Leader: Kabinet Kraziness
- Tom Daschle is fighting his way out of the woods, but will face heavy scrutiny, and it is hard to say whether he will be confirmed by the Senate. He apologized for past issues, and his many allies in Congress are offering their support. And for the record, when he departed the Capitol yesterday, he did so in a car labeled "M. Djebbour Taxi Co."
- Sen. Judd Gregg has accepted the offer to head the Commerce Department, and he'll be replaced by another Republican-- Bonnie Newman, his former chief of staff. CQ Does their homework and discovers Gregg was once opposed to the existence of Commerce, which sets up a strange dynamic, not unlike that when John Bolton was our ambassador to the UN.
- Remember when, a month ago, we were talking about how, if anybody in the Obama cabinet would run into confirmation trouble, it was sure to be Attorney General Eric Holder? My, doesn't that seem silly now. Holder was confirmed yesterday on a 75-21 vote.
Politics
- Ed Luce of the FT covers the reinvigoration of the GOP's anti-immigrant posture. British spelling notwithstanding, Simon is quoted: "If most Americans knew what was happening inside their own borders they would be scandalised."
- Simon, writing for the Huffington Post, applauds the Republicans' choice of Michael Steele as their leader, but writes that the GOP still has a long way to go to shed their racialist history. Joan Walsh at Salon agrees, proclaiming Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh the grand poobahs of the Republican Party.
- Sam Tanenhaus at TNR does an autopsy on the conservative movement. Many defeats carry the seeds of future success. This is nothing more than brutal, brutal defeat.
Economy
- When is a stimulus package not a stimulus package? When it's an economic recovery and reinvestment package, of course. Why use one word when four will do?
International
- Chris Hill will be the next ambassador to Iraq. Hill made his bones as the chief negotiator with North Korea, but seems a strange choice for Iraq, as his experience lies entirely in Europe and Northeast Asia. Still, he is one of our country's finest diplomats, and it will be good to have him where his skill is so needed.
- A trio of Iraqi bloggers reflect on the elections on the NY Times op-ed page. It mostly sounds like a fairly blase day. The WaPo has good, close coverage of how the various regions voted.
One More Thing
- During the depression, the droves of unemployed would head to the moviehouse to forget their woes for a few hours. Now, reports the WSJ, people lose themselves in online games. Does anybody else find this a little depressing and spooky?
- Maybe you feel like the NY Times Magazine already did this, or maybe you can't get enough portraiture of the O-Team. Either way, Annie Leibovitz's series for Vanity Fair is, of course, terrific.
- Last, President Obama on his mother-in-law moving in with him: