Dems want Wall Street reform signed by July 4th, but the fireworks won't stop until the midterms. Everyone will be taking a hit of that Hawaii special tomorrow. Rand Paul is serving up seconds (and thirds, and fourths...) of his gub-ment hatin' goodness. Plus, per the Examiner, D.C.'s kids have really large...egos. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, May 21st, 2010. Happy weekend, everyone:
BREAKING
JUST IN: Obama on Saturday will name former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fl.) and former H.W. Bush EPA Director Bill Reilly co-chairs of the presidential 'oil spill commission'
OBAMA ALLIES START TURNING ON WHITE HOUSE OVER OIL SPILL - James Carville and Chris Matthews -- two reliable Obama defenders -- have issued withering critiques of the administration's response to BP.
Louisiana's Carville on CNN: "I'm as good a Democrat as most people, and I think this administration has done some good things. They are risking everything by this 'go along with BP' strategy they have that seems like, lackadaisical on this, and Doug is right, they seem like they're inconvenienced by this, this is some giant thing getting in their way and somehow or another, if you let BP handle it, it'll all go away. It's not going away. It's growing out there. It is a disaster of the first magnitude, and they've got to go to plan B."
Matthews on Leno: "The President scares me. He's been acting a little like a Vatican Observer here. When is he actually going to do something? And I worry, I know he doesn't want to take ownership of it. I know politics. The minute he says, 'I'm in charge,' he takes the blame, but somebody has to. It's in our interest."
The Obama administration has successfully avoided the political disaster that followed Katrina by comprehensively documenting its actions in the Gulf and staying on message ("Fully engaged since Day One..."). But this isn't Katrina -- one month later, the disaster is getting worse, even as the administration seems to have stopped treating it as an urgent national emergency.
RAND PAUL BACKS OUT OF 'MEET THE PRESS' - "A spokesperson for the Tea Party-endorsed candidate informed NBC News late Friday afternoon that an exhausted Paul was canceling his interview on Sunday's "Meet the Press," exec producer Betsy Fischer told HuffPost's Sam Stein. "We booked him on Wednesday. Everything was set and then his press person emailed this afternoon that he was very sorry but he wants to cancel the interview. We tried appealing to the press person to not much avail," she said. It appears the Paul camp isn't budging. "No more national interviews on the topic," Paul's spox told WaPo. Only two other guests in MTP's 62-year history have canceled last minute: Louis Farrakhan and Prince Bandar bin Khaled al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia. http://huff.to/aRxxLa
HuffPost interview with Paul's opponent: Sam Stein also has Jack Conway basically calling Paul a sociopath: "...Conway charged the Tea Party darling with having an 'empathy gap' and promoting a world-view that was both 'cold and callous.' 'I think Rand Paul would be bad for the country,' the Kentucky Attorney General said in an interview with the Huffington Post. 'Rand Paul would be bad for Kentucky. I consider myself to be a fiscally responsible Democrat and I want a government we can afford. But Kentucky can't afford Rand Paul.'" http://huff.to/c45L4G
EXCLUSIVE: WHAT DC WILL BE BUZZING ABOUT MONDAY - Esquire is set to run a jaw-dropping expose on Eric Massa. To get to the heart of the New York congressman's collapse, the mag's reporter went where few would dare -- he literally slept at Massa's house the night after his infamous appearance with Glenn Beck, HuffPost Hill learned. Check Esquire.com on Monday for the full piece.
WHITE HOUSE'S ROUGH BREAK WITH DNI BLAIR - The Hill: "White House press secretary Robert Gibbs hinted that recent attempted terrorist attacks led to the resignation of Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair. Gibbs on Friday pointed to 'coordination issues' that allowed the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an airliner approaching Detroit, when asked about the resignation of the top intelligence officer."
"When asked directly if Obama lost confidence in Blair, Gibbs said: 'The president decided to make a change. I'll let that speak for itself.'" http://bit.ly/bXDSYs
CBS's David Martin features some behind-the-scenes mud-throwing: "According to one reliable account, Blair met with the president earlier this week and came away convinced that he was about to be fired. ... The White House had so little confidence in Blair that he was under a gag order not to talk to reporters. Blair went back to his office and wrote a memo to the president which argued, in essence, that he was firing him for the wrong reasons. The memo was blocked by the White House staff before it reached the president. That's what triggered Blair's decision to resign before he was fired. When the White House found out he was about to announce his resignation, it instantly leaked the story before Blair could tell his staff, just to make sure everybody knew Blair was pushed before he jumped." http://bit.ly/aqlfyX
Replacement watch: "The White House's leading candidate to replace Dennis Blair as national intelligence director is James R. Clapper, the Pentagon's top intelligence official, current and former U.S. officials said Friday. Two current officials said another candidate is Mike Vickers, the Pentagon's assistant secretary for special operations. But a Defense Department official said Vickers has not been contacted for an interview... Clapper currently is defense undersecretary for intelligence."
