12/11 Roundup: Blagojeblog, Scientists in the Cabinet, Your Declining Popularity

Leader: The Skullduggery of Crooked Rod

- Fallout continues around "Crooked Rod" Blagojevich. Though the unflappable, hardworking man obstinately went back to work yesterday, Barack Obama called for him to step down, as did all 50 senate Democrats-- Harry Reid leading the pack.  This, perhaps, is not surprising, as Ezra Klein recalls a New Yorker piece describing a 1978 incident in which Reid nearly strangled someone for trying to bribe him.

-Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. was identified as the mysterious "Candidate #5" from the complaint against Crooked Rod-- that candidate who allegedly offered Blago half a million bucks for the senate seat. Jackson, in no uncertain terms, denied the accusation, and as Mike Tomasky points out, all the evidence we have at this point comes from the mouth of one crazy man.

- CQ covers another bit of fallout from the skullduggery of Crooked Rod: Democrats might not be able to hang on to Obama's senate seat.

Economy

- A $14 billion auto bailout has cleared the House with some room to spare, but the bill will face serious opposition in the Senate. Will Senate Republicans kill Detroit?

- The Economist reports that Japan is sliding into what could turn out to be a very painful recession.

Politics

- Obama's environmental team appears to be set:  Steven Chu, a Nobel-prize winning physicist, will run the Department of Energy, Lisa Jackson, who worked in New Jersey's DEP, will be run the EPA, and Carol Browner, head of the EPA under Clinton, will act as a White House-based Energy Czar.  Is anybody else really excited by the idea of having a scientist in the cabinet?

- Rather than a Secretary of Agriculture, writes Nick Kristof in the NY Times, how about a Secretary of Food? 

- Sen. Max Baucus likes the Health IT system in Obama's stimulus proposal, but would like to see SCHIP in there, too.  The two together could pave the way to serious healthcare overhaul.

International

- China just announced that its exports dropped 2.2% in the past year, which is very bad news for nearly everyone on earth.

- An article from Lydia Polgreen in the NY Times looks at a recent massacre in the Eastern Congo, one of the most horribly war-torn parts of the world. 150 were killed, despite a UN peacekeeping force less than a mile away.

One More Thing

- Not getting invited to any holiday parties this year?  Don't worry, it's not because you were bad this year.  (Or was it?)

- Check out this fun new ad from the Big Three this holiday season.

- Last, Jon Stewart on Crooked Rod: