The Hollywood Liberal

Does Hillary want to murder Obama? Probably not with her own two hands but one thing for sure: HILLARY WANTS BARACK OBAMA DEAD

Clinton regrets Kennedy assassination remark

AP
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton quickly apologized Friday after citing the June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as a reason to remain in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination despite increasingly long odds.

“I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever,” the former first lady said…..

Her remark about an assassination during a primary campaign drew a quick response from aides to Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama.

“Senator Clinton’s statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said the senator was only referring to her husband and Kennedy “as historical examples of the nominating process going well into the summer and any reading into it beyond that would be inaccurate and outrageous.”

HL’s Take:
Well sorry Mo but permit me to get a little outrageous. Did Hillary slip and reveal her grand plan to win the nomination? So what she said was that she is staying in the race because Obama could possibly be murdered. Oh and who will carry out that murder Hillary? I have said before that if Obama was to make Hillary VP he might as well paint a target on his back. You never know what unfortunate set of events would lead to “That Woman” becoming the first President since LBJ to take over after the death of a President. Lets not forget that being a friend or associate of The Clintons is a good way to wind up dead

Clinton Stronger in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania
A new set of Quinnipiac polls show Sen. Hillary Clinton is the stronger candidate against Sen. John McCain in the swings states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Florida: Clinton 48%, McCain 41%; McCain 45%, Obama 41%. 
Ohio: Clinton 48%, McCain 41%; McCain 44%, Obama 40%.
Pennsylvania: Clinton 50%, McCain 37%; Obama 46%, McCain 40%.

Said pollster Peter Brown: “The numbers for Florida and Ohio are good news for Sen. John McCain and should be worrisome for Sen. Barack Obama. That is especially true about Ohio, which decided the 2004 election. Ohio’s economy is worse than the rest of the country and the Republican brand there is in disrepute. McCain’s Buckeye lead may be a sign that nationally this may not be the easy Democratic walk to the White House that many expected.”

Big caveat: Are these three states really the swing states in an Obama vs. McCain general election?

Obama Begins Veep Selection Process
“Very quietly, Sen. Barack Obama has begun the process that will end in his choosing a running mate,” Marc Ambinder reports.

“Obama has sworn a small group of his senior staff to secrecy. He is determined to start the vice presidential search on his own schedule and has said publicly, and repeatedly, that he will not talk about ticket-mates until the race for the nomination itself concludes.”

“James A. Johnson, who vetted potential nominees for Sen. John Kerry in 2004, is playing a major role. He has advised Obama and the campaign about the architecture of the process, though it is not clear whether he will reprise his role as head of the search committee. Ex-Sen. Tom Daschle is also providing advice.”

The Right Wants Race Riots In Denver
The other night on MSNBC’s Hardball, Michelle Bernard of the right-wing Independent Women’s Forum chimed in on a discussion of Hillary Clinton’s hopes for winning the Democratic nomination resting on what might happen at the Democratic National Convention in Denver: “There will be race riots in the streets if he wins enough super delegates [and Clinton takes the nomination].”

What is it with the wingnuts and their fantasies about riots in Denver?

The other night on MSNBC’s Hardball, Michelle Bernard of the right-wing Independent Women’s Forum chimed in on a discussion of Hillary Clinton’s hopes for winning the Democratic nomination resting on what might happen at the Democratic National Convention in Denver:

BERNARD: Hillary Clinton is going to become the Ron Paul of the Democratic party. There’s no way the super delegates can take this away from Barack Obama. There will be race riots in the streets if he wins enough super delegates—

Everyone interrupts at this point with laughter, but presumably Bernard was about to finish along the lines of “– and Clinton manages to still take the nomination.”

Seemingly, Bernard was making this pronouncement from the vantage of actually being African American, though in reality, Bernard is as much a spokesperson for black people as her IWF colleagues Kate O’Beirne and Charlotte Allen are for women. As dnA at Two Sense observes, Bernard recently penned a column complaining about blacks’ use of the N-word and acidly notes:

My closest friends call me nigga all the time and it’s never offended me. But Bernard just called us all niggers on TV, and she didn’t even have to use the word.

But Bernard is in fact just parroting an increasingly common hope among Republicans and wingnuts generally — that the Denver convention will produce race riots if Obama is denied the nomination. Back in January, the Ole Perfesser and the Spawn Of Lucianne were heard speculating along the same lines (ably limned, as always, by Glennzilla).

And then there’s Rush Limbaugh, who’s been running his “Operation Chaos” schtick with the intention of making that fantasy a reality.

And the only thing it tells us about the American right, really, is how they view black people.

Rick Perlstein likes to point out that one of the main reasons that movement conservatism is floundering right now is that its whole conception of liberals is based on an antiquated view of effete urban liberalism from the 1960s, embodied by former New York Mayor John Lindsay. It’s an image it was successful at selling for a long time, but it’s running aground on the rocks of reality in large part because today’s progressives no longer fit the description.

The same could be said of the stereotypes of African Americans the right is fond of propagating: violent, criminally inclined, likely to riot at a moment’s notice. A lot of those stereotypes were similarly built out of the 1960s, though many of them well precede that.

And not only are they antiquated, they were never true in the first place. But Republicans will cling to them all the way down into the political abyss.

