Today is the centennial of World War One's outbreak, when Hillary Clinton told American forces to stand down rather than protect Franz Ferdinand. President Obama says congressional Republicans only "block me and call me names," joining forces with meek seventh graders just trying to get to English class everywhere. And Frank Lucas' opponent says the Oklahoma congressman has been dead for several years and is being portrayed by a body double -- a fact we'll give three Pinocchios until the results come back from the lab. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, June 27th, 2014:
TV NEWS IGNORING IRAQ DOVES - The real slap in the face was that "Face the Nation" panel with Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell's anthrax vial. Sam Stein and Michael Calderone: "Kent Conrad’s phone hasn’t been ringing very much over the past few weeks, as Iraq, and the debate over America's future in the country, has once again dominated the news. The architects of the Iraq war are back in TV studios and on op-ed pages, as are journalists and pundits who promoted the Bush administration’s ultimately bogus case for invading. But Conrad, a former senator who was one of only 23 to vote against authorizing the war in October 2002, hasn’t heard from CNN, MSNBC or any other TV outlet. 'Not once,' he said, when asked if anyone in the press had reached out regarding the current crisis in Iraq. Despite catastrophic misjudgments -- that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that U.S. forces would be greeted as liberators, that the war would pay for itself with oil revenues -- the Iraq war boosters keep getting booked, while those politicians and journalists who were skeptical of the Bush administration's 'slam dunk' case for war remain largely on the sidelines...According to liberal watchdog Media Matters, Cheney, Wolfowitz, former presidential envoy to Iraq Paul Bremer and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol have made 16 TV appearances in less than two weeks." [HuffPost]
Pot-hater Andy Harris had a spat with David Catania today.
HOUSE GOP WORKING ON EX-IM REFORMS - The Boeing-sponsored government shutdown might not be. The Hill: "Two Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee said Friday that they're considering introducing legislation that would reform and reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. Retiring Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) surprised the House Financial Services Committee earlier this week when he released a working draft of a proposal during an Ex-Im hearing. On Friday, the chairman of a subcommittee on monetary policy and trade said he is considering moving forward with a bill that would reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. Separately, Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) also said he is considering introducing legislation to reauthorize the bank, which expires Sept. 30 and needs Congressional approval or it dies. Fincher told The Hill that he and other Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee — including Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), a staunch Ex-Im critic — met on Thursday to discuss Ex-Im reforms. Fincher's move is significant because he voted against authorizing Ex-Im just two years ago. His and Campbell's actions suggest pressure to move forward in some way on the Export Import Bank, rather than letting it expire, is building in the GOP...Fincher said the details of the reforms are being worked out, but that it would likely include incentives for the private sector to get into the export financing market...Campbell's proposal includes 20 reform provisions, including reducing how much money the bank can lend, lowering the total to $95 billion in 2017. It would also limit how much the bank can loan to foreign and state-owned businesses. " [The Hill]
CLUB FOR GROWTH PWNS PERRY - The governor praised Ex-Im today. "Rick Perry must have forgotten that he did a great job criticizing the Export-Import Bank back when he was running for President," Club for Growth's Barney Keller said. Burrrrrrnnnn. [Club for Growth]
John Boehner, emoji muse: "The single point of consistency between the emoji collections: shading smiley faces a hue Davis dubs 'the orange kind of Homer Simpson/John Boehner color.' (Boehner? 'We call it that internally because he has sort of an orange cast,' Davis explained.) Emoji addicts have petitioned for more racial diversity, and Davis said Unicode is pushing software makers to adopt “a neutral, non-racially specific representation for people.” [HuffPost's Bianca Bosker]
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - The New Orleans Times-Picayune wants readers to know the name and address of a lady busted for food stamp fraud. The paper said she lied on her application by claiming she was divorced. Not much detail there, but whatever. Why print the address? [Nola.com]
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SENATE DEMS FEEL VALIDATED BY SCOTUS RECESS RULING - Politico: "The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down President Barack Obama’s recess appointments marked a big win for congressional Republicans — but Democrats are also giving themselves a pat on the back. Democrats say the decision Thursday to rebuke Obama’s 2012 appointments to the National Labor Relations Board has made their change to Senate rules seem remarkably prescient. That change made it easier for the Senate to confirm Obama’s nominees, transforming recess appointments — a tactic to get around the chamber’s hurdles — into something of a relic. That shift has already allowed Senate Democrats to squeeze through several nominees who might have been defeated under the old framework. 'Clearly this president has faced more opposition for even routine appointments, let alone important lifetime appointments like the judiciary. I’m sorry we had to change the rules and it’s created some pain in our Senate that’s still there,' said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). 'But there had to be a way for this president to lead.' ... Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) cracked that the decision shows how 'omniscient the rules change was,' while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) bragged that the Supreme Court’s ruling will have 'no effect on our ability to continue ensuring that qualified nominees receive an up-or-down vote.'" [Politico]
Whoa: "Attorney Mark Mayfield was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday at his Ridgeland home. Mayfield, vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party, and is one of the three men charged with conspiring with Clayton Kelly to photograph U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's bedridden wife in her nursing home and create a political video against Cochran." [Clarion-Ledger]
OBAMA DISMISSES BOEHNER LAWSUIT - Have you been injured in an accident? Victim of medical malpractice? Has the speaker of the House of Representatives charged you with executive overreach? We will fight for you. Igor Bobic: "President Barack Obama on Friday said he wasn't going to apologize for his use of executive power, dismissing a planned lawsuit by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) as nothing more than a campaign ploy. 'The suit is a stunt,' Obama said in an interview with ABC's 'Good Morning America.' In a memo addressed to his colleagues on Wednesday, Boehner officially announced he would introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would authorize the House General Counsel to sue the Obama administration and 'compel' the president to enforce existing law. Without citing the specific executive orders he found troubling, Boehner named health care, energy, foreign policy and education as areas where the president has 'repeatedly run an end-around on the American people.' 'You notice that he didn't specifically say what exactly he was objecting to,' Obama said in the interview. 'I'm not going to apologize for trying to do something while they're doing nothing.'" [HuffPost]
Footage from 1970 of Congressman-elect Charlie Rangel. The voice never changes.
CLINTONS GOT RE-RICH BY DOING WHAT THEY DO BEST: TALKING - It's like if Obama left office and made a killing when he yelled "I love you back!" at people and wearing dad jeans. WaPo: "Over seven frenetic days, Bill Clinton addressed corporate executives in Switzerland and Denmark, an investors’ group in Sweden and a cluster of business and political leaders in Austria. The former president wrapped up his European trip in the triumphant Spanish Hall at Prague Castle, where he shared his thoughts on energy to a Czech business summit. His pay: $1.4 million. That lucrative week in May 2012 offers a glimpse into the way Clinton has leveraged his global popularity into a personal fortune. Starting just two weeks after exiting the Oval Office, Clinton has delivered hundreds of paid speeches, lifting a family that was 'dead broke,' as wife Hillary Rodham Clinton phrased it earlier this month, to a point of such extraordinary wealth that it is now seen as a potential political liability if she runs for president in 2016. Bill Clinton has been paid $104.9 million for 542 speeches around the world between January 2001, when he left the White House, and January 2013, when Hillary stepped down as secretary of state, according to a Washington Post review of the family’s federal financial disclosures...The financial industry has been Clinton’s most frequent sponsor. The Post review showed that Wall Street banks and other financial services firms have hired Clinton for at least 102 appearances and paid him a total of $19.6 million." [WaPo]
It gets better: "Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), who told a reporter he'd "break" him "in half," seemed to miss the irony when he encouraged his colleagues to support a bill aimed at curbing bullying. The Safe Schools Improvement Act, of which Grimm is a cosponsor, would require public schools to create policies that prevent bullying and harassment. 'It's time that we all say enough is enough,' Grimm said on the House floor Wednesday. 'We must demand accountability from those charged with addressing bullying in our schools ... we owe it to all of our young adults.'" [HuffPost's Samantha Lachman]
It gets better, presidential edition: "Faced with the threat of legal action over his use of executive power, President Barack Obama pointed his finger squarely back at congressional Republicans on Friday, stating that their historic inaction prompted him to go it alone to address the nation's problems. 'They don't do anything except block me and call me names,' Obama said in a speech on the economy at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, Minnesota." [HuffPost's Igor Bobic]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here is a kid who enjoys summer.
FRANK LUCAS NOT DEAD: FRANK LUCAS - Then again, there are those "FRANKISDEAD" signs and symbols on the "Abbey Road" cover... Sam Levine: "[O]ne Oklahoma congressional candidate took his accusation to a new level this week when he claimed his opponent was actually dead and being represented by a body double. KFOR in Oklahoma reports that Timothy Ray Murray believes Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), his opponent in the congressional Republican primary, was executed three years ago and is being represented by a look-alike. Because he believes Lucas is really dead, Murray said he will challenge the results of Tuesday's Republican primary, in which Murray received 5.2 percent of the vote. Lucas won the primary with 82.8 percent of the vote. 'It is widely known Rep. Frank D. Lucas is no longer alive and has been displayed by a look alike. Rep. Lucas’ look alike was depicted as sentenced on a white stage in southern Ukraine on or about Jan. 11, 2011,' Murray said in a statement posted on his campaign website. The statement claimed Lucas and 'a few other' members of Congress from Oklahoma and other states were shown on television being hanged by 'The World Court.' 'I am contesting that this matter has happen [sic] since his election was blocked, because of the U.S. Defense Department’s use of Mr. Murray's DNA. To my knowledge, the U.S. Defense Department has not released to the public that information, as it is their confidential information about many people,' Murray's statement said." [HuffPost]
PLAYBOOK FACTS OF LIFE: Frank Lucas is a really big guy. It'd be interesting if they found another big guy who looked just like him. Or maybe he is like the Hodor of the House Republican conference and he is controlled by a warg. That would make a lot more sense.
COMFORT FOOD
- Goat works out. [http://some.ly/1qBJcMy]
- How to peel an entire bucket of potatoes in one minute. [http://bit.ly/1pWZakN]
- Clickhole's perfect recipe for a healthy 20-minute dinner. [http://bit.ly/VtWHU0]
- Watch someone play through Super Mario Bros in a world record time. [http://uproxx.it/1ll4BE3]
- Go figure: People tweeted the word "Nazi" quite a bit during yesterday's USA - Germany World Cup match. [http://bit.ly/1yUVynC]
- Baby and French bulldog trip balls. [http://huff.to/1pHyAtT]
- Adorable girl negotiates her way out of trouble by being adorable. [http://bit.ly/1pHAOts]
TWITTERAMA
@ryanbeckwith: "Weekend at Bernie's III: Bernie Runs for Congress." nym.ag/1m5Km3h
@WesleyLowery: Rep. John Dingell asked what could fix gridlock: "if the voters threw us all the hell out of Washington."
@AdamSerwer: A speaker just asked how many at the Men's Rights conference were Downton Abbey fans. I think I counted two hands.
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