I was charmed and fascinated to see Hans Kung, Pope Benedict’s one-time collaborator during Vatican II and later his nemesis (or vice versa), jumping in to critique Benedict’s transition out of the papacy.
Swiss theologian Hans Kueng, Benedict’s one-time colleague-turned-critic, went further: “With Benedict XVI, there is a risk of a shadow pope who has abdicated but can still indirectly exert influence,” he told Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine last week.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Tuesday that Benedict himself decided on his name and wardrobe in consultation with others, settling on “Your Holiness Benedict XVI” and either “emeritus pope” or “emeritus Roman pontiff.”
There are some procedural smoke and mirrors involved to save face, but it appears that the House leadership is relenting on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which has been bottled up by House conservatives for more than a year. So much for the Hastert Rule. The version of the bill favored by women’s advocates that passed the Senate overwhelmingly will likely get a vote in the House before the end of the week and is expected to have plenty of Democratic and moderate GOP votes to win passage. Sahil Kapur reports.
I’m not sure there’s a better example of the bad position the GOP is currently in than the fact that a year ago Chris Christie was the big hope to jump into the presidential race and save Republicans from their lame list of candidates. This year he’s apparently too liberal to be allowed to appear at the country’s top annual conservative confab, CPAC.
John Boehner is the latest Republican to charge that President Obama is releasing ‘criminal aliens’ to terrorize Americans over the impending sequester.
The 5 “reasons” Voting Rights Act proponents fear the Supreme Court will strike down one of its key provisions.
Oral arguments are today at 10 a.m. TPM’s Sahil Kapur will be in attendance at the court. Look for his report sometime after noon.
Rep. Ellison has a run in with “journalist” Sean Hannity. Watch.
Adam Serwer with some useful context on John Roberts and the Voting Rights Act.
Jon Stewart explains the finer points of politicians appearing in blackface to one of our local assemblymen.