“The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to.” Code Pink’s Super Bowl.

Medea Benjamin being led out of the auditorium during Obama's speech.

Via: Rosie Gray/Buzzfeed

WASHINGTON — A protester from Code Pink managed to interrupt President Obama's major counterterrorism speech for a few minutes on Thursday, shouting about drone strikes and the killing of 16-year-old Abdulrahman al-Awlaki — and eliciting an unexpectedly sympathetic response from the president.

Medea Benjamin, a frequent heckler at congressional hearings and other political and governmental events in Washington, was the protester. She began shouting near the end of the president's speech as he started talking about wanting to close Guantanamo. At first, security allowed her to stay, with one agent sitting down next to her. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough appeared to roll his eyes as the crowd clapped to try to drown her out. When she started shouting again, more security — as well as a pack of media — came over, and she was eventually carried out of the room. At that point, McDonough looked overtly displeased. Afterward, reporters were surprised that Benjamin hadn't been recognized before getting into the auditorium.

According to Priscilla Huff, a senior producer with Feature Story News who was behind Benjamin in line, Benjamin had a green press like the rest of the press corps. Huff said the press pass stated her name was Susan, and that no one seemed to recognize her. Instead of wearing an all-pink outfit, Benjamin had a dress on. The tells: a hot pink belt and flip-flops, which "none of us wear," Huff said.

Alli McCracken, a Code Pink national coordinator, told BuzzFeed that the organization didn't know Benjamin was planning to do this.

"We've been planning a protest outside the president's speech since about a week ago," McCracken said. Other Code Pink protestors are gathered outside National Defense University in southwest Washington, where the president gave his speech.

"Medea didn't show up to the protest," McCracken said. "So we were broadcasting the president's speech over loudspeakers and we were all kind of moaning and groaning, and then we heard Medea's voice."

McCracken said that the name on the badge — Susan — is Benjamin's real first name.

At first, Obama joked about the interruption.

"Obviously, she wasn't listening to me," he said to the audience.

But he then showed a glimmer of sympathy with Benjamin, and a flash of keeping faith with the anti-war left that helped give birth to his political career but which has long since given up with him.

"The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to," Obama said, veering from his scripted remarks. "Obviously I do not agree with much of what she said ... but these are tough issues."

The speech, which largely focused on drone strikes, contained a lot of material that aimed at reselling the policies that liberals find unpalatable. But as protests like Benjamin's make clear, it's too late for Obama to make up with the leftist base that propelled him through 2008.

Obama argued for a ramping up of the covert counterterrorism war that is the signature of this White House, while saying that the conventional war on terror is going to end.

"Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless "global war on terror" — but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America," Obama said.

He compared today's terrorist threats to what the United States faced before 9/11.

"We have to recognize that the scale of this threat closely resembles the types of attacks we faced before 9/11," he said.

Obama made a lengthy case for the legality and effectiveness of drones, basically arguing that though they carry the risk of civilian deaths (something he called a "hard fact" that "haunts" him and his advisers), they're more precise and their use is "heavily constrained." He said that the use of drones is made with "respect for state sovereignty" and that Congress is briefed on every single drone strike.

He devoted a large portion of the speech to Guantanamo. The fact that it's still open, he said, is Congress' fault.

"As president, I have tried to close Guantanamo," Obama said. "I transferred 67 detainees to other countries before Congress imposed restrictions to effectively prevent us from either transferring detainees to other countries, or imprisoning them in the United States. These restrictions make no sense."

"I know the politics are hard," Obama said. "But history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of us who fail to end it."

“Weiner slap.”

Remember in 2011 when news publications could not help but lead with pun-rich Weinergate headlines?

The Post had a field day.

As did the Daily News.

Oh, wow.

View Entire List ›

“I’m not blocking it, they are!”

Anthony Weiner's first day on the campaign stump for New York City Mayor was pure chaos.

Via: Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters

At 7:45 AM at a Harlem subway entrance.

Via: Mario Tama / Getty Images

Wherever Weiner was almost immediately swarmed by media.

Via: Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters

The press was so tightly packed that they could hardly get photos of the controversial candidate.

Via: Mario Tama / Getty Images

View Entire List ›

“He’s just gotta be called what he is. That simple.”

Source: youtube.com

The Republican nominee for Senate in Massachusetts called his opponent, longterm Congressman Ed Markey, "dirty and low" and "pond scum" during an interview today. Gomez was speaking with a reporter while at the Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce.

"You know I've got four young kids, and they gotta sit there and gotta see an ad with their dad — who served honorably, talk to anybody I served with — whether as a pilot or as a SEAL, anybody I worked with," Gomez said. "And for him to be as dirty and low, pond scum, like to put me up next to Bin Laden, he's just gotta be called what he is. That simple."

Gomez was being asked by a reporter about his new ad "Something New" which alleges Ed Markey compared Gomez to terrorist Osama Bin Laden and blamed him for the Newtown shooting. Gomez's ad has been criticized by fact checkers from the Boston Globe and FactCheck.org.

The Gomez campaign did not comment for this story.

“This is not some major scandal in the order of magnitude like Watergate. That’s absurd” says Rep. Gerry Connolly. Republicans promise to keep the pressure on the Obama Administration.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., right, reacts to Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.

Via: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly refuses to use the word "scandal."

After two weeks of brutal news cycles — with frenzied Republicans and a hyped up press corps aggressively covering every inch of three controversies surrounding the Obama administration — Connolly insists this too, shall pass.

"I think when the media repeats the word 'scandals' you are repeating partisan lines. They are issues that have occurred that have to be addressed. I don't think they rise to the level of a scandal," he said. "We had a bunch of idiots at IRS in Cincinnati who didn't know how to aggregate a flood of tax-exempt applications … but this is not some major scandal in the order of magnitude like Watergate. That's absurd."

Connolly was also critical of the way Republicans have investigated the terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans.

"Don't get me wrong, Benghazi was a tragedy, but it has no traction. They can continue to talk about it to feed their base, they forget we have a base too. Everytime they do that they are firing up our base too and alienating moderate and swing voters."

It's a tack many of his Democratic colleagues in Congress are taking, shrugging off — or downplaying — the recent slate of scandal. If there was any fear that the continual hammering of the administration from House Republicans would hurt Democrats, the party's members answered with a resounding no.

"I don't think there is any long-term political impact on House Democrats for any of this stuff," said Rep. Jim McGovern. "There clearly needs to be more accountability at the IRS and I think that will be taken care of. I think the administration has been handling it correctly.

"And yet you've got some coo coo clucks here calling for impeachment, I mean it's so absurd they are overplaying their hand," he said of Republicans. "If anything there may be a political backlash on them."

Speaker John Boehner and Republican leadership have promised to keep the political heat on the administration, and the GOP's House campaign arm — the National Republican Campaign Committee— is more than ready to make the scandals an issue for Democrats heading into 2014.

One Democratic member close to leadership said Democrats were equally confounded and angry at IRS and DOJ officials. The member added there was some concern for vulnerable members, so taking the scandals seriously was important.

"I think when you saw a lot of us in those hearings you saw how angry we were. It's hard for Republicans to argue that we don't care, we do," the member said. "We just aren't going to go on a wild goose chase. And if they do, it makes it easier for us to say they aren't paying attention to jobs and the economy."

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the ranking member on the House intelligence committee, said the best thing the administration could do was to get all of the information out at once. He referenced the terrorist attack last year in Benghazi, where Republicans have argued the administration has tried to cover up all the facts, as a situation where the White House could have avoided a year-plus long investigation.

"What you have to do is get all the facts on the table as soon as possible. If you don't, the media will pick up dribs and drabs everyday and it'll keep the issue alive. Benghazi is an example of that: let's get to the bottom line, let's get to the facts, let's get everything out there," Ruppersberger said. "My recommendation to them is when there is a scandal, and I think the president did this with the IRS, it to get it out right away, lets gets it right."

Freshman Rep. Joaquin Castro said the scandals in Washington concerned him, but they had not made their way to his home district.

"I'm getting asked if I'm getting asked back home about the AP story or about Benghazi and those are important things but back home people are talking about the economy and jobs. My sense is that other Democratic members feel the same way," he said.

"Drip, drip, drip. Everyday there is something new," Boehner said of the investigation into the IRS and the improper targeting of conservative groups. "We don't know how deep this extends into the Administration and that's why our committees are going to continue to investigate this."

Not exactly a feel-good commencement speech from the Commander-In-Chief

View Video ›

WASHINGTON — President Obama told graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy Friday that the power to put an end to sexual assault in the military is in their hands.

"Those who commit sexual assault are not only committing a crime, they threaten the trust and discipline that makes our military strong," Obama said in his commencent speech. "That's why we have to be determined to stop these crimes, because they've got no place in the greatest military on earth."

The armed forced forces have been rocked by a series of high-profile sexual assault cases critics say reflect a culture of indifference in the military. In Congress, lawmakers are looking for solutions some in military leadership have been resistant to, like establishing a independent agency that polices sexual assault in the armed services. Obama has repeatedly said the problem is unacceptable, and told the graduates today they need to step up.

"You're about to assume the burden of leadership," Obama said. "If we want to restore the trust that the American people deserve to have in their institutions, all of us have to do our part.

If the Supreme Court doesn’t end bans on same-sex couples’ marriages in all 50 states this June, then the constitutional bans in most of the states across the country could prove a stumbling block to the current momentum in the years to come.

