Below the fold: videos, funnies, calendar, headlines, lotsa fun tidbits, etc...
The Lineup (Copying to another site? Link back here):
- MTP: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on US atty purge, DoJ, and NSA surveillance subpoenas; rountable on immigration reform, racial politics, and voting demographics with Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody, PBS' Tavis Smiley, NBC's Chuck Todd and PBS' Judy Woodruff
- FTN: Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN); WaPo's Robin Wright; WaPo's Thomas Ricks
- This Week: DHS Sec Michael Chertoff on London plot & US response; Sen. Joe Lieberman (CFL) on SCOTUS, immigration & Iraq; roundtable of WaPo's Ruth Marcus, Bay Buchanan (R), Donna Brazile (D) and Cokie Roberts; James Earl Jones on literacy
- Fox News Sunday: DHS Sec. Michael Chertoff; talk radio host Mike Gallagher; Air America's Mark Green; Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist
- Late Edition: DHS Sec Michael Chertoff; Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC); Rep. Peter King (R-NY); Zbigniew Brzezinski; Henry Kissinger; roundtable of Bill Schneider, Joe Johns and Ed Henry.
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 with Al Hunt (Bloomberg, repeats throughout weekend): Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) on 6/29
- Chris Matthews Show 6/30-7/1: Joe Klein, Andrea Mitchell, Clarence Page, Katty Kay discuss "With Republicans speaking out against the Bush policy and calling for a pullout, was this the week that the Iraq war started to end? A report from the front: What does General David Petraeus think he can achieve by September? The Roberts Court: Establishing a Bush legacy by overturning settled law"
- Road to the WH (C-SPAN, 6:30pm): Fred Thompson in NH on 7/1; profile of Tommy Thompson on 7/1
- 60 Minutes: Russell Crowe on 7/1; Rwandan genocide on 7/1; saving lives of wounded soldiers on 7/1;
- Squawk Box (CNBC): Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on 7/2
- The View: Ted & Grace Ann Koppel rerun on 7/2; Michael Smerconish rerun on 7/4
- Regis & Kelly: CNBC's Jim Cramer on 7/4;
- The Daily Show & The Colbert Report are in re-runs for the next 2 weeks.
Sunday Talk Ratings for Last Week's Shows
Hotline 6/28: "For the week of 6/24, NBC's "Meet the Press" won with a 2.4 rating/8 share and 3.230M viewers. CBS' "Face the Nation" and ABC's "This Week" both had a 1.9/6 but "Face" had 2.747M viewers while "This Week" had 2.460M viewers. "Fox News Sunday" came in with a 0.7/2 and 0.943M viewers." Last week's guests here. Highlights & lowlights from last Sun:
NPR’s Juan Williams snapped back, noting that there is no text in the executive order that actually exempts Bush or Cheney. "This is all a dodge, this is a game," Williams said, in order to "keep Dick Cheney in some kind of secured undisclosed bunker of his mind so he can’t let the American people know what’s going on with their government." Williams charged, "He won’t tell people who’s visiting his house, who’s visiting his office. Scooter Libby is letting people know who works for the CIA as an agent. This is ridiculous."
Banned Iraq for Sale excerpts
Laura Rozen On Cheney
link
The world is full of examples of powerful people who think they are exempt from the laws of man because of some self justifying logic. But too bad for us tough guy Cheney with his impassioned commitment to torture and secret power couldn't get bin Laden and lost the war in Iraq with the help of his buddy Rumsfeld. His delusions of greatnesss and mission are totally divorced from the simple reality of the total ineptness of the administration's service to America from Katrina to Iraq to its failure to get bin Laden. It's an old man sitting on the park bench, with delusions of great importance, fed by Mary Matalin and a coterie of desperate advisors whose reputations are being ruined with him, as their former boy wonder Libby is about to go to prison, if Bush can't be moved to commute his sentence. Cheney will go to his grave like others before him thinking he was a great patriot who should not be bound by the laws of this country, or the laws of war. But even with all that secret extra-legal power he yielded and bestowed for all these years, he couldn't show success on any front when it mattered.
Really, the nicest thing I could say about Dick Cheney is that he's a man who cared more about pursuing power than pursuing success.
This Week In Icky Campaign 08 Reporting
The Boston Globe takes note of Mitt Romney's armpits. Seriously.
Dressed in a crisp blue shirt, with a white collar and gold collar-pin, Romney appeared to be the model of a successful young financier, with one exception. His shirt, according to colleague Geoffrey Rehnert, was drenched dark with sweat under his arms.
"Mitt was struggling," Rehnert says. "And he wasn't used to struggling."
[...]
On his way to the top, Rehnert says, Romney sweat his way through the underarms of so many shirts that his colleagues came up with a term for it: "pitting."
HT: The Plank
Headlines
- Attorney general wins "sitting duck award" Gonzales certainly has provided columnists with plenty to write about...
