Can Obama survive the shame of global popularity?

Obama to tell Human Rights Campaign he expects progress in "coming weeks."

Sarah Palin gets snubbed by Bob McDonnell. That and other political news in today's TPMDC Saturday Roundup.

A State Department spokesperson, commenting on the Obama's Nobel:

Certainly from our standpoint, this gives us a sense of momentum -- when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes.

Rimshot, please.

You might have picked up on one of the rants coming from wingers today: that the deadline for nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize was February 1, so therefore Obama won on the basis of his campaign for President and a whopping 12 days as President.

On its face that seems like a silly argument, since presumably the winner is selected from the pool of nominees closer in time to today's announcement than to the nominations deadline. (There's also an absurdist quality to it since the difference between February and October isn't likely to satisfy anyone who considers the prize premature.) But we checked it out to make sure. Rachel Slajda reports on how the selection process actually works.

American Police Force drops its plans to run that prison in Hardin, MT.

Sometimes Pat Buchanan can manage to be typically ... well, typically Pat Buchanan and yet be pretty funny. Here's Buchanan from a few moments ago on Michael Steele's early morning walk-on freak out about Obama's Nobel ..."Michael Steele had a Kanye West moment coming out there and saying Beyonce should have gotten the award. He shouldn't have done that."

Here's the video.

What are elected Republicans saying about Obama's Nobel, with a few exceptions, pretty much nothing. Reporters inboxes are crying out for attention across Washington.

We've got a great piece running on Republican ridiculousness and apoplexy over President's Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. But pretty much all of these are from talk show yakkers and political operatives, a few freak show elected members of Congress or really borderline types like Michael Goldfarb. Most high level Republicans -- major elected officeholders, prospective presidential nominees and so forth have been wise and gracious enough to issue appropriate notes of congratulation: McCain, Pawlenty, even Huckabee (sorta), etc.

But the one guy who just couldn't resist the urge to fringe was Michael Steele. He let rip with this early-morning, genuinely Malkinite statement that sounds like the first draft of a script from a late-campaign McCain attack ad from last year.

Yes, Michael Steele is Michael Steele. But still, he's the chairman of the national Republican party. I have to imagine that a lot of Republicans, perhaps even he, wishes he hadn't hit the send button on that one.

From bad to worse, we rank the ethics violations of the House Ways and Means chairman.

Not to be outdone by the other, both Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak are in a race to see who can run farthest to the left in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Considering where he started, Specter has come the farthest, making the whole spectacle a bit comical.

Robert Lowry

Robert Lowry, a GOP candidate running against Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) has now conceded it was a "mistake" to fire a handgun at a human silhouette target with Wasserman Schultz's initials on it at a recent Republican event.

I'm not sure what to make of this, but the NAACP just sent out a press release congratulating President Obama on his Nobel Prize and noting the storied company in which it puts him:

President Obama joins the likes of Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mother Teresa in winning the Nobel Peace Prize and is also only the third sitting President to receive this honor, with President Theodore Roosevelt and President Wilson preceding him. President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Al Gore are also Nobel Peace Prize winners after they left the White House.

But the release makes no mention of Martin Luther King, Jr., who at age 35 in 1964 was the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace prize at that time and turned over the prize money to advance the cause of civil rights.

I don't want to overstate the omission because I suspect it's just an inadvertent oversight. But the fact is Obama is connected umbilically to King through so many historical threads. Without King, it's difficult to envision a Obama presidency. Both of them winning Nobels adds to the richness of that historic connection. For all its political salience today, awarding the Nobel to Obama is also a ratification of King -- and of the decision the Nobel committee made 45 years ago.

Could the 2010 mid-term become a referendum on the US Attorneys firing scandal? Well, okay, there are a few other issues in play despite this one being close to my heart. But there may soon be two US Attorney firing scandal figures (on the side of darkness, mind you) running for the House next year.

We already have Tim Griffin, the Rove protege who filled the chair of fired US Attorney Bud Cummins in Arkansas, running against Rep. Vic Snyder. And now we hear that Mary Beth Buchanan, a career piece of work who was involved in the scandal on a few different fronts, is considering a challenge to Rep. Jason Altmire (D) in western Pennsylvania.

