Biden: Stimulus Could Have Been Bigger
In a statement that’s sure to get GOP tongues wagging, Vice President Joe Biden told Jake Tapper on This Week that the stimulus bill could have been more substantial without the GOP’s interference: “In order to get what we got passed, we had to find Republican votes. And we found three. And we finally got it passed,” Biden said.
Clyburn on Midterm Elections: Confidence or Denial?
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said last week that it’s possible the Republicans will retake the House of Representatives. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) doesn’t think so. Analysts had dire predictions for the special election to replace the late Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA), but the Democrats pulled through. On Fox News Sunday Clyburn said he expects the same result for his party this November, bad poll numbers be damned.
Biden Not Holding Grudge Against McChrystal
Later during This Week, Biden let it be known that the controversial comments to Rolling Stone that got Gen. Stanley McChrystal canned were water under the bridge. “I didn’t take it personally at all, I really, honest to God, didn’t,” Biden said. “Compared to what happens in politics, this was a piece of cake.”
Specifics, Please
What would Republicans do if they managed to retake one or both chambers of Congress? On NBC’s Meet the Press David Gregory pressed Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), chairmen of their party’s Senate and House campaign committees, respectively, for specific policies—how exactly would the GOP shrink the deficit? Gregory was not satisfied with their answers until Cornyn said his party would repeal health-care reform.
Government by Investigation?
But New York magazine’s John Heilemann envisions a different result if the GOP regains a congressional majority: a whole bunch of subpoenas. Some political analysts say a Republican speaker of the House could benefit Obama by giving him a boogeyman to run against in 2012—a campaign assist for a president who’s not a natural partisan pit bull. Heilemann is not so sure. Speaking on The Chris Matthews Show, the reporter recalled the Clinton administration and said that with a newly powerful Republican Party, we could see “government by investigation,” which would cripple the capital.
Radar Ed: Old Media Is Dropping the Ball on Mel Gibson
It’s impossible to deny that Radar has become a major media player over the past week with its onslaught of exclusive Mel Gibson coverage, and founder David Perel took a minor swing at “old media” for dropping the ball when he appeared on Reliable Sources.
Sunday Smackdown: NAACP vs. Tea Party
On Face the Nation, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous faced off against Tea Party activist David Webb. Webb chided Jealous for what he called a “selective condemnation of racism” in terms of criticizing the racist elements of the Tea Party but not the controversial New Black Panthers movement. Jealous responded by saying that the New Black Panthers party is not a part of the NAACP, whereas people like Mark Williams, who impersonated Jealous in a racially charged satirical letter, were actually members of the Tea Party—or at least, they had been before Webb expelled them after learning about the racist letter.