ThinkFast: March 4, 2009
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on March 5th, 2009 5:31 am by HL
ThinkFast: March 4, 2009
The fact that Rush Limbaugh has become the leader of the GOP means that Republicans missed the “unmistakable signal” of the 2008 election that “Americans wanted to turn the page on the politics of division and partisan pettiness,” writes Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. In another shot at Limbaugh’s GOP leadership, the DCCC released a […]
The fact that Rush Limbaugh has become the leader of the GOP means that Republicans missed the “unmistakable signal” of the 2008 election that “Americans wanted to turn the page on the politics of division and partisan pettiness,” writes Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. In another shot at Limbaugh’s GOP leadership, the DCCC released a website yesterday that “allows visitors to create an apology to Limbaugh” on behalf of Republicans who have crossed him.
“[K]ey party leaders are worried that the GOP has made a costly mistake” in electing Michael Steele as their party chairman. One month into the job, Politico explains that Steele is “[s]teadily becoming a dependable punch line” and “does not have a chief of staff, a political director, a finance director or a communications director.”
A new WSJ/NBC poll has found a sharp jump in the proportion of Americans (41 percent) who say the nation is “generally headed in the right direction” since President Obama’s inauguration. That number is “up dramatically” from 26 percent in mid-January. Those “who say the country is on the ‘wrong track’ is still higher at 44%, but given the economic conditions, pollsters expected it to be much higher.”
Yesterday, President Obama nominated John Berry to head the Office of Personnel Management. If Berry, who is the current director of the National Zoo, is approved by Congress, he will become the highest-ranking openly gay appointee ever. Berry has previously worked at both the Treasury and Interior departments.
Obama said yesterday that he will nominate Julius Genachowski as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Genachowski previously served as chief legal counsel to former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, served as a technology adviser on Obama’s campaign, attended law school with Obama. In part, he will be “charged with designing a plan to bring broadband Internet to rural and low-income areas within one year.”
Yoo: I wouldn?t change the substance of my torture memos, but they do ?lack a certain polish.?
Yesterday, the Orange County Register released an interview with John Yoo, the former Bush Justice Department official who took the lead in crafting the legal justifications for the the former president’s torture policies. Despite the fact that Yoo’s “sloppy” memos were subsequently withdrawn by the Justice Department, Yoo told the Register that he doesn’t believe […]
Yesterday, the Orange County Register released an interview with John Yoo, the former Bush Justice Department official who took the lead in crafting the legal justifications for the the former president’s torture policies. Despite the fact that Yoo’s “sloppy” memos were subsequently withdrawn by the Justice Department, Yoo told the Register that he doesn’t believe that he would “have made the basic decisions differently.” His only regret, he said, was that the memos “lack a certain polish“:
QUESTION: Is there anything you would have done differently?
YOO: These memos I wrote were not for public consumption. They lack a certain polish, I think – would have been better to explain government policy rather than try to give unvarnished, straight-talk legal advice. I certainly would have done that differently, but I don’t think I would have made the basic decisions differently.
Later in the interview, Yoo told the Register that he doesn’t worry about his legacy because he has “the time to write books” defending himself. Asked about the Justice Department’s current inquieries into the legality of his work, Yoo remarked, “I wish they weren’t doing it, but I understand why they are.”
