From Susan Dominus in the NYT …
It seems Mr. Paterson could not even manage to abuse power to his own advantage: instead of letting an aide take a bullet for him, like Andrew Young did for John Edwards, the governor lost his political future over his apparent effort to smooth over an aide’s misdeeds, talking on the phone with Mr. Johnson’s ex-girlfriend, who was seeking a protective order against Mr. Johnson in court.
TPM Reader JS isn’t telling us which state is most corrupt. But he reviews some top contenders …
I live in Juhsey (NOT “Joisey”): specifically Newark. I went to school in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and live in New York. Does that make me an expert?
McCain doubles down on his big fib: claims no one told him TARP was for the financial sector or the banks.
It’s been pretty much shark hopscotch for McCain going back to late 2007. But I wonder whether this could push him over the edge, even get him in trouble in what should be a pretty easy reelection.
How can J.D. Hayworth not take advantage of this opening?
A mere 2,000 federal transportation workers will be put on unpaid furlough today thanks to Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY). That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Up till John McCain’s Republican challenger in Arizona, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), was probably best described as at least birther-curious if not an outright birther. But as his challenge to McCain heats up, he’s now disavowing birtherism.
Certainly nothing to bank on. But there’s expected to be at least one Tea Party candidate in the Nevada senate race. And a new Mason-Dixon poll suggests such a candidate could swing the race to Reid or at least make it far more competitive than it appears to be today.
Former Senate parliamentarian Robert Dove on reconciliation: “”Reconciliation has been used a lot. And I would never use the term illegitimate with regard to reconciliation. It has been used starting in 1980 for very large, major bills. And it is a way, of course, of getting around the problem of the Senate filibuster.” See the video.
Mike Kinsley once had a great line to the effect that what really irked Republicans about Bill Clinton’s fundraising tactics was that he’d violated the cardinal rule of Washington which was that Democrats only get to use the latest and brassiest campaign tactics after the GOP has already been using them for several cycles.
And it seems like we’ve got something similar with reconciliation. What’s outrageous is that Democrats have decided to avail themselves of the rules that Republicans have been using consistently for almost thirty years.
The only bizarre thing is how many reporters (though, candidly, fewer than I’d anticipated) really do think this is an immutable law of the universe.
It didn’t get a lot of attention with the Rangel news last week. But in addition to its report on Rangel the committee “admonished” Dawn Kelly Mobley, the former counsel to the chair of the committee. What Mobley alleged did is actually a pretty big deal and she’s still working as a Chief of Staff for a member of the House. Check out our report here.