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- To continue with yesterday's theme of our ongoing Senate problem, isn't it striking that amidst a deep recession with public confidence in the financial sector at records lows that the world's greatest deliberative body could only muster 33 votes to favor consumers over credit card companies? I don't know what's worse: the fact that everyone expected a bill that caps credit card interest rates to fail or that people like Chris Dodd honestly have no idea how such a bill could ever pass.
- I know this will be shocking to learn, but the House GOP is planning on waiting until the summer, when energy prices are higher, to begin initiating stalling tactics intended to derail climate change legislation. Drill, baby, drill is so last year, but if conservatives love one thing, it's recycling the past.
- Whatever one thinks of President Obama's reversal on releasing the torture photos I think the eerily Bush-like desire to maintain executive power and privilege the more important issue here. That being said, I think we can rest assured that the administration is not going to pull a Cheney -- who believes there is a global conspiracy against the United States' efforts at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons -- and torture people for the express purpose of extracting false confessions.
- I have no idea what the now-withdrawn, soon-to-be-rewritten report on right-wing extremism that generated so much baffling controversy last month will look like (will the opposite conclusion be reached?), but Janet Napolitano seems to be overreacting just a bit when she claims the report's release was the worst thing she's done since taking the reins at the Department of Homeland Security. She shouldn't be so hard on herself. It's not like she recommended Michael "heckuva job" Brown to head FEMA, which falls under DHS' purview.
- Chris Orr has a useful round-up of the controversy unfolding at National Review's Corner, which all began when one of their contributors dared to suggest that maybe associating the GOP with Rush Limbaugh was probably detrimental to the party's appeal and plays right into the Democrats' plans. The reaction has been fierce and frankly, unhinged. And while none of this is terribly surprising it does make me question whether The Corner is a blog that's even worth reading any more (as a glimpse into conservative thought, rather than a Free Republic clone).
- Remainders: The United States gets a seat on the Human Rights Council; Arlen Specter might support an EFCA compromise; Karl Rove talks to the feds about the fired U.S. attorneys; the backstory on the David Hayes filibuster; Sam Stein brings up the touchy subject of Sonia Sotomayor's medical history; Bobby Jindal triumphs in his quest to make sure the unemployed of Louisiana needlessly suffer; and Val Kilmer for New Mexico governor?
--Mori Dinauer
