Below the fold: separated at birth; headlines; lede of the week; videos; and lotsa fun!
The Lineup (link back here, if you're copying to another site):
- Meet the Press: Ex-SoS Colin Powell; Jeff Gerth & Don Van Natta Jr. on HRC book
- Face the Nation: WH press sec Tony Snow; Sen. Joe Lieberman (CFL); roundtable of WaPo's Colbert King and Politico's Roger Simon
- This Week: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); roundtable of Torie Clarke (R), George Will, Claire Shipman, and Time's Jay Carney.
- Fox News Sunday: WH press sec Tony Snow; Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Late Edition: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ); Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN); Putin spokesman Dmitri Peskov; Commerce Sec. Carlos Gutierrez; Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM); Mike Huckabee (R-AR); Carl Bernstein
Note: MTP airs at special times in certain markets this Sunday because of NBC's French Open coverage. The link above has a listing of special airtimes.
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.)
- Political Capital w/ Al Hunt (Bloomberg, repeats throughout weekends): Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) on 6/8; ex US Amb to Russia Thomas Pickering on 6/8
- Chris Matthews Show 6/9-6/10: Howard Fineman, Katty Kay, Michele Norris, John Heilemann discuss "Remarkable personal testimony on her faith from Hillary Clinton: Will Democrats start talking about their beliefs the way Republicans do? Can Mitt Romney settle questions about his Mormonism by talking about shared beliefs? The political implications of the death of immigration reform." Quotes here.
- Newsmakers (C-SPAN, 10am): Asst SoS Chris Miller on 6/10
- Road to the WH: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in NH on 6/10; Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) in NH on 6/10; Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) in NH on 6/10;
- 60 Minutes: the flawed no fly list on 6/10; Barry Diller on 6/10; Moken people & the tsuanmi on 6/10;
- Q&A (CSPAN, 8pm): The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel on 6/10
- The Daily Show: David Steinberg on 6/11; Bob Shrum on 6/12; Allan Brandt on 6/13; Angelina Jolie on 6/14;
- The Colbert Report: Michael D. Gershon on 6/11; Josh Wolf on 6/12; Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) on 6/13; Daniel B. Smith on 6/14; Toby Keith on 6/18; Anne-Marie Slaughter on 6/19; Will Schwalbe on 6/20; Vincent Bugliosi on 6/21; Tom Hayden on 6/25; Jerry Miller on 6/25; Spencer Wells on 6/26; Daniel Gilbert on 6/27; Zbigniew Brzezinski on 6/28
- Leno: Fred Thompson (R-TN) on 6/12;
- Conan O'Brien: Tim Russert on 6/12;
- Ellen DeGeneres Show: Al Gore rerun on 6/13
- The View: Michael Smerconish on 6/14; Ted Koppel & his wife Grace Ann on 6/15; Michael Moore on 6/19;
- Letterman: Michael Moore on 6/15;
Sunday Talk Ratings for Last Week's Shows
Hotline 6/7: "For the week of 6/3, NBC's "Meet the Press" won with a 2.5 rating/8 share and 3.308M viewers. CBS' "Face the Nation" and ABC's "This Week" both came in with a 1.8/5 but "Face" had 2.418M viewers while "This Week" had 2.359M viewers. "Fox News Sunday" came in with a 0.9/3 and 1.096M viewers" Last week's guests here. Highlights and lowlights rom last Sunday:
MR. RUSSERT: He was asked last night what would he do as president. He said, "Well, I’d do lots of things." And asked, what if-"Are you prepared to talk about those?" He said, "No." Obviously wanting to give time to frame his issues. You remember the 1994 Senate campaign when he ran for the Senate in Tennessee. Here he is with the famous red pickup truck. Is this going to be a, a campaign of a lot of style, a Hollywood actor saying, "I’m a good ol’ boy"?
This is where the Dems should be asking why journalists aren't asking GOPers, like Thompson for campaign specifics. BTW, is it me, or are the Democratic presidential candidates offering up proposals while the GOP candidates are bashing states (Romeny on MA), flip-flopping (McCain, Romney, Giuliani), trying to forget that there was a world before 9/11 (Giuliani), and bashing Dems while putting forward nothing of any substance? More on Fred Thompson from James Carville:
MR. CARVILLE: Well, I think Fred Thompson is now, to use a sports metaphor, the "great white hope" of the Republican Party. But, of course, in the Republican Party, hope comes in one color, and that would be white. And one gender, that would be male.