ALSO: "President Barack Obama intends to nominate Bryan Cave partner James Cole as the next deputy attorney general, a source with knowledge of the plans" tells David Ingram and Mike Scarcella of the Legal Times. http://bit.ly/cDIBVz
TEXAS SCHOOL GUIDELINE CHANGES APPROVED - The Texas Textbook Massacre is complete. The state's Board of Education officially approved its controversial high school social studies and history guidelines in a 9-5 vote that could influence textbooks nationally. (One victory today for the reality-based crowd: a proposal to refer to the slave trade as the "Atlantic triangular trade" was changed to call it the "trans-Atlantic slave trade.") http://huff.to/dAwgYr
SENATE MOVING FORWARD ON UNEMPLOYMENT FIGHT - Arthur Delaney wants to know: Which side are you on? "The Senate is all set for another fight to reauthorize extended unemployment benefits and other domestic aid provisions that will expire unless Congress acts before its Memorial Day recess...there's been some grumbling among Democrats over one of the bill's funding sources -- a measure to close the "carried interest" loophole that allows investment fund managers to pay less than half as much as regular rich people in income taxes. Some Senate Dems pushed for Finance Committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to go soft on fund managers." House Rules meets Monday at 5 on the package.
ANOTHER WAY TO FIND MONEY: END THE WARS - Alan Grayson and House progressives are pushing the "War Is Making You Poor Act," which would "cut war funding and use the money to eliminate federal income taxes on every American's first $35,000 of income, as well as cut the deficit." The always entertaining Grayson explaining it on the floor: http://bit.ly/aXRWFb
HAWAII ELECTION TOMORROW - "Hawaii special" isn't just something you pay $90 an eighth for, it's also the election being held in the Aloha state tomorrow to fill Neil Abercrombie's seat. CNN: "The seat should be safe for the Democrats, who dominate the district, which includes Honolulu and some surrounding suburbs...But there are two Democratic candidates on the ballot in this election and recent polls indicate they are splitting the vote, with the Republican candidate, Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou, in first place in the surveys. The special election is a winner-take-all contest, with only a plurality needed for victory." http://bit.ly/cyU4Sc
Democrats will lose the seat on Saturday and regain it in November.
@DarrellIssa tweets: "I've got a video on @JoeSestak White House bribe charges you all may want to see...will post later."
Your daily dose of :'( - An African lion cub, born at the National Zoo on Tuesday, died last night. Handlers report the sharp end of a straw had gotten lodged in its lungs, leading to pneumonia. HuffPost Hill's reenactment: http://bit.ly/17orQ
The newsest trend sweeping the office world: "Naked Fridays." http://bit.ly/c43hAN
Don't be bashful: Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com
TRENDING
BANK REFORM HEADS TO CONFERENCE - After a long slog through the amendment process and a floor debate that went into extra innings, the Senate finally passed a financial regulatory overhaul bill last night. The legislation now goes into conference committee where it will be merged with the House version that passed in December.
The president today met with likely conference participants Chris Dodd and Barney Frank to discuss merging the two chambers' bills. The two reiterated their goal of having the legislation codified by July 4th.http://bit.ly/dA3Qot
POLITICO's Carrie Budoff Brown and Eamon Javers with the main differences between the two chambers' bills: A consumer financial protection agency, the auto-dealer exemption, derivatives and the Volcker rule. http://politi.co/8ZoPg7
Bernie Sanders with the lefty reaction: "While this bill does not go as far as I would like, it is a strong beginning in the effort to reregulate huge financial institutions and to bring transparency to their often nefarious activities."
