Senior Dem Senators to Obama: Please engage on budget talks!
Capitol Hill Republicans struggling to explain why it’s a good thing that their key policy proposals will cost a lot of people their jobs.
In the wake of the James O’Keefe punking, NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller resigned this morning. NPR Foundation president Ron Schiller (no relation to Vivian), who was one of the two NPR executives caught on tape by O’Keefe’s gang and had been put on administrative leave, resigned last night.
Wisconsin’s Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) seems to be deciding that the state’s recall laws maybe aren’t such a hot idea after all.
Jim Spiegelman, spokesman for the Aspen Institute, just sent out this statement …
Ron Schiller has informed us that, in light of the controversy surrounding his recent statements, he does not feel that it’s in the best interests of the Aspen Institute for him to come work here.
Full story here.
Newt Gingrich: Intense patriotism led me to adultery.
The FBI has arrested a man in connection with the backpack bomb found in Spokane back in January along the parade route for the MLK Day parade. Early reports are the man has alleged affiliations with white supremacists.
The man arrested today in Washington State for the attempted MLK Day bombing in Spokane is named Kevin William Harpham. Here’s what the Spokane newspaper has found so far:
The Southern Poverty Law Center confirmed that Harpham in 2004 was a member of the National Alliance, which is one of the most visible white supremacist organizations in the nation. It was founded by the late William Pierce, who authored “The Turner Diaries,” a novel about a future race war. That book was believed to be the blueprint behind the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh.
“What to me this arrest suggests is that the Martin Luther King Day attack is what it always looked like: A terror-mass murder attempt directed at black people and their sympathizers,” said Mark Potok, who is the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project that tracks and investigates hate groups.
Potok said his organization’s records also indicate that Harpham was in the U.S. Army in 1996 and 1997, serving with the 37th Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Lewis.
More on today’s arrest here; and in case you missed the ’90s, more on The Turner Diaries here.
Reid, GOP leadership discuss broad, mutli-year fiscal plan.
“With this vote out of the way, we’re going to do some serious negotiations now — this paves the way to get something done,” Reid said. “We’re working on a number of issues. But our goal is to fund the government the rest of this year, and then out-years. This isn’t just for the next few weeks. We want to try to get a universal deal, and do something good for the country.”