"That is what happened" revisited -- Clinton keeps tripping over what she said and keeps saying about the trip to Tuzla

Well, Clinton brought this on herself. She's the one who told us about her foreign policy experience, comparing herself to John McCain. She's the one told us a dramatic, but now discredited, story about Tuzla with the emphatic words, "That is what happened." She's the one who keeps this campaign going even though she can't win.

This controversy has seriously damaged Clinton's credibility.

Olbermann dissected the situation:


Oh, and here's the CBS report from a reporter who was also on the very trip to Tuzla:

Oops.

Hat tip to Jed. Again. Seriously, read The Jed Report regularly. Read More......

"Payday loans" on the increase

Something tells me that even the Bear Stearns people won't have to get stuck with such limited options. Considering the damage they caused (and will continue to cause thanks to their poor business practices) they ought to be subjected to much worse. Of course they won't because their Republicans friends who helped set up this lousy mess will find new ways to coddle the bastards. Probably they will do it with your tax dollars just before telling you how they cut taxes. Too bad the US as a country will one day be begging for "payday loans." Oh the glorious so-called free market economy. Only someone stupid enough to fall for WMD in Iraq and Mission Accomplished will fall for Republican economics. Not very reassuring, is it? Read More......

Guess what we found prominently displayed at a bookstore in Paris today?

That would be Chris' wife Joelle and AJ's new book, "Still Broken." It was kind of funny, we went into the big W.H. Smith store on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris today to warm up for a sec (it's cold and rainy here). Joelle was wandering off somewhere, Chris was resting his dogs, so I wandered into the political book section. There on a top shelf, cover facing out - you couldn't miss it - was AJ's book. It was really kind of cool, and a bit weird. (Joelle even screamed :-) And I swear I did NOT turn AJ's book around to give it better appeal (though I would have). Read More......

When the phone rings at 3am, we need to know that Hillary isn't going to misspeak

Hillary's campaign is now saying that Hillary "misspoke" when she repeatedly asserted, in excruciating detail, how she ran from her plane in Bosnia in order to evade sniper fire after the greeting ceremony was canceled because of the imminent danger (does the phrase "That is what happened" ring a bell?). In fact, as we all now know, there was no sniper fire, and in fact, a little 8 year old girl greeted Hillary with flowers on the tarmac. As Jed points out via his DKos diary, with lots of videos, we're now to believe that Hillary misspoke, twice, in detail, for minutes at a time. We're also to believe that her spokespeople misspoke in defending her comments, and that two of her campaign surrogates, the former Secretary of the Army and a former Clinton speechwriter, also misspoke when defending Hillary's version of the story. And on top of that, if Hillary misspoke, then why did the campaign send the former Secretary of the Army and the former speechwriter out to defend the misspoken telling of the tale?

While we're at it, are we to believe that Hillary also misspoke when she made the incredible claim that when a country was too dangerous to send the president, the White House would send her instead? (Imagine the ads the Republicans are going to make with that whopper.) Did she misspeak when claiming that she helped bring peace to Northern Ireland (she didn't)? That she was instrumental in passing the children's health insurance bill (she wasn't)? When she adopted her various conflicting positions on NAFTA? Then again, she's also trying to convince us that the voters misspoke when they gave Obama an insurmountable lead in delegates and overall votes. Read More......

It's time to take a deep breath and be honest. It's over. Clinton can't win. Let's move on.

Markos has a post, linking to Josh Marshall that says a lot of what needs to be said.

Hillary Clinton has lost. She cannot win the Democratic nomination without causing a civil war in the Democratic party. Her recent actions, especially comparing herself to, and praising, McCain while undermining Obama, make it appear that she is willing to do just that -- split the party in two. Seriously, can you imagine McCain saying that that he had a lifetime of experience, Hillary had a lifetime of experience, but Romney didn't? That would never happen. It's unacceptable. And it has to stop. I get that it sucks to lose. But, it happens. Hillary needs to get over it, and let's get on with the real campaign.

The first step needs to be an end to the daily campaign conference calls. They sure feed the media frenzy, but they ultimately do nothing to aid our effort to defeat John McCain. Seriously, look at the Politico or the Page or Swampland at Time.com and any of the other political reporters and you'll see how much they love those conference calls. Always some good vicious soundbites, but is that what we need right now? Hardly. Every time the Clinton campaign piles on, they are now actually aiding and abetting McCain.

