The Hollywood Liberal

Strickland Rejects Veep Consideration
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) — a very popular figure in a key swing state — “is not going to be Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate,” the Washington Post reports.

In a radio interview, Strickland said, “If drafted I will not run, nominated I will not accept and if elected I will not serve. So, I don’t know how more crystal clear I can be.”

Chuck Todd has more chatter on the names being floated.

50 Ways To Leave Your Rover
According to Paul Alexander’s new biography, “Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove,” The Architect didn’t jump, he was pushed.  And from a rather surprising edifice…

He’s just not that into you.
(White House photo by Joyce Boghosian)

According to Paul Alexander’s new biography, “Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove,” The Architect didn’t jump, he was pushed.  And from a rather surprising edifice…

On a Sunday in midsummer, George W. Bush accompanied Karl Rove to the Episcopalian Church Rove sometimes attended…. [O]n this Sunday, Rove thought he was doing what he often did: spending time with the man for whom he had worked, almost exclusively, for nearly a decade and a half. The two men entered the church along with their wives. They made their way to the front of the congregation. Then, during their time in the church, Bush gave Rove some stunning news.

“Karl,” Bush said, “there’s too much heat on you. It’s time for you to go.”

In the calm solitude of the church, these were no doubt the last words Rove expected to hear. But Bush had said them. They were now a reality. As anyone who serves at the pleasure of the president knows, Rove had to do as he was told.

“Yes, sir, Mr. President. I understand.”

Yes, that’s right: Dubya fired Rove in church, possibly because the Big Strong Resolute Decider was afraid that his jilted underling might cause a scene.

And if that’s not enough, here are some nice juicy quotes from disgruntled Republicans:

“Every Republican I know looks at the Bush administration as a total failure,” said Matt Towery, chairman of Newt Gingrich’s political organization.

“To do what he did politically to us is unforgivable,” Rep. Tom Tancredo told Alexander. “It will take generations to recover. I don’t know how long; maybe never.”

“I think the legacy is that Karl Rove will be a name that’ll be used for a long, long time as an example of how not to do it,” said long-time GOP strategist Ed Rollins.

Awesome.  Everyone sing along with me:

Launch him from the pew, Hugh
Dump him in the nave, Dave
Whack him with the cross, Boss
Just don’t make a scene

Throw him out the narthex, Tex– Okay, stopping now.

Feel free to add verses in the comments, tho!

(Thanks to egregious for the nave line, and bmaz, emptywheel, watertiger, Julia, Suzanne, and kirk for their backstage contributions and general inspiration)

Obama Says Faith Community to be a Priority of His Administration

Barack Obama privately met with religious leaders in Chicago today. His spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on the campaign plane today:

Reaching out to the faith community is a priority for Barack Obama and will be a priority under an Obama Administration. This is one of several meetings he will have over the coming months with religious leaders….He's done it before. He'll do it again.

He did it in South Carolina, here's his mailer(pdf).

As for who was present at the meeting, it was a combination Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants and Catholics. Among them: [More…]

Mega-pastor TD Jakes and pro-life Catholic constitutional law professor Doug Kmiec…Rich Cizik with the conservative National Association of Evangelicals, best selling Christian author Max Lucado, Luis Cortes, Paul Corts, Cameron Strang, Bishop Phillip Cousin, Rev Stephen Thurston, Glenn Palmberg and Dr T Dewitt Smith.

The meeting lasted two hours during which they prayed. The Christian News Network is thrilled:

This is one more example of how Obama is not just bringing in the 'religious left' into his coalition. He wants to bring in conservative figures, too. McCain has some work to do.

As for anti-choice law prof Doug Kmiec: “Kmiec is pro-life and has come out in support of Obama. “

Kmiec served Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush during 1985-89 as constitutional legal counsel (Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice).

Here's a list of his writings.

Oh My
Though, admittedly, it isn’t quite as much fun to gloat about the legal problems of the NY GOP as it used to be.

