As we consider the tempest in a teapot of a possible Mitt 2016 run, here’s a very interesting passage Mark Leibovich’s piece on Romney in the Times Magazine.
“I was talking to one of my political advisers,” Romney continued, “and I said: ‘If I had to do this again, I’d insist that you literally had a camera on me at all times” — essentially employing his own tracker, as opposition researchers call them. “I want to be reminded that this is not off the cuff.”
GOP operatives pushing 9/11 truther nonsense against Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO).
Here at TPM HQ we’re listening to the Director of the Secret Service testify on Capitol Hill. I’ll start by saying that my understanding of this Secret Service/jumper controversy has changed pretty dramatically (as I suspect it has for many) after we found out yesterday that the jumper not only made it into the White House but actually ran around pretty far inside it. (Here’s a map that illustrates just how far he got.) Indeed, he got pretty close to the actual living quarters of the First Family. That’s amazing. And I say this as someone who’s been in those rooms that he ran around and has seen just how many Secret Service agents and members of the military (though they’re not there in a protective capacity) are packed into the White House.
Tea Party Republican under fire to urging generals to resign if they disagree with Obama and “go out in a blaze of glory.”
With George Zimmerman’s recent threat to kill a fellow motorist and his father’s account of him waiting at home ready to blow away any FBI agents who come to arrest him, we thought it was time to put together a simple timeline of the various people George Zimmerman has beaten or threatened to kill or simply the times he’s tried to put himself in a place where he might be able to kill someone in the little more than a year since he was acquitted in his last killing, that of Trayvon Martin.
And here it is: the George Zimmerman Post-Acquittal Timeline.
It’s worth reading this piece from Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund Executive Director Jasjit Singh on the controversy surrounding a later-withdrawn penalty given to Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah for his “unsportsmanlike” touchdown celebration of kneeling in Muslim prayer. The NFL just demonstrated how it thinks about diversity:
Unfortunately the fans watching the game felt, if they, as a Jew, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, or Buddhist have a different way of praying than let’s say Tim Tebow, who has become known for his trademark prayer stance, they too would be quickly and swiftly ostracized.
In a terrible (for him) local TV interview, the GOP Senate nominee in Colorado brings the spotlight back to his support for anti-abortion “personhood” legislation by denying any such legislation exists at the federal level. It does. He is co-sponsoring it.
The interview with Rep. Cory Gardner (R-TV), who has been trying to disavow his support for personhood legislation since the early days of the campaign, comes as polling over the last three weeks showed Gardner with a consistent lead over incumbent Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO).
An ex-con (who thankfully had no malicious intent) was allowed to go an elevator with the President while he was carrying a gun. “He agreed to hand over his gun as well, which surprised agents who did not know until then that he had been armed while he was near Obama.” Read the rest.
I’m wondering what the editors at Politico were thinking when they let through this bizarre line about Obama being such an abysmal manager that only his death by assassination is likely to bring about needed reform of the Secret Service.
Some great original reporting from Dylan Scott on the deep distrust between the prosecutor in the Ferguson case and the family of Michael Brown that threatens the credibility of the entire probe.