In urging lawmakers to vote for his tax deal, President Obama is using one of his go-to lines from the healthcare debate, according to a Democratic lawmaker.
Obama is telling members of Congress that failure to pass the tax-cut legislation could result in the end of his presidency, Rep. Peter DeFazio (Ore.) said.
“The White House is putting on tremendous pressure, making phone calls, the president is making phone calls saying this is the end of his presidency if he doesn’t get this bad deal,” he told CNN’s Eliot Spitzer.
But the White House shot back late on Wednesday.
“The president hasn’t said anything remotely like that and has never spoken with Mr. DeFazio about the issue,” said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor.
Well, of course they deny it. They always do. That’s the job of a White House spokesman, to deny stuff.
But Obama (or whoever is twisting arms on his behalf) is basically right: Democrats in Congress cannot benefit by “distancing” themselves from a Democratic president, no matter how unpopular he may be. This was likewise true of Republicans during the Bush years.
It’s a simple reality of partisan politics. Whatever the personal disagreements within the party over policy, when it comes time to engage in political combat against the other party, it’s Sharks and Jets, baby.
WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange was granted bail by a London court Thursday, meaning he is free to leave jail until his next scheduled court hearing in January.
The exact timing of his release will depend on the speed of the paperwork, his lawyer Mark Stephens said in a statement outside the court, adding that he hoped Assange would be free later Thursday. . . .
A judge granted him bail on Tuesday, but lawyers representing Sweden immediately filed an appeal, keeping Assange behind bars until the High Court judge decided on the Swedish appeal.
Assange won the appeal Thursday. . . .
Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald asserts that “it is impossible to invent theories to indict [Assange or his sources] without simultaneously criminalizing much of investigative journalism.” Which is false, and absurdly so. Army Pvt. Bradley Manning committed a crime — he was, at the very least, guilty of insubordination — and WikiLeaks abetted that crime.
Contrary to whatever cloak-and-dagger fantasies may exist in the imagination of Glenn Greenwald, “investigative journalism” is not dependent on illegally obtaining classified national security documents.
UPDATE: What Sweden needs is its own Antoine Dodson: “Julian Assange be snatchin’ yo’ people up and rapin’ ’em out here!”
Short of nuclear war between North Korea and Iran — or maybe Barack Obama accusing Markos Moulitsas of racism — it just doesn’t get any better than this, my friends:
KEITH OLBERMANN: One complicating issue here—address the charges against Assange in Sweden. Are they—are they a ruse? Are they—are they a front for something else? And even if they are, indeed, something nefarious against him, you are still, in essence, participating in bailing out a man who has been charged with criminal sexual charges, or will be charged under these circumstances. Address that.
MICHAEL MOORE: That’s the thing. He hasn’t been charged. They’ve brought no criminal charges against him. They want to talk to him about, about— This whole thing stinks to the high heavens. I gotta tell ya. I mean, I—I wasn’t born yesterday, but I [laughs]— I’ve seen this enough times where governments and corporations go after individuals— Geez, wasn’t I— I think I was just on your show a couple of weeks ago talking about this—
OLBERMANN: Uh-huh!
MOORE: —with my film and the health care industry. They go after people with this kind of lie and smear. Daniel Ellsberg told you about it last week on how they went after him. This is— We’ve seen this before. Now, his guilt or innocence of this— I mean, what he said they did— [grinning] and the lawyer said this today in court in London—that what they say he did and the charge is his [rolls eyes] condom broke during consensual sex.
OLBERMANN: Mm-hmm.
MOORE: That is not a crime in Britain, and so they’re making the point how can we—how can we extradite him over this? This is all a bunch of hooey as far as I’m concerned! And, and the man at least has a right to be out of prison while awaiting the hearing, and I believe that, that, uh—and this is why I participate in it; this is why I put put up a chunk of the bail money, and, um, you know, I’m proud, proud to do it because I think this man and what he’s doing, and what his group is doing, is going to save lives.
Regular readers (and everybody who hates me) will recall how disastrously things went sideways when I mocked feminists over this Swedish rape charge against Assange. The accusations, as described in published news accounts, certainly seemed to me like a case of post-coital vengeance — two of the socialist women the LeakyWicker bedded while in Stockholm compared notes and realized they’d been the unwitting (or perhaps witless) victims of a serial seducer. It did not seem to be the sort of case that lent itself to a pious “no means no” lecture from Jill Filipovic.
If you hate me, all that explanation isn’t going to convince you of my bona fides. Yet even my worst enemies must admit (a) I never used the phrase “a bunch of hooey” and (b) I’m a right-winger and therefore automatically presumed guilty of patriarchal misogyny, even if I never wrote a word about feminism.
But for Michael Freaking Moore to roll his eyes and chuckle derisively at the rape accusations on Keith Olbermann’s show — oh, my goodness! Pop the popcorn mon amis, because the flaming fatwa of feminist fury has been unleashed on the obnoxious America-hating Jabba the Hut:
Ask the women who are pressing these charges — their names have been so widely leaked, in one case by your fellow “progressive” media dudebro, Keith Olbermann, that it is possible to find their home addresses, their personal blogs and social media accounts, and to track their activities and personal lives. I’d imagine that they are very much in fear for their lives, due in large part to people like you, Michael Moore, who are insisting that they should not be believed.
And you’re the face of the Left. You have the platform, you have the power, you have the cash and the fame and the name and face recognition: You claim to speak for us. And when you speak, you don’t stand against rape.
Dear Feminist Ladies: Please forgive me for all previous offenses to your egalitarian sensibilities. Clearly, I deserved every bad name you ever called me. But I’m going to do everything I can to assist you in your current campaign of hysterical vindictive frenzy, because air should be illegal, if Michael Moore is breathing it.
OMG. I just thought of something.
What will Ace of Spades say when he finds out about this? If this doesn’t merit the legendary Flaming Skull Alert, I don’t know what ever will.
Wisconsin Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus was, until tonight, a contender to replace Michael Steele as chairman for the Republican National Committee. But Priebus’s evident involvement in soliciting federal stimulus funds for his law firm’s clients emerged Tuesday as a scandal that will likely destroy whatever chance he had, as Dan Riehl explains at Big Government:
Reince Priebus is currently being touted as a front-runner to replace current RNC Chair Michael Steele. But Priebus’ leading role among a select group of high-powered Wisconsin attorneys targeting clients to assist them in maximizing stimulus dollars, at the same time the anti-stimulus RNC employed him as interim general counsel, raises some troubling questions, not just for Preibus, but for the Republican Party as a whole.
In a year when the Tea Party movement has made opposition to the Obama administration’s stimulus spending a key issue for Republicans, Priebus would obviously be hurt by this revelation. But the apparent effort to to hide the contradictory online evidence raises even more serious issues.
Exactly how this story was made public the same day both by a conservative like Dan Riehl and by the “centrist” GOP site Frum Forum . . . well, I don’t know the answer to that question. At a minimum, we can conclude that some Republicans aren’t members of the Reince Priebus Fan Club.
Man, that’s cold. Maybe you see why I always say I’d never want Dan Reihl mad at me. Maybe you don’t want Dan as your friend, but you sure don’t want him to be your enemy. He’s from Jersey, you know.
Only five Republicans — including Coburn, DeMint and Sessions — had the guts to vote against this “compromise” abomination from Hell. “Temporary tax relief, permanent entitlements,” says Michelle Malkin.
Because yesterday’s cloture vote was the real decision, I almost forgot to blog about the final passage.
