Effective Monday, January 30, 2012, I’m blogging at MSNBC’s MaddowBlog, where I’ll also be a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show” and an MSNBC contributor. I hope to see you there.
Carpetbagger archives and this site’s search feature will remain active indefinitely
, as will my email address.
My most sincere thanks to everyone for all the support and encouragement. I hope to see all of you at my new home.
Effective Friday, August 22, I’m blogging exclusively at the Washington Monthly’s Political Animal. See you there.
Carpetbagger archives and this site’s search feature will remain active indefinitely
, as will my email address.
My most sincere thanks to everyone for all the support and encouragement. I hope to see all of you at my new home.
Guest Post by Morbo
Well, the cat is out of the carpetbag: Steve is off to The Washington Monthly to become a real political animal.
It couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy. I’ve known Steve before there was a Carpetbagger Report. I used to joke about him being the biggest political nerd I’ve ever known (and I’ve known quite a few). One unconfirmed rumor is that he asked his parents for a subscription to Congressional Quarterly for his 8th birthday.
People joke about Steve being some kind of machine because of the amount of copy he generates in one day. It just goes to show what a 12-hour work day can do for you. My head would have exploded a long time ago
, but Steve plugs right along. He lives and breathes this stuff, which makes his analysis so penetrating and thoughtful. The Carpetbagger Report has a truly national (and international) audience, but I’ve always thought it should be larger. Steve’s new home will make that possible.
I won’t be taking the trip over to the Monthly with Steve , so today is it for me as guest blogger. I just want to say thanks to all who have read my posts over the past few years. I know your time is valuable, and I am humbled by the thought that you would spend some of it looking at what I have to say.
I’d like to think I was a good ying to Steve’s yang. Steve is thoughtful and methodical. Although he produces vast amounts of copy a day
, he weighs every word. I’ve observed him write. It’s like you can see the cogs turning in his head (so maybe there’s something to this machine theory after all). My style is more shoot-from-the-hip, and I often tried to break things up with a little humor. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t, and I’m sure there are posts out there I’d rather drop down the memory hole. No matter — it was always a whole lot of fun.
It was never my ambition to blog full time. I simply lack Steve’s ambition and drive in that area. (More to the point, I have a full-time job and two children.) But I had a ball visiting here on Saturdays
, and it’s possible you haven’t heard the last from me. I will be among Steve’s loyal readers at the Monthly. Who knows? I might even offer a comment or two.
Now get on over to www.washingtonmonthly.com to see what Steve has to say.
Just a reminder, as of this morning, I’m blogging exclusively at the Washington Monthly’s Political Animal. See you there.
As for Carpetbagger content
, be sure to swing by Saturday morning for a sign-off post from my friend “Morbo.”
And now, back to the news….
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Confirming earlier reports: “Iraq and the U.S. have reached preliminary agreement to withdraw American forces from Iraqi cities by next June, six years into the increasingly unpopular war, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday after meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.”
* Russia isn’t in any hurry: “Washington demanded on Friday that Russia pull its troops out of Georgia ‘now
,’ but Moscow said it would be another 10 days before the bulk of its force left Georgian soil.”
* What a terrible shame: “Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a key figure in Ohio Democratic politics and the chairman of the House ethics committee, died yesterday at a Cleveland hospital after suffering a brain hemorrhage.”
* Taliban wreaks havoc: “At least 60 people were killed and 100 injured in coordinated suicide bombings on the country’s largest army munitions factory here Thursday, the latest in a series of Taliban attacks against Pakistani government targets.”
* He won’t say who
, but Barack Obama has, in fact, decided on a running mate. “I won’t comment on anything else until I introduce our running mate to the world,” he said. “That’s all you’re going to get out of me.” Obama also wouldn’t say if he’s informed his pick yet.
* Harry Reid acknowledged, on the record, that he “can’t stand” John McCain. I can’t say I blame him.
Read more
Just a reminder, as we discussed earlier in the week
, today is the last day I’ll be posting content to The Carpetbagger Report. Starting first thing in the morning, I’ll be writing exclusively for the Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog. It’s right here.
A couple of other quick notes. First, my friend “Morbo” will have a sign-off item on Saturday morning
, so be sure to stop by.
Second, a lot of you asked about whether the Carpetbagger archives will still be accessible. They will, and they’ll be available by week and month. What’s more
, the search function will still work, and the email address you have for me will also remain active.
And third, many of you had very helpful suggestions and ideas about changes you’d like to see to Political Animal. I’ve been pulling all of the recommendations together, and promise to see what I can do. I’m hesitant about being the new guy, coming in and wanting to make a bunch of changes, so I hope readers will be patient. (Most notably, those readers who want to see a full-post RSS feed will be pleased to know one is available here.)
My most sincere thanks to everyone for all the positive feedback and encouragement. I hope to see all of you tomorrow morning in the new place.
