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- Yesterday, James Vega observed that the tea party protesters seem to be modeled (in part) on the student protests of 1960s, except with far more institutional support. Uncannily, Dave Weigel has a piece today that explicitly draws the link between the teabaggers and Saul Alinksky's Rules for Radicals in the tactics being used to oppose health care reform.
- I have to admit, I had completely forgotten about the National Council for a New America, a springtime GOP re-branding effort championed by the party's rising stars and institutionalized leaders. It turns out the project has gone absolutely nowhere since launching in May. I might add that the effort's failure isn't because the GOP is hostile to actual reform of their party, it's because it was marketed to Republicans -- not the public -- to make them feel as though they were trying to reform themselves (see also Steele, Michael).
- I sincerely hope that Eliot Spitzer is weighing the benefits of publicly owning up to and closing the book on his personal failings and taking another stab at politics. This Slate piece on the failings of The Wall Street Journal to produce accurate opinion pieces should be a reminder that Spitzer was definitely a rising reformist within the Democratic party who was on the presidential run short list until he let the trappings of personal power lead him astray.
- The Sunlight Foundation is right to say on the specific issue of signing statements that the White House ought to put these Executive caveats on their web site for the sake of tranparency, and Dan Froomkin is correct on transparency in the broader sense that we really have no idea how the decision-making process occurs in the Obama administration. Until that changes, we'll have to glean insights from things like the president's reading list.
- Town Hall Wingnut Roundup: The guv'mint will have direct access to your bank accounts; things get ugly for Arlen Specter; the goal, candidly, is to stop any and all efforts at reform; and quasi-death threats are becoming frighteningly commonplace.
- Remainders: Immigration reform gets pushed back to 2010; ABC fact-checks the "death panel" lie; the real reason China will surpass us; I just lost a lot of respect for Niall Ferguson and Financial Times; and the wingers are going to go ape**** over the 2010 census;
--Mori Dinauer
