Politically buzz-worthy: 5 Washington rumors worth watching
It’s been a big news day for political junkies, with three Democrats making news: Byron Dorgan ditching his run for re-election in North Dakota, Chris Dodd falling on his sword for the sake of the party in Connecticut, and Bill Ritter announcing he won’t run for re-election as governor of Colorado. But wait, there’s more buzz out there, all of it juicy:
1. Senator Ed Schultz? The talk radio/MSNBC host confirmed on the cable network this morning that he has been approached by party leaders in North Dakota about running for his friend Byron Dorgan’s Senate seat. Expect some numbers from enterprising pollsters out there on whether he’d be viable. (Hint: fame always helps, and Schultz and his wife have been stalwart Dakota boosters.) But how pissed would Chris Matthews be if Schultz becomes a Senator before him? The Huffpo provides a run-down of Schultz’s MSNBC comments today. (Dorgan will give Ed an exclusive interview tonight.)
2. Did Chris Dodd jump, or was he pushed? There has been talk for months about the necessity for Dodd to step aside so that the far more electable Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general, can run for his seat. The Atlantic and Roll call offer hints that Dodd’s reward could be a cabinet position in the Obama administration; possibly even Treasury Secretary, which could provide a convenient (for the Obama administration) exit for this guy, although Dodd’s AIG and Countrywide problems would haunt him through the nominating process. If the rumor is true, the administration could be banking on that old Senate collegiality to put Dodd through with his former colleagues…
3. The Colorado-Caleefornia fix? From Ben Smith at Politico comes the intriguing three-dimensional chess rumor of the day: could the Obama administration get Ken Salazar, the former Senator from Colorado and current Interior Secretary, to run for the governor’s office now being vacated by Bill Ritter, and then fill Salazar’s Interior post with … wait for it … the Governator? As Smith notes, Ahnold would sure put a powerful, high profile face (and some muscle) behind the push for a climate change fix.
4. So that’s why he moved to New York … Harold Ford, who narrowly lost a bid for the Senate from Tennessee in part because of a commercial hinting at his taste for white women, and who then married one … has taken his show on the road, and now lives in New York, where he’s apparently considering making another go at it, this time by primarying Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand. It would be a Blue Dog vs. Blue Dog contest, ironically, and one in which neither candidate would get much love from the base. I for one, would like to see Harry’s first meet-up in a Black church, facing down all those angry Black women… According to the Beast, Harold is being egged on by some high flying donors in NYC.
5. No more Rahmbo? Liberals would dance in the streets if the president’s ultimate deal-maker, Rahm Emanuel, were to head for the door, and Sally Quinn of the WaPo suggests he might be considering doing just that, to run for mayor of Chicago, should Richard Daley make his own exit. Getting a new chief of staff wouldn’t be a bad thing for President Obama, provided he gets someone with 1) more stature than Rahm on the Hill and the ability to put down rebellions, including by outliers like Joe Lieberman, 2) a defter political touch, especially when it comes to managing the Democratic base, and 3) Rahm’s personal loyalty to the president.
Closing Gitmo update: some prisoners headed to Illinois
From the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet comes the scoop tonight that the Obama White House has settled on a destination for at least some prisoners from Guantanamo Bay:
WASHINGTON–The White House will announce Tuesday that President Obama will seek to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center in northwestern Illinois to house detainees now held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Read more
The Rubio shuffle
UPDATE: Apparently, now Rubio doesn’t believe in mankind’s hand in global warming anymore, either, and he’s reversed his position on cap and trade. Up next — Marco sends RedStaters over the moon by denying evolution, reveals new career as a NASCAR driver, and travels to Alaska to personally execute polar bears with his very own gun …
I’ve often wondered what would happen with Marco Rubio’s RedState tea party rhetoric met Florida’s fiscal reality. Well … probably something like this:
Adam Smith notest that we’ve struggled lately to get a clear answer from Marco Rubio on whether as governor he would have accepted money from the federal stimulus package about which he is so critical. Keith Cate on Tampa Bay’s NBC affiliate got a clearer answer:
“Ultimately,” Rubio said. “I would have accepted those portions of the money that would not have put Florida in a worse position off in the future than it is right now.”
How Crist like.
Indeed. Read more
Remainders: Sarah Palin, Birther/not-birther, Tiger’s mama and Charlie’s whoopsie
Sarah Palin, is, and is not, a birther. Thank God for Facebook retractions. But what will her base think about her believing (sort of) that Barack Obama is American-born?
Meanwhile, if you have any questions for the former governor, please address them in English only. Muchisimas gracias.
Charlie Crist’s headaches continue. This time, his attempt to promote the state’s Kidcare health plan backfires, as he unwittingly steers Floridians to a naughty chat line. When it rains…
Call it smart positioning. The head of Comcast, which is set to face federal scrutiny over its acquisition of a majority stake in NBC/Universal, comes out in favor of the Democratic healthcare overhaul.
And in case you haven’t had enough Tiger, the Globe and Mail has an exhaustive story purporting to take you inside the troubled Woods marriage, including wife Elin’s issues with Tiger’s purportedly overbearing mom.