Oddly enough, when I started going through the news this morning, I noticed a story about John McCain criticizing lobbyists, and thought that would have to be the big political story the day. That, of course, was before I noticed that McCain couldn’t keep track of all the houses he owns.
Nevertheless, overshadowed or not, this really is pretty crazy.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called lobbyists “birds of prey” Wednesday and vowed to enforce a lifetime ban on lobbying for members of his administration.
“Whenever there’s a corrupt system, then you’re going to have these birds of prey descend on it to get their share of the spoils,” McCain said in a half-hour interview with Politico following a town-hall meeting in the southern part of this swing state. […]
The senator went so far as to say: “Lobbyists don’t come to my office. Because they know they’re not going to be an earmark. They know they’re not going to get a pork-barrel project.”
Even by McCain standards, this is transparent nonsense. Putting aside the fact that McCain, like every other senator, has sought and received earmark, the reality is lobbyists do come to McCain’s office, and as a rule, once they get there, they’re given influential jobs in the McCain campaign.
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Hans von Spakovsky, as a top political appointee in Bush’s Justice Department, was a leading player in what has been labeled the administration’s “vote-suppression agenda.”
When it came to voter disenfranchisement , von Spakovsky was a reliable member of Team Bush. And as a reward, Bush tried to promote von Spakovsky to a six-year term on the Federal Election Commission, which touched off a major fight with Senate Democrats, and in turn, effectively shut down the FEC for months.
In May, Dems won when Spakovsky withdrew from consideration. In August
, Americans lost, as Spakovsky was hired as a “consultant” to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
If Spakovsky’s history of backing efforts to make voting more difficult strikes you as a poor fit with the Commission’s mission of defending voter rights, consider that of the eight current commissioners at the agency, only two are registered Democrats, a politicization that the New York Times Charlie Savage brought to light last year.
Among Spakovsky’s duties will be overseeing the USCCR’s report on the Justice Department’s monitoring of the 2008 presidential elections, a source inside the USCCR told TPMmuckraker.
Spakovsky’s hiring is at the request of Commissioner Todd Gaziano
, who works for the conservative Heritage Foundation on FEC issues and has defended Spakovsky in the press before. According to a federal government source, Gaziano has recommended Spakovsky at the government’s highest payscale — which would work out to about $124,010 annually if Spakovsky was to stay for an entire year.
This is crazy. The guy who was accused of voter-suppression tactics has no business “helping” monitor to the elections on behalf of the Justice Department and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
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The initial response from the McCain campaign on the senator’s confusion about how many homes he owns was pretty weak. Put it this way, it talked about arugula and Hawaii.
A couple of hours later, though, the McCain gang went with the one response that applies to every question.
The McCain campaign is road-testing a new argument in responding to Obama’s criticism of his number-of-houses gaffe
, an approach the McCain camp has never tried before: The houses gaffe doesn’t matter because … he was a P.O.W.!
“This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison,” spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post.
I see. When the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a close Bush ally, publicly questioned McCain’s marital infidelities
, the McCain campaign responded by highlighting McCain’s background as a prisoner of war.
When Dems attacked McCain’s healthcare plan in May, McCain responded by noting his background as a prisoner of war.
Asked by a local reporter about the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks of Pittsburgh, McCain responded by talking about his background as a prisoner of war.
Accused of possibly having heard the questions in advance of Rick Warren’s recent candidate forum
, the McCain campaign responded by highlighting McCain’s background as a prisoner of war.
There seems to be a pattern here.
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We know that John McCain owns so many homes, he’s lost track of the exact number. But as long as it’s the topic du jour, maybe we should go ahead and answer the question McCain is struggling with — how many homes does McCain own?
The McCain campaign conceded that the senator owns “at least four.” The new Obama ad puts the number at “seven.” There’s one estimate that points to 10 homes
, and I saw one count that pegs it at 13 properties.
Yglesias noted, “I’ve seen a lot of liberals giving John McCain a hard time about not knowing how many homes he owns. But this is a genuinely difficult question to answer!”
It actually is tricky. First, McCain owns a lot of homes. Second, he owns a lot of properties with multiples homes on the properties. And third, in a couple of instances, McCain has bought two homes, only to start tearing down walls to create super-duper homes. (Do we count the $700,000 condo McCain bought for his daughter as a graduation present? Decisions, decisions.)
The estimable Jed Lewison put together a very helpful Google Earth tour that helps sort through the presumptive Republican nominee’s extensive portfolio.
I’d just add that the McCain campaign’s odd “arugula”-based response chastises Obama for having made “$4 million last year.”
Maybe the McCain gang can clarify — doesn’t that make Obama
, by McCain’s standards
, middle class?
Post Script: Alas, there is no video of McCain struggling with the question, but there is an audio file. I’m expecting some clever audiophile to have a remix available in 5…4…3…
