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Miscellany
Obama Picks a New Commerce Secretary. Maybe He Shouldn’t Have.
President Obama has chosen a new commerce secretary, former Edison International CEO John Bryson. He sounds like a good choice, a solid businessman with a public policy background and a strong green streak. But you know who would …
Morning Must Reads: Press
- House Republicans are poised to bring up and reject an unconditional increase to debt ceiling.
- Rep. Anthony Weiner says a lewd photo sent from his Twitter account was a hacker’s prank. He has lawyered up.
- Obama’s approval rating appears to be on an upswing, but economists expect slow economic growth in the second quarter.
Memorial Day
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with …
More Evidence That the Debt Crisis Is a Get-Rich-Quick Opportunity
I’ve flagged the debt-limit negotiations as an obvious arbitrage opportunity for savvy investors who understand Washington Kabuki. Did that seem paranoid? Well, now comes Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota with a resolution barring members of Congress from trying to profit off this particular dance. But the rest of us can still …
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Morning Must Reads: Recess
- Elizabeth Warren (or anyone else for that matter) won’t be recess appointed over the Memorial Day break.
- David Leonhardt is worried about the recovery.
- What happens if the U.S. defaults on its debt? It did, on April 26, 1979.
- This may not come as a great shock, but Mitt Romney is running for President. He’ll announce June 2 in
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Morning Must Reads: Withdrawal
- From the magazine: Scherer on Obama 2012’s fledgling ground operation and Joe on Bibi’s political provocations,
- The Times connects the dots on a few circulating Sarah Palin stories and confirms the Arizona house is hers.
- Mitt Romney may have been playing politics, but the substance of what he proposed on the auto bailouts was not
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Irony Alert
Last night on Lawrence O’Donnell’s MSNBC program, I called the Democratic win in New York’s 26th district “a victory for socialism.” My tongue was planted firmly in cheek–I was mocking the radical Republican tendency to pin the S-word on anything that involves government participation…and Medicare does happen to be a single-payer …
A Proposed Plea Deal for John Edwards
According to reports out Wednesday, the Justice Department may be close to bringing criminal charges against John Edwards regarding campaign funds they allege he used to cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter, and to hide both …
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NY-26: Voters 1, Courageousness 0
So what did the GOP loss in NY-26 really mean? For the Republicans trouble, and an opportunity to pivot to a better message as they face the 2012 elections. First, it is indeed true that special elections are not reliable …