It's disappointing that so many Republicans, even those in elected office or of high rank, can't manage to muster even a thin graciousness over this award. But John McCain has risen above that. And Nicole Wallace, who was once in the Bush communications office and later had a similar role in the McCain campaign, was just on MSNBC a bit earlier with a gracious, sane, level-headed response.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK): If Obama was on the fence about more troops for Afghanistan, the Nobel might push him over to the peacenik side!

As you'd imagine, the Nobel committee's announcement has driven many on the right to paroxysms of apoplexy and ridiculousness. Eric Kleefeld rounds up some of the best examples so far.

A long-time reader chimes in ...

My boss is a Nobel Laureate (Physics). So of course I was interested in his reaction because he is fairly plugged in to the thinking of the various Nobel committees, even those outside his domain. Anyway, he was absolutely elated by Obama's win. He sees the award not so much a recognition of anything Obama has accomplished yet, but rather as a very strong statement of support for his agenda, and an endorsement of his approach to international affairs.

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President Obama will travel to Oslo, Norway, to accept his Nobel, the White House confirms.

White House reacts on the fly to unexpected Nobel announcement.

We've got all the Nobel Peace Prize reaction and commentary you could ever want -- and more -- in our automatically updating "Reaction Wire: Obama's Nobel Win."

TPM Reader BJ nominated for TPM Email Excessive Literalism Award which was created to bring attention to on-going research in snark impairment ...

Please correct your flatly incorrect statement that Hitler won the Nobel Peace Price, or any of the Nobel prizes for that matter. He was briefly nominated and that nomination swiftly removed. He later signed a law forbidding Germans from accepting the Nobel prizes when winners were regularly anti-Nazi. Some were arrested for even responding to the committee. Your incorrect and unreferenced statement is the kind of thing that the right will take out of context (of which you provided none as there was none to provide) and make it into one of their echo-chamber facts.

This should be done immediately.

I don't expect Republicans to be cheering for Obama. And notwithstanding my comments below I can totally understand their having their collective noses a little bent out of shape over a first year president of the opposite party winning a Nobel totally out of the blue. But I honestly would have predicted a short window of semi-graciousness at least in official statements. But check out Michael Steele's official response from the RNC.

We've set up an open thread at TPMCafe to discuss Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.

Have at it!

It's like when Hitler won the Nobel.

Olympia Snowe is feeling lonely as the sole Senate Republican vote in play on health care reform. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

It's not the accustomed stance of a writer or blogger. But this one does have me at something of a loss for words. I notice the condemnation of the Taliban, the edged snark of the superciliati. But I also see Ana Marie Cox's first-off Twitter: "Apparently Nobel prizes now being awarded to anyone who is not George Bush." And while less than generous, I think she's on to the root of the matter. But perhaps not precisely in the way she thinks.

This is an odd award. You'd expect it to come later in Obama's presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment. But the unmistakable message of the award is one of the consequences of a period in which the most powerful country in the world, the 'hyper-power' as the French have it, became the focus of destabilization and in real if limited ways lawlessness. A harsh judgment, yes. But a dark period. And Obama has begun, if fitfully and very imperfectly to many of his supporters, to steer the ship of state in a different direction. If that seems like a meager accomplishment to many of the usual Washington types it's a profound reflection of their own enablement of the Bush era and how compromised they are by it, how much they perpetuated the belief that it was 'normal history' rather than dark aberration.

On many levels it makes a lot of sense, but did anyone see this coming?

Details on how the President learned of the award this morning here.

A TPM commenter wonders if this isn't a bit premature:

Isn't it a little soon for this? Maybe after he brokers an Israeli-Palestinian agreement or something like that.

It sounds like the, 'boy is the world relieved you guys didn't choose McCain' award.

We're hiring a new member of our publishing team who will work from our New York City office: Social Media & Publicity Associate. It's a great job for someone who's really into and gets TPM and who's really into and gets social media. Is that you? If it is, we really want to hear from you.

Job description and instructions for applying under the fold.

