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- Given its importance to the Tea Party crowd, I would say past support for TARP and other "bailout" policies is something of a ticking time bomb for would-be 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls. Specifically, while the Republican primary electorate might be willing to ignore past support for TARP, et al, the gaggle of candidates holding debates in 2011 are going to be at each other's throats, bringing up Romney's Massachusetts health care plan, and support for TARP, Palin's support (though no vote for) TARP, Thune's support (and vote) for TARP, etc. These votes will be a liability, if only because the candidates themselves will make them one.
- Tom Scocca responds to a 1351-word Politico piece reported out by no less than three of its veteran reporters: "Politico: The President's Next Chief of Staff Will Probably Be a Person With Political Connections." The worst thing about this kind of reporting is that it promises the inside baseball scoop, but essentially boils down to anonymously-sourced rumor and speculation. I suppose the silver lining is that pieces like this are intended for inside-the-beltway consumption; nobody else particularly cares who the president's next Chief of Staff will be.
- Set aside the "substance," as it were, of Frank Gaffney's assessment of the dire threat posed by radical Islam to the security of the United States. I would like to know why CNN is putting this lunatic on the air and thereby legitimizing his paranoid worldview. Is Anderson Cooper just pretending to be a sober news anchor while he listens to Gaffney's nonsense, secretly asking himself, "where'd they find this guy?" It's just a reminder that Fox News isn't the problem. It's other cable networks trying to emulate Fox that is.
- There's a simple reason why Christine O'Donnell's lies about going to prestigious universities will be a non-issue. She might pandering to her anti-intellectual base, but padding her resume is simply a way to make her look accomplished and intelligent. Or, to quote Hofstadter: "Anyone who scans popular American writing with this interest in mind will be struck by the manifest difference between the idea of intellect and the idea of intelligence. The first is frequently used as a kind of epithet, the second never."
- Remainders: Patrick Leahy introduces sensible Supreme Court legislation; the GOP boils down their "pledge" to convenient talking points for the busy conservative hack on the run; Michael Brendan Dougherty is correct that a lack of vision is partly responsible for National Review's decline into partisan cheerleading; and are certain liberal bloggers getting under Obama's skin?
--Mori Dinauer
