Booker Staffer Tells Senate GOP Opponent To 'Suck It'

I love this story. You have to give it to those loyal, over zealous staffers, they'll do or say just about anything on the behalf of those they work for and support.

Via TalkingPointsMemo.com

"The perils of digital communications: A staffer for Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) accidentally sent an email Friday to Booker's Republican opponent Jeff Bell with the following message: "JEFF BELL CAN SUCK IT." ... 

Booker's office acknowledged the mistake. 

“Earlier today a young staffer sent an email to Mr. Bell’s campaign by mistake that contained wholly inappropriate language," Beth DeFalco, communications director for Booker, told NRO. "She has apologized to Mr. Bell. Sen. Booker does not condone that type of language or tone being used anywhere.”

Read the full story.

BridgeGate Hits Next Level As Feds Launch Grand Jury Investigation

How soon does David Wildstein and Bridget Kelly start to sign like canaries?

From Talking Points Memo:

ERIC LACH – APRIL 4, 2014, 5:57 PM

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey have convened a grand jury to investigate the George Washington Bridge lane closures, ABC News reported on Friday.

Twenty-three grand jurors on Friday heard testimony from Michael Drewniak, press secretary to Gov. Chris Christie (R). Drewniak's attorney, Anthony Iacullo, told ABC News his client was not a target of the investigation.

"I'm not going to get into the specifics as to what would be discussed in the grand jury," Iacullo said. "I would say though that Mike is a witness and we have been assured that he continues to be a witness throughout these proceedings and Mike has continued to cooperate as requested by the government into this inquiry."

In January, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey confirmed that it was looking into the lane closures, which caused a multi-day traffic jam in Fort Lee, N.J. in September. But as ABC News reports, the existence of the grand jury confirms that the matter has evolved into a criminal investigation. Last week, a legal team representing Christie's office released a report claiming the governor had no role in the closures, and pinning blame for the plot on two former Christie allies: former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive David Wildstein and former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly.

ABC News on Friday also reported that a team of state prosecutors in New Jersey are monitoring the federal case, and "are prepared to continue the investigation on the state level if the feds turn it over to them."

Obamacare Numbers On Track To Enroll 7 Million At Deadline

Obamacare Sign-Ups on Track to Hit 7 Million on Final Day - Talking Points Memo

NJ Senate President Steve Sweeney Rejects Maddow's Alternate Bridge Scandal Theory

Eric Lach – TalkingPointsMemo
January 10, 2014

New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) on Friday dismissed an alternate theory that was floated by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow about the George Washington Bridge scandal. 

"That's a real conspiracy thing, right?" Sweeney said, after TPM described to him the gist of Maddow's argument. 

On her Thursday night program, Maddow suggested that the target of the lane closures, which led to a massive, multi-day traffic jam in the town of Fort Lee, N.J., was not the town's Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich. In recent months, many Democrats have speculated that Sokolich was retaliated against because he did not endorse Gov. Chris Christie's (R) re-election bid last year. 

Instead, Maddow suggested, the lane closures were prompted by Christie's bitter fight with Senate Democrats over re-appointments and nominees to the state Supreme Court. The cable news host pointed out that Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg's (D) district includes Fort Lee. She also noted that a key moment in the Supreme Court fight happened the day before one of Christie's aides sent a now-infamous email that read: "Time for traffic problems in Fort Lee." 

But Sweeney, who said he did not see Maddow's program, rejected the theory.
"That can't be part of that, that can't be," he told TPM, referring to the Supreme Court fight, later adding: "Whoever said that has a very creative imagination." 

Sweeney suggested that now that federal prosecutors are looking into the bridge incident, the truth about the lane closures will eventually come out. 

"They're going to get to the bottom of it," he said.

See the video of Maddow's alternate theory here

Pallone Rips GOP's HealthCare.gov Hearing As 'Monkey Court'

GREAT JOB FRANK!

From Talking Points Memo:

During the House Energy and Commerce Committee's hearing on HealthCare.gov's launch, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) ripped the hearing as a "monkey court" used by his Republican colleagues to bash the Affordable Care Act.

He seized on a line of questioning from Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who suggested that the private health information of Americans was at risk because of the website's poor design.

"I started out in my opening statement saying there was no legitimacy to this hearing and the last line of the questioning certainly confirms that. HIPAA only applies when there's health information being provided," Pallone said. "That's not in play here today. No health information is required in the application process. And why is that? Because pre-existing conditions don't matter. So once again, here we have my Republican colleagues trying to scare everybody."

"If the gentleman will yield..." Barton interjected.

"No, I will not yield to this monkey court or whatever," Pallone barked.

"This is not monkey court," Barton objected.

"Do whatever you want. I am not yielding," Pallone said.

The full exchange is below.

Punk’d TV Station Airs Bogus Names Of Pilots In San Francisco Crash

A San Francisco TV station KTVU, got Bart Simpson’d last night when it aired bogus names of the pilots from the Asiana Airlines flight 214 that crashed earlier in the week.

This is hilarious but is just another sad example of today's falling journalism standards.



(Hat tip to Talking Points Memo)

Cut And Grow Fail: CBO Schools Tea Party Freshman In Basic Economics

This little ditty was posted Friday on Talking Points Memo. It should be a wake-up call to all those TEA partiers and other right-wingers out there that think that all will be fine in the world if we only cut spending and do nothing to increase revenue.

Unfortunately though, regardless of economic schooling provided by the CBO, there will those that continue to burry their heads in the sand and refuse to believe anything a socialist government agency has to say:

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), a Tea Party-backed freshman who voted against the final debt limit bill, recently asked to hear from the Congressional Budget Office about the impact of government spending on economic growth. It's an article of faith on the right that vastly shrinking government will unleash the forces of private enterprise, and faced with CBO's opposing view, Huelskamp wanted to know the answer to two questions:

1). What current federal departments, agencies, programs, or portions thereof do not contribute to economic growth?

2). In the programs that CBO believes do contribute to economic growth, what level of spending cuts would amount to a level you believe would be significant enough to "probably slow the economic recovery"?

But if the newly elected member of the Budget Committee was hoping the non-partisan CBO would buy into his premise, he'll be sorely disappointed.

In a response letter Thursday, CBO-chief Doug Elmendorf gives Huelskamp a layman's lesson in Keynesian economics: Under current economic circumstances, new federal spending would help economic growth, and current and future cuts could stymie it, particularly if they hit key government investment.

"When demand for goods and services falls short of the economy's ability to produce them, as is the case currently, increasing government spending can increase aggregate demand and thereby narrow the gap between the economy's actual and potential levels of output," Elmendorf writes.

The precise details matter. The more robust the economy, the lower the impact. But, according to Elmendorf, "when the Federal Reserve's ability to lower short-run interest rates is constrained because those rates are already near zero, as they are currently, the short-run effects of changes in government spending on output tend to be larger than usual."

To illustrate the point, Elmendorf notes that deficit reduction measures that cut spending by $100 billion next fiscal year, and hundreds of billions more over the coming decade "would decrease real (inflation-adjusted) gross national product (GNP) in 2012, 2013, and 2014 by amounts ranging from roughly 0.1 percent to 0.6 percent depending on the year and the assumptions used." In other words, the GOP's current governing theory is damaging the economy and, by implication, costing jobs. And for those Republicans who want to cut more, " a reduction in primary deficits that followed the same gradual time path but was twice as large would produce macroeconomic effects that were roughly twice as large."


Talking Points Memo on Facebook
There are important growth-related reasons to reduce deficits if and when the economy improves -- it reduces the extent to which government spending "crowds out" private investment, by undertaking functions the private sector can do more efficiently. But we're not there yet and, according to CBO, won't be until the end of the decade. Spending cuts like the ones describe above, "[a]t the turn of the decade, from 2019 through 2021...would increase [GNP] by roughly 0.5 percent to 1.4 percent."

But again the specifics matter, and if the GOP wants to slash across the board, they'll do damage anyhow.

"Some types of spending, such as funding for improvements to roads and highways, may add to the economy's potential output in much the same way that private capital investment does," Elmendorf writes. "Other policies, such as funding for grants to increase access to college education may raise long-term productivity by enhancing people's skills. The positive longer-term impact of deficit reduction on GNP would be smaller if the policies that reduced deficits included cuts in productive government investments."

Huelskamp's original letter is here. Read Elmendorf's response here.

The letters stem from the below exchange between Huelskamp and Elmendorf at a recent Budget committee hearing. Elmendorf and Huelskamp are arguing two different points. Huelskamp would like to see big cuts to federal safety net programs and other spending. Elmendorf argues that while the macroeconomic consequences of slashing some of those programs might be minimal in the long run, the near-term impact would be significant, given the current downturn.

Poll: 26% Of U.S. Clueless On Who We Declared Independence From

I suppose ignorance is bliss, but leading into the 4th of July holiday weekend you would think even the most ignorant amongst us would know from what country the United States gained it's Independence from. I bet it wouldn't be hard to guess from who's base the 26% belong to;

TPM LiveWire

Pop quiz: Who was emperor when the United States declared independence from China?

Give up?

Perhaps you should ask one of the Americans who, when asked what country the U.S. separated from, named France, Japan, Mexico, Spain or, yes, China.

A new Marist poll shows that 26% of people in this country don't know that the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain. That includes 20% who aren't sure -- and another 6% who think it was another country.

Looking at the numbers more deeply, it appears the closer to 1776 you were born, the more likely you are to know the correct answer. So enjoy the July 4th holiday, everyone, and don't forget to be thankful that we're out from under the yoke of our Mexican colonial oppressors.

Hat tip to Mario DeStefano

Taking Responsibility Chris Christie Style

Josh Marshall | October 27, 2009 - Talkingpointmemo

You may remember, about a month and a half ago, another incident emerged in Chris Christie's troubled history driving cars.

Back in 2002, on the way to an event, Christie turned the wrong way onto a one-way street and struck a motorcyclist head on, seriously injuring the guy on the motorcycle. There were all sorts of questions about just how that happened and whether Christie got off easier than your average Joe might have. There was also the small matter of Christie saying he'd never been sued over the incident, despite evidence emerging later that a suit had been filed and then dropped, apparently after an out of court settlement. But there never seemed to be any dispute that Christie ... well, hit a guy on a motorcycle while driving the wrong way on a one way street.

But on Fox & Friends this morning, when asked about the incident, Christie denied it ever happened. "I was not driving the wrong way down a one way street and the Governor knows it," Christie said. "I didn't hit someone, they hit me."

Beyond Brown: Did Another Top Christie Aide Politicize Prosecutor's Office To Help Former Boss?

TMPMuckraker-

So far, the charges that Chris Christie turned the U.S. attorney's office into a "branch office" of his campaign for governor, as Jon Corzine put it yesterday, have centered on the relationship between Christie and Michele Brown, a close friend and top aide to Christie when he was US attorney. Brown reportedly took several actions this year that benefited Christie's GOP bid for governor, and in 2007 got an undisclosed $46,000 loan from him.

But did another of Christie's former top aides also put the prosecutor's office in the service of his one-time boss's political aspirations? Ralph Marra, who until this month was the acting U.S. attorney, has several times appeared to insert himself into the political back-and-forth over the race, appearing to pointedly criticize a request by the Corzine campaign for public information, and even triggering a Justice Department probe into whether he made inappropriately political public comments that may have boosted Christie.

