Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1124

You Can't Keep Christian Slater Down

Today in show business news: Christian Slater signs on to yet another pilot, John Malkovich will soon be playing a notorious pirate, and a look at the first six minutes of Bates Motel.

You gotta love the tenacity of Christian Slater. A big movie star in the '90s, he watched his profile fade as he had some scrapes with the law in the late '90s and early '00s. But in recent years he's been trying for a comeback of sorts, mostly through television, and though things haven't been going all that great, he remains undaunted. First there was My Own Worst Enemy, which was canceled. Then the forgotten, also canceled. After that came Breaking In, which lasted a little while longer but, yes, was canceled. Now he's trying again with Influence, a drama from Lone Star's Kyle Killen about "a unique agency designed to attack their clients' problems using the real science of human motivation and manipulation." Aha, so it's like The Mentalist or whatever; some guy uses bullsh-t to solve problems. Well, actually it's two guys. Slater will play the brother of Steve Zahn, who I guess is looking for some network money after scraping by for a few years on Treme checks. Who knows if this particular concept will take off, some of these things do and many more of them don't, but it's admirable at least that Christian Slater refuses to quit. Someday you'll get there, buddy! And then it'll be no time before you find yourself signing a big movie deal for Kuffs 2. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Meanwhile John Malkovich maintains his commitment to weirdness. He's just signed on to play Blackbeard, as in the pirate, on NBC's Crossbones. Hm. I thought "Crossbones" was when the cast of Fox's The Bones showed up on The Finder. Ah well. This show has Blackbeard ruling New Providence, an island in the Bahamas that was the region's first democracy. It's democratic, but Blackbeard is in charge of the place, described as "a rogue nation of thieves, outlaws and miscreant sailors. Part shantytown, part marauder’s paradise, this is a place like no other on Earth." Well except for Deadwood a century and a half later. This is basically Deadwood only with pirates. They should have called it Deadwood: Pirates Edition and Malkovich could play Cap'n Al Swearrrrrengen. People would watch that. No need to fuss with this Blackbeard/Crossbones silliness. [Deadline]

Minka Kelly has landed a pilot role as well. She'll be in an untitled Fox pilot from J.J. Abrams that's about "the near future when all LAPD officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids." Kelly will play one of the less human-like androids who's booted from the force for not being very human-like. Right? I mean, I'm just assuming. [Deadline]

Josh Lucas and Lynn "John Carter Didn't Quite Kill Me" Collins have been cast in an A&E pilot called Occult. It is about an FBI agent looking for his wife who gets partnered up with an FBI agent who is a specialist in the occult. So in this one Mulder is looking for his wife instead of his sister and Scully is the expert in the weird stuff, not him. Oh and it's called "the occult" instead of "paranormal." But otherwise pretty much the same, right? And hey, a former X-Files writer is writing the damn thing. So this could actually be good. There's nothing wrong with reviving a formula if it actually works. So have at it, guys. May you have as much luck as Fringe, at least. [Deadline]

Jonathan Taylor Thomas, he of '90s tween heartthrob demigod status, will be guesting on his former dad/boss Tim Allen's show Last Man Standing, and now there are a few pictures teasing the appearance. He looks all grown up! Well not necessarily "grown" or "up," y'know, but he looks older! He's wearing a suit and glasses and everything. I mean, he's 31 years old now. Jonathan Taylor Thomas is 31 years old. JTT is 31. Jonathan... I'm sorry, I have to go lie down. [Entertainment Weekly]

Speaking of old things, here's 48-year-old Keanu Reeves in the trailer for Generation Um, an indie movie about feeling old, it seems. Yeah, 48. Forty-eight. What has happened to time.

And here are the first six minutes of that new Bates Motel show. That's the A&E one that imagines a teenage Norman Bates, only it's set nowadays. It's kind of a confusing premise. I guess the idea is that they're using his name and "Bates Motel" and the idea that he has a mother (Vera Farmiga) but then everything else is different. It seems like an iffy set-up but this opening is well-filmed at least. Oh and the little kid from Finding Neverland is now 21. Sheesh.

