By GottaLaff
She called her departure "bittersweet.""After nearly 2 years of work that has been exhilarating and grueling in equal measure, I am going to step off the treadmill for awhile and rediscover the experience of dining with my husband on a regular basis," Douglass said in a statement. She said she will be "cheering with pride from the sidelines as this historic law takes effect."
By GottaLaff
Via an e-mail alert:
POLITICO has learned that Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Ken McKay has resigned. He will be replaced by Deputy Chief of Staff Mike Leavitt. RNC spokesman Doug Heye declined to say if McKay was asked to resign, but said the move was "about ensuring that we have the tight financial controls in place and to ensure that every nickel we spend is done with the goal of winning in November."
For more information...http://www.politico.com
By GottaLaff
Penn, whose real name is Kalpen Modi, has spent much of the past year working in the White House Office of Public Liaison, which is run by Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.
EW.com reported that the actor is returning to Hollywood to resume his acting career, starting with a Christmas-themed installation of the "Harold and Kumar" series.
By GottaLaff
I've been reading this and hearing this, so now I'll write about it:
[I]f the vote were to come next week, the threshold for passage of health care reform would drop back to 216 from its current 217.Recall that Republicans delayed the retirement of Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA), simply to boost the vote threshold for health care to 217. Massa's retirement cancels that out.
And remember, too, that Massa voted against health care reform the first time around. [...]
In other words, the resignation actually improves the situation for Pelosi.
And at this point, we need all the help we can get.
Think positive.
By GottaLaff
An interesting tidbit from Greg Sargent:
Jane Hamsher calls for the resignation of Rep Lynn Woolsey as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, partly because Woolsey told me she’d back the Senate bill with a good reconciliation fix even without the public option.I want to clarify one point I should have made the other day: Woolsey also told me she’d introduce a bill creating a public option on the same day as voting for the Senate measure.
Communication is everything.
By GottaLaff
Update: RadarOnline.com has obtained new information that Justice Roberts will NOT resign. The justice will be staying on the bench.Dear gullible sheeple:
John Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, is seriously considering stepping down from the nation’s highest court for personal reasons, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively. [...]
RadarOnline.com has been told that Roberts, 55, could announce his decision at any time.
By GottaLaff
Yesterday I posted about Rep. Deal's resignation. Well, looky here, what do we have as a result? Bonus votes for health care reform!
Today's resignation of Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) essentially gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an extra vote to help her push health care reform bill through the House.
Now, with Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) facing a primary challenge from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is virtually guaranteed to have her vote -- assuming she still wants to be a senator -- as he tries to push the health care bill through the reconciliation process in the Senate.
By GottaLaff
Nathan Deal has called two press conferences tomorrow morning, one in Dalton and one in Gainesville, to announce that he is resigning from Congress.
Sources close to his campaign tell me that Deal will resign his seat in Congress to focus on his campaign for Governor. The thought process is that he is spending too much time in D.C., and needs to be around “Real” Georgia voters more often.
As opposed to fake Georgia voters?
Here's an interesting twist:
If he’s no longer a member of Congress, he can’t be on the list of CREW’s most unethical Congressmen anymore.
Oops. Guess that's the real Deal...
By GottaLaff
Politico reports that Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary, will be stepping down next month.
Rogers, who took criticism after a couple breached security at the White House's first state dinner, told the Chicago Sun-Times: "As we turn the corner on the first year, this is a good time for me to explore opportunities in the corporate world."
As Ben Smith notes, "the upshot of her departure is to chip away at a Chicago inner circle, headed by Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod, that has been increasingly the target of Democratic critics who feel Obama has been unable to make political adjustments on the national stage."
Meanwhile, an administration official tells ABC News the leading candidate to replace Rogers is Julianna Smoot, who was the national finance director for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.
By GottaLaff
Sarah Palin's spokeswoman Meg Stapleton, a close adviser to the former Alaska governor who developed a rocky relationship with other Republicans and members of the media, has resigned, two sources close to Palin confirmed Wednesday to CNN.
Stapleton, a spokesperson for the former governor since 2006, cited the need to spend more time with her husband and young daughter.
[...] Palin insiders, members of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign and other Republicans sympathetic to the former governor have grumbled privately about Stapleton's ability to handle the increasingly monumental task of advising Palin [...]