ALBANY — FBI agents removed files last Friday from the State Street offices of William D. Powers, a lobbyist and the state’s former Republican chairman.

Powers, of Chatham, has been a lobbyist since he stepped down as state GOP chairman in 2001 after holding the position for 11 years.

Fat Cat CEOs Too Dumb to Use Computers
Will their ignorance ever catch up with them?

SEIU’s Grover Norquist Strategy
According to the NY Times, it appears that the Service Employees International Union is developing a strategy to hold Democrats accountable to pro-working-class policies once in office: “In a move likely to upset some Democrats, the delegates approved an “accountability…

The Case Against Webb
Putting Jim Webb on the ticket with Obama makes a lot of sense on paper. He complements Obama’s weak points very well. Just speaking for myself, I’ve always thought it was an obvious choice. And there’s little question that he’s…

Not a Bump

Some have noticed Obama’s rise in the Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls (which, as I’ve noted before, are designed to track momentum shifts, not give solid snapshots of where the public stands), and are calling it a post-nomination “bump.”

But it’s not a bump in the traditional sense.

Candidates typically get a bump after their party’s convention because polls follow wall-to-wall positive media coverage. Similarly, the end of the primary process usually result in a round of triumphant stories. These bumps often fade, at least partially, once media coverage becomes mixed.

But a traditional burst of positive media didn’t really happen in this case.

Positive Obama stories have been overshadowed by stories about the end of Clinton’s campaign. Republican attacks have kept up a steady pace. And the whole dragged out thing had an anti-climatic air.

More likely, the “bump” is composed on Clinton supporters feeling more comfortable expressing support for Obama in a trial heat with McCain.

That’s not a “bump” that would quickly fade, but a “correction” that begins to cycle out intra-party friction and better reflects the current baseline of support.

The McCain folks are hyping how big Obama’s bump would be. But I wouldn’t necessarily expect a “correction” to be of the size of a post-convention bounce. Remember, Obama was already leading in most May polls anyway.

Of course, we’ll know more once we have a round of polls taken after Clinton’s concession speech. I believe a NBC/WSJ is slated for tomorrow…

ISPs to halt access to child abuse
ALBANY ? Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable have agreed to block access to Internet bulletin boards and Web sites nationwide that disseminate child pornography…

TSA nixes flying without ID
Flyers with no ID will be turned away starting in June without proof of loss.

FBI special agent predicts ?catastrophic attack? in ?revenge? for torture, Abu Ghraib.
Testifying at today’s Senate Judiciary hearing on coercive interrogation techniques, former FBI special agent Jack Cloonan deplored coercive interrogations for being “not effective” and said the perception that the U.S. tortures detainees has “helped to recruit a new generation of jihadist martyrs”: Based on my experience in talking to Al Qaida members, I am persuaded that […]

Testifying at today’s Senate Judiciary hearing on coercive interrogation techniques, former FBI special agent Jack Cloonan deplored coercive interrogations for being “not effective” and said the perception that the U.S. tortures detainees has “helped to recruit a new generation of jihadist martyrs”:

Based on my experience in talking to Al Qaida members, I am persuaded that revenge in the form of a catastrophic attack on the homeland is coming; that a new generation of jihadist martyrs, motivated in part by the images from Abu Ghraib, is, as we speak, planning to kill Americans; and that nothing gleaned from the use of coercive interrogation techniques will be of any significant use in forestalling this calamitous eventuality. […]

If I were the director of marketing of Al Qaida and intent on replenishing the ranks of jihadists, I know where my first piece of marketing collateral would be. It would be a blast e-mail with an attachment. The attachment would contain a picture of Private England pointing at the stacked naked bodies of the detainees at Abu Ghraib. This picture screams out for revenge and a day of reckoning will come.

Cloonan also repeatedly emphasized that the “rapport-building” method of interrogation is “more effective, efficient, and reliable” than coercive techniques — regardless of some conservatives’ determination to mock this method.