Joe Lieberman Completes His Career Transition to Conservative Wonk

If you are easily surprised, you will be surprised to learn that former senator Joe Lieberman (D-I-Conn.) has taken a position with a conservative think tank in Washington. Daniel Strauss at The Hill reports:

Lieberman will serve as co-chairman of the American Internationalism Project, alongside former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). …

Lieberman, who opted in 2012 not to run for reelection, said there is currently an "urgent need to rebuild bipartisan — indeed non-political — consensus for American diplomatic, economic, and military leadership in the world."

"That's why I am grateful to AEI for initiating and sponsoring this project and why I look forward to leading it with my friend Jon Kyl," Lieberman said.

Congratulations to the one-time Democrat who received 51 million votes as that party's nominee for the vice presidency. Now, Lieberman will get to pow-wow on important foreign policy issues with AEI senior fellow John Bolton, America's U.N. representative during the Bush administration. Bolton pulls in about $190,000 in salary and benefits from the AEI, so one can assume Lieberman will make close to his $179,000 Senate salary.

But, money aside, it is hard to believe that Lieberman would find palatable a position with a conservative group. I mean, this is the man who was selected to run with Al Gore in part because he slammed Clinton over the Lewinsky affair, who supported warrantless wiretapping even before Bush came to office, who steadfastly supported the Bush administration's push into Iraq, who was literally kissed by the Republican president, who left the party in 2006 after getting demolished in the primary, who supported a guy named John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador, who advocated for a form of internet kill switch, who in 2008 endorsed John McCain, and who took McCain's side on basically every foreign policy issue that came up during his last term in office.

Nonetheless, we're optimistic. First, Lieberman's partnering with Jon Kyl will provide a real burst of birpartisanship on international issues, almost as if someone were able to convince John Kerry to work with Chuck Schumer. And, second, we've gone ahead and compiled the following list of all of the groundbreaking policy innovations and accomplishments created by former elected officials who transitioned to Washington think tanks. Feel free to suggest any we've missed.

       

(Note: this list does not actually exist.)

Do Democrats Really Want Ashley Judd?

Hold your Hollywood horse races, because the Democratic Party may have an Ashley Judd problem. On Monday morning leaders from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee declined to say whether they would support a rumored Judd campaign for U.S. Senator of Kentucky, instead remarking that the Democratic field for potential candidates to run against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was wide open. The remarks, delivered during a media conference call, appear to confirm reports that the DSCC is having second thoughts about running Judd against McConnell. They may also be allowing a literal superstar candidate announce on her own terms, but, as the Louisville Eccentric Observer reports:

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is now applying the brakes to their once all-in support of Ashley Judd as the challenger of choice against Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2014. While not ready to abandon Judd, they are now taking a serious second look at recruiting Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Grimes isn't a far-left-field choice — she was the subject of an attack ad funded by McConnell's campaign — and, according to polls conducted by the DSCC, has a better chance than Judd of unseating McConnell. But unlike Judd, Grimes doesn't appear particularly committed to running for Senate (she certainly isn't leaking her intentions to Fox News) and wouldn't be able to match Judd's undeniable star power, and the fundraising that entails. At the very least, Grimes would be vulnerable to Judd in the Democratic primary.

At the same time, the DSCC's hesitance is understandable. The Kentucky Senate race may actually be theirs to lose: McConnell remains the least popular Senator in the entire country. Furthermore, Judd hasn't announced anything, yet she's already been the subject of two different attack ads and a bevy of reports about her past remarks about mountain-top-removal mining (which remains popular in Kentucky), childbirth ("it's unconscionable to breed, with the number of children who are starving to death in impoverished countries"), and even men ("throughout history, men have tried to control the means of reproduction, which means trying to control woman"). She'll likely require constant help controlling the tone and content of her campaign — even at the expense of other, perhaps closer contests, as both sides would appear to be all-in with national funding in the potential Judd-McConnell contest.