Members of the political press corps have also long been frustrated with Stapleton, who was the primary conduit between Palin and members of the media since the end of the 2008 presidential race, but rarely responded to phone calls or e-mails. When Stapleton did, they were often terse or combative.
By GottaLaff
Former Rep. Billy Tauzin is resigning as president of the drug trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Under Tauzin's leadership, the group cut a deal with the White House on health care reform which would have capped the industry's total costs under the planned legislation to $80 billion over 10 years.Now what would have made him do that? I admit, I'm not well-versed. Any ideas?
For more information...http://www.politico.com
A source close to Tauzin, a garrulous former Louisiana congressman who once chaired the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Tauzin left his post voluntarily after nearly 5 1/2 years in the job "because he wants to do other things with his life."The source, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak about the retirement, said that Tauzin was asked to stay by a majority of board members and that the decision was personal.
However, Tauzin has been under fire from the left and the right -- and from the mainstream of his fellow business lobbyists, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
More soon at: http://www.latimes.com/
By GottaLaff
It's hot in here. It must be scandal season. And they say it's global warming. Ha:
Business Insider reported tonight that a New York Times story on a simmering scandal involving New York Gov. David Paterson (D) would drop on Monday with the governor's resignation to follow.
Paterson's office has since denied the report but has acknowledged that a possible story is coming soon.
By GottaLaff
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) told his supporters Friday afternoon that he is leaving Congress before his term ends to focus on his 2010 bid for governor.See what Sarah the Quitter started? And they say she doesn't rub off on Democrats.
By GottaLaff
Deputy Attorney General David Ogden "is stepping aside to return to private law practice in Washington after less than a year of service," the Washington Post reports.That was today's Quickie. Will you still respect me in the morning?
By GottaLaff
The Arkansas coordinator for Mike Huckabee's political action committee resigned Tuesday, citing the former Arkansas governor's decision nine years ago to grant clemency to Maurice Clemmons, the man suspected of murdering four police officers in Washington state.
Jason Tolbert is a conservative blogger, and was the (volunteer) Arkansas state coordinator for HuckPAC.
"My departure was with a heavy heart but was done after serious prayer and consideration," Tolbert wrote on his Web site. "Some have asked about the timing. As most could imagine, the recent news of the last two days along with the response did play a role in this decision but was not the sole factor."
By GottaLaff
People familiar with the matter say General Motors' Chief Executive Frederick "Fritz" Henderson will resign, according to the Associated Press. The company's chairman of the board, Ed Whitacre Jr., will serve as interim replacement.Full story coming soon, they said.
By GottaLaff
Via Roll Call, which is subscription only, so this is all we get until I can track down more information:
Embattled Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) on Monday rejected calls for his resignation based on an extramarital affair with a former aide, saying to do so would take the focus off Republican efforts to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).Never mind that this isn't just about an affair, right C Street John? No, it's about so much more:
From The Rachel Maddow Show Oct. 7, 2009. Yet another shoe drops on Sen. John Ensign. We just had the news on Tom Coburn apparently negotiating bribes for Sen. Ensign, and now this.
By GottaLaff
The Pentagon's top detainee affairs policy appointee has quit the Defense Department just seven months into the job, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.******Phillip Carter, a former Army captain and Iraq War veteran, had been an outspoken critic of Bush-era war on terror detention policy as an attorney and blogging commentator. [...]
He quit without explanation [...]
The development apparently took the Department of Defense by surprise. [...]
It was not known whether Carter's service in uniform as a civil affairs officer in Iraq helped him fit in to the Defense Department culture where pockets of senior leadership were holdovers from the Bush administration.
All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.
Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.
If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.
Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.
More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.By GottaLaff
Politico: "Trevor Francis, communications director of the Republican National Committee, abruptly resigned Monday, and two Republican strategists familiar with the situation said he was pushed out because Chairman Michael Steele didn't feel he was getting enough credit for the GOP's electoral success earlier this month."There, there, Mikey, everyone is looking at you now. Happy?
By GottaLaff
Speaking of "constructive problem solving"...
Buh-bye now.
Original post of the report here, in which I made the obvious assumption that he'd slither over to ClusterFox.
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