1.) Good morning, Attorney General Eric Holder — How are you today, sir? Did you sleep well? That’s good. Um, so, okay… Sorry to throw this at you first thing in the morning, but the Daily Caller is still running stories about you, even though you commanded us not to. I know, right? It really is intolerable.
TheDC’s Matthew Boyle reports:
“Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, the Minority Whip, told The Daily Caller that the United States would be a better place if Eric Holder wasn’t the attorney general for a number of reasons, including Operation Fast and Furious. ‘There are a lot of reasons the country would be better off without Eric Holder as attorney general,’ Kyl told TheDC. ‘Fast and Furious is just one of them.’ As the second-highest-ranking Republican senator, Kyl is by far the most prominent member of Congress to call for Holder’s resignation thus far. Kyl’s call comes just a few days after Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney demanded it during an interview with Fox News in New Hampshire on Saturday. Kyl is also the third senator to call for Holder’s resignation, joining Republican Sens. Johnny Isakson of Georgia and James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Isakson and Kyl had both voted in favor of Holder’s confirmation as attorney general in 2009.”
Yep. Well, have a great day, Attorney General Eric Holder!
P.S. Oh, one last thing, AG Holder: Have you tried sticking your finger in Darrell Issa’s face and demanding that he stop investigating you? Worth a try.
2.) Barack Obama, tax-cutter — That’s right: tax-cutter! Oh, you don’t think so, wingnut? Wrong as usual. TheDC’s Neil Munro reports:
“President Barack Obama used an afternoon press conference to present himself as the tax-cutting champion of ‘middle-class Americans.’ ‘Now’s not the time to slam on the brakes, now’s the time to step on the gas,’ he said in a Monday appearance at the White House press room, where he was flanked by two television screens showing a countdown to the Jan. 1 expiration of the current temporary cut in Social Security taxes. Most Republicans and GOP leaders are willing to extend the temporary reduction in payroll taxes, despite its impact on the Social Security fund, which is already spending more than it is receiving in taxes… ‘What I’m not willing to do is to pay for the extension in a way that hurts the economy. … It would be irresponsible to now make additional deep cuts in education [and] the basic safety net,’ he said. The president’s rhetoric on the payroll tax is a tactical reversal from his 2010 and 2011 rhetoric about the impending income tax cuts championed by President George W. Bush in 2001. Those income tax cuts were due to expire in early 2011, prompting Republicans to warn of an impending tax hike. However, Obama and other Democrats denied the expiration amounted to a tax increase. That was then. But now Obama is running on a progressive and populist platform in the 2012 campaign, in which he’s offering to manage the economy and tax the rich for the benefit of lower-income citizens and immigrants.”
In a related story, Big Barack announced that the chocolate ration has been increased from 30 grams per week to 25 grams per week.
3.) Anti-Semitism isn’t anti-Semitic, apparently — In other news George Orwell couldn’t have made up if he tried, here’s Neil Munro again:
“Administration officials expressed support Monday for the U.S. ambassador to Belgium after he said that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was one reason for anti-Semitism that stretches back thousands of years. ‘Ambassador [Howard] Gutman has expressed his regret, noting that he strongly condemns anti-Semitism in all its forms… This administration has consistently stood up against efforts to delegitimize Israel and we will continue to do so,’ said White House spokesman Jay Carney, without condemning Gutman, who is Jewish and whose father survived the Holocaust. ‘We have full confidence in him,’ said State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Monday.”
What’s Yiddish for “nonsense and doublespeak”?
4.) Gingrich needs phones — Newt Gingrich has been reacting to his newfound frontrunner status with characteristic Gingrichness, declaring that it’s obvious he’ll be the nominee. Which means he’s prepared for it, right? Welllllll… TheDC’s Alex Pappas reports from Urbandale, IA:
“Inside the quiet headquarters of Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign here are empty tables lining the wall. These tables will soon be used by volunteers to dial potential caucus voters, something other Republican campaigns operating in the first state to vote in the 2012 race have long been doing. But staffers with Gingrich’s campaign in Iowa on Monday morning were still waiting on a shipment of about 100 phones to arrive. The campaign for the surging candidate — who is the front-runner in Iowa according to the latest Des Moines Register poll — is working furiously to get organized ahead of Iowa’s Jan. 3 caucuses and to get basic campaign tools like phones installed for volunteers. While the former House speaker has surged in polls to the front of the pack here, his ground game has been non-existent in Iowa until just recently. Gingrich only recently rehired his Iowa staff — some left the campaign in June — and opened up a headquarters in a modest office park outside of Des Moines last week.”
But then, most people had written him off until last week. Wonder what’ll happen next week?
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is threatening to violate House rules by divulging information she learned during an ethics investigation of Gingrich when he was Speaker, and Gingrich is giving it right back to her. This could get good.
5.) Aaron Sorkin makes Aaron Sorkin show for people who like Aaron Sorkin — Yay? Sorkin’s upcoming show is going to be on HBO, it’s probably going to be called either The Newsroom or just Newsroom, and it’s going to feature an Olbermann-like character named Will McCallister (Jeff Daniels) who works for an MSNBC-like cable news channel called UBS. Yes, that’s the same name as the network from Network.
And everything you need to know about the show is encapsulated in the following snippet of dialogue (courtesy of Mediabistro) between McCallister and UBS News President Charlie Skinner, who is played by Sam Waterston because of course he is:
Will: Charlie, I can’t go after Halliburton and miss.
Charlie: Oh report the goddam news, Will.
Will: You remember a guy named Dan Rather?
Charlie: Dan got it right.
Will: He’s no longer on television.
“Dan got it right.” Guess we’ll have to watch the show to find out what “it” could possibly be. (His March Madness bracket?) Although in Sorkin’s defense, this is coming from the same fictive universe where Martin Sheen was fit for public office and Studio 60 was a huge hit for 20 years. And hey, gotta love the ripped-from-the-headlines Halliburton reference! Clearly, Sorkin is still feeling that early-2000s nostalgia from The Social Network.
6.) Today’s words of wisdom from Alec Baldwin’s Truther, er, Twitter feed — “Gingrich is a cyanide capsule for the GOP.”