That doesn't mean Judd isn't aware of her vulnerabilities, or those of her would-be opponent. Sources within the actress's circle told the Huffington Post's Howard Fineman over the weekend that an announcement, reportedly planned for May around the Kentucky Derby, would shift attention away from Democratic anxieties about her electability and toward defeating McConnell, thereby "setting up a wild, made-for-YouTube contest between the free-wheeling, media-savvy Hollywood actress and the methodically accusatory machine of ... Mitch McConnell." In other words, Judd knows she needs to convince party leaders that her perceived vulnerabilities — her Hollywood career, her outspokenness — can be turned into strengths. Which is to say that Judd would need the Democratic establishment to believe in her as much as she believes in herself — at some point.

Indeed, the wheels of her campaign appear to be in motion already. She — or a very excited supporter! — recently registered the domain names "juddforkentucky.com" and "juddforky.com".

The '80s Are Getting the Serious Nostalgia Treatment

The National Geographic Channel has announced that Rob Lowe will be narrating a new documentary series called The '80s: The Decade That Made Us, a six-part event airing next month. From the looks of the trailer, the series will cover the politics and economics of the day as well as the expected pop culture nostalgia — New Coke! Michael J. Fox! — that has been memorialized ad nauseam for years, even before VH1's ubiquitous I Love the '80s series. But now that the decade is getting the serious Ken Burns-lite treatment on Nat Geo, can we finally be done with it? Like, please?

There probably isn't a person under 35 who hasn't been corralled into attending some kind of nightmarish '80s-themed party in the last decade or so. We've had '80s throwback movies and TV shows — some good (The Wedding Singer) some very bad (That '80s Show) — so much so that "The Eighties" has become something of a genre unto itself. Sure we're a civilization that has always been prone to looking back on the past with fondness, but there's been something particularly virulent about our awed-but-ironic reverence for the 1980s. It's probably because it's been mostly based on easy, jokey references and silly fashion choices; whereas the also much-eulogized WWII and Vietnam eras (generally associated with the 1960s) have the weight of historical profundity to grapple with, the '80s, for all their darkness and descents into various hells (AIDS, Wall Street run amok), mostly seem like simply a funny, badly styled time. Of course that's only true depending on a certain perspective, but it's that particular perspective driving a lot of media these days.

Namely, people who grew up in the '80s, who were largely the first young users of the Internet, they're the first ones who became savvy with blogging and viral memes and all the stuff that can propagate trends far more than they should be. Throw in various rerun television networks and a bunch of college kids eager to prove their age by remembering old things, and you have an '80s craze that's gone on far longer than it had any business to. It's all gotten a bit tired; the ironic side ponytails and colored Wayfarers and NKOTB fawning. It's too much! We should be putting the '80s to rest, left to molder in peace with all the other decades. One hopes this Nat Geo documentary will be the definitive assessment of the era and then we can move on.

Though, I suppose the trouble is we already are moving on. Thanks to the '80s boom, quick 'n' cheap nostalgia became an industry. And thus we've been forced into the 1990s, told to fondly or kitschily remember things that just happened. The tail end of Generation Y is starting to feel their age a bit, and so we get things like BuzzFeed Rewind, which occasionally reaches back a bit farther than the 1990s, but is mostly littered with posts about Jumanji and Total Request Live. Sure it can be fun to remember all those old things for a moment, but the whole ornate display of it feels a tad forced. Surely there are '90s parties happening on college campuses across America, people dressing up like Forrest Gump or Mia Wallace (actually, they're more likely to be dressing up as Hey Arnold or someone from Salute Your Shorts), and surely they are just as annoying as our '80s party, if not more so for the era's proximity. Maybe this is just the sour grapes of someone old enough to have been a sentient human in those days and who doesn't understand why we need to so practicedly and showily remember things that just happened. But whatever the case, we should expect to endure many more years of '90s nostalgia.

But maybe we'll at least soon be done with the '80s. Goodbye Tiffany, goodbye Jem. It was fun remembering you for a bit, but it's all gotten a bit, well, old. Here comes National Geographic to sum it all up for us and push us into the future. 1990, here we come. Sigh.

The Unbelievable Conversations with and About Sheryl Sandberg

With Sheryl Sandberg's already much talked about "feminist manifesto" Lean In out today, the conversation about the topic has reached new lows, with a lot of women (and men) reverting to pre-Betty Friedan era form. 

