The Hollywood Liberal

Cheney: Telling Leahy to ?f*ck? himself was ‘sort of the best thing I ever did.?
In 2004, then-Vice President Dick Cheney had a “frank exchange of views” with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on the Senate floor over Cheney’s ties to Halliburton and President Bush’s judicial nominees. Cheney ended the argument by telling Leahy, “F*ck yourself.” Since then, Cheney has joked about the incident and claimed the Leahy “merited” it because […]

In 2004, then-Vice President Dick Cheney had a “frank exchange of views” with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on the Senate floor over Cheney’s ties to Halliburton and President Bush’s judicial nominees. Cheney ended the argument by telling Leahy, “F*ck yourself.” Since then, Cheney has joked about the incident and claimed the Leahy “merited” it because he was “close” to kissing him. On Dennis Miller’s radio show today, Cheney suggested that his Leahy f-bomb was “the best thing” he had ever done:

MILLER: By the way, my, I also want to thank you, on the list of things I feel I should thank you for, almost kicking Patrick Leahy’s ass. Thank you very much.

CHENEY: Hehehehe.

MILLER: I love that move. One of my favorite stories. Muttering that.

CHENEY: You’d be surprised how many people liked that. That’s sort of the best thing I ever did.

Listen here:

Cheney is right that conservatives “liked” his expletive exchange with Leahy. Bill Kristol once said on Fox News that Cheney’s comments represented “a beautiful statement, really, of justice.”

Franklin Graham affirms concerns of critics, appears on Fox to proselytize against Muslims.
As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, groups like the Military Religious Freedom Foundation are protesting an upcoming speech by evangelist Franklin Graham, who will deliver a lecture on National Prayer Day at the Pentagon. The groups object to Graham’s speech because of his past history of hate speech against Muslims. This morning, Graham appeared on Fox and […]

As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, groups like the Military Religious Freedom Foundation are protesting an upcoming speech by evangelist Franklin Graham, who will deliver a lecture on National Prayer Day at the Pentagon. The groups object to Graham’s speech because of his past history of hate speech against Muslims. This morning, Graham appeared on Fox and Friends to defend his upcoming appearance at the Pentagon. When asked about his views on Islam, Graham affirmed the concerns of critics, saying that he was speaking out “for those who are enslaved under Islam” and implored Muslims to convert to Christianity:

GRAHAM: First of all, I want Muslims to know that I love them …. They don’t have to die in a car bomb they don’t have to die in some kind of a holy war to be accepted by God … But when you look at Islam, I love the people of Islam but the religion I do not agree with the religion at all and if you look at what the religion does to women and the women alone it is horrid. And so yes I speak out for women, I speak out for people who live under Islam, who are enslaved under Islam, and I want them to know they can be free by Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

Watch it:

Yesterday, a military spokesman said that it is considering withdrawing Graham’s invitation. Army Col. Tom Collins told the Associated Press that withdrawing the invitation is “on the table.” The Defense Department estimated that 3,409 Muslims actively served in the U.S. military as of April 2008.

Obama makes a strong case for financial reform
NEW YORK — President Obama’s assertive stride into the debate on financial regulatory reform stands in marked contrast to the messy health-care battle that consumed most of the past year. It also represents a crucial part of a political strategy that — at least so far — appears to be moving a …

Salt talks
Barack Obama has to worry about Afghanistan, Iraq, a Supreme Court vacancy, mining safety, unemployment, Wall Street regulation, making his health-care law work and a few dozen other things.

SEC divided on vote to file Goldman lawsuit
Behind closed doors, the two Republican members of the Securities and Exchange Commission sharply questioned senior investigators last week about whether the evidence they had assembled was strong enough to file a fraud case against Goldman Sachs, according to current and former SEC officials fam…

Obama plan to end much of Constellation program angers Republican senators
NASA’s administrator faced sharp and often hostile criticism and questioning from Republican senators Thursday as he defended President Obama’s plan to dramatically change the agency’s human space exploration program.

Solve Ill. Budget Crisis? Say No to Spending
Jack Franks, Chicago Tribune
I sit in the Illinois House week after week, listening to debate, moving bills, and I think: We are out of control.We have a $13 billion budget deficit, the worst in memory. We run the government by shooting from the hip: borrowing money and not paying our bills.We are in trouble. And we won't get out of trouble unless Gov. Pat Quinn and Illinois legislators have the courage to put a stop to the unchecked spending that got us where we are today. We have a disaster. It is man-made. 

Global Warming Panic Attack
Brad DeLong, The Week

Campaign Finance Bill Has GOP Wary

Big Government in Bed with Big Business
Michael Barone, DC Examiner

Living Without Stevens
Tom Goldstein, The New Republic
Supreme Court retirements inevitably produce much more coverage of process than substance. The press is dominated by political rather than legal reporters. Politics is also more familiar and therefore more accessible to the public than are court decisions.The irony is that this attention to process is not very meaningful—at least at this stage, when there is no nominee. In comparison to a complicated piece of legislation, the President’s choice of a nominee is simultaneously pretty simple and largely private. Theoretically, likely Senate vote counts could be done for…