It's Sonia

Three weeks ago when David Souter announced he was stepping down from the Supreme Court, everyone assumed that Obama would nominate a woman, and preferably a minority, to replace him. Check and check.

Meet Sonia Sotomayor.

She was pretty much the frontrunner from day one, so this comes as no surprise. Will she be a good justice? I'm not an expert, but my lawyer friends seem unanimous in their praise of her. She's considered a liberal, but a moderate one rather than a firebrand. Assuming she's confirmed (a very, very safe assumption) she'll be the third woman and just the first latino to be on the court. Interestingly, she'll be the sixth Catholic in this particular court.

And let's toot Esquire's horn for a moment here as they called this way back in October:

If Obama becomes president, his first nominee to the Supreme Court will likely be Sonia Sotomayor. As a Hispanic woman with 16 years of court experience, Sotomayor would slay two of the court's lack-of-diversity birds with one swift stone. "These are criteria that matter these days. Even Laura Bush was disappointed that her husband didn't name a woman to replace Sandra Day O'Connor," says Mark Tushnet, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard. And because Sotomayor has a reputation for staying behind the scenes and sits on a federal bench known for its centrism, it's likely that she would be able to garner a two-thirds majority in the Senate, even if the Democrats only control an estimated 55 or so seats.

Well done to them. Hopefully she's paid all her taxes and didn't have a nanny off the books.

Also, for those of you who don't follow the court: This doesn't really change things. Souter was liberal, Sotomayor is liberal, so the balance of the court pretty much remains 5-to-4 conservative-to-liberal.

EDIT: TPM already has a pretty comprehensive and hilarious look at GOP talking points.

The DNC's New Best Friend

It's official. The Republican Party the best thing that ever happened to the Democrats.

Case in point: this video recently posted on YouTube by the RNC. It actually makes no fucking sense, but I vaguely suspect it's some kind of murder/sex masturbation fantasy centering around Nancy Pelosi. I mean, we've all had them, sure. But we don't go around posting them on YouTube.

Conservatives are hella tough

Anybody can take a waterboarding, especially if they know they're not actually gonna drown, right?

Witness

"I don't want to say this... Absolutely torture... No way in hell, had I known it was that bad would I have done that."

The words are from conservative radio host Eric "Mancow" Muller. And full credit to the guy for having the balls to 1) submit himself to torture, and 2) admit he was wrong.

And for some perspective... this dude lasted six seconds. The typical person lasts 14. And, ya know, isn't around friends with an EMT standing by.

Absolutely torture. That's our legacy right now.

Maureen Dowd...

Get out.

NEW YORK – New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has admitted to using a paragraph virtually word-for-word from a prominent liberal blogger without attribution.

Dowd acknowledged the error in an e-mail to The Huffington Post on Sunday, the Web site reported. The Times corrected her column online to give proper credit for the material to Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall.

The newspaper issued a formal correction Monday saying Dowd "failed to attribute a paragraph about the timeline for prisoner abuse" to Marshall's blog.

The error appeared in Dowd's Sunday column, in which she criticized the Bush administration's use of interrogation methods in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Just when the NYT was actually turning things around... *sigh*

We interrupt my snarky little blog...

To cross-post some actual journalism from an old friend of mine, Jon Rougeot.

Fighting for the Right to Marry in New York

My partner, Craig, and I are in our early 30s. We've been in a committed, monogamous relationship for more than two years. We are sickeningly in love with each other. So, of course we are naturally peppered with the question, "Are you going to get married?" To which we answer, "We would love to, but we can't." At least, not in our adopted home state of New York.

Good luck, Jon. We're with you.

When did Paul Begala get so funny?

Hilarious, if not exactly ground-breaking stuff from lil' Paul:

According to a CNN poll taken in December - back when Cheney was spending most of his time hiding in a secure and undisclosed location - a fourth of all Americans believe Cheney is the worst vice president in American history. The worst. Worse than Spiro Agnew, who was a crook. Worse than Richard Nixon who, well, was a crook. Worse than Dan Quayle, who's looking better and better compared to Cheney. Worse even than Aaron Burr, who shot a guy. Oh, wait. Never mind.

When I think competence...

I think Lehman Brothers. But I think it sarcastically.

Mayor Mike apparently lacks my well-developed sense of humor. Or perhaps I lack his. Either way, he appointed a former Lehman Brothers exec as head of the NYC Housing Authority, which is responsible for housing nearly half a million New Yorkers. Seriously, this isn't a bad joke.

Meet John B. Rhea:

A graduate of Wesleyan University who also holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School, Chairman Rhea began his career in the Fixed Income Division of PaineWebber Inc. He most recently served as Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Consumer/Retail Group at Barclays Capital (formerly Lehman Brothers) managing strategy and budget for one of the largest industry sector teams in investment banking.

Imagine the balls it takes to put the fact that you managed the budget - any budget! - at Lehman Bros. on your resume. Then imagine the balls it takes to hire that guy.

Sad thing is we're pretty much stuck with Bloomy for another four years since he bludgeoned term limits to death with the rod of unyielding hubris. Only way he loses is if Bill Clinton runs for mayor.

Anyone wanna start DraftBubbaNYC.org?

NY Assembly passes same-sex marriage bill

Go Team Sodomy! NY is trying to become the third state to allow gay marriage without going through the courts, but there's still some work to be done.

The fight to legalize gay marriage will now go to the Democratically controlled Senate where Majority Leader Malcolm Smith has said he will not bring the bill to the floor until he is sure he has the votes. Smith reiterated his personal support for gay marriage in a statement released earlier today. Word is that supporters of the bill in the Senate need to win around five votes to secure it’s passage.

Those five votes are most likely upstate in the BlueDog areas. Will it happen? Honestly I don't know, but here's the link for the NY State Senate: http://www.nysenate.gov/

Harass whomever you see fit to receive an email or phone call. FWIW, the NY Times identified Vincent L. Leibell and James S. Alesi as two of the most crucial swing-voters.

Just when you started feeling bad for the mainstream media...

We get this little bit of news: John Yoo, he-who-penned-the-fuck-the-Constitution-torture-is-happy BushCo. memos, was surreptitiously put on staff by the Philly Inquirer. Seriously.

The fact that the Inquirer has always been a shit paper doesn't really matter here, it's more the continuing principle that the press is more interested in being the news than breaking it, Frank Rich's tears from this weekend's NYTimes notwithstanding (and thanks to loyal reader Esteban for sending me this one):

The American Press on Suicide Watch

That’s why the debate among journalists about possible forms of payment (subscriptions, NPR-style donations, iTunes-style micropayments, foundation grants) is inside baseball. So is the acrimonious sniping between old media and new. The real question is for the public, not journalists: Does it want to pony up for news, whatever the media that prevail?

It’s all a matter of priorities. Not long ago, we laughed at the idea of pay TV. Free television was considered an inalienable American right (as long as it was paid for by advertisers). Then cable and satellite became the national standard.

By all means let’s mock the old mainstream media as they preen and party on in a Washington ballroom. Let’s deplore the tabloid journalism that, like the cockroach, will always be with us. But if a comprehensive array of real news is to be part of the picture as well, the time will soon arrive for us to put up or shut up. Whatever shape journalism ultimately takes in America, make no mistake that in the end we will get what we pay for.

Funny enough, I actually agree with Rich. It would be more meaningful, however, if he wasn't talking from atop the pinnacle of the "media-as-news" movement, namely the NYT Op-Ed page. And probably at a salary that could keep 5 real journalists employed.

But right now, that's what the MSM is: commentary of ideology in the hopes of landing a 5 minute spot on Olbermann or O'Reilly, as necessity dictates. God save the 4th estate from itself.

Stay crazy, GOP

Dick Cheney says it's a mistake for the GOP to "go moderate."

This is about fundamental beliefs and values and ideas … what the role of government should be in our society, and our commitment to the Constitution and constitutional principles.

Begs the question, since when did Cheney start caring about what's in the Constitution?

Good news for the Dems and bad for the idea of a legitimate 2-party system is that Cheney's not alone in trying to push the GOP even further to the right.

Social conservatives are blasting the National Council for a New America, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) nascent effort to rebrand the Republican Party, as a misguided and weak-kneed initiative that is out of touch with the GOP rank and file.

...

But social conservatives couldn’t help but notice that the policy areas the group will focus on included no mention of same-sex marriage, immigration or abortion. And the roster of GOP luminaries who signed on to the effort was missing a few of the pols who are most popular with values voters.

So while fewer folks are self-identifying as republican, and more folks are starting to come 'round on the social issues of the left, both the former vice president and the money-laden base want to run hard to the right.

We might see a 70 seat Dem senate and 260 seat house if this keeps up. Great news for the Dems, yes, but probably bad news for the country.

Will the Rockefeller Republican please stand up?

How to succeed in business without really trying

In doing some research for a script this morning, I came across this old collection of stories from the NY Times:

Supplier Under Scrutiny on Arms for Afghans
Finding of Fraud Led to Suspension of Company Supplying Arms to Afghanistan
Washington Blocks Exports of Munitions Firm Suspected of Fraud
Dealer Accused of Selling Banned Munitions to Army
American Envoy Is Linked to Arms Deal Cover-Up
Henry Waxman's letter to said envoy (PDF)
Army Awarded Contract, Unaware of Dealer’s Past
Not Guilty Plea In Ammunition Case
Albanian witness in U.S. arms probe dies suddenly
Speculation Surrounds Case of Albanian Whistle-Blower’s Death

Sadly, the story seems to have petered out. I'll assume that it simply hasn't come to trial yet, but I'll be googling Efraim Diveroli every couple of days from here on out just to make sure we stay current on what is really a pretty hilarious piece of bureaucracy.

Steele the figurehead and Obama the pragmatist

loltastic story of the day is erstwhile comedian Michael Steele losing his control over the RNC's budget after a series of calamitous public appearances followed by what appears to be a six-week banishment. Steele - you remember him as the guy who actually had the balls (stupidity?) to call question the divinity of Rush Limbaugh - now is nothing but a figurehead:

The "good governance" agreement revives checks and balances Mr. Steele resisted implementing for RNC contracts, fees for legal work and other expenditures that were not renewed after the 2008 presidential nominating contest.

I'm not sure this is a good or a bad things for the Dems. Good because the idea of secret meetings taking place to sort out public policy is exactly the type of thing that shows the GOP haven't learned shit; bad because it's hard to imagine the new leaders will be as inept as Steele.

...

Best column I've read in some time, courtesy of Robert Reich at TalkingPointsMemo. Reich points out that, while it's great that Obama is a pragmatist, it's not nearly enough.

I’m relieved the President is a pragmatist, but that doesn’t let him or anyone around him off the hook for describing what he wants to achieve and why. Being a pragmatist is a statement about means, not ends. It describes someone who chooses the most practical way of achieving a certain goal but it does not explain why he chooses one goal over another.

The President seems to me especially thoughtful and passionate about one of the great moral questions of domestic policy today: widening inequality of income and wealth, and therefore of opportunity and political power. As I’ve noted before, as recently as 1980, the richest 1 percent of Americans took home about 9 percent of total national income. But since then, income has concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. By 2007, the richest 1 percent took home 22 percent of total national income.