Women in the workplace as a "hotly debated" issue. The 60 Minutes segment that aired on Sunday night began: "Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of the social networking giant Facebook -- but that's not what's putting her in the headlines. She's decided to jump head first into one of most hotly debated and intensely personal issues out there: women in the workplace." Really? That's a sad statement in 2013 since women having jobs outside the home has not been controversial at all for decades. 60 Minutes interviewer Norah O'Donnell likely meant that there has been a lot of heated talk about work-life balance, the new code-name for women's issues, which has also been the norm for decades. But, the phrasing makes it sound otherwise, characterizing a lot of her questions throughout the interview.

Women want romance over anything else. About halfway into the interview Sandberg and O'Donnell have the following exchange:

Sheryl Sandberg: It's more pressure on women to-- if they marry or partner with someone, to partner with the right person. Because you cannot have a full career and a full life at home with your children if you are also doing all of the housework and child care.

Norah O'Donnell: Doesn't that kind of take the romance out of everything?

Sandberg puts forth a pretty uncontroversial point that women choose supportive husbands, which O'Donnell sees as a war on love? Nothing brings the romance like a man telling a woman his career is more important than hers. Believe it or not (!), having a nice husband can be sexy, counters Sandberg:

You know what? It turns out that a husband who does the laundry, it's very romantic when you're older. And it's hard to believe when you're younger. But it's absolutely true. Actually, the studies show this. Husbands who do more housework have more sex with their wives.

(It's unbelievable she has to justify marriage to a supportive husband in the first place.) At that point, O'Donnell still doesn't believe her: "There are studies that show this?" she asks. Because if studies didn't show this, then women would have no reason to pick a man who isn't selfish, right? 

Everyone loves a cat fight. Meet the Press this Sunday had a similarly archaic discussion about the book in which Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus justified the worst elements of the discussion as a good old cat fight. "Look, if nature abhors a vacuum, it loves a good cat fight. And she is attractive, she is smart, she is young, she's impossibly rich and impossibly successful," she writes. "What's not to get the claws out?" Sandberg brought that gendered terminology upon herself, using the term "cat-fight" in her book to describe the way women unfairly judge female leaders. So, this diminutive take on the discussion is partly her fault. But, comparing critiques of the book to bikini mud fights kind of seems like a step backwards.

Related: Sheryl Sandberg must hate Anne Marie Slaughter because they both talk about women and stuff. Two women who have slightly opposing views on work-life balance must hate each other because women love cat-fights and can't not hate their competition. "Is it true that there is bad blood between you guys?" asks Salon's Irin Carmon in her interview. "No, not at all," answers Sandberg, because actually they believe in a lot of the same things:

I think Anne-Marie and I basically agree on the exact same things, which is we both think we need more women in leadership roles, and she has focused on institutional barriers, and I think there are basically two sides on what has to happen and both are necessary. You can’t have just one.

Things will never change for women. Again, from Marcus: "I suspect that, not us, but somebody's going to be sitting here 50 years from now having the same conversation." Well, hopefully not. That's the point of Sandberg's book, that we won't be talking about how corporate women can make just as much money as corporate men. That would be terrible. 

Bonus: Steve Schmidt is back to defending Sarah Palin. When it comes to women with awesome husbands, Sarah Palin is a perfect example, says Steve Schmidt, the man who has, since convincing McCain to pick her as his running mate, made a career out of calling Palin stupid. "Todd Palin was a full partner and he's a great partner," he said during Meet the Press, suggesting that Palin did at least one thing right. 

So, yeah, the conversation has taken a turn for the antiquated. Perhaps it's because Lean In is essentially a guide book for getting ahead at work and there's not much more to say about the 172 page manual with a pretty simple and not all that controversial guidelines than has already been said? Or maybe this all just proves that Sandberg is on to something: Some women who live in this century need to Lean In. 

Justin Timberlake Gave 'SNL' an NFL-Sized Ratings Boost

The Saturday Night Live ratings for Justin Timberlake's big fifth time came in this afternoon, and he delivered numbers the show hasn't seen since it had help from the NFL -- and that was a year and three months ago.