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Having taken the read of some of the shrewder health care policy nerds, it seems that the Carper/Schumer Public Option 'opt-out' compromise may really be a winner in policy terms. As I tentatively argued this morning, it would seem to get you a sufficiently large and nationally based plan that would provide the negotiating leverage that is the key to a successful public option. And, again, assuming the plan worked as advertised in the 'in' states, there'd be growing political pressure for the hold out states to come on board.

That's the policy side of the equation. For the political calculus, the ability for states to opt out would deflate some of the 10th Amendment/government take over/death panel freak show and give conservative Democrats enough breathing room to come on board. And a number of key conservative Dems as well as liberals seemed to warm to the idea.

Over the course of the day though it became clear that none of the key power centers -- not the White House or the Dem leadership in either chamber -- seemed at all interested. From some of the leadership sources we spoke to, the idea seemed to be: 'Sure, interesting idea. And a lot of people are talking about it. But it's just not on the radar for the leadership. So why are we talking about this?'

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WaPo, 10.9.09: "Health Industry Concerned About Reform Measures"

Perhaps not so known nationally, the founder of the DC institution Ben's Chilli Bowl, Ben Ali, died today.

Canada's Tory Prime Minister Stephen Harper singing 'A Little Help from My Friends' with Yo-Yo Ma and orchestra.

The NRSC responds to GOP Senate candidate Marco Rubio's rip on the national GOP as "shrill" and "lazy."

Well, not Tea-baggers/Tea-Partiers maybe. But cut from the same Tea Party cloth. On Tuesday we got an email from TPM Reader CH telling us there were a bunch of anti-tax protestors around town wearing Uncle Sam suits 'begging' and holding a sign saying "$12 trillion in debt ... Please Help."

It struck CH as a little off since the Sam she saw had set up next to an apparently genuine homeless person begging for food. But it turns out they weren't protestors exactly. They were actors paid by a right-wing outfit called the Employment Policies Institute. One Sam our reporter spoke to said he'd been hired by PR agency on EPI's behalf.

What are folks in the House and White House saying about a possible "out-out" compromise in the senate? They don't seem to care much one way or another. They're intent on muscling through the real thing.

Corzine is out-advertising/out-spending Christie by a big, big margin.

Dems on the right and left seem to be warming to the "opt-out" public option compromise.

With the recent David Letterman quasi-scandal, it seems the entertainment industry is trying to get in on the whole sex extortion scandal craze. But this is pretty weak too. The real masters of the full sex extortion scandal meltdown are all in the political world. In today's TPM Photo Feature we look at some recent high points of the genre in the political world.

Jenny Beth Martin

We all know that key anti-tax Tea Party movement leader Jenny Beth Martin is no fan of federal taxes. But it makes a lot more sense when you learn she owes the IRS half a million dollars.

Nancy Pelosi today addressed the NRCC's call for her to be "put in her place."

Gibbs non-committal on the new public option opt-out compromise being pushed by Sen. Schumer and others today on the hill.

Gov. Jon Corzine

The new Democracy Corps poll out today has Jon Corzine up over Chris Christie by three points.

A few key points to note. This is a Dem poll, though a highly respected one. And earlier Democracy Corps polls of this race have shown a narrower margin for Christie than others.

But with all that said, this adds yet more confirmation of the trend, which has Corzine drawing even or perhaps even pulling a tiny margin ahead of Christie. The poll also suggests that Corzine's ads hitting Christie on insurance coverage of mammograms may be having a big effect.

Damn Close Update 3:00PM: Another poll has just come out, this one from SurveyUSA. And it has Christie up by 3 points. Beside the topline number, a key take away is that this poll shows a sharp gender gap, which supports the belief that Corzine's attacks on Christie on the mammogram issue has had some effect.

"When I was sworn into the Marine Corps, I was sworn to uphold the Constitution against every enemy, foreign and domestic. We've got a lot of domestic enemies of the Constitution and one of those sits in the speaker's chair of the United States Congress, Nancy Pelosi." -- Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) at a townhall last week.

In an interview with TPMDC, U.S. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio, who's seeking the Republican nomination against Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, charges the national GOP with "shrillness," which he blames on intellectual "laziness."

A reader chimes in on the opt-out plan ...

It's a game changer. The proposal is consonant with Obama's own approach to reform - what Cass Sunstein labeled 'visionary minimalism' - in its incremental, consensual approach that nevertheless possesses transformative potential. Instead of coercing adoption by imposing a mandate on the states, it invites their participation and preserves their choice.

There's one key change that I'd like to see, to accentuate these features and raise its chances of passage.

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It seems pretty clear now that American Police Force is little more than "Captain" Michael Hilton's shell game. (We found out recently that those Mercedes SUVs they blared into town with -- the only real sign they had any money behind them -- were signed for by another guy Hilton had apparently taken for a ride.) But now at least one of Hilton's "investors" is saying he and his fellow investors want to run the jail without Hilton, whose criminal/fraudster past now makes him an unwelcome partner. They just need to figure out how to find those prisoners Hilton told them were going to make the whole thing a profitable venture.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

Yesterday Sam Stein of Huffington Post reported that a new 'compromise' public option is getting a hearing on Capitol Hill, one which would allow individual states to opt-out of a national public option. To be clear, this is not 50 different state-based public options, where individual states could opt out. It's a national public option, which individual states could opt not to participate in.

The idea is from Sen. Carper (D-DE). But Sen. Schumer (D-NY) seems to be pushing it. He just went on TV a few moments ago and said the idea was gaining traction. The two of them apparently met yesterday evening to discuss the idea.

Now, I haven't heard yet from the people who really understand the policy dimensions of this stuff, the people who know all the moving parts and whose opinions I trust. So consider my comments as very tentative, subject to change if, as is quite possible, there are dimensions of this I'm not considering. But just on the face of it, this sounds like a compromise reformers could embrace because I suspect many, probably most states would opt in, providing a plenty large enough pool to get to the bargaining power that is essential to make a public option work.

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Glenn Beck becomes first cable show to pick up the American Police Force story. We're so proud.

The week's worst in story concept and execution, from Politico: "Roman Polanski Backers Gave $34K to Barack Obama, DNC."

President Obama is appointing his first openly gay ambassador. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

From the Patriot-News ...

Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter's soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.

Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. at their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, police said.

The couple's three children were home at the time and were not injured, and are staying with relatives and friends, police said.

Read the rest here.

TPM Reader LG checks in from New Jersey ...

I'd like to add a few more comments concerning the NJ gubernatorial race, and specifically, why Christie is losing ground in a hurry. Clearly, a strong factor is the typical NJ slide away from the Republican as election day draws near. Another factor pointed out was that Corzine is massively outspending Christie. I also think that a very new and major factor is Christie's lack of specifics juxtaposed to independent Chris Daggett's substance.

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Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) goes on a stream-of-consciousness rant on the House floor: bestiality, necrophilia, voting for a black man.

Pete Sessions (R-TX), head of the House Republican campaign committee, announces that the GOP's list of endangered House Republicans has a mere five names on it this year (since all the Republicans in swing districts lost in 2006 and 2008).

Why is disgraced (though pardoned) former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington holding a fundraiser for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's Senate campaign?

Just a classic, classic story. First, you've got show-boating, right-wing, anti-immigration Sheriff Joe Arpaio (aka "America's Toughest Sheriff"). He teams up with Maricopa County prosecutor Andrew Thomas to arrest County Supervisor Don Stapley on charges which seem pretty thin and arguably political in nature. (They tried to prosecute him last year; but those charges fell apart. And in this case a judge found they lacked probable cause for the arrest.) But Thomas had to recuse himself because he works with Stapley in the country government. And they couldn't not come up with what in layman's terms we'd normally call a real prosecutor willing to take the case. (They tried to get the prosecutor for the neighboring county to take over the case but she declined.) So they decided to import TV lawyers-cum-DC GOP power couple Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing as outside "special prosecutors" to take the case.

Sounds legit, right?

And if all that weren't enough, fired US Attorney Paul Charlton is defending Stapley. So he's had his own experience being on the receiving end of political corruption of the prosecutorial process.

Two men, John Iannucci, 38, and Jessup Bowllinger, 27, were arrested Tuesday in New Haven, CT when they were found driving with a pipe bomb, two shotguns, various bomb-making materials, ammunition, a can of propane and SWAT uniforms. One had apparently been arrested for bomb making earlier this year and was awaiting trial.

