Our Evan McMorris-Santoro was just over at the National Press Club for the Tea Party Express / We're No Racists / Black conservatives event. And something interesting happened. (How could it not?) Headliner Alan Keyes got up and went after Republicans calling for revision of the 14th Amendment and an end to birth-right citizenship.
Perhaps it says something about where we are that I think it's news that a black man might be skeptical about repealing the 14th Amendment. And, as you'd expect, Keyes argument -- particularly his whack at Lindsey Graham -- was rooted in a bunch of references to the Creator and Natural Law. But he's definitely not on board on this one. And he spoke pretty powerfully -- if perforce eccentrically -- about not playing games with something as important as the 14th Amendment. See the video.
--Josh Marshall
Pols of all stripes, the innocent and the guilty, set up legal defense funds to defend themselves against various charges of wrongdoing. But Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) has taken the perhaps unprecedented step of setting his legal defense fund as a 527 independent expenditure campaign committee.
Ensign has been embroiled in a shag and payoff scandal for more than a year.
--Josh Marshall
Sen. Grassley (R-IA) says he supports hearings into revising the 14th amendment to end birthright citizenship.
--Josh Marshall
You may have heard that Missouri primary voters passed a proposition last night that purports to ban the federal health care reform mandate within Missouri. Only they're not allowed to do that since federal law trumps state law. In effect, the law in question is just another approach to the court challenges a slew of Republican Attorneys General have already brought against Health Care Reform in recent months.
But are these challenges for real? Is there a real chance that the Supreme Court could step in and invalidate Health Care Reform? According to the last century or so of constitutional jurisprudence, the challenges simply don't hold up. Health Care Reform is well within the Congress's power to enact and federal law trumps state law. However ... however, there are a few cases over the last twenty years or so which suggest some avenues by which the Courts might possibly take issue with Reform, via the Commerce Clause or the 10th amendment. I think most constitutional scholars and court-watchers would say not likely, but not impossible either. And given how far-right the current Supreme Court is, you never know. Here's our look at the legal arguments and possibilities behind the challenges.
--Josh Marshall
The RNC has apparently just voted to do an internal investigation into the source of the near constant leaks from within Michael Steele's Republican party HQ.
--Josh Marshall
Are moves to get people to ride bikes a stealth campaign for a UN takeover? So says Colorado governor's candidate Dan Maes.
--Josh Marshall
Sharron Angle now says that Harry Reid's agenda isn't just too liberal. It also violates the 1st Commandment against idolatry.
--Josh Marshall
Tea Party Nation, one of a handful of national Tea Party groups, is asking its members to provide examples of times they've been abused by illegal immigrants.
--Josh Marshall
Laura Ingraham was on Colbert last night pitching her book, The Obama Diaries, which includes such insightful entries as how Michelle Obama eats ribs all the time. Watch.
--David Kurtz
The best (and worst) of the feisty New York City congressman on video. Watch.
--David Kurtz
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) came in second last night in the GOP primary for governor of Michigan.
--David Kurtz
Because of his one-time flirtation with becoming a Democrat, his once somewhat progressive views on immigration and his 2008 presidential defeat, earlier this year John McCain looked as though he could be in for the fight of his life as he tried for a fifth term in the Senate. But as Eric Kleefeld explained a couple weeks ago, McCain has ended up completely out-hustling Hayworth in Arizona's electoral CrazyStakes to the point where he's now an overwhelming favorite in the primary later this month. Whether it's because he's outspending Hayworth 10-1, or because Hayworth's been such a buffoon or just because McCain's out-politicked him, Hayworth looks pretty much finished.
But I wonder if the emergence of the 14th Amendment revision and birthright citizenship issues might not provide Hayworth some opening.
--Josh Marshall
As you can see in our primary night scoreboard down to the lower right, incumbent Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI) has lost her primary for renomination to state Sen. Hansen Clarke (D). A complicated story, but certainly a huge amount of Kilpatrick's problems stemmed from the endless and endlessly comic (thank you for the page views, Kwame) scandals of son and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and (now-ex) husband Bernard Kilpatrick. I'm not sure whether to put this into the category of signs of the broader electoral ferment in the land or that Detroit voters are just incredibly embarrassed that Kwame Kilpatrick was ever their Mayor and don't want to be associated anymore with anyone related to him.
The winner of the primary and presumably Kilpatrick's successor (since this is an overwhelmingly Dem district) is Hansen Clarke, the son of a Bangledeshi father and African-American mother. He's 53.
--Josh Marshall
It would appear that the effort to run the Muslims of Temecula, California out of town with the yaps of unclean dogs has come to an ignominious end.
--Josh Marshall
I don't really have concern one way or another about particular companies or in this case the book mega-store chain, Barnes & Noble. But the news that B&N; is considering putting itself up for sale is, I suspect, a telling moment in history and fate of the physical book.
--Josh Marshall
A reader remembers that during the 2008 campaign, Sen. McCain issued a legal memo, written by Larry Tribe and Ted Olson, which expressly argued that birthright citizenship is mandated by the 14th amendment ...
Credit John McCain with a keen sense of irony. Readers may recall that McCain was himself born in the Panama Canal Zone, raising the question of whether he qualified under the Constitutional standard of 'natural born citizen.'His campaign turned the tandem of Larry Tribe and Ted Olson, whose memo on the matter helped settle the media debate.
--Josh Marshall
Interesting new numbers out for Harry Reid.
The new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that Harry Reid has a four point lead over Sharron Angle -- 48% to 44%.
That's with 'likely voters.' Among 'registered voters', his margin jumps to a fairly whopping 16% margin.
Now, the 4 point margin is the one too watch. Because we're getting close enough to the election that pollsters are able to get a decent read on who's really likely to turn out. Also, 'registereds' vs. 'likelys' usually favors Dems. But not by that much. I'd say upwards of 10 points of that spread is where you get a real, quantifiable read on the enthusiasm gap. So you can get a sense of just how important it is for Democrats to light some sort of fire under their voters.
--Josh Marshall
McConnell moves into walk-back mode on repealing or amending the 14th Amendment.
--Josh Marshall
Reid just now on Republicans' new openness to repealing or amending the 14th Amendment to get rid of birthright citizenship: "They've either taken leave of their senses or their principles." Here's more.
--Josh Marshall
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