A game of musical chairs played out in the Senate this week, and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) landed in the position of ranking member on the Judiciary Committee — which will hold confirmation hearings on President Obama's soon-to-be-named SCOTUS nominee.
Sessions himself was nominated to the federal bench more than 20 years ago, and was defeated in the Judiciary Committee after his views on blacks and commies were aired.
But Jeff is a different man nowadays. He's even open to a justice with "gay tendencies". Or not.
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: Afghan President Hamid Karzai; Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari; Steve Coll (The New Yorker); Andrea Mitchell (NBC News).
Face the Nation: Former Vice President Dick Cheney.
This Week: National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones; Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); Roundtable: Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Cokie Roberts (ABC News), Sam Donaldson (ABC News), and George Will (ABC News).
Fox News Sunday: CENTCOM Commander Gen. David Petraeus; Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA); Roundtable: Bill Kristol (The Weekly Standard), Mara Liasson (NPR), Kimberly Strassel (The Wall Street Journal), and Juan Williams (Fox News).
State of the Union: Gen. David Petraeus; Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN); Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA); Reliable Sources: Gideon Yago (IFC Media Project); Joe Klein (TIME); Rachel Sklar (The Daily Beast); Amanda Carpenter (The Washington Times).
The Chris Matthews Show: Bob Woodward (The Washington Post); Katty Kay (BBC); Andrea Mitchell; Rick Stengel (TIME).
Fareed Zakaria GPS: The Dalai Lama; Columbia University Professor Aqil Shah; Former U.N. Undersecretary General Shashi Tharoor; Author Richard Hass.
Primetime viewing:
60 Minutes will feature an examination of the life and death of Ashraf Marwan, an Egyptian billionaire claimed by both Israelis and Egyptians to be their greatest spy; and, a report on the U.S. military's increasing use of un-manned aerial vehicles.
The National Geographic Channel will premiere In the Womb: Extreme Animals — which explores the methods of reproduction and gestation of four different animals: fish, bird, mammal and insect, using real-time 4-D ultrasound images.
On Comedy Central...
Jon Stewart had a ball with the EPIC FAIL that is today's Republican party.
The Daily Show
Monday: Author Frank Portnoy ("The Match King")
Tuesday: Actor Tom Hanks ("Angels & Demons")
Wednesday: Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani
Thursday: Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa P. Jackson
And Stephen Colbert watched Sean Hannity pick the low-hanging fruit from his "Tree of Liberty".
The Colbert Report
Monday: Author Tamara Draut (Strapped")
Tuesday: Director Ron Howard ("Angels & Demons")
Wednesday: Author Michael Pollan ("In Defense of Food")
Thursday: Musician Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens)
Elsewhere...
The Moonies reported that Steele Dogg didn't make it 100 days at the RNC before getting his salad tossed.
Capitulating to critics on the Republican National Committee, embattled Republican Party Chairman Michael S. Steele has signed a secret pact agreeing to controls and restraints on how he spends hundreds of millions of dollars in party funds and contracts, The Washington Times has learned. [...]
It represents the first time in memory that rebel members of the Republican Party's national governing body have successfully taken on the party's historically powerful national chairman and his loyalists.
Craziness.
Speaking of which...
Rep. Michele Bachman (R-MN) appears to have found the revolution she's been looking for.
From time to time, a few members of Congress — as many as 10, sometimes fewer — gather with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) to eat lunch and hear from an author or expert whose opinion he thinks is worth promoting. They grab something to eat off of a deli plate. They take notes. They loosen up and ask questions. [...]
Bachmann "goes to these luncheons on a weekly basis," said Debbee Keller, Bachmann’s press secretary.
You know who else has weekly luncheons? POTUS and his Veep.
On Tuesday they decided to eat out — going to Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, VA.
Obama had the audacity to order spicy mustard on his cheeseburger, and thus "Dijongate" was born (in the mind of one hyper-delusional Cornell Law School professor).
Wonkette described the ensuing meltdown as such:
*This* is how to go fucking nuts, live on the Internet. No offhand one-liners about TelePrompters or Kenya. Child’s play! You’ve got to see Barack Obama order Dijon mustard for a hamburger and write a 9-update cosmic mindfuck of a blog post about it, littered with disastrous jokes left and right ("Mayo" looks/sounds like "Mao" !!!), over the course of three days. So thank you William A. Jacobson, Ivy League Law Professor, because this Internet deserves a better class of wingnut.
QFT.
The Mom in Chief managed to get her burger on later in the week, without causing a scandal.
Meanwhile...
Unwed mother Bristol Palin will take part in a national campaign to help raise awareness for teen pregnancy prevention.
The 18-year-old daughter of former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been appointed as a Teen Ambassador for The Candie's Foundation. [...]
Bristol Palin in February told Fox News that teens should avoid sex, but abstinence is "not realistic at all."
Teach your children well.
- Trix