Here's our report.

Charlie Wilson's War's Charlie Wilson on Afghanistan: "If I were the president, I'm not sure what I'd do. I'd probably shut it down, rather than lose a lot of soldiers and treasure."

A longer time reader points to why Christie's falling short ...

Christie's challenge is that his campaign was constructed around a critique of Corzine. He's hammered away, hitting him again and again. And he's landed some solid blows.

But as election day draws nigh, he's suddenly discovered that it wasn't quite enough. And he has absolutely no positive case for office to close the deal.

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Tom DeLay uses his final moments of Dancing With the Stars post-Fame to question Obama's citizenship and suggest he's open to Birtherism.

Chris Christie

Despite his recent fall-off in the polls, I don't think it was until I heard his comments to the press yesterday that I really started thinking he might lose. Aruging he's still in good shape, Christie said there'd been 45 polls taken so far this year and that he's been ahead in all but the most recent one.

I mean, that's brilliant, right?

In addition to letting drop a pretty good gag line, Christie's comments struck me as a little desperate (especially for a guy who is at worst in a tie race) and something you'd expect from someone who just doesn't have a plan for how to close. There are ways you respond to reporters about a tightening race and ways you don't.

See the full quote and tell me whether you think I'm on the right track.

From TPM Reader PB ...

I've always assumed that this was fundamentally a polling problem, because it is not confined to statewide races. You can see a similar dynamic at work in Presidential races in NJ. If I remember correctly early polls showed Bush competitive with Kerry and McCain competitive with Obama. But of course Kerry and Obama carried NJ easily. So I don't think this is a problem with the NJ GOP being poor closers, but rather a problem with polling NJ itself.

I have not yet reviewed the data. But this is also my recollection of at least those two races. The polls showed them much more competitive than they ended up being on election day. But it's also consistent with what NJ politics expert Ingrid Reed told us, which is that the Dems have an organizational advantage on the ground, especially in the big population centers, that is difficult for pollsters to pick up adequately.

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Gov. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and US Attorney Chris Christie

We've been tracking the Corzine-Christie race in New Jersey pretty closely. And I've mentioned a few times that there's a pattern -- or an apparent pattern -- of Republicans running strong in statewide races only to see their numbers collapse near election day. A close observer sent me an email last night arguing that the conventional wisdom doesn't really square with the evidence. And really it's much more a matter of a few races over the last decade. So Eric Kleefeld got in touch with some experts on New Jersey politics to get their read.

The upshot is that while there have been some significant exceptions, New Jersey Republicans do seem to have a track record of significantly underperforming the polls on election day. Check out Eric's report.

The details remain murky. But it seems clear that one important motivator for Hardin, Montana in getting in bed with American Police Force was the idea that in addition to running the town's prison they'd also help provide local policing services. Now that the APF deal seems deep in meltdown mode, that seems to be off. But Hardin is still trying to set up its own police force and stop having to rely on the county. So yesterday, Big Horn County Commissioners okayed Hardin to start its own police force but only after getting assurances that APF won't have anything to do with it.

Like I always like to say, wherever a right-wing freak shows up at an Obama event packing heat, TPM will be there. And with that in mind I just wanted to bring you up to date on the gun-toter du jour from early September, Mr. Josh Hendrickson from Minnesota.

We finally got a hold of his court records and learned details of what TPMer Justin Elliott aptly terms "an unfortunate flareup of Mall Cop Rage" that landed Hendrickson in the slammer for three months just before he showed up to welcome the president with his Glock and a Kel Tec 380. See our report here.

Obama's approval rating bounces from 50% to 56% in the latest AP poll. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

I mentioned this morning that a new FDU poll showed Jon Corzine for the first time in like forever ahead of Chris Christie.

True, it was by a statistically insignificant one point margin. But that's in the context of a steady stream of polls showing the race closing to the low single digits.

Now this evening Rasmussen released a new poll with Christie up by only 3 points -- down from 7 and 8 points in early and mid-September and 11 points in late August.

