purported to be a quote from the NOPD saying the attack appeared to be “of a political nature.” And that quote was picked up by a few other news organizations. Read More

Crist on an independent bid: “I’m not thinking about that today. We’ll look at that later on.”