1.) William Daley to Obama: ‘Indefensible, that’s what you are…’ — The historic Obama administration has chalked up another first, unless there’s a precedent for a White House Chief of Staff calling his boss’s economic policies “indefensible.” TheDC’s Matthew Boyle reports: “White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley took heat from business executives Thursday for the Obama administration’s regulatory expansions. Daley also said he didn’t have any good answers for some of what President Obama is doing and expressed frustration about the ‘bureaucratic stuff that’s hard to defend…’ ‘Sometimes you can’t defend the indefensible,’ Daley said at a National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) meeting.” Obama’s critics have been saying this for years. Welcome to the club, Bill.
2.) Weiner still dangling — You won’t have Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) to kick around anymore. Eventually. The New York Post, AKA the Paper of Weiner Record, reports: “Congress waited for Anthony Weiner to say he’s leaving — and now it’s waiting for him to clean out his desk. Although the randy rep. announced Thursday that he was quitting after seven terms, he still has to submit a resignation letter to House Speaker John Boehner that says which day will be his last serving his Brooklyn-Queens constituents. Even after that happens, his staff will stay on, and his offices — in the Capitol and New York — will be run by the House clerk, officials said.” Wonder why he’s prolonging the agony? Oh, here we go: “Every day Weiner puts off his official departure date enlarges his congressional pension.” He had to pay, so now you have to pay, America. If an unwanted Weiner lasts more than four weeks, call your doctor.
3.) Jon Stewart and his clown nose visit Chris Wallace — Jon Stewart, still in mourning over his pal Anthony’s career, appeared on Fox News Sunday to do his usual “clown nose off/clown nose on” routine. You’ve seen him do it before: He insists on being taken seriously as a cultural and political commentator, but then when someone engages his ideas and he doesn’t feel like debating the point, he falls back on “I’m just a comedian.” Clown nose off, clown nose on. Repeat as necessary. Not to say that someone can’t be both a pundit and a humorist, even within the same conversation, but Stewart plays the two roles against each other to deflect criticism. TheDC’s Jeff Poor was watching yesterday as Stewart made his latest attempt, telling Wallace: “Here is the difference between you and I. I’m a comedian first. My comedy is informed by an ideological background – there’s no question about that. The thing that you will never understand and the thing that conservative activists in some respects will never understand is that Hollywood – yeah, they’re liberal. But that’s not their primary motivating force. I’m not an activist. I’m a comedian.” It’s true that most people in the news and entertainment industries aren’t motivated by liberalism, anymore than fish are motivated by water. Stewart did acknowledge a liberal bias in the media, but asserted that they’re not “as relentlessly activist as the conservative movement that has risen up over the last 40 years.” That’s right: Jon Stewart just said that historically, conservatives have been more activist than liberals. Just kidding! Unless you agree with him.
4.) Obama jokes still outraging liberals — Speaking of liberal bias and comedy, it sure is fun when the latter offends the former. WaPo reports: “A President Obama impersonator was pulled off the stage Saturday at the Republican Leadership Conference, after telling a string of racially themed jokes about the president. The impersonator, Reggie Brown, took the stage at the annual presidential cattle call to the Bruce Springsteen song ‘Born in the USA’ — an apparent allusion to the birther controversy. He proceeded to tell a series of off-color jokes poking fun at Obama’s biracial heritage and a gay member of Congress.” Here’s one of the jokes: “Michelle celebrates the full [Black History Month]. I celebrate half.” See, because his mom was white. And he made a visual joke about how the job is aging Obama, just as it does all presidents, by showing a picture of Barack & Michelle and then one of Fred Sanford & Aunt Esther. (This is racist because the only comedian who’s allowed to compare the Obamas to elderly black people is a white liberal who works for Lorne Michaels.) Even if you don’t think Reggie Brown is funny, and even if you subscribe to the circular logic that Republicans are racist for hiring a black guy to tell Obama jokes in front of Republicans (“It’s racist because they’re racists!”), we can all agree on one thing: At least he’s better than Fred Armisen.
5.) All that glitters is not thrown — It sure is frustrating when Republicans disagree with you and won’t give you what you want. Say, have you tried throwing stuff at them? It makes you look like a big baby, but at least you get to throw stuff! TheDC’s Laura Donovan writes: “Presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann joins fellow conservatives Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty in being attacked with glitter by gay rights activists. According to the Star Tribune, the Minnesota congresswoman was ‘glittered’ Saturday after delivering a speech at the RightOnline Conference. The publication reports that Minneapolis gay-rights activist Rachel E.B. Lang came up to Bachmann and twice chucked glitter at her… Bachmann continued walking even as Lang yelled, ‘You can run, but you can’t hide.’ Lang was quickly removed by security. ‘My response to Michele Bachmann’s hateful and anti-gay rhetoric was light-hearted, but these issues are very serious,’ Lang said in a statement.” This highly persuasive and constructive criticism is in response to Bachmann’s opinion on gay marriage. You know who else is against gay marriage? Obama. But rest assured that his views on it are “evolving,” wink wink. Guess we’ll know gay rights activists are really serious about changing Obama’s mind when they start lobbing party supplies at him. 6.) Today’s words of wisdom from Alec Baldwin’s Twitter feed — “Dinner at Asia Bay on Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale Ask for Peter. Best sushi in this town.”
VIDEO: Brainy gay rights activist explains why throwing stuff at people is okay when she does it
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