It's okay, but a missed opportunity. Newsweek's Daniel Gross: "[W]hile there's stuff in there that the financial sector doesn't like, the legislation that is now headed to a House-Senate conference is in fact relatively tame. Consider what's not in the bill. Earlier this year, President Obama came out in favor of the Volcker rule, which would have prohibited regulated banks from engaging in the enormously profitable (but risky) business of proprietary trading...It is not part of this legislation. There's been some discussion of a Tobin Tax, the idea of levying a tax on financial transactions such as currency, stock and derivative trades...It is not part of the legislation. The House version of financial reform called for a $150 billion fund to be raised, largely by taxing big financial institutions, that would help wind down failed institutions...It is not part of the Senate legislation." http://bit.ly/c3vGl3
Will the conference committee be broadcast live? Bob Corker and Richard Shelby think it should be and Chris Dodd says he doesn't hate it. Brian Beutler has:
Corker: "That'd be great. ... Sure."
Shelby: "Televised? Oh, I'm not against that being televised. ... We televised the Senate, we televised the House."
Dodd: "I have no opposition to it. ... We'll see how it all works out." http://bit.ly/bmgdOX
WaPo: DEMS TO RUN ON WALL ST REFORM - Michael D. Shear: "President Obama plans to use 1,500 pages of often arcane new financial regulations governing a highly complex industry in a populist Main Street message that could help boost his party's political fortunes in November...Obama's populist rhetoric will be aimed squarely at Republicans who slowed the legislation, with aides saying they will be accused of standing with megabanks rather than with average citizens. Republicans plan to push back against that argument, encouraged by polling they say suggests that voters want action to produce jobs, not Wall Street-bashing." http://bit.ly/bqDwVW
HOW HARD IS IT TO SCORE A POINT AGAINST ELENA KAGAN? Apparently extremely hard, if the latest attempt from the Judicial Crisis Network is any sign. Behold the ACTUAL post: "Elena Kagan has become famous as being the dean that built the ice rink at Harvard Law School. Nostalgic images of skaters laughing and spinning away their exam troubles come to mind - Sleigh Ride, Currier & Ives, and all. In reality, it went almost unused...because there was no more than a handful of students who actually owned ice skates and had time between classes to take a jaunt around the rink." http://huff.to/dvaUYf
ARE A BUNCH OF RICH DUDES ROBBING SOCIAL SECURITY? - Yes. From Harvard's Nieman Watchdog: "President Obama and the leadership in Congress have delegated enormous, unaccountable authority to 18 unrepresentative, inordinately wealthy individuals. The 18 individuals are meeting regularly, in secret, behind closed doors, until safely beyond this year's mid-term election. If they reach agreement, their proposal will be voted on in December by a lame duck Congress, without the benefit of open hearings and deliberations in the pertinent committees and without the opportunity for open debate and amendment on the floors of the House and Senate. Despite the speed and lack of accountability, the legislation will affect, in substantial ways, every man, woman, and child in this nation. Who are these powerful people and what are their views? They are the members of President Obama's newly-formed National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform." http://bit.ly/c8nQqg
From Bill Greider's take, "Whacking the Old Folks": Commission co-chair Alan Simpson "is especially nasty; he likes to get laughs by ridiculing wheezy old folks." http://bit.ly/aNuzUs
"...in a free society, every day is Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.". The winners of Reason Magazine's "Everybody Draw Mohammad" contest are among the most creative things we've seen in a while. NSFW for the devout: http://bit.ly/97jDx1
RAND PAUL CALLS OBAMA ANTI-AMERICAN FOR BP DISS - Our favorite would-be government official since Dale Peterson mounted his horse was on GMA, getting miffed at the president for being miffed at a company that wrecked the 11th largest body of water in the world. "What I don't like from the president's administration is this sort of 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.' I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business," Paul said. "I've heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill. And I think it's part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it's always got to be someone's fault instead of the fact that sometimes accidents happen." http://huff.to/ajVCZC
DAVID CORN TWEETS BACK - Re #RandPaul calling POTUS "un-American" for going after BP, does he not know what BP stands for? #remembertherevolution
We're officially *trending* the "accidents happen" line Here's the video of Missouri Senate candidate Roy Blunt echoing the sentiment from Robin Carnahan's campaign video: http://bit.ly/aew6ow
