11.27.09 -- 8:13PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (35)

Watch Out

A pretty staggering number out of the new Daily Kos weekly tracking poll. They asked voters, basically, how are sure are you you're going to vote next year.

The first number is certain or likely to vote; the second is unlikely or certain not to vote.

Republican Voters: 81/14
Independent Voters: 65/23
Democratic Voters: 56/40

Everyone knows there's an enthusiasm gap. You don't even need a poll to tell you. You can feel it. On the one hand you've got very gunned up conservatives, who make up an even greater proportion of the diminished GOP. On the other you've got a mix of demoralized progressives and other Dems who feel like they got the job done in November 2008 and have checked out on politics ... at least for now.

All together, it points to very, very rough seas in 2010.

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 6:40PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)

We Just Crashed Your Party!

The White House just released a photo of President Obama greeting, unbeknownst to him apparently, the state dinner crashers in a receiving line.

More here.

--David Kurtz

11.27.09 -- 5:42PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)

Face Time

A White House official tells TPM the party-crashing Salahis managed to meet President Obama on the receiving line at the state dinner.

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 5:23PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)

Not Us!

In a statement just released to TPMDC, the Indian Embassy categorically denies any role in the incident whatsoever.

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 4:49PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (37)

New Statement Out from Secret Service

New statement out from the Secret Service under the fold ...

Read more »

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 2:58PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (10)

Tiger Woods Injured In Car Wreck

Details are still sketchy, but according to local news reports in Florida, Tiger Woods was seriously injured in an early morning car accident near his home there.

Although the accident happened at 2:25 a.m., it was some 11 hours before the Florida Highway Patrol issued a report and news organizations began reporting the accident.

According to one report, Woods' agent says he's "fine."

Late Update: While the initial police report said Woods had serious injuries, Woods just issued a statement saying he'd been treated and released from the hospital.

It was really difficult to imagine Woods being seriously injured and in a U.S. hospital for 11 hours before news leaked out.

--David Kurtz

11.27.09 -- 2:52PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (16)

Let The Scrubbing Begin!

We're trying to find out more about White House party crasher Tareq Salahi. Salahi is on the board of the American Task Force on Palestine, a DC lobby group closely tied to the Palestinian Authority government of Mahmoud Abbas. But his name seems already to have been scrubbed from the site. Here's what it looked like before the party-crashing incident.

Meanwhile, if you need more evidence that Tareq Salahi is the Zelig of fame-grabbing celebrity-socialite nonsense, here's video of Tareq and his wife interviewing Will.i.am and thanking him for his support for the America's Polo Cup. Salahi is the captain of the US Polo Team, or at least that's what he says. Does the US really have an official team?

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 2:05PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (23)

Does It All Fit Together?

In my last post I noted that the White House party crasher couple appears to have pretty substantial ties to the Indian Embassy in Washington. So let's put our thinking caps on and think about what may have happened.

Read more »

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 1:12PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)

Another Theory

It's just a theory so far. But I'm surprised we haven't heard this mentioned before. Gawker notes that crasher couple Michaele and Tareq Salahi have fairly substantial connections to the Indian Embassy in Washington. That doesn't prove anything. And what it suggests would probably be much less worrisome than the story we're hearing now. But it's hard for me to imagine that their being good friends (apparently) with the DCM at the Indian Embassy (the number two at an Embassy who is usually a professional diplomat) didn't have something to do with their ease getting in.

In our conversation in the office about this incident this morning, one thing I mentioned was that what seemed strange to me wasn't just that they got in but that they were apparently so confident about their ability to get in.

We're looking into this now. Here's our first report on the crasher story.

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 12:25PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)

The Rest of the Story

Top Ten things you didn't know about the Obama campaign before reading David Plouffe's Audacity to Win.

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 12:05PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (12)

Haiku Contest?

The annual Golden Duke Awards are coming up. And the LA Times noticed that a text message Sen. John Ensign sent to his girlfriend Cindy Hampton was only one syllable off from being a bona-fide Haiku.

