Michael Tomasky's Blog, page 70

Michael Tomasky: it's all about blocking

So it looks like finreg reform is passing today, since it has cleared the cloture vote by 60-38. Snowe and Collins of Maine, and erstwhile wingnut hero Scott Brown, voted with the Democrats.

Immediately John Boehner said you know, we'd like to repeal that one too:

"I think it ought to be repealed," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, in response to a question from TPMDC, at his weekly press conference this morning.

One of his top lieutenants, Republican Conference Chair Mike Pence agrees...

Michael Tomasky: Captures my mood many days pretty well

My friend R passed along the below, which landed in his in box the other day.

Subject: Letter to the Red States:

Dear Red States.

If you manage to steal this election too, we've decided we're leaving.
We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue
States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all of the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and...

Michael Tomasky: Obama and winning and losing

Politico co-editors Harris and VandeHei have co-authored a big think piece today, the kind of thing designed to generate conversation, so let's have one. They write:

The imminent passage of financial reform, just a couple months after the passage of comprehensive health care, should decisively end the narrative that President Obama represents a Jimmy Carter-style case of naïve hope crushed by the inability to master Washington.

Yet the mystery remains: Having moved swiftly toward achieving the...

Michael Tomasky: Tiger on my brain

Woods's problem isn't his putter. It's the clutter – in his head.

In my sixth summer of playing, I've finally figured out golf. I'm only marginally better than I was six years ago, in terms of posting scores. But at least now I understand some things.

The fundamental epiphany to me – and every golfer's fundamental epiphany is different, so mine won't do you any good, probably – was this. When I started out, I thought, how hard can it be to hit a stationary little ball that's just sitting...

Michael Tomasky: The tea party and the NAACP

The NAACP is passing a resolution calling on tea party movement leaders to condemn racism in their ranks. From TPM's Evan McMorris-Santoro:

In April, after the health care vote and its accompanying violent rhetoric from some reform opponents, several tea partier leaders I spoke to said they were making a concerted effort to rein in some of their fringier members.

But Jealous told me those efforts are not apparent at the national leadership level of the tea party.

"Do you see the press releases...

Michael Tomasky: Those happy Steinbrenner kids

I do not mean to say with the above headline that George Steinbrenner's heirs and assigns aren't mourning the scion's death yesterday at age 80, as undoubtedly they are.

What I do mean to say is that Steinbrenner's passing points us to an odd quirk in US estate-tax law.

In 2008, Forbes put Steinbrenner's net worth at $1.3 billion. And because he died in 2010, not 2009 or 2011, his heirs won't pay a penny of federal estate tax.

This is how the compromise was worked out in Congress when...

Michael Tomasky: In which we stop the presses for two honest Republicans

I don't think I've ever known this to happen, two Republicans saying really honest things on the same day. Needless to say they're both out of office.

Honest Republican number one, Hank Paulson, via the NYT:

Given that President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law soon — the deadline keeps slipping — it seemed timely to ask the central government actor during the panic of 2008 what he made of the legislation and whether he thought, in practice, it would help us avoid another crisis.

Mr....

Michael Tomasky: The Black Panther brouhaha

The right's hatred of Obama has nothing whatsoever in any way shape or form to do with race, right? Right. Remember that as you read along.

In case you've missed it, Focks News is drumming up another "scandal" involving the New Black Panther Party and an alleged effort to intimidate white voters at a polling place in Philadelphia in 2008. Apparently the Justice Department was looking into allegations but didn't pursue charges.

A former Bush DoJ official stepped forward not long ago to charge...

Michael Tomasky: The CNN firing of Nasr and some global perspective

Another matter last week that struck me was CNN's firing of its correspondent Octavia Nasr because she tweeted a sympathetic remark about the Lebanese Shia cleric Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah on the occasion of his death. She called him a giant and wrote that she respected him. Since Fadlallah had been a Hezbollah supporter, and perhaps an instrumental one, this was a bridge too far for CNN, which caved in to (I presume) the usual fear-mongering and gave her the instant heave-ho.

I...

Michael Tomasky: They rarely say it this plainly

As you probably know, Republicans in Congress having been blocking the extension of unemployment benefits for 1.2 million Americans on the grounds that doing so would increase the deficit. All spending, they insist, must be offset by like-sized cuts so that everything washes out as deficit neutral.

Turns out there's an exception to this, and it's guess what? Tax cuts for the rich.

The Bush tax cuts from 2001 are set to expire next year. Obama has said he will keep the current rates for all...