Let's look at the facts:

Christie has had a major hand in the Marra's rise up the prosecutorial ranks. When Christie became U.S. attorney in 2002, he made Marra, a veteran prosecutor, his first assistant, the number 2 post in the office. Then when Christie stepped down last December to run for governor, Marra became acting U.S. attorney. (Marra returned to the first assistant position last week, with the confirmation of the new U.S. attorney, Paul Fishman.)

In July, Marra went before the cameras to announce a high-profile corruption bust that involved the arrests of a bevy of New Jersey mayors, elected officials, and rabbis. (It was this same bust that Brown reportedly tried to change the timing of, in one of her own apparent bids to help Christie.)

The case as a whole was a boon to Christie, under whose leadership much of the investigation had been carried out. And it appeared to damage Corzine, by focusing attention on the state's rotten political culture which the incumbent governor had earlier pledged to clean up. But at the press conference, Marra made sure that message wasn't lost, departing from the "just-the-facts" approach that prosecutors customarily take in such cases, and instead seeming to point the finger at the Corzine administration. Said Marra:

There are easily reforms that could be made within this state that would make our job easier, or even take some of the load off our job. There are too many people that profit off the system the way it is and so they have no incentive to change it. The few people that want to change it seem to get shouted down. So how long that cycle's going to continue I just don't know.
According to video of the press conference, Marra also declared:

With so many profiting off a corrupt system is it any wonder that few want to change the system? Once again the victims in this are the average citizens and honest business people in this sate. They don't have a chance in this culture of corruption.

The Justice Department's internal ethics unit subsequently opened an investigation into whether his comments violated departmental guidelines that forbid political statements from prosecutors. (DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TPMmuckraker about the status of the probe.)

Then in August, Marra sent an email to the U.S. attorney's office staff, obtained by PolitickerNJ.com, in which he slammed the "barrage of FOIA requests" which the Corzine campaign had made earlier that year, seeking information on Christie's tenure as U.S. attorney. Marra said the requests had "unfairly drawn [the office] into a political campaign." He also denounced what he called the "wholly trumped up (and then apparently leaked) complaint" by the Corzine campaign that led to the DOJ probe of his press conference comments, and defended those comments as "generic and general."

As we noted yesterday, back in February Christie had appeared to announce his intention to appoint his former colleagues to positions in his administration, if elected. He told a crowd of supporters: "I've got a group of assistant U.S. attorneys sitting down in Newark ... I'm going to take a whole group of them to Trenton with me and put them in every one of the departments."

It's worth asking whether some of Christie's former colleagues, like Marra and Brown, decided to use their positions to help make that happen.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dem Women: Kyl, McDonnel and Christie Are 'Backward'

From TPM -

In a DNC conference call this afternoon, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) and State Del. Margaret Vanderhye (D-VA) accused members of the Republican party of being "backward" and "out of touch" on women's issues.

The call targeted Republican gubernatorial candidates Chris Christie in New Jersey and Bob McDonnell in Viriginia, as well as Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Republicans in general.

"I think we have an outdated view, an extreme view, a lack of understanding of what women's lives are like today and the role of women in America," Stabenow said. She wouldn't, however, use the word "sexist."

The lawmakers cited Republicans' opposition to health care reform as evidence, since women are usually in charge of their families' health care, and are disproportionately hurt by current health insurance policy.

Read more >>>Here

In New TV Ad, Christie Explains Exactly What He'll Do As Governor (Sorta)

TalkingPointsMemo.com - Eric Kleefeld
October 5, 2009

Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, the Republican nominee for Governor of New Jersey, seems to be responding to the mounting criticism that he's failed to give specifics on how he would fix the state. In a new TV ad he explains exactly what he'll do -- in the form of generalities.

"Here's exactly what I'll do as governor," Christie says boldly. "I'll cut spending and end the special interest giveaways. I'll cut taxes and restore your property tax rebates. I'll bring good jobs back to New Jersey not chase them to other states. And I'll make sure all our children get the education they deserve."

Note:
It would be nice to know how he would do all of this considering that the Corzine Administration is already doing it. And how would he pay for it?