Nevada Assemblyman James Healey, who is gay, speaks in favor of repealing the language in the state constitution that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Via: Cathleen Allison / AP

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in the Nevada Assembly voted 27-14 on Thursday to reverse the state's 2002 marriage amendment, and while the state Senate had already voted to end the ban, Nevada same-sex couples won't have a shot at marriage until 2016.

Why?

Like the dozens of other states that passed constitutional marriage amendments, Nevada's 2002 amendment can only be reversed through another constitutional amendment, a process that can take significant time and money.

In Nevada, the state's constitutional amendment process requires two consecutive legislatures to vote to send the amendment to the people before the people would vote on the repeal. As such, even if all goes as advocates hope, the soonest gay and lesbian couples could marry in Nevada is after the 2016 elections.

That lengthy process has not, however, been the picture America has seen in recent months.

Lawmakers from Rhode to Delaware and Minnesota have voted for marriage equality legislation in recent weeks. In Illinois, the bill's sponsor has said the House will concur in the Senate's vote in support of marriage equality legislation there by the end of the month. Lawmakers in DC are much more commonly expressing support for the once divisive issue. And the Supreme Court is considering cases that could affect same-sex couples across the country.

Talk of momentum, however accurate it might be regarding public opinion polls, is quickly going to hit a roadblock — 30 of them in fact — that won't simply crumble after an impassioned floor speech or, as with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, after learning that he has a gay son.

The roadblocks are the 30 state constitutional amendments like the one in Nevada banning gay couples from marrying — and keeping even more progressive states like California and Oregon from moving forward on the marriage front.

"We're quickly getting to a place of having two Americas when it comes to LGBT people," Human Rights Campaign spokesman Michael Cole-Schwartz told BuzzFeed this week, detailing the wide range of rights the LGBT people have in some states and the harsh barriers to equality that LGBT people face in other parts of the country.

In Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Tennessee, only marriages between one man and one woman are recognized. In Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin, same-sex couples are banned both from marriage and civil unions, with some states' provisions being even more restrictive.

Although there remains the possibility of the Supreme Court ruling on the challenge to California's Proposition 8 amendment that would strike down it and all of the other amendments like it across the country, the justices appeared very skeptical of that route when they heard the case in March.

So, the likelihood is that the amendments — none of which have been repealed in a state yet — will need to be addressed by advocates one by one.

Via: John Gara/Buzzfeed

"We will have to overturn some amendments and win the states without amendments, even as we continue the national and federal strategies," Freedom to Marry's Evan Wolfson said, noting his group's aim is "to achieve critical mass and rise to national resolution" — most likely achieved through an eventual Supreme Court ruling striking down all the bans — and not have to win in each of the 50 states.

Reversing the bans already in place will require a statewide vote, followed by any necessary legislation, administrative action or court ruling — depending on the specifics in each state — to allow gay couples to wed.

In some states, the process — already under review at organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and Freedom to Marry — is relatively straight forward. Oregon voters can get a repeal amendment on the ballot by gathering signatures equal to 8 percent of the votes cast in the last election for governor, and advocates are expected to take repeal of their state's amendment to the voters in 2014.

In most places, though, it's not that simple. In North Carolina, which passed its amendment in May 2012, 60 percent of all members of the legislature must vote to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. In Wisconsin, as in Nevada, a majority of both chambers in the legislature must vote in two successive sessions to place an amendment before the voters.

In Ohio, where the group FreedomOhio is considering going to the ballot to try and reverse the state's 2004 amendment, they would need to collect signatures equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the most recent election for governor to get the amendment before the voters.

Most of the other 24 states with marriage amendments have multiple ways change their constitutions, from citizen-backed initiatives to legislative routes to constitutional conventions — most of which are called for by legislative votes.

How those changes are pursued in practice will depend greatly on what Supreme Court does, with both the case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act and the one challenging Proposition 8.

"Once a decision has come down, the question for everyone is going to be, 'What's next?' And I think it's 'what's next' in terms of DOMA, and if DOMA is struck down, what does that mean and where are you going to be able to get benefits and where might you not be. What other states could be next? What does the scope of a Supreme Court decision look like?" HRC's Cole-Schwartz said.

And, as Wolfson noted, there always would be the option of attempting to bring another case like the one challenging Proposition 8 before the justices to seek a "national resolution."

View Entire List ›

De Blasio wants to establish himself as the progressive candidate in the race for Gracie Mansion and get away from the media’s obsession over Anthony Weiner. “I’m not a big Weiner pundit,” he said.

Via: Keith Bedford / Reuters

As New York City's mayoral race shuffles around the entrance of former Congressman Anthony Weiner, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is hanging on to his position at the left end of the Democratic primary field.

Though Weiner was, for a national moment, an MSNBC darling and a leading spokesman for single-payer health care, he spent much of his time in New York as a more conservative Democrat in the tradition of Ed Koch, and de Blasio told BuzzFeed in an interview Thursday that there's not much to Weiner's progressive credentials.

"I don't think these are the things he focused on when he was in public life," de Blasio said of causes he has long backed, like shifting the tax burden toward the rich. "We'll see what he says now."

The mayoral contest threatens to turn into a months' long pun-off about former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who resigned in 2011 after sending sexual images to women he met online, but de Blasio and other Democrats are trying to resist that narrative.

"I don't know how he's going to set up on local issues," de Blasio said. "He hasn't weighed in on local issues in a long time."

"I'm not a big Weiner pundit," he added.

The city's 6'5" public advocate touts himself as the true progressive candidate in the race, someone who will break the Michael Bloomberg mold that's shaped the city since 2001.

"I think the Bloomberg years, honestly, had a chilling effect on public debate and a chilling effect on the media," he said.

Though he wouldn't talk much about the opposing candidates, de Blasio had no shortage of things to say about the causes he supports. He has come out against the city's use of its stop-and-frisk policy, claiming that an inspector general should serve as a watchdog for the NYPD. With proper training and oversight, he said, the policy could be constitutional, while under current practices it's sometimes not.

But de Blasio was supportive of the NYPD's decision to spy on Muslims in the city and surrounding areas. He said he spoke with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly after reports about the surveillance came out and was satisfied that the department had complied with the law. De Blasio argued that listening in on someone's conversation and physically stopping someone with no reference to a specific crime are "very different."

De Blasio had kind words for Kelly, praising his efforts to successfully avoid another major terrorist attack in the city — but the ripple effects from stop-and-frisk proved too divisive for him to keep Kelly on as commissioner.

"He's done a lot of great work for this city," de Blasio said. "He is the author of the overuse of stop-and-frisk. He deserves credit for his achievement but it's time for someone very different."

The decline of the middle class is an overarching theme of de Blasio's ideas, in what he calls "a tale of two cities." He's hammered away at his mayoral rival, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, over the paid sick leave deal, which will now ensure paid sick days for about 925,000 of the 1.3 million workers without it by 2015. Quinn described the agreement as a success — proof of her leadership and ability to compromise. But de Blasio said everyone should have equal opportunity.

"This is not a city that was meant to be exclusive," he said.

De Blasio lambasted Congress's latest failure to support an amendment for same sex couples to be treated equally as opposite-sex couples for immigration purposes.

"It's absolutely wrong," he said. "That doesn't have to be sacrificed."

He'll continue to stake out his position on the far left of the mayoral race until the primaries come up in September, a place he thinks will secure him a spot on the ballot in November.

"I think this is a dawning of an extraordinarily progressive era," he said.

"I'm the most progressive person in this race," he added.

Will the tabloids keep beating the Weiner pun drum throughout the election?

“I don’t think it’s possible,” Zakaev says of fears that Russia is pushing the FBI towards innocent Chechens.

FBI personnel walk through the complex surrounding the apartment where Ibragim Todashev, 27, was shot and killed during an interview.

Via: Phelan Ebenhack / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Advocates for the Chechen diaspora are downplaying fears in the community that Russian intelligence agents are using the FBI's investigation into the Boston bombing to intimidate and harass dissidents in the United States.

"Yes, some Chechens think the FSB has somehow influenced the FBI and other authorities to persecute some Chechens in western world," said Akhmed Zakaev, a Chechen separatist who leads the government-in-exile, in a telephone interview from his home in London. "People do think that."

"I don't think it's possible," Zakaev said. "I think it will not happen because US authorities, they don't just follow Russian security services."

Zakaev said the only Chechens he knew of in the U.S. who had been contacted by U.S. authorities had had some relationship with the suspected bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, such as Musa Khadzhimuratov, a rebel who had served as Zakaev's bodyguard and who now lives in New Hampshire.

"Musa Khadzhimuratov, I know him," Zakaev said. "I talked to him after this information came out, after the FBI questioned him. I said the same thing to him. I would be very surprised if they didn't question him. Of course the FBI should question him and ask him why and when he met [Tsarnaev] and ask him what relationships they have."

Zakaev said he had spoken with Khadzhimuratov, who told him that "they just asked him about Tsarnaev, when he met him, and what relationship they had. They didn't accuse him of any crime. Simple questions." Zakaev is more concerned about the questioning of Ibragim Todashev, a former friend of Tsarnaev's who was submitting his confession to committing an unsolved 2011 Waltham triple murder when he suddenly became violent and was shot by an FBI agent. "Very serious crime what they accused this guy," Zakaev said. "They should take him to police station and question him there. Why they didn't do it, I don't know."

