The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank not so gently mocks gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe’s bombastic style of politics. But did he bury the lede? McAuliffe, describing his working-man tour around Virginia, says he worked as a busboy and bartender — oh, and “I’ve been an African American barber.” What? Good thing for McAuliffe that Milbank does not work for a paper exquisitely sensitive to supposed racial jibes by Virginia politicians.
And in the tone deaf department, Obama’s 129 score isn’t close to medal-winning level in the Special Olympics.
And don’t blame the teleprompter, he (it) says. (Anyone who says it’s hard to mock Obama isn’t reading TOTUS’s blog.)
Sorry, Jake Tapper, you can’t win the comedy gold award every day. Chip Reid (with assistance from the rest of the frustrated press corps) gets it for Friday. The scene is rather Scott McClellan-like.
The latest in the NY-20 race: “Democrat Scott Murphy may have gotten himself in a bit of a political pickle in a radio interview with New York Post columnist Fred Dicker. In the interview, Murphy said he was opposed to the death penalty, even for terrorists involved in the September 11th attacks.”
The Republican candidate unsurprisingly making a big deal of this.
Senators responding to an ABC News telephone poll didn’t quite voice the same “complete confidence” in Tim Geithner as the president. And as for those who say “Well the president trusts him,” don’t they owe their constituents their own independent judgment?
Many people have commented, “Can you imagine what the media would have done if George Bush had made a joke about the Special Olympics?” Well, I honestly can’t imagine he ever would have said it. A reminder. (For a man vilified as unsophisticated and mocked for his “Bushisms” he did exhibit exceptional personal kindness. Remember this one?)
On the AIG bonus tax bill: “Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire blasted the House bill, saying ‘it’s a bill of attainder, it’s blatantly unconstitutional, it sets a precedent just if it even gets to the Senate of pettiness that’s hard to equal.'” (Actually I’m sure that pettiness can be matched or exceeded in the future.) “‘It’s everybody grab their pitchforks,’ Gregg added.” As you can see, Gregg never would have fit into this administration.
Well, it’s not like he called it “witch huntery.”
If you think conservative critics have been tough, read what Eleanor Clift has to say: “President Obama likes to remind voters that he inherited a mess, and that’s true, but this one is of his own making. And until he comes up with a satisfactory explanation of who did what when, and why, his credibility will suffer. . . .This week’s fiasco with AIG should serve as a warning to Obama that good will is not unlimited and that the people serving him can bring him down.”
Paul Krugman blames Obama and Geithner for the mess.
If anyone cares about the Constitution anymore, here is a useful summary of the pro and con arguments on whether the AIG bonus grab is a bill of attainder.
RNC Chair Michael Steele, troubles and all, outraised the DNC last month by almost $2M.
