Getting right to it. Lots of good stuff, plus one old one -- it's a great time to revisit Alex Pareene's Hack List, beginning with No. 2, Mark Halperin. And then:
1. White House 2012. We have Ed Kilgore on Bachmann and "constitutional conservativism"; Paul Waldman on the incentives to be Thaddeus McCotter (and nice call on the Potter name); and Andrew Ferguson reads Newt -- and don't miss Chris Suellentrop's excellent companion post.
2. SCOTUS: Rick Hasen on the good news for public financing; Alyssa Rosenberg takes on the Court and YA; Matt Yglesias appreciates Sonia Sotomayor.
3. Libya and the law, from Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule; drones and the law, from Spencer Ackerman. Also, Ali Soufan on the CIA, FBI, and torture.
4. Silly Congress 1 is pledges, from Dave Weigel; Silly Congress 2 is resolutions, from David Fahrenthold.
5. Andrew Sullivan on Obama and the gays.
6. Annie Lowery's wonderful report on why Lindsay Lohan was tweeting about inflation.
7. I loved this Kevin Carey profile of Trinity College and women in politics.
8. I think Derek Thompson is right about Obama and Frank Rich; and David Leonhardt is certainly right about deficit politics and interest groups.
9. Alex Massie on Ronald Reagan.
10. And John Seery on the All Grown-ups Eligible Amendment.
Enjoy!
The Ed Kilgore article reminds me of a profile I read on Bachmann a week or two ago: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/14/michele-bachmanns-unrivaled-extremism-gay-rights-to-religion.html
ReplyDeleteQuote:
"At Coburn, Bachmann studied with John Eidsmoe, who she recently described as "one of the professors who had a great influence on me." Bachmann served as his research assistant on the 1987 book Christianity and the Constitution, which argued that the United States was founded as a Christian theocracy, and that it should become one again. "The church and the state have separate spheres of authority, but both derive authority from God," Eidsmoe wrote. "In that sense America, like [Old Testament] Israel, is a theocracy.""
Bachmann's really sly about how she signals the extreme wing of the base that she's with them when it comes to religion and the Constitution. I know it's trendy to say that she is like a savvy Sarah Palin, but in a lot of ways it's true.