Might Be Big Trouble for Christie

Josh Marshall - TPM:

As noted earlier, we sent Eric Kleefeld down to the Elizabeth, New Jersey police department headquarters to get the police report on gubernatorial Chris Christie's wrong-way collision with a motorcyclist back in 2002. And here's Eric's write-up on the report.

But just a few moments ago, another big development surfaced -- an apparent lie about the accident Christie was caught in by New Jersey public television station NJN.

One of the things that made us most curious about this was that Christie's negligence (he was driving the wrong direction on a one-way street) seemed so clear that we were wondering whether the accident didn't lead to a lawsuit.

Earlier today, NJN asked Christie whether the accident had led to a lawsuit. And Christie said, point blank, no.

But a few hours after getting Christie's flat denial, NJN found records of a 2004 suit, which appears to have been later settled out of court.

We're going to keep on this and see what more we can find out. But this looks about as close as you can find to a straight up, caught red-handed lie by Christie.

Did Christie Break DOJ Rules By Pulling Rank On Traffic Stop?

From TPMMuckraker:

New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's spotty driving record is one thing. But what's worse is that he may have violated clear Justice Department guidelines by pulling rank with cops on the scene.

Today we learned about a 2002 episode in which Christie hit a motorcyclist after making a wrong-turn that had him briefly going the wrong way down a one-way street in Elizabeth. The motorcyclist ended up in hospital, but Christie didn't get so much as a ticket. And a police official told the Star Ledger that Christie "did identify himself as U.S. attorney."


That would seem to contravene Justice Department guidelines on standards of conduct, which state:

Use of Title. With rare exceptions, employees engage in outside activities in their private rather than official capacities. Therefore, when engaging in outside activities in their private capacity, employees may not indicate or represent in any way that they are acting on behalf of the Department, or that they are acting in their official capacity.
But wait! According to the Star-Ledger, Christie was on his way to the swearing-in of the Union County prosecutor at the time of the accident. That means that he could at least make the case that the standards might not apply in this case, since he wasn't engaging in an outside activity in a private capacity.

But that's not the only dodgy driving Christie incident we've learned about lately. In 2005, Christie was cited for speeding and for driving in an unregistered, uninsured vehicle after being pulled over by cops in Lambertville. The local police director has said that, as in the Elizabeth case, Christie "identified himself" as a U.S. attorney.

And in this case, Christie almost certainly wasn't acting in an official capacity. He's said he was with his family and his deputy, Michele Brown, and that the group was on its way to a University of Delaware football game. That means the Justice Department guidelines almost certainly would apply.

A lawyer for the Justice Department offered support for that notion, telling TPMmuckraker in an email:

One of the first things you are trained on as part of your orientation is that you never ever ever ever attempt to avoid traffic citations or legal penalties by showing your credentials to an officer or by telling an officer who you are. You are shown videos of people attempting it, you sign a statement stating that you will not misuse credentials or position, and you are told in no uncertain terms that not only is such behavior a violation of Department policy - a Department Christie was employed with as a United States Attorney - it is also a serious ethical violation as an attorney.

The lawyer called Christie's rank-pulling "inexcusable, because it is so clearly a violation of the public trust and his obligations as an attorney."

And a former federal prosecutor agreed, saying via email "we were told quite explicitly that flashing creds to get out of a ticket was a serious misuse of authority."

The Christie campaign hasn't responded to multiple attempts over at TPMDC to contact them about the incident. We'll keep you posted if we get a response.

Candidate For RNC Chair Sends Out CD With Song Called "Barack, The Magic Negro"

You would think that after the trouncing the GOP took at the polls in November, where the national ticket lost badly among growing voter groups such as young people, Hispanics and suburbanites that leaders of the GOP would be a little more sensitive than this.

Using race as a divide in order to gain political points is wrong no matter what the intentions of individuals are.  

  

Yesterday afternoon the following story was picked up by  Talking Points Memo. It was first reported on by the Hill  and followed up by Poltico.com just a couple of hours ago.

"If one of the Republican Party's challenges is how to effectively oppose the first black president without coming off as racist, one of the candidates for RNC chair is hardly off to a good start -- he is now distributing a CD that includes a racially-charged song called "Barack, The Magic Negro."

Chip Saltsman, the former campaign manager for Mike Huckabee, has distributed a goodie bag to committee members that includes a CD by Paul Shanklin, a writer of right-wing parody tunes who is often featured on Rush Limbaugh. The "Magic Negro" track, which first gathered controversy in the Spring of 2007, featured Shanklin portraying Al Sharpton as an Amos & Andy stereotype, ridiculing white liberals who support Obama.

Saltsman defended the choice of the Shanklin CD, telling The Hill: "Paul Shanklin is a long-time friend, and I think that RNC members have the good humor and good sense to recognize that his songs for the Rush Limbaugh show are light-hearted political parodies." "

Read the follow up story from Poltico.com >>> Here

EMBRACE IT: Lipstick on a pig

Blog by -Josh Marshall
Let's face it. Lipstick on a pig is a classic American phrase. And there's just no better way to describe the McCain-Palin ticket. The 'Reformer' whose whole campaign and senate office is run by a crew of high-rolling DC lobbyists? The earmark slayer whose state this year got ten times more earmarks than any other state in the country? Whose city when she was mayor got twenty times as many? The whole operation is just one big bamboozling lie. And lipstick on a pig is just using good American English to explain it. If McCain and Palin don't like it they should have thought of that before they decided to run as frauds.

Gallup: For Every Voter Palin Wins Over, Another Jumps To Obama

A new polling analysis from Gallup suggests that John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin may have helped him solidify his support among Republican women -- but it may have also alienated other voters and made the whole thing a wash for now.

Gallup's polling finds that McCain support among Republican women has increased from 85% to 90% in the last few days since Palin's selection. But on the other hand, his numbers have gone down among other groups: He's fallen by four points among independent men and three points with indy women, and is down by five points with Democratic men and two points with Dem women. So Palin hasn't really helped him so far.

"Instead, the data suggest that McCain has in essence fought a rear-guard action of sorts among white women of his own GOP base," the analysis finds, "building their support to a degree even as he was losing support among independents and Democrats of both genders."

The Palin Meltdown in Slo-Mo

From Talking Points Memo
By Greg Sargent - September 1, 2008

On the same day that the Republicans were forced to dramatically cut back their convention activities, the Palin Meltdown unfolded with extraordinary speed. It's worth pondering the totality of what happened today, in a mere half day...

* The news that Palin once backed the Bridge to Nowhere went national.

* It emerged that Palin has links to the bizarro Alaska Independence Party, which harbors the goal of seceding from the union that McCain and Palin seek to lead.

* The news broke that as governor, Palin relied on an earmark system she now opposes. Taken along with the Bridge to Nowhere stuff, this threatens to undercut her reformist image, something that was key to her selection as McCain's Veep candidate.

* The news broke that Palin's 17-year-old daughter became pregnant out of wedlock at a time when the conservative base had finally started rallying behind McCain's candidacy.

* Barely moments after McCain advisers put out word that McCain had known of Bristol Palin's pregnancy, the Anchorage Daily News revealed that Palin's own spokesperson hadn't known about it only two days ago.

* A senior McCain adviser at the Republican convention was forced into the rather embarrassing position of arguing that McCain had known about the pregnancy "last week" -- without saying what day last week he knew about it.

* It came out that Republican lawyers are up in Alaska vetting Palin -- now, more than 72 hours after it was announced that she'd been picked.

* Palin lawyered up in relation to the trooper-gate probe in Alaska -- a move that ensures far more serious attention to the story from the major news orgs.

What else will come out today? After all, there are still six hours left until September 2nd...