...and GOP-ish Joe Lieberman said the same thing a few weeks ago: http://bit.ly/bQNDfd
Plum Line notes that BP wasn't the only hot-button issue Rand touched on: "Paul was unwilling to say unequivocally that the Federal government has a proper role in setting the minimum wage...He seemed to say No but basically brushed off the question. And even if he is opposed to repeal, the question of where he stands on repeal -- which is an impossibility -- is separate from whether he embraces the core principles underlying the law. The pattern is becoming clearer and clearer: Paul simply does not want to answer direct questions about the proper role of the Federal government in regulating the private sector. He visibly bristles when asked to clarify his views on these matters." http://bit.ly/9zGS4W
ARKANSAS RUNOFF UPDATE - The left wing is doubling down on Blanche Lincoln. Here's a new ad from the SEIU tying Lincoln to the oil industry and Bush administration. Folksy McY'all-Come-On-Back-Now-Ya-Hear narrates: http://bit.ly/baI2HU
Despite all the hullabaloo over Halter's momentum, the GOP's nominee, Rep. John Boozman, still holds a sizable lead over both Halter (66-32) and Lincoln (60-33), a new Rasmussen poll finds. http://bit.ly/ahK1Qe
Firedoglake's David Dayen says Lincoln is phony on derivatives reform: "And while Maria Cantwell was trying to make sure that Lincoln's derivatives legislation didn't pass with a massive loophole contained in it, Lincoln happily voted with the majority to move the bill. She wouldn't fight for her own amendment to fix her own signature piece of the legislation. And her post-passage statement makes no mention of this loophole...It's very clear that Cantwell, not Lincoln, was the driving force behind the derivatives title. According to Business Week, Lincoln couldn't even defend her own derivatives proposal at a Democratic caucus meeting, and Cantwell had to step in and bail her out. Lincoln was clearly fed the strong language, when she was planning a much weaker proposal with Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), to project an image of a populist Wall Street reformer for her suddenly tough primary challenge from Bill Halter. http://bit.ly/cSl9jU
Blagojevich's Defense Attorney Plans To Let Him 'Blather' In His Own Defense. Jason Linkins: http://huff.to/8Zq2rR
Politico's senior congressional tweeter Kasie Hunt is moving to the national desk to cover House races. It's a return to roots. She started as Charlie Mahtesian's intern at National Journal mag. http://bit.ly/auXKH8
And Martin Levine, fresh off an AIG ass kicking as Elija Cummings' economics guy, is headed to Treasury to continue causing trouble, this time with the Office of the Special Inspector General for TARP. Keep your left up, Tim.
CHICKENGATE SINKING SUE LOWDEN - Her Tea Party-backed primary challenger, former state Rep. Sharron Angle, is overtaking her in the polls. Alex Pareene: "Plus, 'there aren't very many people in the elected Republican establishment who like' Angle, an 'insider' tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal. But as we all know, the hatred of the Republican establishment is one of the best ways to win a primary this year. And it's working: polls have Angle gaining on the establishment candidate, state Senator Sue Lowden. In fact, a Public Policy Polling survey from yesterday has Angle leading, 29% to 26%...The Tea Party Express is now begging Tarkanian, the "other guy," to drop out of the race. If he did, the majority of his support would almost certainly go to Angle. According to a press release, the Tea Partiers 'really like Danny,' but 'it has become increasingly clear... that his campaign has failed to catch fire with voters.' (Tarkanian, thus far, has declined to withdraw.)" http://bit.ly/cMzukh
Marco Rubio got richer as he became more politically powerful, often thanks to folks he helped out as Florida House Speaker. AP with the SCOOP: http://huff.to/dfIJwj
NO DOUBT ABOUT IT: KAGAN LOVES ARCHIBALD COX - Sam Stein on Archibald Cox, the Watergate special prosecutor who profoundly influenced the SCOTUS-nominee's jurisprudential outlook: "[T]he extent to which Kagan gravitated to Cox's history and character is remarkable in its obsessive-ness. And in a small way, it provides a window into the Supreme Court nominee's view of proper judicial conduct, the rule of law, and the overreaches of the Bush administration. Cox makes frequent appearances in Kagan's speeches and notes, most prominently in the addresses (commencement and otherwise) that she gave at various academic institutions. Kagan described herself as being "obsessed with" the Watergate scandal, despite being 13-years-old at the time. As to Cox's role in the sage, she claimed to follow it with 'painstaking detail.'" http://huff.to/dscGab
Today Kagan met with Mark Warner, Bob Casey and Max Baucus.
...AND THE "NO NEED TO BRAG" AWARD GOES TO... - Washington Examiner's front page today: "D.C. teens want bigger condoms." And get this: "It may not all be a youthful conceit: A March survey released by custom condom maker Condomania found that D.C. residents were the second-best-endowed in the nation." http://bit.ly/cOXIcC
COMFORT FOOD
- Liza Minnelli covers "Single Ladies." http://bit.ly/a6jqwa
- Fox News is launching a website geared towards Latino readers. This will be rico. http://huff.to/d16Tdr
- Still better than the Yankee's middle relief: Here's a T-rex throwing out the first pitch at a minor league game: http://bit.ly/9QDP6B
- Some ridiculous wedding photos. http://huff.to/90CBDU
- John Cleese with maybe the best anti-smoking ad we've ever seen. http://bit.ly/915Akx
- Bret Michaels is back in the hospital http://huff.to/ckbs6l :(
TWITTERAMA
@jdickerson: @PressSec when identifying a rodent, the vole's molars are a dead giveaway to anyone mildly schooled in rodent dentistry http://bit.ly/uhwk8
@FakeAPStyleBook: Write stories announcing reporting awards you have won looking ahead to your title defense at Summerslam. http://bit.ly/9LMh85
@TimFernholz: Your Friday music: Hip hop remixes of Goldeneye level music. http://bit.ly/bTHlWB Pistols, license to kill. Obviously. http://bit.ly/biw2r5
@MajoratWH: I grow bitter as I consider whether to twitter about the WH critter; a rat, a mouse, a mole a vole, this i know. its lair not as deep as the booth that is my WH hole
@newyorkpost: Hit Us With Your Breast Shot! #ModernFamily Star #JulieBowen Shows Pic of Her Feeding Twins: http://nyp.st/aWXySn
@TheDailyCaller: #Muslim Man tells cops God told him to stroll in the nude #strange #crime #bizarre http://bit.ly/9o3v7W
THE TUBE
TOMORROW
The Situation Room: Rand Paul, Felipe Calderon and Pervez Musharraf
SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY
This Week: Adm. Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Face The Nation: Colin Powell
State Of The Union: Tom Ridge, Barbara Boxer and Richard Shelby and Byron Dorgan
Fox News Sunday: Jon Kyl and Ben Nelson.
Meet The Press: Dick Durbin andNewt Gingrich. NOT RAND PAUL, who bailed, following in the footsteps of Louis Farrakhan and Prince Bandar bin Khaled al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia: http://huff.to/aUR4BS
ON TAP
TONIGHT
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm: Rosslyn's "I Love The 90s" film festival continues with a screening of "Edward Scissorhands" [Gateway Park, 1300 Lee Highway, Arlington].
8:00 pm - 11:00 pm: An evening with culinary megastars Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert [Warner Theater, 1299 Pennsylvania Avenue NW]
TOMORROW
10:00 am - 7:00 pm: The fifth annual Fiesta Asia has everything from arts and crafts to food and market vendors to flash mob dancing. Why not check it out for yourself? [Pennsylvania Ave. NW b/w 3rd and 6th Streets].
8:30 am and 10:00 am: D.C.'s sexiest and most fun-loving diplomatic enclave, the Swedish Embassy, hosts a free yoga session on its roof. RSVP to rsvp-hos@foreign.ministry.se [House of Sweden, 2900 K Street NW].
2:30 pm and 7:30 pm: The final two performances of "Little Shop of Horrors" at Ford's Theatre [Ford's Theatre, 511 10th Street NW].
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm: Galerie Lareuse hosts the opening reception of its Salvador Dali exhibit featuring 30 signed etchings, silkscreens, lithographs, and collages by one of history's weirdest (and most inspired) dudes [Galerie Lareuse, 2820 Pennsylvania Ave NW].
SUNDAY
12:00 pm - 6:00 pm: 30+ record vendors from up and down the East Coast come together at the DC Record Fair at the Black Cat. DJ's will be spinning the big discs all afternoon. Two bucks gets you in to vinyl-palooza [Black Cat, 1811 14th Street NW].
If it's Friday it's our what-were-their-flaks-thinking? listing of fundraising getaways...
Friday - Sunday: Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) just couldn't make it to Augusta, we suppose. Instead the Republican is taking his moneyed friends to a plantation...good times! [Reynolds Plantation, 100 Linger Longer Road, Greensboro].
Friday - Sunday: Adam Smith (D-Wa.), Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) Ron Kind (D-Wisc.) and Melissa Bean(D-Ill.) host a golf retreat for the New Democrat Coalition [Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa and Marina, 100 Heron Blvd. at Route 50, Cambridge, MD].
Friday - Sunday: Richard Burr (R-N.C.) welcomes his closest friends with $1,500 burning a hole in their pockets to his "Weekend on the Outer Banks." Props to Richard for at least having it in his home state [Duck, N.C.].
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