Last Call

Now, I've talked about Jeb Bush's mad education privatizing schemes involving replacing schools with "internet learning centers" run by the for-profit education corporations, but that hasn't stopped him from dropping hints about 2016:

Jeb Bush wouldn’t say Wednesday night whether or not he’s likely to run for president in 2016, but at Saint Leo University he did suggest a surprising role model for the sort of president he’d strive to be: Lyndon Johnson.

No, the conservative former Florida governor didn’t hail Johnson’s Great Society initiatives. Instead, he hailed Johnson’s forceful, hands-on leadership that among other things produced a 25 percent across-the-board income tax cut.

“He went and he cajoled, he begged, he threatened, he loved, he hugged, he did what leaders do, which is they personally get engaged to make something happen,’’ said Bush, who recently read Robert Caro’s latest Johnson biography.

Bush’s homage to Johnson before several hundred people at the Pasco County campus was one of his only shots at President Barack Obama, who has earned a reputation for avoiding hands-on negotiating with congressional leaders.

“I saw an unnamed person in the White House about a month ago say, 'You know, Lincoln would have had a hard time in the climate we’re in today, with the Republicans being so intractable,’ ” Bush said. “Really? You’re comparing what we have today to a civil war? Really?”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/14/3234145/former-gov-jeb-bush-talks-immigration.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

Here's the funny part about ol Jebbie here, who doesn't believe there's a civil war in the GOP right now.:  the wingers don't want any part of the guy. 



Good luck, dude.  You're gonna need it.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/14/3234145/former-gov-jeb-bush-talks-immigration.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

Sequestration Nation

Joshua Green over at Bloomberg News has one theory why Republicans are so eager to let sequestration kick in:  it'll hurt Dem districts more, a Bloomberg study finds:

The study shows that Democratic congressional districts will be harder hit by the military cuts than Republican ones, and that eight of the top 10 districts that will experience the deepest cuts are represented by Democrats. Robert Levinson, the Bloomberg Government defense analyst who conducted the study, found that “Democrats won 47 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives in the 2012 election, but 58 percent of the military’s fiscal 2012 prime contract spending went to companies performing work in those districts.” Among the top districts, military spending in those represented by Democrats averaged $893 million this year, vs. $573 million in those represented by Republicans.

Which districts will experience the most pain? Topping the list is Missouri’s first district, which is represented by Democrat William Lacy Clay and received $11.4 billion in “prime defense contract dollars.” Interestingly, Clay may not have to worry. Much of the defense work in his district is done by Boeing for the Saudi government and therefore won’t get cut. Democratic Representative James Moran, on the other hand, is probably concerned about the $11.3 billion sent to Virginia’s eighth district. Rounding out the top three is Republican Representative Kay Granger, whose Texas 12th district received $9.8 billion last year. Representative Morris Brooks of Alabama’s fifth district is the only other Republican in the top 10, with $5.9 billion in contracts headed his way.

Now defense pork is still defense pork, but I'd have to say that this explains at least somewhat the GOP about face on the sequester in the last month or so, and why they've been trying to do everything they can to shift blame for it to the Democrats.  The bigger issue is that Republicans are completely okay with the sequester at this point as long at Dem voters get hurt.   And considering a lot of actually useful things in the defense budget are going to get the axe (VA programs, medical care, VAWA provisions for the military, etc) well, as long as Dems feel pain, the Republicans don't seem to mind at all...

The Absolution Solution

Conservative Republicans believe three things about black voters:

1. We voted for Barack Obama simply because he's black,
2. If Republicans had a credible black Tea Party candidate for president, they would split the Democrats' black/Latino coalition, and
3. Nobody could ever call Republicans racist again if that candidate won the White House.

In other words, wingers think it would usher in that "near-permanent Republican majority" they've been dreaming of.  Ideally in their little zero-sum world, it would be a black conservative versus Hillary Clinton in 2016, splitting black voters from white women.

Of course before Republicans can test this theory, they have to find a conservative black candidate without all of Herman Cain's ridiculous baggage and creepy demeanor.  Some think they have found that candidate this month in Dr. Ben Carson, or at least Dave Weigel seems to think so.

On February 7, at the usually-sleepy National Prayer Breakfast, pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson talked for a surprising 23 minutes about the national debt and the threat of political correctness. It was surprising because Carson has been a famed physician for at least 26 years, ever since he participated in the first separation of Siamese twins conjoined at the head. Not many people realized that Carson had just written a book of political musings, and that he would take this live-on-C-Span opportunity to summarize it.

Carson immediately became a star, as compelling black conservatives seem to do. How could they resist a black physician who criticized the president while the president sat there, bearing it? The next day, Carson appeared on Sean Hannity's TV show. He critiqued the State of the Union on Fox News. He joined Twitter today and rapidly crossed the 7,000 follower mark. (For comparison, black Republican Sen. Tim Scott has 19,000-odd followers after a month in the Senate.) His book, America the Beautiful, surged to the top 5 on Amazon.

And now I see that he's joining Newt Gingrich and Paul Ryan on This Week.

Here's part of the speech after the jump:

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Federal prosecutors have charged former Democratic Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. with misuse of $750,000 in campaign funds for allegedly personal gain.
• NASA is looking to send a probe to Jupiter's moon Europa to explore the ice-covered moon for signs of life.
• California state parks officials kept a hidden surplus for as much as $20 million over 20 years, according to state investigators.
• Singapore's first Prime Minister, 89-year old Lee Kuan Yew, has been hospitalized by a stroke-like event linked to irregular heartbeat.
• Facebook found several of its engineers' PCs had been hacked through last month's Java exploit, but the company assures users and investors that no data was compromised.

Last Call

Politico's Ken Vogel picked a fight with the wrong guy...Nate Silver.

Polling guru Nate Silver and Politico investigative reporter Ken Vogel lobbed angry messages at each other Friday on Twitter over, of all things, whether to call something a “clarification” or a “correction.”

At issue was an article Silver had written for the New York Times about GOP strategist Karl Rove’s new Conservative Victory Project, which was formed to back electable Republican candidates in order to win back a majority in the Senate.

After the article was published, Silver updated the piece and appended a clarification to the end explaining the change. Vogel thought that note should have been labled a “correction” instead, and he took to Twitter to complain. Silver fired back, and the battle was on.

“At this point you’re just being a troll and misleading your Twitter followers about what I wrote,” Silver wrote to Vogel. “Grow up.”

“I’m happy to have a debate about this in any forum you chose, but please try to stick to the merits & avoid name calling,” Vogel responded.

This isn’t the first time Silver has sparred with someone at Politico. In late November, he said the news outlet covers politics like sports but “not in an intelligent way at all.” Politico media reporter Dylan Byers also wrote critically of Silver ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

Responding to the spat, Silver told TPM in an email on Friday: “I’ve been pretty jetlagged and had forgotten that the first rule of the Internet is ‘don’t feed the trolls.’ Was a mistake for me to get involved on Twitter.”

True, but it's fun to beat up WIN THE MORNING.  Hell, I do it whenever possible, but picking a nerd fight with the High King of all Political Wonks?  Bad idea, Vogel.

Read the play-by-play after the jump: