Subbing for Al again. Lotsa goodies below the fold!
The Lineup:
- MTP: Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT); Newt Gingrich (R-GA); roundtable on "Reagan Diaries" with historian Douglas Brinkley, ex-Reagan CoS Michael Deaver and ex-AG Ed Meese.
- FTN: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA); AEI's Fred Kagan; retired Gen. Paul Eaton.
- This Week: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA); Senate Min. Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY); roundtable of the Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel, Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, and George Will.
- FNS: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY); ex-SCOTUS Justice Sandra Day O'Connor; ex-House reading clerk Paul Hays
- Late Edition: DHS Sec. Michael Chertoff; Commerce Sec. Carlos Gutierrez; Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI); Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL); Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX); Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA); Gov. Janet Napolitano (D-AZ); Brookings Institution’s Shibley Telhami; CFR’s Vali Nasr
More TV Alerts (all subject to change) (would appreciate a link back to this diary or my Penndit post, for those copying this to other sites. It does take me some time to update and list the TV alerts and guest watch.)
- Political Capital with Al Hunt: Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) (Bloomberg, repeats throughout weekend)
- Chris Matthews Show 5/19-5/20: Bob Woodward, Andrea Mitchell, David Brooks, Katty Kay discuss "What is the Truth of the Forecasts for Iraq after U.S. Troops Pull Out? Will Al Qaeda Grow? Will Chaos Spread Throughout the Middle East? If Michael Bloomberg Runs for President, Will He Draw Enough Votes to Decide the Outcome?". Quotes here.
- Newsmakers (CSPAN, 10am): EPA dir. Steven Johnson on 5/20
- Road to the White House (CSPAN, 6:30pm): Hillary Clinton in NH on 5/20; Joe Biden in NH on 5/20
- 60 Minutes: US Coast Guard problems (interview w/ Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) on 5/20
- Dateline: Tony Blair on 5/20
- Hannity's America: Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) on 5/20
- Good Morning America: Al Gore on 5/21; Nancy Reagan on 5/21 & 5/22;
- Letterman: Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) on 5/21; Al Gore on 5/24
- The Daily Show: Zaki Chehab on 5/21; Margaret Spellings on 5/22; Lt. Col. Kevin Robbins on 5/23; Al Gore on 5/24
- The Colbert Report: Michael Pollan on 5/21; Jared Diamond on 5/21; John Amaechi on 5/22; Bob Deans on 5/23; Jimmy Wales on 5/24; week of reruns
- LKL: Al Gore on 5/22
- Leno: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) on 5/23; FNC's Dennis Miller on 5/25
Sunday Talk Ratings for Last Week's Shows
Hotline 5/17: "For the week of 5/13, NBC's "Meet the Press" won with a 2.6 rating/8 share and 3.315M viewers. CBS' "Face the Nation" and ABC's "This Week" both had a 2.0/6 but "Face" came in with 2.717M viewers and "This Week" had 2.662M viewers. "Fox News Sunday" had a 0.9/3 and 1.200M viewers."
Applause!
DKos member SarahLee has done a great job cleaning up tags here. So I'm giving her some props!
Props for McClatchy (formerly known as Knight Ridder)
Solid reporting from these guys for awhile. Facts and fairness are evident in their stories. Check out the Wounded Warriors section on how our veterans are being treated and the section on the US Atty purge.
LOL
A woman on her Irish town's possible connection to Barack Obama
"I’ve been calling him Abracadabra because I didn’t know how to pronounce his name, or who he was."
The marketing pitch for Stephen Colbert's new book
link
"Colbert fears America has lost its balls. He wants to reballify the nation. Even the ladies. Ladies can have balls—lady-balls. They're called 'Thatchers.' Colbert will show you how he got his mammoth swinging sack."
Stephen Colbert's birthday was 5/13. Check out these birthday cards. LOL.
Military Blogging
NOW has done a report on military blogging. Check it out here.
Consequences
In MT: House majority leader ousted by Republican colleagues over that angry tirade against Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) that ended up on YouTube.
Bush Behaving Badly
Bush Threatens Veto Over Troop Pay Raise, Military Widow Benefits
Bushies Behaving Badly
Slate has an interactive feature devoted to Bush's modern day crime syndicate.
Lieberman's Dereliction of Duty
'Civility' not a valid reason to avoid duties as elected official
McCain's Been MIA
McCain Misses 42nd Straight Vote ... and Counting (posted 5/17)
Sen. John McCain (R-Campaign Trail) missed another vote today on a resolution related to the Iraq war, skipping a procedural move on a war funding measure in favor of hitting the campaign trail in New York.
In fact, McCain's missed vote today marked his fifth straight week without casting a vote on the Senate floor, with this morning's vote marking the 42nd straight roll call that he has missed.
Since the first-quarter fundraising period for presidential candidates ended March 31, McCain has made just three floor votes.
Out to Lunch
ABC, CBS still have not reported on Comey's revelation of wiretapping "hospital drama", while The Politico thinks that good journalism equals leaving out Democratic viewpoints.
Doolittle's Seeing Things
Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) Blames Corruption Probe On Partisan Democrats At Bush Justice Department Um... the Bush WH has been getting rid of anyone who isn't a partisan Republican, so I doubt there are any overtly partisan Dems left at the DOJ.
GOP Funny Business
An incomplete list, to be sure, but these are all developments from just this last week. I didn't even link to Wolfowitz's resignation or the possibility that Gonzales and Card's visit to Ashcroft's hospital room (and the subsequent disclosure of classified material to Ashcroft's wife) was illegal.
DCCC on Rep. Paul Gillmor's (R-OH-05) Guide to Being "Pretty Much Above-Board" with Your Constituents in 3 Easy Steps
Dept. of Homeland Security violated government regulations when it awarded a multi-million-dolalr contract to Shirlington, the limo company with ties to the Duke Cunningham scandal.
Alaskan members of Congress would profit from another bridge to nowhere
An update on Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC). The "Pissant" is not just disliked by Dems. He's also disliked by many North Carolina Republicans. RollCall:
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) spent this past weekend denying charges, which first aired on a local TV station, that former campaign aide Michael Aaron Lay committed voter fraud in a primary runoff three years ago that McHenry won by 86 votes.
[...]
Well-placed political operatives in the 10th district agree with McHenry that his camp’s current woes likely are politically motivated. But retribution in this case, they claim, is an inside job, political payback three years in the making by disgruntled local Republicans, who are split on the up-and-coming GOP bomb-thrower who has become so familiar to C-SPAN viewers.
[...]
A supporter whom some link to [David] Huffman is Donnie Young, a former Republican Party county chairman who runs the North Carolina Christian Coalition and is a possible challenger to McHenry in next year’s primary. He also may be the genesis of McHenry’s current political headache.
On his Web site, donnieyoung2008.com, Young provides a play-by-play of his complaints against Lay during the past three years.
P.S. The prosecutor in the case is a Republican who has donated to McHenry's campaign before... but McHenry is claiming that this is a politically motivated prosecution. Pissant, indeed.
GOP cmte assignments become corruption merry-go-round
Republican Anthony Martin or Anthony Martin-Trigona has a history of truly frivolous lawsuits and several states have issued warrants for his arrest.
So who gets fired when a racist segment runs on Fox news Channel? I'm pretty sure that what illegal voting does exist is not limited to just black people.
C-SPAN Alert
5/23/07, Wednesday, 10:15am. House Judiciary Committee gets testimony from Monica Goodling re: the US atty purge. For background on all things related to the US attorney purge, remember to check TPMMuckraker
Lewis Black on Hunting with Dick Cheney
Frank Caliendo Impersonates Dubya
Dead on, IMHO. There's some Bill Clinton, too; Caliendo gets the voice pretty damn close to Clinton's voice.
2006 Election Flashback: Dick Cheney Hunts on Election Day
Jokes
- Bill Maher: "Apparently, we may have foiled a terrorist attack right here in America. Six bozos were going to attack the army base at Fort Dix, New Jersey. But Bush outsmarted them ... because, as we all know, every single American soldier is safely in Iraq."
- Conan O'Brien: "A group that researches ancestry announced that President Bush is a descendant of Pocahontas. Native Americans were furious. They said, 'Great. First you take our land and now you blame us for President Bush.'"
- Leno: "Tonight the Republican presidential candidates had a big debate. ... 10 candidates. The last time that many rich white guys got together, I think Exxon merged with Mobil."
- Letterman: "Last night, they had another Republican presidential debate. ... Did you see those Republican candidates? They looked like the evil law firm in a John Grisham movie."
Electoral Stuff
For your news on 2008 House, Senate and Governor races, check the 2008 Race Tracker, Senate 2008 Guru, or Swing State Project.
Last Sunday, the Baltimore Sun ran a piece on DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen and the DCCC's 08 cycle plans.
DCCC has been highlighting bad votes by various Republican members. This gives us an idea of who DCCC is targeting or hopes to target (in the event that the Republican's numbers get low enough).
"If you look at the whole constellation of votes from this week, the Republicans sent a very clear message to their constituents that they are out of touch, not just on Iraq but on a whole range of other issues," DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) said Monday.
[...]
The committee aims to highlight what it sees as "wrong" Republican votes on a range of domestic items, including a spending bill to fund agricultural disaster assistance; the Intelligence authorization bill, including operations as well as an amendment to eliminate a National Intelligence Estimate on global climate change and another regarding warrantless wiretapping; the Homeland Security Department Authorization, including funding for first-responders and a provision on locating child sexual predators; as well as a committee vote on the National Defense Authorization Act.
[...]
Instead, the DCCC is focused on issuing a scattershot of news releases to highlight those votes, targeting Members including GOP Reps. Virgil Goode (Va.), Dennis Hastert (Ill.), Jerry Lewis (Calif.), Marilyn Musgrave (Colo.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Jean Schmidt (Ohio), Tim Walberg (Mich.), Dave Weldon (Fla.) and Don Young (Alaska).
Donation links:
Also, if you can, send a few bucks to Media Matters. There's been a frivolous lawsuit field against them by some right-wing nut. Donations here. (Psst... it's tax deductible!)