Discuss: Two '08 Questions
- Which Democrat is most likely to usher in full-fledged political realignment? (Which in turn would have ramifications for the progressive movement and SCOTUS) The link goes to poll numbers that suggest that more and more people are self-identifying as Dems or lean-Dem indies. The key is making sure that these people keep leaning our way.
- Which Dem, if elected president, is most likely to get his/her agenda passed? Which Repub, if elected president, is most likely to get his agenda passed?
Bush Supports Racist for Circuit Court
Should be a big media controversy given that this is worse than the Trent Lott comment...
And also in the "Why minorities tend to vote Dem" category: right-wing political hack Bradley Schlozman confesses that Any Group That Works With Minorities Is ‘Liberal’
Memo to the Media: The GOPers Really Heart Bush's War, Even If They Don't Like Bush
That's what it sounds like to moi.
The Good Paul Begala
Mitt Steps in S***; Media Says it Smells Like Roses
Newt on the GOP
Link
Newt Gingrich described the Bush administration as dysfunctional and its unpopularity as hazardous to those in the Republican Party.
"The government is not functioning. It's not getting the job done," said the former House speaker, who is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination. "Republicans need to confront this reality."
Giuliani: Worse Than Bush
The ugly:
Rudy Giuliani is a true American hero, and we know this because he does all the things we expect of heroes these days -- like make $16 million a year, and lobby for Hugo Chávez and Rupert Murdoch, and promote wars without ever having served in the military, and hire a lawyer to call his second wife a "stuck pig," and organize absurd, grandstanding pogroms against minor foreign artists, and generally drift through life being a shameless opportunist with an outsize ego who doesn't even bother to conceal the fact that he's had a hard-on for the presidency since he was in diapers. In the media age, we can't have a hero humble enough to actually be one; what is needed is a tireless scoundrel, a cad willing to pose all day long for photos, who'll accept $100,000 to talk about heroism for an hour, who has the balls to take a $2.7 million advance to write a book about himself called Leadership. That's Rudy Giuliani. Our hero. And a perfect choice to uphold the legacy of George W. Bush.
I'm stuck on hiring a lawyer to call his second wife and mother of his children a "stuck pig." This recent Leno joke isn't far from the truth: "Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is paying his wife $125,000 a year to help him write his speeches. She's writing his speeches for him ... and you can tell. Like last week, he gave a speech about what awful bitches the first two wives were."
Oh Boy
Link
Maybe Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and his staff are just in denial. Or maybe they don't read the papers, thus missing the sad news that Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) died Monday, seven months after he was diagnosed with leukemia.
Whatever the case, Leavitt's office called Thomas's office late Thursday afternoon to request a meeting with the late senator.
Needless to say, grief-stricken Thomas staffers were stunned.
Quote of the Week
Simon Rosenberg:
With DHS a mess, our military degraded, our standing in the world diminished, the Middle East in much greater turmoil than prior to 9/11, terrorism around the world on the rise, Bin Laden still on the loose, Iran moving towards nuclearization, our great ally Israel weakened, international institutions like the UN and the World Bank under assault, climate change ignored, Russia slipping back into an aggressive autocracy.....are we really safer today? Is America and the world really better off as a result of the Bush years?
Lede of the Week
from Dana Milbank (WaPo)
You knew Scooter Libby was in trouble at yesterday's sentencing hearing when his lawyer decided to read the judge a character reference -- from Paul Wolfowitz.
There IS a difference between Dems and GOPers
Dems: Get rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell.
GOP: Ban gays from the military
Headlines
- Michael Hirsh on Iraq after 2008. This should've also been in the print copy, but it's web-exclusive commentary. Link Article teaser: "What follows the surge? Will it be ‘Plan B,’ ‘Plan B-H’ (Baker-Hamilton), or something like South Korea? Bush seems as hazy on this as he was on the initial occupation plan. All that’s certain, says a White House official, is that a ‘fairly robust’ U.S. force will long be in Iraq."
- Some see a bit of Ahmad Chalabi in Iraqi Pres Jalal Talabani's son, Qubad
- It seems as though neocons intend on creating chaos... everywhere... sustained chaos, that is.
- Credibility of JFK terror case questioned No surprise that US Atty Roslynn Mauskopf is a Pataki crony.
