Former Republican congressional candidate sentenced to a year and a day in jail for lying to federal investigators in voter suppression probe. And not just lying, it’s worth pointing out, but lying to cover up his guilt in the underlying matter.
House Ethics Office is investigating Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) over ties to a Turkish-American Interest Group.
I’m turning 42 today. And I’m feeling very excited and enthused about what our team is going to accomplish this year at TPM. Also very in love with my wife and our two sons.
A new TV ad campaign takes up the case of former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence for his conviction in the ’80s of spying for Israel and who remains a sticking point in U.S.-Israel relations.
A concealed-carry license gets you fast-track access into the Texas Capitol.
It’s official. An Italian judge has ordered Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial on a variety of charges including paying for sex with a minor. The minor is a Moroccan-born nightclub dancer, Karima el Mahroug, who goes by the Ruby Rubacuori (“Ruby Heart Stealer”). As someone who generally thinks consensual sexual hijinks shouldn’t get you kicked out of office, I must say that I’m pretty confident that an American head of state would probably have to resign his or her office at the point where they were charged with having sex with an underage call girl but who knows?
Obama, on GOP criticism that he is not leading because his budget did not include entitlement cuts:
This is not a matter of you go first or I go first … This is a matter of everybody looking at where they want to go and ultimately getting into that boat at the same time so it doesn’t tip over.
That’s a succinct description of the politics of entitlement reform.
I’m not under any illusion that this represents the death of American exceptionalism but let’s take note of Obama’s clear-eyed understanding of America’s role in the world and the real limits of American power as he just stated it in his press conference:
What we didn’t do was pretend that we could dictate the outcome in Egypt — because we can’t. So we were very mindful that it was important for this to remain an Egyptian event, that the United States did not become the issue …
That’s no small break with American foreign policy tendencies going back to, well, close to forever. It’s also an explicit rejection of what have been considered immutable domestic political realities that force Presidents to appeal to Americans’ distorted self-image. Huzzah!
A bill moving through the South Dakota legislature would make it legal to murder abortion providers.
CPAC banned anti-Muslim rabble-rouser (and one time ICBM expert) Frank Gaffney from this year’s conclave because of his charges that the group had been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood.