1.) Holder will have apologized for Fast and Furious, eventually — What’s more important: apologizing for a mistake, or being seen apologizing for a mistake? Eric Holder just gave us his answer. TheDC’s Matthew Boyle writes:
“Politico reported Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder sent a ‘private letter’ to the family of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, apologizing for his death. But friends of the Terry family have told The Daily Caller that no such letter has made it to the Terry home. ‘Eric Holder has told the grieving family of slain U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry that he is “sorry for the loss of your son” and offered to meet with them,’ reporter Tim Mak wrote. Holder’s letter, Mak wrote, praised the fallen Border Patrol Agent: ‘Brian was a hero who served his nation bravely and made the ultimate sacrifice. I agree with you that the tactic of allowing guns to “walk,” as was permitted in Operation Fast and Furious, is completely unacceptable.’ The Holder letter may exist, but Politico hasn’t published it. And friends of the Terry family told The Daily Caller on Thursday that they haven’t received it.”
As you’ll recall, during Holder’s testimony on Tuesday, he had to admit he hadn’t apologized to the Terry family, and he refused to do so then and there. Then he caught heat for it, so he said “Okay, fine” and cranked out that letter, and the glue hadn’t even dried on the envelope before he was making sure Politico knew about it. Because that’s the important thing: trying to fix some of the damage from Tuesday’s testimony. “See? Do you see? I really am a decent person! Can’t you see me being decent?”
2.) Holder’s stonewalling continues — In other Holder news, Matthew Boyle reports:
“Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder is continuing to stonewall congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious. This time, Holder is refusing to provide 11 of the 12 witnesses Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa have requested be made available for interviews. ‘We have requested 12 Justice Department witnesses be made available for transcribed interviews,’ Grassley said in a Thursday Senate Judiciary Committee executive business meeting. ‘Despite the department’s promises of good faith cooperation, only one witness has been provided so far — former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke. The department has refused to schedule interviews with any of the other 11 witnesses. That’s not the good faith cooperation I was promised, and it is unacceptable.'”
Maybe Holder will leak to Politico that he’s written a letter of apology for this one too. Although he did get some good news yesterday: Sarah Palin has called on him to resign. So now the Palin-haters will rally around him, if they haven’t already. Meanwhile, Brian Terry and everyone else killed during this fiasco are still dead.
3.) Cain loses, gains support — Is Caingate hurting Herman? Depends on which numbers you look at. TheDC’s Will Rahn reports:
“Private polling indicates that the ongoing sexual harassment scandal involving Herman Cain has damaged the former pizza mogul’s standing in Iowa roughly eight weeks before that state’s caucus, the Associated Press reports. According to leaked polls done by the campaign, Cain has lost a significant amount of support among Iowa Republicans. While still in the double digits, he has dropped markedly from last month when a Des Moines Register poll showed him leading in the state with 23 percent support.”
But then again, as TheDC’s Alex Pappas reports:
“Cain’s campaign on Thursday said it has raised $9 million since Oct. 1… Twenty-five percent of these contributions, the Cain campaign said, have come in the last ten days. While ten days also represents 25 percent of the calendar days since October 1, Cain’s camp did manage to avoid losing steam during a period of time when his treatment at the hands of the media has been particularly unkind.”
Is his fundraising going strong despite the media’s treatment of these so-far-unsubstantiated allegations and insinuations against him, or because of it? The wild cheers when Cain stood up for himself at Wednesday’s debate might be an indication.
4.) Jabba the Ted — Han shot first. Dodd was shot down. TheDC’s C.J. Ciaramella reports:
“Not so long ago, in a District of Columbia not so far away, Sen. Ted Kennedy was more than a little perverted to Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher. According to her latest book, ‘Shockaholic,’ Fisher was on a date in 1985 with former Sen. Chris Dodd in Washington, D.C. The two were joined for dinner by the late Kennedy, who proceeded to ask some rather frank questions. ‘Suddenly,’ Fisher writes, ‘Senator Kennedy, seated directly across from me, looked at me with his alert, aristocratic eyes and asked me a most surprising question. “So,” he said, clearly amused, “do you think you’ll be having sex with Chris at the end of your date?”‘ According to Fisher, ‘Chris Dodd looked at me with an unusual grin hanging on his very flushed face.’ Fisher, being the trained actress she was, responded coolly: ‘Funnily enough, I won’t be having sex with Chris tonight. … No, that probably won’t happen. … Thanks for asking, though.'”
“Help me, Obi Wan, they are prone to grope!” Sounds like he wanted to show her his Dodd frank. Just remember: This story is no big deal because it’s not about a black Republican.
5.) Today’s words of wisdom from the Twitter feed of Alec Baldwin (who, incidentally, is a parent) — “So let me get this straight. You don’t find it tragic that Paterno may have tanked his entire, decades-long legacy as the result of this?”
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