The Plum Line: September 26, 2010 - October 2, 2010
Open Thread
A quick note on the comments section. A number of you have emailed me and asked me to ban several commenters who have been trying to hijack the section with repeated posts that are identical and/or carry the taint of...
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Greg Sargent
| October 2, 2010; 8:42 AM ET |
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Happy Hour Roundup
* Rick Sanchez is out. A terse statement from CNN: "Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well." * Richard Blumenthal's campaign rushes out a new ad...
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Greg Sargent
| October 1, 2010; 6:09 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Foreign policy and national security, Happy Hour Roundup, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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Sharron Angle's M.O.: I never said what I plainly said!
Nevada journalist Jon Ralston has been doing a nice job documenting what he calls Sharron Angle's "pathological habit" of denying she ever said things that videotaped evidence proves she plainly did, in fact, say. Here's one of the clearest examples...
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Greg Sargent
| October 1, 2010; 3:57 PM ET |
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What Rick Sanchez said about CNN and Jews
The Web is burning up with this comment that CNN's Rick Sanchez made on a radio show, which seems like he's saying CNN and the networks are run by Jews: I'm telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a...
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Greg Sargent
| October 1, 2010; 2:16 PM ET |
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Will tomorrow's One Nation rally show enthusiasm gap closing? Will media care?
So how many people will turn out at tomorrow's big lefty rally on the national Mall? It's an important question, because the rally is turning into a key test of whether Dems can close the much-ballyhooed enthusiasm gap. The Service...
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Greg Sargent
| October 1, 2010; 12:37 PM ET |
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The Rouse era won't be better than the Rahm era
Adam Serwer is a staff writer with The American Prospect, where he writes his own blog. Count me among those who were critical of Rahm Emanuel's tenure as White House Chief of Staff. I found his willingness to compromise with...
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Adam Serwer
| October 1, 2010; 10:46 AM ET |
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The Morning Plum
* Maybe Dems haven't given up on beating Rand Paul, after all: There was a flurry of speculation last night that national Democrats had canceled their ads in the Kentucky Senate contest, leading some to assert that Dems no longer...
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Greg Sargent
| October 1, 2010; 8:30 AM ET |
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2010 elections, Health reform, House Dems, House GOPers, Morning Plum, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans
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Happy Hour Roundup
* One more quick word on TPM's report that the Claremont Institute claims the resume Christine O'Donnell submitted to the school said she'd studied at Oxford. Obviously this seemingly confirms beyond doubt that she fibbed about this, and makes it...
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Greg Sargent
| September 30, 2010; 6:40 PM ET |
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Closing the book on Christine O'Donnell Oxford flap
By now you may have heard that the claim that Christine O'Donnell studied at Oxford has now turned up on a second O'Donnell online resume, this one from ZoomInfo. I've got some more information on what happened from ZoomInfo, and...
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Greg Sargent
| September 30, 2010; 4:01 PM ET |
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Rank anti-mosque bigotry flops as campaign tactic
The other day, GOP candidate Renee Ellmers, who's mounting a tough challenge to Dem Rep Bob Etheridge in North Carolina, ran a rather unsightly new ad attacking her opponent over the "ground zero mosque." The ad used the terms "Muslims"...
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Greg Sargent
| September 30, 2010; 2:47 PM ET |
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Can Harry Reid make Sharron Angle's "extremism" matter to people?
Ever since video surfaced of Sharron Angle belittling mandated coverage for autism treatment, the Reid campaign has shifted its message, painting her "extremism" as not just nutty, but downright heartless. Here's the latest effort in that regard, a new Harry...
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Greg Sargent
| September 30, 2010; 1:51 PM ET |
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Confronting Islamophobic conspiracy theories
Adam Serwer is a staff writer for The American Prospect, where he writes his own blog. Frank Gaffney is part of a group of conservatives who have been trying to mainstream the conspiracy theory that the United States is on...
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Adam Serwer
| September 30, 2010; 12:01 PM ET |
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Foreign policy and national security
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Sharron Angle Republicans
When calling for repeal of health reform, most Republican officials and candidates soften the implications of the suggestion by adding that there are some provisions in the law they like, such as the mandate that insurance companies cover those with...
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Greg Sargent
| September 30, 2010; 11:11 AM ET |
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The Morning Plum
* As if House conserva-Dems didn't already have enough power: Read of the morning: Jonathan Weisman looks at the national map and concludes that House Dems who have bucked the Obama/Dem agenda are far more likely to remain in office...
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Greg Sargent
| September 30, 2010; 8:34 AM ET |
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LinkedIn responds to O'Donnell
* LinkedIn has now responded to Christine O'Donnell's claim that she had no role in posting her online bio, which falsely claimed she studied at Oxford. But right now, LinkedIn says, it's not yet in a position to determine whether...
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Greg Sargent
| September 29, 2010; 6:00 PM ET |
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The Charlie Crist crunch
Here's something really interesting about the topsy-turvy Florida Senate race: Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek both have an interest in pushing virtually identical assaults against the poor guy in the middle, Charlie Crist. Both Rubio and Meek, for...
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Greg Sargent
| September 29, 2010; 3:27 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Senate Dems
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Dems' bill would help more small businesses than extending tax cuts for rich
Fun fact of the day: The small business bill that the President signed earlier this week would help far more small businesses than extending the Bush tax cuts for those above $250,000. The small business bill was opposed by almost...
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Greg Sargent
| September 29, 2010; 2:05 PM ET |
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House Dems, House GOPers, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans, economy
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Christine O'Donnell speaks out on Oxford flap
With the story snowballing about Christine O'Donnell's LinkedIn profile falsely claiming she studied at Oxford, O'Donnell has just put out her first statement on the matter. O'Donnell acknowledges she studied at Phoenix Institute, not Oxford, but denies she ever established...
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Greg Sargent
| September 29, 2010; 12:16 PM ET |
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The ongoing Palinization of the First Amendment
Adam Serwer is a staff writer for The American Prospect, where he writes his own blog. During the 2008 Election, Sarah Palin adopted a tragically common interpretation of the First Amendment, that her critics were violating her right to freedom...
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Adam Serwer
| September 29, 2010; 10:44 AM ET |
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2010 elections, Campaign finance
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The Morning Plum
* The Tea Party-fication of the GOP continues apace? As I've noted here, the impact of the Tea Party on the GOP and the broader political landscape is only beginning to be felt, and now the new NBC/WSJ poll finds...
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Greg Sargent
| September 29, 2010; 8:35 AM ET |
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Happy Hour Roundup
* Whoops! The right had a grand old time mocking Russ Feingold's claim that he wasn't campaigning with Obama in Wisconsin today because he had to vote, but now Feingold is, in fact, campaigning with Obama -- because his votes...
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Greg Sargent
| September 28, 2010; 6:13 PM ET |
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It's Obama's fault people want to believe he's Muslim
Obviously President Obama has failed to persuade everyone in America that he's a Christian, and perhaps this is his fault because he doesn't publicly throw himself at every Jesus icon he encounters on his travels. But one thing I don't...
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Greg Sargent
| September 28, 2010; 4:18 PM ET |
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Dear White House: Here's how to handle the left's "whining"
I had planned to avoid the whole battle over Joe Biden's demand that the Democratic base "stop whining," because it's impossible to wade into this topic without getting caught up in a food fight over whether Obama and Dems have...
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Greg Sargent
| September 28, 2010; 1:49 PM ET |
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Another Christine O'Donnell embellishment: She misleadingly claims she studied at Oxford
In another move that will raise further questions about Christine O'Donnell's embellishment of her education record, she claims she studied at the University of Oxford -- but a look at her actual record shows this is at best an exaggeration...
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Greg Sargent
| September 28, 2010; 12:09 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Senate Republicans
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Testing 'American Taliban'
Adam Serwer is a staff writer at The American Prospect, where he writes his own blog. Over the past couple of weeks a number of liberal bloggers, including Glenn Greenwald, my colleague Jamelle Bouie and myself, have been arguing over...
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Adam Serwer
| September 28, 2010; 10:41 AM ET |
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The Morning Plum
* The GOP's massive midterm advantage: Important read of the morning: The Associated Press fleshes out the details of the lopsided, six-to-one edge right wing groups enjoy over the left as they flood the midterm elections with outside cash. Key...
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Greg Sargent
| September 28, 2010; 8:36 AM ET |
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2010 elections, House Dems, House GOPers, Morning Plum, Political media, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans, Tea Party
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Happy Hour Roundup
* Lefty group gunning for the "young guns": Starting tonight, if you Google "Young Guns," the new book by ambitious young conservative GOP leaders, you'll see a new Americans United for Change ad that says: "Meet The Young Guns --...
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Greg Sargent
| September 27, 2010; 6:32 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Happy Hour Roundup, House Dems, Senate Dems, Senate Republicans, Tea Party, economy
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Sebelius jumps into Nevada Senate race, blasts Angle autism comments
It isn't every day that a White House cabinet secretary thrusts herself this forcefully into a Senate race, but Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius today took a very hard shot at Sharron Angle over that widely-circulated video of...
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Greg Sargent
| September 27, 2010; 4:37 PM ET |
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Bizarre polling disconnect of the day
Public opinion is a strange and wonderful thing. CNN has a new poll out that finds a plurality thinks Congressional Republicans, not Dems, are the ones with solutions to our economic mess: Whose economic policies are more likely to improve...
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Greg Sargent
| September 27, 2010; 3:26 PM ET |
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Breaking: Daily Caller busts GOP press aides for ... seeking good press
As you probably recall, many Republicans and conservatives who surely knew better got carried away with outrage when the Daily Caller published its thorougly bogus series of hit pieces alleging that Journolist represented some kind of shadowy liberal conspiracy to...
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Greg Sargent
| September 27, 2010; 2:18 PM ET |
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The Tea Party-fication of GOP continues apace
A couple of interesting reads out today drive home in strikingly vivid terms just how sharp the GOP's turn to the right during the Obama era has really been. First, check out these fascinating factoids buried in Ron Brownstein's new...
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Greg Sargent
| September 27, 2010; 12:36 PM ET |
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2010 elections, Senate Republicans, Tea Party
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Who wants Sarah Palin to be president?
I haven't seen the question asked this way before. But this finding, buried in the internals of the new Politico poll, strongly suggests that while Sarah Palin's recent activities have elevated her national profile and dramatically enhanced her influence in...
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Greg Sargent
| September 27, 2010; 11:07 AM ET |
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2012
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Is Petraeus 'out of control?'
Adam Serwer is a staff writer at The American Prospect, where he writes his own blog. Responding to Bryan Curtis' review of Bob Woodward's recent book on the Afghanistan strategy deliberations within the White House, Andrew Sullivan has some harsh...
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Adam Serwer
| September 27, 2010; 10:40 AM ET |
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The Morning Plum
* Obama rips GOP "Pledge to America" as fundamentally unserious: The President, in an interview on NBC this morning, cranked up his attack on the GOP "Pledge to America," vowing that the remaining weeks of the midterms would lay bare...
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Greg Sargent
| September 27, 2010; 8:28 AM ET |
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