The only real concern progressives should have about this is: What will the wingnuts do when they’re disappointed by the lack of riots in Denver? Knowing them as we do — and how in recent years they’ve become capable of anything — it wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to start their own.

Overnight Open Thread

Readers have a lot to say tonight. Time for your own space where I won't intervene except for site violators. The floor is your's. All topics welcome.

Fitzmas Comes Late
Conyers has subpoenaed Rove to appear before House Judiciary.

But they subpoenaed people before, and even Harriet Meiers asserted some kind of weird personal executive privilege and just didn’t show. With a DOJ not permitted to serve subpoenas, they become toothless.

But David Kurtz over at TPM points out a little wrinkle:

The committee is especially interested in Rove’s involvement in the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. In conjunction with issuing the subpoena to Rove, the committee released a letter from the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility confirming that it has launched an investigation of “allegations of selective prosecution relating to the prosecutions of Don Siegelman, Georgia Thompson, and Oliver Diaz and Paul Minor.”

Now that’s a horse of a different color.

GI Bill Passes
Gratifying headline (AP):

Bush dealt defeat on Iraq bill

Senate Republicans have broken with President Bush to help Democrats add help for veterans and the unemployed to a bill paying for another year of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The 75-22 vote also adds billions of dollars in other domestic funds such as heating subsidies for the poor and money for fighting wildfires to the $165 billion for the military operations overseas.

The vote is a rebuke to Bush, who has promised to veto the measure if it contains the domestic measures. However, the president still has enough GOP support to sustain a veto.

Update: McCain did not vote

Update 2: Tally

There is said to have been a lot of vote switching once it became clear there were 60 yeas.

The Most Savage Shock Jock of Them All
As this excerpt from AlterNet’s new book, Shock Jocks: Hate Speech & Talk Radio, makes clear, host Michael Savage promotes hatred.

McCain Questions Obama’s Lack Of Military Service
This is noteworthy: John McCain is now officially making a campaign issue of Obama’s lack of military service. On the Senate floor today, Obama hit McCain for not supporting Webb’s 21st Century G.I. bill. In response, McCain released a lengthy…

House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas Rove
So much for all those negotiations: The subpoena issued Thursday orders Rove to testify before the House panel on July 10. He is expected to face questions about the White House’s role in firing nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 and…

No Nightmare Ticket

I have no idea what’s in Sen. Hillary Clinton’s head as far as her endgame is concerned. But there is speculation (uninformed, probably) that she wants maximum leverage to pressure Sen. Barack Obama into putting her on the ticket. (UPDATE: Time reports President Clinton is pushing his wife for VP, but no one knows what Sen. Clinton wants.)

That would be a disastrous idea for several reasons.

Wrong Message: It undermines Obama’s central campaign theme of “change,” that it’s time to “turn the page.”

Looks Weak:It would be perceived as a decision made under duress, indirectly undermining his foreign policy argument that he would maintain toughness while conducting diplomacy.

Constant Distractions: The Clintons are a continuing train wreck of psychodrama that would repeatedly distract and overshadow. (Note how far President Clinton’s poll numbers have dropped in recent months.)

Iraq: Obama would have difficulty attacking McCain’s foreign policy judgment on the Iraq war if his running mate displayed the same poor judgment.

The main argument for Clinton is to help bring in more white working-class voters. But just because she’s doing better than Obama with them in the primary is no evidence she’s the only or best option to attract those voters.

For example, Sen. Jim Webb (VA), Gov. Ted Strickland OH), Sen. Blanche Lincoln (AR), former Sen. Sam Nunn (GA), Sen. Evan Bayh (IN), Sen. Jay Rockefeller (WV). Gov. Phil Bredesen (TN), Gov. Brian Schweitzer (MT), Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (KS), just to name a few.

Furthermore, I’m not convinced Obama needs the electoral college help.

He’s beating McCain in seven out of eight major polls taken this month: up 10 points in yesterday’s Zogby poll., others generally around 5-7.

Yes, it’s early for national polls. But keep in mind polls from this month have been conducted after Obama has taken plenty of fire, and McCain has gotten off light.

He may be relatively weak in Appalachia. But he’s still holds PA versus McCain. And a lead that big should help Obama pick up states like Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico and maybe more.

Everyone is focused on how to handle Clinton to avoid deep fissures in the party, for good reason. Obviously, Clinton should to be properly considered as any popular figure in the party would.

But expectations can’t get too high either.

A quicker decision may help in that regard. Expectations won’t build too much, and any bad feelings will have time to heal.

There’s no need to draw out the suspense. Obama’s candidacy is exciting on its own.

After Clinton concedes, the veep search should be the first order of business. And when the decision is made, and the vetting is completed, don’t wait to announce.

Bush defaced at State Dept.?
There’ve been stories before about State Department career employees’ unhappiness when an unknown Bush administration politico ordered historic diplomatic photographs removed from a hall leading to the department’s main cafeteria. They were replaced with huge color glossies extolling the diplomatic feats of President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and SecState Condoleezza Rice. (At this point, we probably shouldn’t even mention the huge jellybean portrait of George W. in the window of the candy shop one floor down, across from the Foggy Bottom cafe).