The Hollywood Reporter's Michael O'Connell writes Timberlake's latest hosting duty brought in a 5.9 rating in meter-market households and a 15 share. Or, in plainer English, the best ratings the show has seen since the January 7, 2012 episode hosted by Charles Barkley. (An exact number in millions won't be known until later this week.) But what was significant about that night was not the fact that the round mound of rebound was hosting in studio 8H. No, as Nikki Finke points out, the show benefitted from a lead in from an NFL playoff game. Specifically, it was a matchup between the Detroit Lions and the New Orleans Saints. The game went long and the carryover audience inflated the show's numbers.

That Timberlake -- and his many friends -- can bring in NFL level numbers for Saturday Night Live is impressive. As we've seen this season, the league has been both a gift and a curse for NBC's numbers. The first half of their season was going great, until the NFL season ended and their ratings plummeted across the board. Does that mean the network will bring him back twice more this season, and three more times before Christmas, to give him Alec Baldwin level hosting numbers? Hopefully not. 

Google Hopes Google Glass Won't Get You Beat Up

Let's put it out there: people wearing Google Glasses look weird. We're not used to seeing people with working computers for eyes. One Seattle bar took things a step further, though, by threatening to beat up anyone wearing the new eyewear. Google doesn't get what all the fuss is about. 

"It is still very early days for Glass, and we expect that as with other new technologies, such as cell phones, behaviors and social norms will develop over time," a Google representative told CNET.  Google is so naive thinking a statement like that would protect them from bullies. Google founder Sergey Brin said smartphones make him feel emasculated. Why the company doesn't get that their glasses are even worse is beyond comprehension? 

But that's what Google hopes! The company was responding to threats from famous Seattle dive bar The 5 Point Cafe. The bar banned anyone wearing the glasses from their premises. Their message was simple: "ass kickings will be encouraged for violators."

But apparently that needed expanding, as if it was somehow unclear, so bar owner Dave Meinert told KIRO-FM in Seattle more about the policy. It's about privacy. "You have to understand the culture of The 5 Point which is a sometimes seedy, maybe notorious place and I think people want to go there and be not known," Meinert told the station. "Part of this is a joke, to be funny on Facebook and get a reaction, but part of it is serious because we don't let people film other people or take photos unwanted of other people in the bar because it's kind of a private place people go." Of the things we know Google Glass can do, taking video is one of the biggest features. 

That doesn't mean techies are banned from coming to the famous Seattle spot. On the contrary, Meinart says: they routinely get people in from the local tech scene. "The 5 Point appeals to a wide variety of people. Some of the tech geeks come here, we're close by Amazon [...] It's OK if you wear them. I just don't want them worn inside." They still can't wear those glasses, though.

So, while Google fights battles to make the glasses more socially acceptable and more fashionable, they've also deployed a small army of people to wear the $1,500 glasses (that aren't available yet) around South by Southwest this weekend. Spottings started coming in Saturday afternoon: 

Wait why are Google employees wearing Glass at SXSW if you aren't allowed to try them on or take pictures of them?

— Jenna Wortham(@jennydeluxe) March 10, 2013

spotted my first Dude in Google Glasses and it's all over

— Lindsey Weber (@lindseyweber) March 9, 2013

google glass sighting #2

— Lindsey Weber (@lindseyweber) March 10, 2013

Okay just saw google glass guy #1 AGAIN and heard someone yell to him "IT'S BEAUTIFUL"

— Lindsey Weber (@lindseyweber) March 10, 2013

First Google Glass sighting at SXSW. Instantly felt nervous, kept looking into the lens.

— BuzzFeed FWD (@fwd) March 9, 2013

I’ve seen so many people walking around #sxsw wearing google glass. It’s kind of creepy. I also want a pair.

— Keith Kurson ♡ (@keithkurson) March 10, 2013

just saw my first human at sxsw wearing google glass tweeted about it where's my pulitzer?

— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) March 8, 2013

Now, there may be hope for Google yet: there have not been any reports of the Google Glass plants getting their butts kicked in Austin. Whether that says more about SxSW or Google Glass, well, that's up for some debate. 

'Oz' the Great and Profitable

Welcome to the Box Office Report, where James Franco opens at number one in our heart every week.

1. Oz: the Great and Powerful (Buena Vista): $80.3 million in 3,912 theaters

OK, let's get this out of the way: wow. We did not expect Franco's Oz to hit $80 million in its first weekend. Sure, experts did, but what do they know? That's a lot of money! But good for Oz and good for Disney, and, really everyone involved here. The list of people who are waving certain fingers at haters right now include: Disney executives, for doubts they could succesfully pull off an Oz movie in 2013, and Sam Raimi, for doubts he could be the guy to pull it off. He does 'big' well. He proved it with Spider-Man. He's a huckster at heart, a door-to-door vacuum salesman who can put on a show on your front step. He wants you to have fun at the movies, and we can't help but love the guy for it. Whether or not he succeeded with Oz is up for debate, but at the very least it's some visual cotton candy to get us through the last doldrums of winter. As poor as this movie allegedly is, we're happy to see everyone succeeding. Yes, that includes you, Franco. 

2. Jack the Giant Slayer (Warner Bros.): $10 million in 3,525 theaters

Oh boy. From a surprise success, to a depressingly bad failure. So, remember last week when we told you this debuted worse than John Carter and had a similar budget? Well, Box Office Mojo point out Jack's second week earnings drop was actually worse than Carter's mathematically  Meaning, it's definitely going to be considered a bigger failure in the end. 

3. Identity Thief (Universal): $6.3 million in 3,002 theaters [Week 5]

Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman's comedy just keeps chugging along down here, making enough to keep it in the conversation. At this point McCarthy is just padding her stats as one of comedy's reigning queens. And we're OK with that. We're excited to see what she comes up with when she hosts Saturday Night Live next month. 

4. Dead Man Down (FilmDistrict): $5.3 million in 2,188 theaters

This movie stars an Oscar-nominated actor and a Golden Globe winner. This is like the sad nadir of two actors' careers. Hopefully, at least Farrell can still come back from it. He showed signs of life over the last few years. This is first real stinker since 2009, depending on who you ask.

5. Snitch (Summit): $5.1 million in 2,340 theaters [Week 3]

The Rock's acting smells like cat pee. 

Jeb Bush Goes on Tour; Ryan's New Budget Forgets Obamacare

Speaking of potential 2016 Republican candidates, Jeb Bush refused to tell CNN's State of the Union host Candy Crowley whether or not he would run in the next Presidential election. But he also appeared on all five of the Sunday shows, so you be the judge. "Now I've decided to defer any consideration of it until the proper time to make those kind of considerations, which is out more than a year from now, for sure," the former Florida governor said. "And when I go through that process, I'll let you know. I don't know why there has to be a lot of mystery about this." Bush is also promoting a new book about one of the most polarizing issues of our time, immigration. (Nope, no 2016 bid looming here.) They also discussed Bush's apparent flip flop on whether the U.S. should have a "path to citizenship," option in immigration reform. "The right to rise ought to be the key of what we're proposing," Bush told Crowley. "It would resonate amongst all immigrant communities." The issue isn't whether the new system should have a path to citizenship -- it's how flawed the current system is, and finding a way to replace it. "The incentives that exist today are for people to come illegally because there's no path to come legally," Bush said. "We don't have a guest worker program. We have lines that are so long, in fact there are no lines. We have a lottery system where people actually put their names in. That's the reaction to our immigration system being so clogged up."

On Fox News Sunday, Bush said he didn't feel there was any "Bush baggage" holding him back from a potential run for high office. "I don't think there's any Bush baggage at all," Bush told Chris Wallace. Wallace had shown him a poll that concluded most Americans have an unfavorable opinion of his brother, former President George W. Bush, or his father, former President George W. Bush. "I love my brother, I'm proud of his accomplishments. I love my dad. I am proud to be a Bush," Bush said. The former Florida governor sounded pretty at peace with the idea of not running to lead the country. On the other hand, he sounded prepared to declare on the spot. "If I run for president, it's not because of something in my DNA that compels me to do it. It would be that it's the right thing to do for my family, that the conditions are right, and that I have something to offer," Bush said. "If I don't run, I have a blessed life." 

On ABC's This Week, Bush disagreed that his reintroduction to the political conversation this week has been "rocky." "I haven't found it to be rocky, but I'm not viewing this as a political reentry either. I just don't view it that way," Bush said. Like we explained above, Bush has come under fire for backing away from a path to citizenship as part of immigration reform in his new book despite the bipartisan effort in the Senate to come up with legislation centering around that option for undocumented workers. "The basic premise needs to be that coming to the country legally should be easier with less cost than coming to the country illegally. And if you can create a system like that as is being discussed in the Senate and in the House-- through a path to citizenship, that's fine," Bush said.

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On CBS's Face the Nation, Bush defended his book from accusations it's an early form of campaigning because he started to write it last year. "Yeah, see that’s the Washington world, the world of everything has to have a personal political ambition, motive," Bush said. "This book was written last year at a time when the tenor of the debate on immigration was dramatically different than it is today," he said. "And there were a lot of people that may have believed in comprehensive reform but hadn't been supportive of it. And I'm encouraged to see that that's not the case now, that people are moving in the direction of comprehensive reform."

On NBC's Meet the Press, he said all of the things listed above while accusing host David Gregory of being a crack addict. Gregory asked who the "hottest" Florida politician is: Bush, or his much younger former protegee Marco Rubio. He also asked who had a better chance of becoming the 2016 nominee. "You guys are crack addicts," Bush said. "You really are obsessed with all this politics." Gregory laughed and took in stride. "I've been called a lot of things…" he said. "Okay, a herion addict," Bush said.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace some curious details about his upcoming budget proposal. Mainly, that he assumes Obamacare will be repealed. "Are you saying, as part of your budget you assume the repeal of ObamaCare?,"  "Fox News Sunday" Wallace asked Ryan on Sunday morning. "Yes," Ryan replied. "Well, that's not going to happen," Wallace concluded. With a second term and a Senate in Democratic control, a repeal of Obamacare is virtually impossible. But there are still a few Republicans who believe it could happen, and apparently Ryan counts himself among their ranks. "We believe Obamacare is a program that will not work," Ryan said. "We believe Obamacare will actually lead to hospitals and doctors and health care providers turning people away." Ryan went on to offer some details about the budget item he believes could and should replace the President's health care plan. "It's not a voucher — it's premium support, those are very different," the Wisconsin Republican promised. "A voucher is you go to your mailbox, you get a check and you go buy something. That's not what we're saying." Ryan wants Medicare converted into a system that works "like the one I have," as a sitting congressman. "Medicare subsidizes your plan based on who you are. Total subsidy for the poor and the sick. Less of a subsidy for wealthy seniors," he said. According to Ryan, his plan will prevent Medicare from going broke. "The problem is Medicare is going broke," Ryan said. "Doing it this way -- harnessing the power of choice and competition -- where the senior gets to choose her benefit that's comprehensive is the best way to save Medicare for future generations." He also refused to confirm or deny whether he would run for President in 2016. 

We're two weeks from the need for a spending bill to be passed or the government shuts down, but count house minority leader Nancy Pelosi among those promising a government shut down is off the table. "We certainly are not going to have the government shut down," the former speaker said on State of the Union. "When we weigh the equities of the value of the bill the Senate has, it's almost impossible for it not to be a better bill than what is written by the House Republicans. But they will have to send a bipartisan bill in order to get the 60 votes. And I'm sure it will be stronger." It all depends on the details, though. Pelosi promises the shut down won't happen so long as, you know, everyone is reasonable. "Again, depending on what it is, and how many Republican votes it has, I've said very clearly: the Democrats will not allow government to shut down," Pelosi said.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz accused Republicans of rooting for the economy to do poorly for their own political gain on ABC's This Week. She was sitting on a panel with Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson. "Our friends on the other side of the aisle, unfortunately — like the senator — continue to root for our economy to not be doing as well," Wasserman Schultz said. "We've had 37 straight months of job growth in the private sector. Four of the last five months have been 200,000 plus jobs a month," she said. "Absolutely not. That is false," Johnson shot back. Wasserman Schultz said, surprisingly, the issues between the two parties stem from a lack of communication. (Not name calling or accusing? Hm.) "There is a trust deficit between the two sides," she said. "The way that you close that trust gap is that you sit down and continue to talk."