All but one poll shows Christie with some lead, even if only two or three points. But the trend is pretty clear. And it's a perilous place for a New Jersey Republican to be. Because the state has a long history of Republicans candidates who held comfortable leads and then watched them melt away in October and see the Democrat take it in November.

Details emerge from Obama's meeting with congressional leaders about Afghanistan.

The key seems to turn on an exchange between President Obama and Sen. McCain.

McDonnell on his Christian right thesis: Don't worry. Obama and I believe pretty much the same thing.

And Deeds gets pressed on his chances of winning and pushes his support for Obama. "I'm proud of the President, I worked very hard for his election last year. I want him to be successful and quite frankly I don't think he's getting enough credit for a lot of good things that are going on in the economy. I just think it's unreasonable for two people to agree 100 percent of the time."

Interested in talking to a NY-based graphic artist who has experience doing t-shirt design. Is that you?

The Fox News anchor goes all pro-public option in a live interview with Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY).

Since they did a surge in Iraq, shouldn't they get to do one in Afghanistan too?

Even shorter McCain: Isn't it about time for me to start making the decisions about what happens in Afghanistan?

If you were watching last night as he turned back the clock, showing a nimbleness of feet and rhythm you'd expect in a much younger man, playing through injury and the pain of a deteriorating physique, then you know what a special performance it was. And sadly we learned this afternoon that his career may be coming to a permanent end due to stress fractures in his feet. So we take one more look back on what may have been Brett Favre's Tom Delay's last dance.

First Congress, now Dancing with the Stars: DeLay quits resigns from Dancing with the Stars.

As the American Police Force private jail deal swirls down the drain of public-private partnership ignominy, now the question gets asked, who's got the keys? The town originally told us they gave them to the APF. But APF says they gave them back to the town. And as long as we're on the subject, a hypothetical: if APF is still in the prison and won't leave, would Hardin MT need to hire another private army to roust them out?

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, a professional anti-reformer and fomenter of all sorts of reform myths, went head to head last night over health care reform in a debate in New York City. TPM and its camera were there.

Sen. Ben Nelson tells TPMDC that he has had no discussions with the Democratic leadership about toeing the party line on filibusters.

Sounds like Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) isn't panning out as a major fundraising draw for the GOP.

It's hardly a stampede. But as Zack Roth has reported over recent days, a non-trivial number of major American corporations have now either cancelled their membership in the US Chamber of Commerce (Apple), resigned from the organization's board (Nike) or explicitly dissociated itself from the Chamber's position on Global Warming (GE). The names include Nike, GE, several major regional utilities and now Apple.

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Before a crowd of activists and reporters outside the Capitol a short time ago, Speaker Pelosi insisted that the final health care bill will include a public option.

TPM makes its first appearance in the White House briefing room

Al Peterson

Key economic development official behind the deal to turn over that prison and some of the town of Hardin itself (its policing functions) over to the endlessly sketchy American Police Force now says they need to hear from APF where they're getting their money or the deal's off.

Also, American Police Force is now American Private Police Force. Not what I'd call a miracle of rebranding. But there ya go.

And, because the story just wouldn't be complete without it, now there are questions about whether the deal may have been sweetened for one of the local economic development officials by APF offering a job to his wife.

Our new White House reporter says even close aides to President Obama say they don't know when he'll make his decision on Gen. McChrystal's new troop surge request.

In The New Republic, William Galston says that liberals should be wary of criticizing Gen. Stanley McChrystal because he may turn out to be the new Eric Shinseki, the Army Chief of Staff who became the darling of Bush administration critics for telling Congress that the United States would need many, many more troops to secure Iraq than President Bush was making available. (Shinseki now runs the Department of Veterans Affairs.)

Galston has a point; just not much of one.

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A short time ago, CNN chased down Sen. John Ensign on the Hill to confront him about the New York Times report that Ensign went out of his way to help the clients of his mistress' husband after their affair was discovered.

Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), one of the half a handful of people who basically runs Delaware politics, is going to run for Joe Biden's old senate seat in 2010 against Biden's son Beau Biden.

Castle's decision instantly makes this a competitive race.

Former Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) is back for a second day of walking back his initial, tentative support of President Obama's health care reform.

