The Obama administration and the FBI are making a big push tonight to rebut criticism of trying Abdulmutallab in American courts rather than submitting him to torture and a military tribunal by revealing that he has been cooperating with investigators for days. The claim, which is not that surprising, is that it has been precisely the use of traditional and legal investigative techniques that they’ve been able to gain his cooperation. Indeed, the intervention of his family, has apparently been key.
“One of the principal reasons why his family came back is because they had complete trust in the US system of justice and believed that Umar Farouq would be treated fairly and appropriately,” a “senior official” told ABC. “And that they would be as well.”
It’s definitely a full court press. Here are the write-ups in the NYT and from ABC.
Extraordinarily close elections last night in both the Republican and Democratic primaries for governor of Illinois. That and the day’s other news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Health care reform is upgraded from critical to serious condition.
When you have two billionaires facing off for the Republican nomination for governor of California, you have to figure it’s going to get weird at some point — and now it has, with complaints to the FBI and claims of mental instability. Evan McMorris-Santoro has our report.
Yesterday I did a handful of posts about how Hill Democrats seem much less adept as mixing politics and policy together than their Republican counterparts. And this seems especially the case in the House where control of the Speakership is a uniquely powerful political tool because it allows the majority to hold votes on their own terms, one which unify the majority party and split the minority party. But a number of people have responded by saying: that’s a distraction. The reason the Democrats are in such trouble is because of the lousy economy.
But truly this is a non-existent debate. Read More
I was pulling my hair out this morning reading this Washington Post piece. Titled “Despite his roots, Obama struggles to show he’s connected to middle class,” it’s one of those classics of Washington political journalism where the thesis is unsupported by any hard evidence and where the anecdotal evidence is embarrassingly off-point, irrelevant, or insubstantial — or, in this case, all three.
But in this case, it’s even worse. The Washington Post‘s own polling data don’t just undermine the premise of the piece; they refute it. Read More
At TPM HQ, we’re listening to the president’s appearance today at the House Democratic retreat — an analogue to last week’s appearance before the Republicans. And I notice that whereas the message from the Republicans last week was ‘you Democrats sure do suck’, the message from the Dems standing and asking questions of Obama seems to be ‘we Democrats sure do suck.’
During this morning’s Dem retreat, President Obama riffed off that great Village Voice headline from last month:
There was apparently a headline after the Massachusetts election. The Village Voice announced that Republicans win a 41-59 majority. It’s worth thinking about. We still have to lead.
For years John McCain has been saying that when the generals said it was time to change Dont Ask Don’t Tell, he’d support it. Yesterday, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said it was time. (Presumably McCain wasn’t restricting his point to the Army and Marines?) But McCain said it was still wrong. Now Colin Powell says it’s time too. And McCain has repeatedly invoked Powell’s view as guiding his.
I thought that after 2008 we wouldn’t get more chances to see McCain betraying all the principles and positions he claims to stand for. But the primary challenge in Arizona seems to be providing many more opportunities.
Any word from McCain about the Supreme Court decision gutting his signature campaign finance legislation?
Late Update: It seems McCain did at least put out a statement expressing his displeasure about the Supreme Court decision. So there his flipflop is not as egregious as with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.