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- In collusion with haughty Senators who oversee their committees like medieval fiefdoms, the Obama administration has indicated that the president will veto intelligence funding if it includes a provision that expands briefings to more members of Congress on matters of covert operations. In this rare instance of a problem that truly has a bipartisan solution -- congressional oversight of the Executive -- you'd think Republicans would be on board for a veto override, if for nothing other than spite.
- Laura Rozen reports that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who's been sidelined recently due to an injury, is planning on delivering "a major foreign-policy speech at the Council on Foreign Relations" next week. The content of the speech is unknown, other than being "guided" by Anne-Marie Slaughter and her deputy. Rozen notes that Clinton isn't trying to step in front of her boss, who is "the nation's chief diplomat" but is taking her place in the foreign policy troika of Obama, Clinton, and Joe Biden.
- Pew has issued a large poll on the public's relationship with science and scientists and while there's nothing too surprising here, I find it interesting that Americans apparently see their role models as teachers, scientists and soldiers, while reserving their scorn for societal blights like lawyers and business executives. Based on who gets favored in legislation, you could say that Congress has the exact opposite preference than that of their constituents.
- As much as I appreciate Sen. Claire McCaskill's candor on why she wants to gut climate-change regulation, her insistence that Senate moderates will "come up with a bill that doesn’t punish coal-dependent states like Missouri" serves as more than a reflection of the Senate's parochialism. The willingness to argue, straight-faced, that protecting a corrupt and polluting energy ancien regime is more important than the effects it will have on generations to come says a lot about how our political institutions are inadequate to handle energy reform and climate change.
- From the conservatives writing books about subjects they know nothing about files, Sen. Jim DeMint, while on tour for his opus "Saving Freedom," observed that America, under the tyrant Obama, is "about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy." It's futile to even bother with assessing how strange this sentiment is, but I wonder if DeMint thinks this Fox News host's penchant for ethnic purity is further evidence of the United States' transformation into the Third Reich.
- Remainders: The SEC gets more funding; Jeb 2012!; Sean Hannity "reports," you decide; contrary to popular mythology, "Big Bad" John Cornyn does not tour Texas on the back of his trusty steed; Rep. Steve King digs in deeper on his opposition to recognizing slavery; and Republicans are still trying to win the 2008 election.
--Mori Dinauer