Gen. David Petraeus has revealed he was treated for prostate cancer earlier this year. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Remember that American Police Force deal to run that jail in Hardin, MT? Turns out people weren't totally paranoid. In addition running the jail, the contract included provisions giving APF the right to take over law enforcement functions in the town. That would have been fun. And now the town leaders have decided to put the whole deal on ice.

The new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll out this morning has Corzine up over Chris Christie by one point.

The DNC is launching a new national ad campaign in support of health care reform. See our write up and the video here.

Karl Rove

I just got a note from TPM Reader DC who says Karl Rove got his account on Twitter (twitter.com/karlrove) suspended. And sure enough it's true. Click here to see.

At first I thought, wait, this must have been a phony Rove Twitter account that finally got shut down because they found out it was by an impostor. But I checked our own GOP Twitter Room and that's the account we had for him too. And if that's not enough, I checked Rove's official site. And that's the one he lists there. You can click right through and be taken to the suspended account page. So I think it's got to be legit.

What was the cause? Toxic bamboozlement? Clinical shame deficit after giving us the Bush presidency? Truth be told, I have to assume this means his account got hacked or something. But, who knows? And fun headline nonetheless.

I'll be curious to find out what happened here.

Late Update: And it's back. With no apparent explanation. But it's back. Seems to have been down for an hour or so. Or at least that's the length of time since we'd heard about it.

Over the weekend the Times published an article with data suggesting that ordinary Europeans, unlike many of their political and cultural elites, don't think too differently about the Polanski affair than most people in the United States.

But if you're surprised, you shouldn't be.

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Betsy McCaughey, who has to rank as the Typhoid Mary of health care bamboozlement, debated Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) in New York. And we had a crack team of multimedia TPM news ninjas on the scene. We'll bring you their report tomorrow.

Of the 28 Democratic governors, only 22 signed a letter to the Democratic congressional leadership pushing for health care reform. Who are the six holdouts?

Joe Scarborough, on GOP reaction to Chicago losing its Olympic bid: "Republicans have gone off the deep end." Watch.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) pens a book with a decidedly pro-reform and pro-Obama slant on health care. He even went so far as to tell Time over the weekend that he'd vote for the Baucus bill if he were still in the Senate, though today he seemed to back track in an interview with ABC News.

How long should you be sidelined for circulating an anti-reform email featuring Obama as a witch doctor? The Florida doctor who stepped aside from public activism this summer is back in the game -- and being hailed as a "rock solid patriot."

Xe, the company formerly known as Blackwater, says there is no connection between it and American Private Police Force (until this weekend, known as American Police Force), the secretive company that took over that jail in Hardin, MT. "It's bizarre," an Xe spokesperson tells TPMmuckraker. "They have nothing to do with us. We have nothing to do with them."

The vote on the Baucus bill scheduled for tomorrow in the Senate Finance Committee may be delayed until next week.

Orly Taitz

When the birther movement was really starting to hit its stride over the summer, lawyer Orly Taitz was on the cable nets presented as a leading figure albeit in a fringe movement. But as the legal cases she's pursued to declare Obama ineligible to be President have fallen apart and I've gotten a chance to see some of the pleadings she's filed, I've started to wonder if her apparent prominence in the birther movement isn't some big joke. Or maybe it just drives home how fringe these folks are.

In either case, her motions read like the whacked out inmate lawsuits I used to come across occasionally when I was practicing. A lot of them were written by hand, describing vast yet inexplicable conspiracies to keep them incarcerated, maybe with a mention of UFOs, and naming dozens if not hundreds of defendants, including most members of Congress. Taitz doesn't go quite that far, but then again she's actually a licensed member of the bar. I've sort of begun to feel sorry for her.

Ensign: I'll cooperate with Senate ethics probe.

SNL gets pretty brutal on Obama's list of accomplishments in office. Let's see. There was that time he killed a fly on TV ... Watch.

The FBI has been questioning former aides to disgraced ex-state Sen. Mike Duval about his sex-with-lobbyist braggadocio.

Sandra Day O'Connor calls herself "a little bit disappointed" with the Supreme Court's dismantling of precedent she helped set. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

In the new era, congressional Republicans discover the virtues of foreign diplomacy ... as a tool against the Obama administration.