How wonderful it is. Can't believe,
it's like a kid. Scared but excited.

I've often thought that a lot of tweets, and probably texts too, are close to being haikus. We've had a lot of sex scandals this year (as we always do). So in the honor of the day, and to work off your post-turkey stupor, email us your haiku based on one of 2009's plentiful sex scandals.

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 11:59AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (57)

Big Deal or No?

We're having a bit of a debate here in the office about whether the State Dinner party crasher story is just a funny holiday weekend weirdness story or a genuine security issue. On the one hand, you've got Rep. Peter King (R-NY) saying that the fact that the crashers had to go through the metal detectors and conventional weapons screening was 'incidental'. "They could have had anthrax on them. They could have grabbed a knife from the dining room table." I'm willing to put that down as pretty standard Pete King nonsense. (I'm actually pleasantly surprised, given the climate post-Ford Hood, that there's been no mention from the right that the male party crasher appears to have an Arabic or perhaps Turkic name. But perhaps I shouldn't tempt fate.)

But I'm on the side of thinking that it actually is kind of a big deal. We pay a lot of money, for good reason, to keep the White House and the president's person, super secure. And the idea that these two could just walk right in without even being on a White House wave-in list, let alone the invite list for a State Dinner. Not having weapons isn't the only issue.

What do you think?

Read more »

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 11:23AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (8)

Feelin' the Heat

Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina is in some serious hot water -- legally and politically -- over an anti-public option mailer (the existence of which was first reported by TPMmuckraker) and a robocall the company was using to persuade its customers to oppose health care reform.

The state attorney general, state insurance commissioner and state lawmakers are all looking into the political activity by the insurance giant, which scrapped a second round of robocalls once it came under scrutiny.

TPMmuckraker is on the case.

--David Kurtz

11.27.09 -- 9:52AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)

Get Your Distortion Right Here!

Brian Beutler with the top 5 GOP distortions of this Congress.

--David Kurtz

11.27.09 -- 9:19AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)

Remember These 3 Letters: PMA

It's the biggest Democratic political scandal you've never heard of -- or at most have just a passing familiarity with -- and it's not Charlie Rangel.

--David Kurtz

11.27.09 -- 9:14AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (12)

Bumps

Here's one story we're watching closely on a Friday when there was supposed to be no news. On Wednesday, Dubai's sovereign wealth fund asked to delay certain debt payments and then rushed to raise more money. It raised more money but the international financial community is still not confident that they're out of the woods. Globally speaking, this sounds like one of those stories that's no big deal unless it's not. A member of the governing board of the European Central Bank tells Reuters, "The events in Dubai in recent days are one of the hiccups if you like, one of the difficulties, which affirms that we were right to highlight the uncertainty ahead of us and that the road ahead could be a bumpy one."

In itself the numbers aren't that big (measured on a global scale), only tens of billions of dollars. But if larger institutions turn out to have a lot of exposure to it, and that pushes some of them back into unstable territory and rushed liquidations of assets, the whole thing could spread. At a minimum it's an example of the still quite risk averse international financial markets.

--Josh Marshall

11.27.09 -- 8:49AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (8)

We're All Gonna Die!!!

The top 5 Republican distortions so far in this Congress.

--David Kurtz

11.26.09 -- 10:45PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (61)

Change

From WaPo ...

Hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists are likely to be ejected from federal advisory panels as part of a little-noticed initiative by the Obama administration to curb K Street's influence in Washington, according to White House officials and lobbying experts.

The new policy -- issued with little fanfare this fall by the White House ethics counsel -- may turn out to be the most far-reaching lobbying rule change so far from President Obama, who also has sought to restrict the ability of lobbyists to get jobs in his administration and to negotiate over stimulus contracts.

--Josh Marshall

11.26.09 -- 9:45PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (15)

NY-23 Rematch

Doug Hoffman says he'll run again in New York's 23rd district next November.

--Josh Marshall