- Speaking of ducks, we move to a lame one. Bush Faces `No-Win' Pressures to Pardon Convicted Cheney Aide
- Some Police Ammo In Short Supply Because of Iraq & Afghanistan wars
- Senator Webb calls for National Guard, Army Reserve support
- Former Halliburton unit, KBR Criticized for Food, Fuel and Housing Deficiencies in Iraq
- Alito Champions Business Causes in First Full High-Court Term
- Roberts Steered U.S. Supreme Court as It Trimmed Precedents
- Pentagon's Largest Building Project Is Mismanaged, Audit Finds
- Military sees drop in black recruits
- Condi Rice, as ineffective as her boss
- Scholars Urge Bush to Ban Use of Torture
- More on Bushie government's failed response to Hurricane Katrina
- Dems urge State Dept. to hire gay translators
- Gene Sperling: Private-Equity Guys Can Learn to Pay More Tax
- WH counselor Dan Bartlett talks to GQ
- As usual, if it's not here... DKos's front page, TPM, TPM Muckraker or Think Progress had it. In particular, most of the Cheney stuff, most scandal news (Doolittle, Ted Stevens, Abramoff, Griles), SCOTUS rulings, WH's poor handling of classifed material, UK terror , etc.
OK, I'm not saying members of Congress are sheep, but they do listen carefully to members who are considered 'experts' in their field. They do take into consideration how a certain Senator is voting before they vote. That's why Sen. Webb's moves on Iraq issues will be worth watching.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA): Close Guantanamo
Media
ABC World News Now Re-Enactment of LKL interview with Paris Hilton. HT Paddy
MSNBC anchor refuses to do Paris Hilton story:
MSNBC's Dan Abrams slams Bill O'Reilly for blaming dead mothers.
Thank you Mr. Abrams, but recommend Chip Reid's firing. He's a dumbass.
Electoral Stuff
Remember Romney's campaign aide who impersonated a cop several times? FL Dems make it known down in the Sunshine State
Urgent Memo to Florida Political Reporters Covering Romney
MEMO
To: Florida Political Reporters
From: Florida Democratic Party
Date: June 26, 2007
RE: Be Careful Covering Mitt Romney Today
The Florida Democratic Party today urges the state's political reporters who are covering former Governor Mitt Romney, Republican of Massachusetts, to be on the look out for paid campaign staff impersonating law enforcement officials who may try to inhibit your ability to cover Romney's frequent flip-flops.
This is no joke.
All Florida political reporters should be aware that a high-level traveling staffer for Romney is now under investigation in New Hampshire for impersonating a law enforcement agent when he allegedly pulled over a New York Times reporter, telling him his plates had been run and that he could not follow a Romney campaign caravan.
Today, as Romney raises money in Florida, you may want to ask his donors if they are comfortable funding this sort of activity. Please note that the staffer in question continues to be paid by the campaign while under investigation.
Rep. Martin Meehan (D-MA) Leaves With Campaign Money in the Bank - and He's Keeping It
Meehan will leave office with more than $5 million in his campaign war chest. But he's keeping it - in case he decides to run for office again or finds other political or charitable uses for it.
I have no problem with him keeping some money for a future run and donating some to charity. I do have a problem if none of that money goes to DCCC, DNC, or DSCC. Send the party a million, and the activists who remember it will be glad to help you out should you decide to run again.
Paul Newman aged well, but he was absolutely the hottest man during his Exodus and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof years. I've known that he's a progressive for awhile, but you gotta love him for this DSCC fundraising letter:
I was proud to stand with Democrats against an imperial president back then. And I am proud now to stand with a new generation of Democrats against a president who poses what I believe to be the biggest internal threat to American democracy in my lifetime.
[...]
It's scare-mongering pure and simple, and it is the only thing Republicans have left to offer.
Images were saved to my computer a long time ago, so I don't have an original source.
A new DCCC video out highlighting the GOP's dismal record on troops and veterans issues.
Al Franken was on Letterman in March to talk about his US Senate candidacy.
Donate to Franken or the MN-Sen-08 bundling fund here
Calendar (subject to change)
- Senate Special Cmte on Aging holds hearing on aging veterans' mental health care on 7/3 at 2pm. This is a field hearing in Portland, OR.
- There are other hearings 7/2 and 7/3. They're field hearings on farm bills and natural resources in MT and CA.
- Dubya is in Kennebunkport, ME for the July 4th holiday. Russian President Vladimir Putin will be joining him there. Bush and Putin are scheduled to speak publicly (hold presser) on 7/2.
- Stephen Colbert throws out the ceremonial first pitch in a game for the Charleston RiverDogs on 7/7. More info here. He's throwing a pint of AmeriCone Dream ice cream instead of a baseball. Tickets available.
- 7/9: Senate meets to consider H.R.1585, the FY2008 Defense Authorization bill.
- 7/18: WH compliance deadline on warrantless surveillance subpoenas.
Tidbits
Cracked.com on how each 08er will blow it. It's funny if you're into humor with a mean edge, though the one about Rudy Giuliani is so on the mark. (P.S. I couldn't believe my eyes, but compare that Obama photo to this one of George Clooney. Obama's got a better torso than Mr. Sexiest Man Alive! Don't worry George! I still have major love for you.)
HBO is doing a movie about the 2000 recount. There's a casting call out for actors who look like the SCOTUS justices. Shooting starts in Sept.
Um, so I guess these two won't be singing kumbaya together anytime soon
On Thursday [6/21], during House votes, a very angry Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) had some distinctly non-collegial words for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). The words "gutless," "chickens--t" and "thief" were flung. [...]
Gohmert’s crime? Shuler and his gang, the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats, say the Texas Republican pulled off a high-stakes heist.
Late Wednesday night, Gohmert was heading to the House floor to come to the aid of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) as he discussed holding down federal spending. Gohmert, whose office is on the fifth floor of the Cannon House Office Building, passed the door to Shuler’s office, located on the same floor, and apparently decided to make off with the sign perched on an easel outside the office, which was closed for the night. [...]
And as for that confrontation on the House floor, Gohmert professes himself to be surprised. "Congressman Shuler is such a great guy, I feel sure he did not mean anything too personal," he said. "I know I did not go into his office; I know I did not steal anything; but I am still trying to discern if he might be right about my being chicken excrement."
Shuler maintains that the reaction was warranted, given the nature of the offense. "After six years of stealing from taxpayers, I guess old habits die hard," said Shuler spokesman Andrew Whalen.
Al Gore's youngest daughter, Sarah Gore is getting married next month. Gore is engaged to Bill Lee. Congrats!
NBC's Campbell Brown and Fox News' Dan Senor are expecting! Congrats. (Dan Senor worked for Bush in Iraq.)
Also expecting? CNN's Nancy Grace. She's 4 months pregnant with twins. Congrats to her and her husband David Linch.
Barack Obama has a little Jay-Z and Beyonce on his iPod.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has a role in the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Proceeds from his cameo will go to charity (Source: subscription only Roll Call.)
Brit Hume's CIA code name from the 1970s was "Eggnog"
Congrats to the new Miss Tennessee Grace Gore. Yes, she's a distant relation of Al Gore, but they've never met.
Sen. Joe Biden's (D-DE) autobiography will be release 7/31. It is called Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics. It's gonna be a best-seller. [/snark]
Sneak Peak: 7 full pages of Stephen Colbert's Tek Jensen It's a real comic book series, nowadays. The first issue goes on sale 7/11.
Political poets
Harold Bloom, who in fifty-three years of teaching literature at Yale University has had many undergraduate poems pressed hopefully upon him said, when reached by telephone in New Haven last week, that he was not familiar with Obama’s oeuvre. But after studying the poems he said that he was not unimpressed with the young man’s efforts-at least, by the standards established by other would-be bards within the political sphere. "At eighteen, as an undergraduate, he was already a much better poet than our former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, who keeps publishing terrible poetry," Bloom said. (Cohen has published two collections of verse: "Of Sons and Seasons," in 1978, and "A Baker’s Nickel," in 1986.) "And then there is Jimmy Carter, who is in my judgment literally the worst poet in the United States." (Carter’s first volume of poetry, "Always a Reckoning and Other Poems," which was published in 1994, included a work called "Why We Get Cheaper Tires from Liberia": "No churches can be built / no privy holes or even graves / dug in the rolling hills / for those milking Firestone’s trees, who die / from mamba and mosquito bites.")
I don't know why but "keeps publishing terrible poetry" made me chuckle.
The Funnies
- Leno: "President Bush is hosting a visit by the president of Vietnam. He didn't want to go, but his father couldn't get him out of this one."
- Conan O'Brien: "They're getting ready to unveil President Bush's presidential library. The committee in charge of President Bush's presidential library said they want the building to reflect the spirit of the Bush presidency. So they said, 'In other words, we're just gonna build some stuff and see what happens.'"
- Leno: "The government of Iraq is under a lot of pressure from President Bush to find a fair way to share their huge oil profits. You know, like we do here in this country."
- Letterman: "Hot in New York City today. Lousy hot. ... It's so hot Al Gore titled his next book 'I Told You So.'"
- Leno: "In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said his dreams of becoming a priest ended when he realized he couldn't give up having sex. Ironically, that's also what ended his first and second marriages."
Leno talks to "George W. Bush"
George W. Bush pretends to understand Spanish
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.
Next week's poll question is on how long John Doolittle (R-CA) will last in Congress. If he ends up leaving before I get to post this question, then, I'm without a poll question for next week. Back up suggestions welcome in the comments!
Also, Happy Independence Day!