Any of the party leaders who are waiting to endorse until a later date should listen in on one of these conference calls. (Anne Marie Cox usually posts the audio at Swampland). Then, they need to ask themselves if they want two more months of this while John McCain just coasts along, saving his money and his reputation, when Hillary Clinton cannot win the nomination anyway. The Superdelegates and the DNC need to decide if they want two more months of the vitriol, and a divided, bitterly divided party, or do they want a Democratic White House come next January? It's time for some leadership -- or something more akin to an intervention. Otherwise, we're on a path to Mutually Assured Destruction. And so far, our party elders don't seem to care. Read More......

Jay Leno tells guest: "Give me your gayest look"

Tony-award winning playwright, Jeff Whitty (he wrote the book to Avenue Q), took Jay Leno to task a few years back for Leno's ongoing fag jokes. Well, Leno is back to the fag-bashing. And Jeff is back to hold him accountable. Read what Jeff has to say - he's right. Read More......

GOP Gov. Crist of Florida likes women, A LOT, I mean it, stop laughing

For some reason, the Florida press is pushing several stories feeding the notion that Republican Governor Charlie Crist really likes women. Could this have something to do with rumors that the very-single and always-tan Mr. Crist is being considered as a VP choice for John McCain? (There are other rumors too.) There's this, which is embarrassing enough ("chick magnet"? Yeah, right), and then there's this from his dad, regarding his son's "fondness" for women:

"Always! I mean, I can't keep up with him. And they like him, too."

Yeah, they like me a lot too. Read More......

McCain breaks law by breaking spending limits

It was late Thursday night when John McCain's February FEC report was posted on line. Friday morning, we reported that McCain had broken the campaign finance laws by exceeding the FEC's spending cap. McCain is in the public campaign finance system and subject to the limit on spending. There was silence on that issue from the traditional media. Until now.

Could it be that someone in the traditional media actually wrote about John McCain's illegal campaign finance spending? The Boston Globe takes a stab at it today:

John McCain has officially broken the limits imposed by the presidential public financing system, according to spending reports filed last week by the campaign.

The senator from Arizona has spent $58.4 million on his Republican primary effort. Those who have committed to public financing can spend no more than $54 million on their primary bid.

McCain's lawyers contend that the spending cap no longer applies. The senator was certified to enter the matching-funds program last year when he was starved for cash. But once he started to win, he decided to hold off. On Feb. 6, after his Super Tuesday victories, he wrote to the Federal Election Commission to announce he would withdraw. His lawyers said that gave him freedom to spend as much as he wanted.

But David Mason, chairman of the commission, wrote to McCain's campaign last month to alert him that the commission had not yet granted that withdrawal request, and that the commission would first have to vote on the matter. One snag is that the commission has four vacancies and therefore lacks a quorum to consider the matter.

See, John McCain doesn't get to decide if he's out of the FEC system. The FEC decides. And, it will evaluate McCain's scam. Don't forget, as the Washington Post reported, it's a crime:

Knowingly violating the spending limit is a criminal offense that could put McCain at risk of stiff fines and up to five years in prison.

Read More......

Did Clinton "misspeak" or "mislead" on Bosnia? Let's go to the video again

On another one of the Clinton campaign's conference calls, Howard Wolfson said that it's possible Hillary Clinton "misspoke" when she recently described her trip to Bosnia. Possible? Clinton sounded very convincing and determined when she spoke last week about what happened in 1996.

Let's go to the video -- again:



Apparently, it's okay for Hillary Clinton to just make things up about foreign policy. That's the lifetime of experience she brings to the race. Read More......

Check out "A Mosaic: 4,000 Americans Dead" by Nico Pitney

Click here. You have to do it. You have to see it. Nico, who designed the mosaic, explains:

In remembrance of the 4,000 brave men and women who sacrificed everything for us -- and the two men who would continue this great tragedy, despite the cost to our soldiers, our military, and our nation.

Read More......

Is it too much to ask Democratic leaders to support Democratic candidates?

BrownSox at DailyKos has a call to action this morning asking Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who has a key leadership role at the DCCC, to support Democrats. Yes, it's come to that:

To recap: Wasserman Schultz, along with fellow Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek, recently told the Miami Herald that they would be on the sidelines for three high-profile races in South Florida with Republican incumbents, in the 18th, 21st and 25th Districts.

These races pit, respectively,

FL-18: Annette Taddeo against Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
FL-21: Raul Martinez against Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart
FL-25: Joe Garcia against Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart

Compounding the problem, Wasserman Schultz was also recently quoted heaping praise on Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, which surely can't do much for Annette Taddeo's campaign.

DavidNYC has been writing about this controversy for the past couple weeks at Daily Kos and Swing State Project. Today, across the progressive blogs, there's an effort to fix this -- and you can help:

You can help take action and pressure Rep. Wasserman Schultz into doing the right thing. Call or email Wasserman Schultz' campaign office. Call or email the campaign office of the chairman of the DCCC, Representative Chris Van Hollen. Call or email DCCC headquarters itself. Here's the relevant information:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (campaign office):
E-mail: AskDebbie@DWSforCongress.com
Phone: 202-741-7154

DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen (campaign office):
E-mail: chris@vanhollen.org
Phone: 301-942-3768

DCCC Headquarters:
Contact form
Phone: 202-863-1500

Let your voice be heard. Be polite and respectful; I think we're being pretty reasonable in what we're asking for, and I think our argument is strong and that we're on the right side. Let the argument speak for itself.

How can we ever expect to win Florida when Democratic members of Congress aren't helping Democrats? How can we end the Iraq war or pass SCHIP without more and better Democrats?

Democrats need to be Democrats. It's not that complicated. Read More......

Clinton wants to bring back Greenspan to help solve housing crisis that Greenspan helped cause

To my untrained economic eye, no one has been more instructive -- and right -- about our economic situation than Paul Krugman. He's been very tough on the presidential candidates, including Obama, and is again today. But, he really lets McCain have it in today's column. When Krugman tells me who the biggest culprits are in this current economic crisis, I believe him. Krugman today:

Given the risks to the economy if the financial system melts down, this rescue mission is justified. But you don’t have to be an economic radical, or even a vocal reformer like Representative Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, to see that what’s happening now is the quid without the quo.

Last week Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary, declared that Mr. Frank is right about the need for expanded regulation. Mr. Rubin put it clearly: If Wall Street companies can count on being rescued like banks, then they need to be regulated like banks.

But will that logic prevail politically?

Not if Mr. McCain makes it to the White House. His chief economic adviser is former Senator Phil Gramm, a fervent advocate of financial deregulation. In fact, I’d argue that aside from Alan Greenspan, nobody did as much as Mr. Gramm to make this crisis possible.

So, McCain has Gramm. Who does Hillary Clinton want back in the mix? Alan Greenspan:

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and other economic experts should determine whether the U.S. government needs to buy up homes to stem the country's housing crisis, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will propose on Monday.

This might help Clinton get better coverage from NBC's Andrea Mitchell, who is married to Greenspan, but it's hard to see how this helps the economy. The first name on Clinton's list should be Paul Krugman, not Alan Greenspan. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's already shaping up to be a rough week. The death toll in Iraq for U.S. troops has surpassed 4,000. Gas prices are rising fast. The economy is tanking.

It's time for the Democrats to wrap up the nomination process. Enough already. It's time for Hillary Clinton to rein in her attack dogs. Stop the incendiary conference calls. It's time for the party leaders to start showing some leadership. John McCain must be defeated in November.

And, could someone in the traditional media focus some attention on McCain's two purported strengths: Foreign policy and campaign finance? McCain told us he doesn't know anything about the economy already. But, the guy doesn't know the difference between Sunni and Shiites. And, he's breaking the campaign finance laws by busting the spending cap. Those should be big stories....unless reporters really are afraid of McCain mad.

Start threading...there's a lot to discuss. Read More......

British tidal energy project launches this week

This is a really interesting new program which differs from previous tidal energy prospects. For years governments (from both main parties) pushed this aside, opting for whatever the big energy companies were offering, such as nuclear or more disruptive tidal energies. The UK has especially strong tidal currents making it an ideal location for generating power underwater. Great read from The Independent here and a story and more photos of the project here. Could this be a fit for the US? Who knows, but this goes to show that we need to move beyond what the traditional big energy businesses want to promote. Just because they say something won't work (read: take money and focus from their business) doesn't mean it's true. We ought to be providing more funding for new ideas of alternative energies and not only from the largest businesses. Read More......