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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg sees himself as the counterweight to the National Rifle Association in the fight for gun rights reform in Washington. "Because up until now it has only been the NRA that has been talking about guns to the public, and to Congress," Bloomberg said on Face the Nation. "And I'm trying to level the playing field and bring out the facts." Bloomberg sees himself as the only person putting up a fight against their lobbying powers on the Hill. "And up until now it's only been the NRA -- they've had the field to themselves. And what I'm trying to do is to explain to the public what the issues are and then let the public decide. And there are a lot of other people that want to join in this fight and give an alternative to the NRA," Bloomberg said. And the Mayor seems to think that reform efforts in Washington aren't totally dead in the water. "Well I really think that things in Washington are going better than anybody... understands," Bloomberg said. "The Judiciary Committee just took up gun legislation the other day. It starts the process. Federal government doesn't overnight do things, and probably shouldn't write laws that quickly." He's not letting the background checks discussion that died in the Senate last week get him down. "The president and vice president are committed here," he said. "There's an awful lot of momentum among both Republican and Democratic, rural and urban and suburban congressmen and senators, and red states and blue states to do something that will protect the public."

Oklahoma's Sen. Tom Coburn told Meet the Press host David Gregory the dinner he had with the President this week was a good first step to healing their relationship. "I think he gets it," Coburn said. "I think he's genuinely reaching out." Obama dined with a group of Republican senators last week in an effort to get everyone to come together a little bit. With a little food, a little wine, and some good conversation... who knows what could happen? Things are on the right track, Coburn says, but they aren't totally infatuated with the President just yet.  "But you've got a lot scabs and sores on people that's going to take a while for that to heal," Coburn told host David Gregory. Coburn pointed to the heads of both parties as the reason the Senate's portrayed as dysfunctional. "The Senate's not nearly as dysfunctional as it's made out to be," Coburn said. "Our problem in the Senate is the leadership in the Senate, not the members in the Senate." That's pointed directly at you, Mr. Harry Reid and Mr. Mitch McConnell. 

Christine Quinn Wants to Be the First Lady to Lead New York City

Christine Quinn made the obvious official Sunday morning: she's going to run for Mayor of New York City. She will potentially be the first lady and first openly LBGT person to rule the city that never sleeps. In a move that should surprise no one who observes these things, Quinn made the unsurprising announcement official this morning with a video announcement on her website. 

The video features Quinn telling the world about her middle class upbringing, and how her father taught her the importance of unions for New York City families. Quinn almost cried telling us what her mother, who fought breast cancer for ten years, taught her about not leaving anyone behind.  

"Today I'm announcing -- making it official! -- that I'm running for Mayor of New York City," Quinn says in the video. "I'm running because I love this city."

Quinn's formality really isn't that surprising. She's been the clear frontrunner for a minute now, having already garnered plenty of press coverage, including a cover story from New York magazine. The New York Times' Michael Grynbaum notes her announcement video left out one very important point about Quinn: that she's a married, openly out lesbian. Quinn married her partner, Kim Catullo, last year. 

"I’m about keeping New York City a place for the middle class to live and grow," Quinn says. "I’m not about talking, and fingerpointing and complaining. I’m about getting things done."

Quinn is embarking on a walking tour through New York City today. She's already been through Manhattan and the Bronx, and was heading for Queens last we checked. She's telling people along the way what she hopes to do for them:

Quinn backer to panhandler: "Don't worry you're gonna have a home."

— Josh Robin (@joshrobin) March 10, 2013

Quinn enters the race a heavy favorite in the polls, and also as the favorite of outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Her competition for the Democratic representation so far consists of a pair of Bills: former comptroller Bill Thompson, and public advocate Bill de Blasio. Current comptroller John Liu is also expected to enter the race. On the Republican side, Joe Lhota is expected to be the candidate with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's support.