Happy Friday!
In case you missed it: Mary Cheney saw Secret Service as her personal chauffeurs
Mary Cheney - Secret Service diva
Tucked into the “Hardball” interview regarding the alarming party crash by the fame-seeking Salahis with Washington Post columnist Roxanne Roberts and Ron Kessler, former Secret Service agent and author of “In the President’s Secret Service,” was the claim by Kessler that Mary Cheney, daughter of Dick “One Vote” Cheney and younger sister of The Spawn,) abused the Secret Service when her father was vice president. No, really? A Cheney??? Read more
Teabaggers exposed: laughing at the death of a woman and her unborn child
Wow. And you thought these people were pro life …
Remainders: Sarah Palin: like Reagan, only dumber, Rudy won’t be ‘America’s governor,’ and more
Missed this one yesterday in the blizzard of co-dependent, obsessive media coverage of Sarah Palin: she now says “death panels” aren’t really “panels of death,” just like the Soviet Union wasn’t really an evil empire … see how that works?
Marco Rubio (otherwise known as the “Florida Sarah Palin”) has some thoughts on Reagan, too, only his weren’t so flattering to the Gipper when it comes to immigration. Andrew Sullivan, however, agrees with a point Rubio surely would have run, screaming, from the room, had he known he was making it: much of Reagan’s legacy must be repudiated in order to get to today’s GOP.
Meanwhile, as a new DKos poll shows him ahead of Rubio by a mere 10 points, Charlie Crist will next try to get right with the jihadis by announcing that he now believes the earth is 6,000 years old, and man lived side-by-side with the dinosaurs. Okay, I made that last part up, but the poll is real. (Apparently, it contains no good news for Kendrick Meek, however, who barely registers unless it’s a three-way race.) Well, if Charlie needs some advice, here’s some from a veteran political reporter at the St. Pete Times.
Over to Newsweek, where Michael Isikoff reports that Judge Jay Bybee, author of the infamous “torture memo,” is lawyering up, in anticipation of a possible impeachment. An interesting tidbit in the piece: Isikoff reports that when the initial draft report from the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility emerged during the waning days of the Bush administration, then-Attorney General Mukasey not only killed it, he ordered it to be sent to the targets, including Bybee and John Yoo. Talk about not knowing which team you’re supposed to be playing for, Mr. then-”attorney for the people of the United States …”
Also at Newsweek: have we seen the last of the Ayatollahs of Iran? If so, it will apparently be the fault of the current one, Mr. Khameini.
Over to ABC News, which reports that finally, Rudy Giuliani has figured out that New Yorkers can’t stand him, and wouldn’t want him as their governor… or something like that. Bottom line: he would have had the floor mopped with his balding head by Andrew Cuomo, so he’s eyeing a race against the less flashy Kirsten Gillibrand instead. Good luck with that, ya jerk.
Charlie don’t play that
Where has the love gone? Well ... not to Marco Rubio.
Gov. Charlie Crist has enough problems. Between Scott Rothstein, the bad press over his Obama-stimulus flip-flops, the distinct loss of mojo (though let’s keep it real — he’s still way ahead of Marco Rubio) and the constant grief from the jihadis, who seem hell bent on turning Florida into one, giant New York District 23, he’s got headaches up to his tan lines, and apparently has no intention of adding Miami’s political nightmares to his own. So it looks like the rump commission and its two members will have to muddle through on their own. Read more
But does it cover Viagra?
In the latest stumble for Michael Steele’s Rizzle Nizzle (What up!?) Commizzle, the RedState jihadis are fuming over the discovery of abortion coverage in the official health package. Oh my!
A RedState blogger demands the RNC names name and fire people involved in designing (long before Steele assumed his post) its health care plan, and opting in to abortion coverage: Read more
Curses! Drudged again!
It’s been a long time since I’ve checked the Drudge Report — the onetime “unofficial assignment desk for America’s newsrooms” that ruled the Internet news link world what seems like ages ago. Lately, Drudge has been surpassed by other right wing voices, with Sarah Palin’s Facebook page doing to him what Glenn Beck has done to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh (replace and outshine.) So when the Mattster comes up with a breaking news bombshell, it’s kind of newsworthy just that anyone’s paying attention. Especially when that bombshell is dead … wrong. From Poltico’s Micheal Calderone:
In another sign of detente between Fox and the White House, Major Garrett has landed an interview with President Obama, according to the Drudge Report. It will take place next week in China.
Drudge wrote: “Obama Grants FOXNEWS Interview, DRUDGE has learned; Major Garrett will conduct interview in China next week …”
That would be quite a reversal from the war of words between the Obama administration and Fox just a few weeks ago.
UPDATE: A White House official tells POLITICO that the report is “not accurate.” “We’ve not committed to doing any presidential interviews during the trip to Asia with any outlets at this point,” the official said.
Too bad Calderone didn’t score a screen grab. Drudge has since deep sixed the headline — wiping it from the memory hole altogether (not even a little link left.) Oh well. Apparently, TVNewser fell for the phony scoop, too.
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