Senator Rand Paul Stages "Real" Filibuster Over Drone Strikes

In the wee hours of this morning, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) ended a 12+ hour "talking" filibuster to hold up the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA Director. But the substantive reason for Paul (who was joined by a number of other Senators) was an exchange earlier in the day when Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) questioned AG Eric Holder about the circumstances under which the President could order a drone strike on an American citizen on US soil.
Article on Rand's Filibuster
Video of Cruz-Holder Exchange

A Breakout Season for Dementia

The 'epidemic' of head injuries among athletes may be turning a corner, as in the last ten days, the issue has broken through in the public consciousness:

* Malcolm Gladwell used his high profile column in the New Yorker to analogize the NFL to dog fighting (and somewhere, Michael Vick laughs. Or cries.) Gladwell also narrated a slideshow that provides graphic evidence of the effect that the sport has on brains.

* Last week, Congressman John Conyers held hearings on the effects of concussions and the NFL's response to them. Among the people testifying: NFL Commission Roger Goddell, and SLI representatives including Dr. Robert Cantu, Dr. Ann McKee, and Chris Nowinski.

* On Deadspin, a prominent sports blog, Michael Oriard, a former Notre Dame and Chiefs offensive lineman wrote about his own concussion history -- and perhaps a warning of its future:

One of Roger Goodell's worst nightmares has to be the possibility that football will come to be regarded as boxing is today: a potential and very violent path to celebrity and wealth that only the most economically desperate would consider and that the vast majority of Americans find unpalatable.

We need much more research — on large number of former players, over a long period of time — to know just how dangerous football is to the human brain. Knowing the answer might be a blow not only to the NFL but to all lovers of football. But continuing to not know might be considerably more painful for those who play the game.

(Disclosure: Sports Legacy Institute (SLI) is a client of Henshon Parker, LLP)

Update: Shuttin' Detroit Down

John Rich's "Shuttin' Detroit Down" remained stuck at #13 in this week's (April 4, 2009 release date) Billboard Country charts.

The data (obviously) was complied before the news yesterday that both Chrysler and GM face likely structured -- albeit-government-backed -- bankruptcy.

It's Not Exactly "Happy Days Are Here Again"

John Rich (one half of Big & Rich) has put out a song that may become (if it hasn't already) the anthem of the "Great Crash."

"Shuttin' Detroit Down" is currently #13 on the Billboard country list, and is up from last week.

Refrain:

Cause in the real world they'rre shutting Detroit down
While the boss man takes his bonus pay and jets out of town/
And DC’s bailing out the bankers as the farmers auction ground,
Yeah while they’re living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town,
Here in the real world there shuttin’ Detroit down.
They’re shuttin’ Detroit down.

To the extent that Rich has captured the mood in the middle part of the body politic, it's not a good sign for whatever the next steps in the bailout are going to be.

The Ice Gets Thinner

It's clear -- even in advance of AIG CEO Edward Liddy's testimony before Congress today -- that the politics of the AIG Bonus Scandal are simple: bonuses for an insolvent but-for-the-government entity are making the American taxpayer, and his elected representatives, crazy.

And that doesn't even take into account that at least some of the so-called "retention" bonuses went to former AIG employees, at least according to NY AG Andrew Cuomo.

But what's really dangerous is the toxicity that is now spreading in the body politic.

Last fall, when the crisis erupted after the Lehman, Congress and the Bush White House were able to pass the TARP on a bi-partisan basis and stem -- at least for a moment -- the market meltdown.

But if another credit crisis -- say, relating to credit card debt -- or other shock to the system took place today, it's hard to see Congress authorizing any more money to 'save Wall Street.'

So if we are through the worst of the financial crisis, we can edge back from the thin ice towards shore.

But if we are not, and we need another stimulus or, worse (from a political standpoint), stronger medicine for the banking system, it could be "Look-out below!"

Photo credit: Haninge, Sweden

The "Loyal" Opposition 2

Some, at least in the GOP, seem to have realized that intellectual bankruptcy will, if continued, give rise to electoral bankruptcy.

Here's some (off-the-record) strategy from Byron York at the DC Examiner:

"You're seeing a major doctrinal shift in how Republicans are going to focus all these debates," the strategist told me. "The key is to focus on winning the issue as opposed to winning the political moment. If you win the issue, people will think you are ready to govern."

I asked him to elaborate a little. "With the political moment, it's how can you find the one thing that gives you the momentary upper hand in terms of the coverage for the next six hours -- as opposed to engaging the electorate in creating a structural change in their opinion on which party is better able to handle an issue."

Whether this "change" in strategy makes it through the next news cycle will have to be examined, although York noted that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) apparently changed the subject rather than continue to talk about the stimulus package.

Worth remembering -- despite all the hot air about how effective the New Deal was or wasn't in combatting the Great Depression, there's one area where it was brutally effective: voting Republicans out of office.

In the 70th Congress (elected in 1928), the GOP had 56 Senate seats, against 39 for the Democrats (1 Farmer-Labor).

In the 71st Congress (elected in 1930), the 96 Senate seats were split 48 GOP, 47 Dem (with 1 Farmer-Labor).

In the 1932 election, 12 Republicans lost their seats, making the split 59 Dem, 36 GOP, 1 Fam-Lab.

By 1937, (i.e., just after the FDR re-election), the number of GOP had been reduced to 16.

Said another way, almost three-quarters of Republican Senators serving when Herbert Hoover became President were unseated within eight years.

That's "Mister Chairman", By the Way

Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee testified side-by-side, and one (or both) of them may have put himself into legal jeopardy by making false testimony to Congress.

Meanwhile, here's how not to interact with a Member of Congress who's summing up a full day of conflicting testimony that apparently got quite heated:



Looks like there's a new face of steroids in baseball, replacing Barry Bonds (hat-tip: ME) and his name is "Roger Clemens." But on the other hand, Mr. McNamee is no one's idea of a star witness.

Accountability?

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, who came under fire earlier in the year in connection with Walter Reed, resigned on Tuesday. Time's Michael Weisskopf posits that President Bush will use the opportunity to appoint a veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan, in part to show the Administration's "new" commitment to serving veterans who served the U.S.

But the suggestion that Bush will appoint Tammy Duckworth, who ran as a Democrat for Congress last fall, seems a little far-fetched, even if she is apparently not going to run for Congress again in 2008. After all, what did Tammy Duckworth ever do for George W. Bush?