Khadzhimuratov's social interactions with Tamerlan Tsarnaev had resulted in repeated questioning from the FBI recently, who also searched his house. The incident prompted him to release a statement avowing his love for the United States and characterizing his contact with Tsarnaev as minimal.

"I am sincere in saying that America has become a new, beloved home for me and my family, and we appreciate the freedom and peace this country gives us," Khadzhimuratov wrote. "I am sure, the FBI knows by now that I have nothing to do with the terrible act in Boston."

Other advocates for the Chechen community say the only people they know have been questioned are those who had ties to the Tsarnaevs.

"I can say firmly that no ethnic Chechens I know in this country have been harassed or even contacted," said Almut Rochowanski, the director of the Chechnya Advocacy Network. "As far as I can tell, the only ones who have been interviewed had fairly strong personal connections with the Tsarnaevs."

In a story about the FBI interrogation of Todashev, the New York Times threw in an intriguing paragraph at the end.

"Some advocates for the Chechen community have expressed concern that Russian intelligence officers might be steering the F.B.I. to target Chechens in the United States who are hostile to Russia but have nothing to do with terrorism," the reporters on the story wrote. (The paragraph has been removed from the online version of the story, which was published in the May 23 edition of the paper.)

But a Russian tip about Tsarnaev himself was only lightly investigated, and there are barely any Chechens (less than a thousand, and fewer still who were important to the separatist movement) in the United States.

Rochowanski said the sentence from the Times article "can only refer to two statements: one by the guy Kahdzhimuratov [sic], the one in NH, who said something along those lines about himself," Rochowanski said. "And two, Glen Howard from the Jamestown Foundation in DC, an old Cold War outfit that was very cozy with the original separatist crowd and is probably likely to see the FSB behind everything."

Howard, of the Jamestown Foundation, said he thought there was something to the idea that the FSB could be influencing the FBI's choice of Chechens to interrogate.

"There is a concern that this might be happening because the guy in New Hampshire was a former bodyguard for the Chechen dissident in London, Akhmed Zakaev," Howard said. He said there could be a connection to the recent high-profile round of spy games in Moscow.

"The more the FSB cooperates with the FBI on this investigation, when they are disclosing the names of CIA station chiefs in Moscow, they might start giving the FBI false information on Chechens it dislikes to get them returned to Russia for more show-trials," he added.

Still, Rochowanski said there are simply not very many Chechens in the United States who would have to worry about that in the first place. "So it's possible they are talking to other separatist figures that live in the US — although there are really only a handful and only one of them could be considered 'senior,'" she said.

"The others that have been approached by law enforcement seem to have only in common that they knew the older Tsarnaev fairly well," she said.

A spokesperson for the FBI did not have immediate comment.

“Reagan couldn’t have made it.”

View Video ›

Via:

Former Republican Senate Majority Leader and 1996 GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole slammed the Republican Party on Fox News Sunday this week. Dole said the current party wouldn't welcome himself, Reagan, or Nixon and should go over their party policy.

"I think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors that says 'closed for repairs' until New Year's Day next year and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas," Dole said when asked about the state of today's Republicans.

Dole also said he doubted he could make it in today's party.

"I doubt it," Dole said. "Reagan couldn't have made it. Certainly Nixon could not have made it because he had ideas. We might have made it, but I doubt it."

The tornado killed 24 and cut a path of destruction 17 miles long and 1.3 miles wide

President Obama visited Moore, Okla., Sunday to survey damage caused by the recent tornado and visit with victims and first responders.

Via: MANDEL NGAN / Getty Images

President Obama with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin.

Via: MANDEL NGAN / Getty Images

Via: JONATHAN ERNST / Reuters

Via: MANDEL NGAN / Getty Images

View Entire List ›

Drives up federal deficit for 30 years, hands the bill to his kids.

View Entire List ›

Attorney General Eric Holder has “earned a lot of scars … [Obama is] going to give him the space he needs to reform the Department’s rules going forward,” former aide says.

Via: UPI

Attorney General Eric Holder's fate in Washington has never seemed more precarious. Republicans hate him and revelations that the Department of Justice has conducted spying campaigns on the media have even some on the left questioning whether it's time for Holder to go.

But given his close relationship with Obama, the fact that DOJ is "reviewing" its media spying policies and the White House's support for an aggressive anti-leak attitude, don't look for Holder to go anywhere anytime soon.

Matthew Miller, a former top aide and spokesman for Holder said he still has the full "confidence" of President Obama.

"Eric Holder will continue to serve for as long as he wants to," Miller said, adding that Holder has "earned a lot of scars … [Obama is] going to give him the space he needs to reform the department's rules going forward."

Jessica Brady, press secretary for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, said a new attorney general nomination battle is not something the committee expects at this point. "I don't think this is something the chairman needs to comment on, since right now the attorney general is in place."

Leahy has become increasingly critical of Republican obstruction of Obama's nominations, saying in February that Republicans have waged an "unprecedented campaign of obstruction" against President Obama's judicial nominees.

In fact, Republicans aren't hiding their plan to make a replacement for Holder run a difficult, and drawn out, gauntlet before confirmation.

"Any future Obama AG pick will be held up and grilled over Fast and Furious, IRS and AP scandals until we get answers," a Senate GOP leadership aide said.

"Republicans could really bring up all the DOJ's failures in one largely publicized hearing" says another senior Republican Senate aide. "And it would not be easy to get a nominee through. Remember what happened to [Chuck] Hagel? And he was a former Republican senator," the aide added.

Some on the Hill point to Obama's loyalties as to what's keeping Holder off the chopping block. "Holder a disaster for the administration. He has been held in contempt, is constantly making mistakes and getting the entire administration in hot water over and over again" said a senior Republican aide. "But Obama is exceedingly loyal, it would be hard for him to get rid of someone so close."

"Either way you don't want to have Holder free to speak his mind," the source added, before joking, "Your phone isn't tapped right? I don't want to get audited."

Political consultant Cory Crowley sees the administration keeping Holder on as a huge mistake similar to one Obama's predecessor made. "Bush made a fatal mistake by keeping Rumsfeld at the height of his controversy" Crowley notes "This fueled the '06 mid terms and led to a nightmare grilling for Gates once Rumsfeld's resignation was finally accepted."

Crowley, a 10-year aide to Sen. Chuck Grassley who is a ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, acknowledges that the Senate could hold up another Obama AG nominee "as long as they wanted too," but cautions it would be to Republicans political advantage to avoid the brand of a "do-nothing" Congress.

"McConnell is dealing with the perception of a do nothing congress. Holding up another nominee is only going to add to that perception."

The former congressman is back in his element on the Memorial Day campaign trail — “weird meta conversations” and Chuck Schumer aside.

Via: Ruby Cramer/Buzzfeed

In southeast Queens, at the corner of Merrick and Francis Lewis boulevards, the Laurelton Memorial Day parade is assembling outside a Duane Reade, though you'd barely know it. Just before 9 a.m., when the annual march is set to begin, the parking lot is quiet, and the crowd of Boy Scouts and drummers, residents and veterans, is scattered, waiting for the real parade hubbub to get going.

"Did you think it started at 10?" says one woman, on the phone with a tardy friend.

There's a tacit agreement among early arrivals that not much can start in earnest until the main attraction makes his appearance. Although John Liu and Bill Thompson, two New York City mayoral candidates, are scheduled to march in the Laurelton parade — as are a handful of other officials, including disgraced state Sen. Malcolm Smith, arrested last month on corruption charges — that's not why television satellite trucks stand vigil down the block.

Anthony Weiner is coming.

"That's his people in the silver car," says a Thompson aide, pointing to a dark Nissan Pathfinder, parked in the center of the lot.

The 48-year-old former congressman — who resigned two years ago after sending, and then lying about sending, illicit tweets to strangers — announced late Tuesday that he would run for mayor. Nearly a week has since passed, but Weiner's improbable political comeback is all anybody can talk about in Laurelton on Memorial Day — and the majority opinion is a good one. Unlike his first campaign stop last week, dominated by a large and hungry press corps, Weiner will spend most of the morning with voters who seem to like him — and among a welcome crowd, he is decidedly upbeat and in his element, troubles aside.

"He's human!" says Larry Love, an attendee from Springfield Gardens, almost unprompted when approached. He's at the parade to march for Joan Flowers — a lawyer and former Smith aide running for city council, whose contingent of 35 supporters are dressed in matching white T-shirts and armed with a large tarp sign: "JOAN FLOWERS, The right woman…the right time" — but Love, 52, wants to talk Weiner.

"Somebody just took off their shirt, took a picture, and sent it to another woman? Come on," he says. "Anthony Weiner was an icon even in the black community, and that's why he's gonna take it." And Christine Quinn? "She's make-believe. She's phony. Everything she does, she's trying to please someone else. But Anthony Weiner is everybody."

When Weiner finally arrives, the parking lot comes alive. A flock of reporters circle round, and seemingly on cue, band members start practicing their drumrolls, as the crowd outside Duane Reade thickens.

A TV reporter asks why the candidate skipped the Forest Hills parade Sunday in his old district, New York's 9th — a move that nettled some of his old constituents, according to a report in the Post. "We're still getting our sea legs under us as an organization," Weiner responds. "I love the people of Forest Hills. I owe them everything, and so I'll be sure to get there plenty of times."

Larry Love steps in to greet his guy. "The people in Queens want Anthony Weiner in office," he announces, half to Weiner, half to the cameras still standing by.

"Well, good. Here, tell them. Tell this young lady," Weiner says, pointing to the television reporter.

"He was doing a great job before, and he hasn't done anything that either one of us hasn't done. You know, we're human," Love goes on. "We're human, and then we are elected officials."

Weiner doesn't flinch. He is in high spirits — never mind Love's comments and others that come throughout the day; never mind the press scrutiny, which he appears to relish, or the reporters camped unfailingly outside his Park Avenue apartment; never mind that none of his former colleagues or friends in politics, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, haven't so much as offered a word of support for his campaign; never mind that you'd be hard-pressed to get a single member of New York's smart set to say he can win.

Asked if he's been following the nonstop coverage of his campaign, Weiner says yes, but admits he's a "little bit behind" in his reading. "You guys are having these weird meta conversations without me. My favorite was the papers complaining I didn't do events on my first day because I was doing calls, and then complaining how I created a media tumult the second day. I'm like, 'OK, here you go.' But I don't have any complaints. You guys are just doing your job, and I understand that."

Weiner doesn't have any complaints about his former colleagues, either. While the Clintons have vowed to stay silent on the race altogether — they have connections to several candidates, including Democrat Bill de Blasio, who managed Hillary's 2000 Senate race — other lawmakers have been more forthright. Sen. Chuck Schumer refused twice on Face the Nation Sunday to say a word about his onetime protégé, giving host Bob Schieffer a stern, "I'm not commenting, Bob." And in an editorial board meeting with a local newspaper last week, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said if Weiner is elected, then "shame on us."

But the former congressman says he gets it.

"I understand that I need to prove myself to my colleagues in government just the same way I need to prove myself to the citizens of the city," Weiner says. "I haven't asked a single one of them for support. What I would say to them is the thing I'm saying to the citizens of the city — give me an opportunity, hear what I have to say — but I certainly don't by any means think that they are in a position where they should feel obligated to support me."

The voters in the parking lot, meanwhile, are receptive. One veteran tells Weiner, "You have my vote." The former congressman has the "charisma and the knowledge to do the job, and the people behind him," says the vet, who did a 14-month tour in Iraq and asked not to be identified by name. "Whatever happened in your life, people twist it around. They try to put more gravy in the rice."

Another parade attendee, 67-year-old Leslie Faulkner of Cambria Heights, says he admires Weiner's "fire" and nerve.

"If he has the courage to run," Faulkner says, "then I think he has the fortitude to do an excellent job for the city of New York."

Once Weiner has taken enough pictures and shaken enough hands, he shouts to no one in particular, "All right, let's form up!" and takes his place near the back of the parade, now in position on Merrick Blvd.

Next to the white-tee'd Joan Flowers delegation several yards ahead, Weiner's marching bloc looks humorously small. He walks in front of two volunteers — each one holding a narrow blue-and-orange "ANTHONY WEINER!" sign overhead — while his two aides follow alongside. The size of the contingent reflects his still nascent campaign effort, which has more than $4 million in the bank, but remains a small operation. When one voter asks him for a pamphlet, Weiner responds, "Pamphlets? You're lucky we got here. Give us a chance to get up to running speed."

In lieu of supporters or staff, Weiner has a bevy of reporters and cameramen to march with. "Wave! Do something!" says one of the six photographers pacing backward ahead of the candidate, tired of the same shot. "Wave? Do something?" Weiner says. "Why don't you just do an oil painting and take all the fun out of it?" He later ribs a Post reporter, "I have no idea how a struggling newspaper has nine reporters covering us."

But when the parade turns from Merrick to the more residential 225th Street, Weiner has his real fun, striding from one side of the road to the other to shake the hand of just about every onlooker he passes. Once he's finished with his voters, he sprints ahead, his aides scrambling behind him, to catch up with the still-moving procession and regain his spot in line.

When he doesn't run, he shouts.

"I'm Anthony Weiner!" he yells to an elderly woman on her stoop. "I know!" she hollers back. "Everybody knows your face!"

The calls continue, all the way to North Conduit Avenue, where the event comes to a close at Veterans Memorial Triangle.

"Happy Memorial Day!"

"How ya doin', guys?"

"Hello, folks!"

"How are you, dear?"

"Hi folks, I'm Anthony Weiner. I'm running for mayor!"

And the response from more than one Laurelton resident is, simply, "Welcome back."

View Entire List ›

A natural libertarian base for the Kentucky senator. A visit to Facebook.

Via: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

WASHINGTON — Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is visiting California this week to fundraise and visit tech companies, BuzzFeed has learned.

According to the trip's itinerary, Paul will fly to California today. On the 30th, he'll meet with Facebook executives at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, then deliver a speech at the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank at Stanford University. In the afternoon, Paul will visit the Google campus and meet with Google executives.

