With the polls arcing against them, the frustration of the Senate Republicans in Wisconsin is just palpable. And without any power to get themselves out of the spot they’re in they’re now reduced to a series of spiteful and silly and entirely ineffectual steps that just how impotent they are. First was the ‘use of force’ resolution issued earlier. And now they’re reassigning the staffers for the Democratic senators to the remaining Republican senators.

The Republican Majority Leader says they’re not really reassigning them so much as giving each staffer a point of contact in the building if any problems come up.

When we asked Sen. Chris Larson, one of the runaway Dems about that, he told us: “I would be very interested in letting Sen. Fitzgerald know about a new technology called the cellular telephone. I thought he was aware of it. What it does, is it gives a senator the ability to keep in touch with his staff when he is not in that building. I would think he would know, this because most senators are not in the building on Mondays and Fridays, or days when we’re not in session.”

President Obama bestowed the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal to this year’s honorees in a White House ceremony yesterday that included Van Cliburn, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Roth, Quincy Jones, and, here, James Taylor:

But I was especially glad to see Wendell Berry honored: Read More

We had one of those experiences today that must be unique at some level to this era of boffo and institutionalized expressions of The Crazy. As we told you a couple weeks ago, a guy from the UK had planned to lead a protest outside the White House calling for the United States to be brought under Sharia Law. So anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney and his group planned a counter-rally. And as you’d imagine this was just too much of a Godzilla v. Mothra moment for us to pass up. So we sent TPM Reporter Ryan Reilly over to watch what happened.

Well, the Muslim guy from the UK didn’t show up. So the point of Gaffney’s protest sort of dissolved. So Ryan’s there. And as Gaffney’s protest is breaking up, they see this Muslim guy praying. So folks from the Gaffney protest and other protestors drift over to where he is and start yelling at him and one of the protestors starts throwing crosses at his feet. That’s the story we reported a bit earlier this afternoon.

So a bit later we get an email from a reporter at Glenn Beck’s new website “TheBlaze”. He tells us that Gaffney’s group says our report is a “lie”, and what’s our response?

And here’s where the comedy goes all the way up to eleven. Read More

When I came back to the office this afternoon I noticed we had a slideshow up on the National Medal of the Arts and National Humanities Medal ceremony today at the White House. And there’s a long list of luminaries you can see here. But it wasn’t until a bit later that I realized just who was included because one of these folks played a key role in my life.

The gentleman being congratulated here is Professor Gordon Wood. Many of you have probably read one or more of his books. But Wood was also my dissertation advisor in graduate school.

Yes, before I got into the journalism business I had a rather different life planned for myself. And I spent the better part of my twenties getting a PhD. Wood’s speciality is the Revolutionary Era, which is basically a subset of the Colonial American History specialty, though its reaches into the early 19th century. And my period was a little different. I did stuff in the 17th century, about a hundred years earlier, which is in many ways a totally different world from that of the mid-to-late 18th century. But I labored and learned under Wood’s insistence on precise argument and impatience with cant. And I learned a lot from him beside the specifics of the field we studied.

So Professor Wood, Congratulations.

Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White (R) indicted on seven felony counts including voter fraud, perjury and theft.

The heart of the case stems not from any ballot stuffing scheme but from White’s allegedly lying about his current place of residence, both for his voting but also, allegedly, to hold on to his town council seat. White was elected last November. The theory of the case, if I understand it correctly, is that for his Secretary of State campaign, White needed to hold on to his city council seat. And he couldn’t do that because he’d moved out of the jurisdiction. So he used a fraudulent address to make the whole thing work.

Worth noting that the Secretary of State is the state’s top election official. So an indictment on perjury and voter fraud charges creates an awkward situation.

Ryan Reilly explores the rift between the Koran-burning and just straight up xenophobic wings of the Islamophobia movement.

This is the best Jon Stewart segment in a long while: Fox’s double standard on compensation for Wall Street CEOs and public school teachers. Watch.

As the son of teachers, I hold a special grudge for teacher-bashers. Stewart is the son of a teacher, too, actually. So for all those teachers scraping by and struggling to stay in the vanishing middle class, this one is for you.

Yesterday evening, a Wisconsin state legislator was tackled and wrestled to the ground by Capitol police as he tried to enter the Capitol building. State Rep. Nick Milroy (D) had been holding constituent meetings at a desk on the Capitol lawn during the day and was apparently trying to enter the Capitol building to retrieve some clothes when Capitol police prevented him from entering the building. The video starts only at the point where the physical confrontation begins. So we’re currently working to get more information on the incident and precisely what actions led up to it. Watch the video.

Late Update: A Milroy staffer tells us Milroy was not arrested but only “restrained.” He’ll be issuing a statement shortly.

With new job numbers out this morning still showing sluggish job growth, I commend to your attention this Chris Hayes essay on why Washington is literally out of touch with the unemployment crisis.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ): If Planned Parenthood is funded, me and other pro-life Republicans will vote to shut down the government.