- "The Department of Homeland Security has earned a reputation as "a political dumping ground, a sort of Land of Misfit Toys" for its high quotient of political appointees who can boast more political clout than experience"
- Bush administration involved in suppression of Dem-leaning voters? (HT Think Progress)
- Shorter Fareed Zakaria to GOP presidential field: WTF is wrong with you people? Fareed Zakaria on life after Bush which in light of what is going on in the GOP primary, is a must read (despite one major flaw). The fact-checkers are working in overdrive when it comes to GOP BS, particularly from the top three in the GOP field. Mitt Romney is especially good at BSing. Really, these GOPers are uber-mendacious or nutty or something.
- Mitt Romney supports Social Security privatization.
- Fred Thompson putting together a campaign team featuring some of the best & brightest of Republican lying liars.
- Staffing crisis at U.S. foreign service Gee. I wonder why...
- AR GOP chairman Dennis Milligan is an ass.
- Rep Diana DeGette (D-CO) on why stem cell research is so important to her.
- Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) talks Farm Bill at TPMCafe
- House Democrats expand Abramoff probe to WH ties
- Senate Democrats look at election tactics, particularly Ehrlich and Steele's (R) bid to confuse black Dem voters in MD. Funny how only one GOPer showed up for the hearing.
- NY Senate Leader (R) under criminal investigation
- Ex-House clerk Trandahl breaks silence on Foley scandal
- This Week In Lousy WaPo Reporting: Link
- "In the White House, Pardon Is A Topic Too Sensitive to Mention." Strong enough to take on the terrorists, but not enough to discuss a possible Libby pardon. LOL! As for Dick Cheney, he's tough enough to take on the terrorists, but he's going to let his "friend" take the rap for him. LOL! I can't figure out Republicans. Impeach a guy who lied about a blowjob. Pardon a guy who committed obstruction of justice (among other offenses) in a case involving national security. That makes total sense.
Electoral Stuff
Graduating? Campaigns Are Hiring
Link. P.S. If a campaign staffer is reading, I'm available for hire later this summer. ;-)
Vanity Fair's Africa issue
The Vanity Fair "Africa Issue" has about 20 different covers. The covers include Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, Bill & Melinda Gates, Maya Angelou, George W. Bush, and Condi Rice. The covers were shot by Annie Leibovitz. In one, Oprah looks like she's going to bite off George Clooney's ear. Obama is on 2 of the covers. He shares one cover with Don Cheadle and another with Muhammad Ali. Obama is positioned oddly in the one with Ali. Obama looks presidential in the one with Cheadle. Bush & Rice share one cover. Bush shares another with Desmond Tutu. Condi shares another with Bono. The one with Bush and Tutu might make conservatives mad. When Tutu was commencement speaker at my college, the right-wingers weren't happy. Bono guest-edited the issue. In any case, part of the purchase price of each issue goes to charity. There are more people on the covers than the ones I listed, BTW (Iman looks stunning on her 2 covers). You can see video of the cover shoots here. The Africa issue features Bill Clinton writing about Nelson Mandela. Obama talks about his multiple trips to Africa here.
Calendar (subject to change)
Well, Guess She's Adopting These Guys Too
Angelina Jolie Joins Council on Foreign Relations (Seriously, congrats to her.)
Separated At Birth
Dick Cheney
Penguin from Batman movie
The Funnies
- Jon Stewart, on Jefferson's indictment: "On the upside, now we know what it takes for the federal government to pay some attention to a black man from New Orleans"
- Letterman: "How about that thing over the weekend? The authorities busted that plot. They were going blow up the pipeline to JFK. ... Here's the scary part: it turned out the guys doing this ... were called homegrown terrorists. And who says President Bush hasn't created new jobs?"
- Top Ten President Bush Global Warming Solutions. link
- Watch Al Gore movie one of these nights instead of "Dukes of Hazzard." [...]
- Send more troops to Iraq.
- I dunno, tax cuts for the rich?
[...]
- Resign
Bush & Blair: Endless Love:
Lewis Black: Hunting With Dick Cheney
Bill Maher: New Rules for Bush & Cheney
MadTV: Bush Slump
For Sopranos Fans
The series finale is 6/10. Sopranos Death Montage:
Rudy's Nickname
Multiple Choice Mitt has his nickname. I didn't get many suggestions for Giuliani's nickname. In an effort to jump start the discussion a bit, try to see if you can improve upon these names:
Ghouliani
Heathcliff
One Billion Bulbs
Join the DKos group. Change your lightbulbs from the old kind to the energy efficient kind and join the DKos group. We're competing with Instapundit's group to see who can save more energy. They got a head start on us, so help DKos catch up.