The next day, Paul is scheduled to visit eBay headquarters and then give a speech at the Reagan Library Foundation at a dinner that the Paul source who passed along the details of the trip said will be attended by 950 people. Donors who have given over $25,000 will be in attendance. Paul will sign copies of his book, Government Bullies, there.

The source adds that the trip will include "fundraising and also a bunch of friend-raising," such as with the Frederick Douglass Society, a black conservative group.

The Paul family's libertarian politics have natural roots in parts of the tech industry. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel was a significant donor to Ron Paul's presidential bid in 2012, giving $2.6 million to pro-Paul super PAC Endorse Liberty. Thiel met with Rand Paul during the Republican National Convention last year. Both Pauls have backed a libertarian manifesto supporting internet freedom, and Rand Paul recently gave a full-throated criticism of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations questioning Apple on its tax practices, saying, "I'm offended by a $4 trillion government bullying, berating and badgering one of America's greatest success stories."

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick deleted his tweet retweeting the troubled former child star after 14 seconds.

Via: politwoops.sunlightfoundation.com

"A staff member of the Congressman mistakenly toggled between their personal Twitter account and the Congressman's Twitter account from an I-Phone. The mistaken re-tweet was deleted," a spokesman for Fitzpatrick said in a statement to BuzzFeed.

In this bizarre video from E.W. Jackson’s 2012 U.S. Senate campaign, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor disembowels watermelons with help from a Founding Father.

Controversial Republican Virginia Lieutenant Governor nominee E.W. Jackson made a very strange campaign video when he was running for Senate in 2012.

After a Founding Father hands Jackson an axe decorated with the American flag, Jackson proceeds to demonstrate how he'll "fix" the country's problems.

Via: Ellie Hall/Buzzfeed

The problems are represented by fruit, specifically melons.

Via: Ellie Hall/Buzzfeed

The federal budget fruit is the first to meet the axe...

Via: Ellie Hall/Buzzfeed

View Entire List ›

“I don’t think we should be acknowledging people who are voting against us in our hour of need,” King said. The dinner will raise money for the state Republican Party.

Via: J. Scott Applewhite, File / AP

WASHINGTON — New York Republican Peter King is boycotting a state party dinner tomorrow night featuring Sen. Ted Cruz over the Texas conservative's efforts to defeat a Hurricane Sandy bill earlier this year.

"I don't think we should be acknowledging people who are voting against us in our hour of need," King told BuzzFeed of his decision to not attend the dinner.

King has loudly criticized Republicans like Cruz who come to New York to raise money but voted against the Hurricane Sandy bill, and has urged other Republicans to freeze out opponents to the relief bill.

"Once I found it was him," King explained, "I decided not to go. I don't know if I would have gone or not because of scheduling things, but that made it easy once I found out it was Ted Cruz."

The New York Republican State Committee dinner invitation prominently notes that Cruz is "appearing at this event only as a featured guest. Senator Ted Cruz is not asking for funds or donations." The event will raise money for the state party committee and tickets are being sold for $1,000–$10,000.

"I said I would not have invited him," King said. "[Republican State Chairman] Ed Cox says it serves a purpose, I just disagree."

It is unclear whether other lawmakers will follow King's lead. For instance, a spokeswoman for Rep. Michael Grimm, a Staten Island Republican whose district was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, did not immediately know if Grimm would be attending the dinner.

Cox defended Cruz's appearance at the dinner, arguing the senator supported aid for Sandy victims but that Senate Democrats had filled the bill with "pork," and that's why he had voted against it.

"Ted Cruz made it absolutely clear he was all for Sandy aid but he was against the pork which was stuffed in there by the Democrats, and that's what he was voting against," Cox said. "This is very much going to be about growth and opportunity, showing the diversity that is the Republican Party here in New York State."

UPDATE: A high ranking New York Republican complained to BuzzFeed that King's criticism of the dinner was "grandstanding."

"What Pete King is doing is grandstanding for the media. To call what Pete King is doing is a boycott sort of misses the point," the Republican said. "Pete King does nothing to help other Republicans in New York State other than Pete King. He hasn't been to a state dinner in anyone's recent memory."

It was to tour recovery efforts in an area devastated by Hurricane Sandy, but they played boardwalk games too.

President Obama and Gov. Chris Christie toured the Jersey Shore Tuesday to inspect recovery efforts seven months after Hurricane Sandy struck.

Via: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

They went to the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk and played some games, like this one where you have to throw a football through a tire.

Via: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

Obama actually missed every single time he tried — like he literally went 0 for 5 — but they still gave him a prize.

Via: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

It was a Chicago Bears bear.

Via: JASON REED / Reuters

View Entire List ›