Jon Stewart on Larry King discussing John Edwards as possible vice presidential candidate:
Yes. I hate to see a boy like that’s heart crushed when he gets to be the vice president and he realizes he has to tell Senators to f-off. That is actually a vice presidential duty within the constitution.
“John Kerry is out there campaigning hard. Earlier tonight, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond sang at a fundraiser for Kerry. As a result, experts say Kerry has a very good shot at winning the 1976 election.”
Conan O’Brien
“Every political journalist is picking John Edwards as the number one pick to be John Kerry’s vice president. Can you imagine the debate between Dick Cheney and a trial lawyer like Edwards? One guy has spent his career in an ambulance, the other guys has spend his career chasing it.”
Jay Leno
“On the Senate floor, Dick Cheney flipped out and told Senator Pat Leahy to go f-himself. Can you believe that? Aren’t these the same guys trying to fine Howard Stern for bad language?”
Jay Leno
Sounds like the Vice President is coming around on sexual morality issues. Yesterday he encouraged Senator Leahy to engage in sexual behavior not routinely endorsed by the evangelical crowd.
Here’s the background.
Juan Cole has an excellent summary of the Jack Ryan problems and the larger issues. Must reading.
“Presidential candidate Ralph Nader has finally picked a running mate. He picked a man by the name of Peter Camejo from the Green party, and this guy has all the qualifications Ralph Nader was looking for in a candidate. He said yes. …They plan to be the candidates against special interests and apparently it’s working for them because no one has any special interest in them.”
— Jay Leno
“Ralph Nader choose the man with whom to share the responsibility of running a distant third, California activist Peter Camejo. You may remember that Camejo ran for president in 1976 on the Socialist Workers Party ticket. Actually, you might only remember that if you run a lesbian, vegetarian, bookstore.”
— Jon Stewart
“Presidential candidate Ralph Nader picked Peter Camejo to be his running mate in the presidential election. Experts say by picking Peter Camejo, Nader is guaranteed to win the vote of Peter Camejo”
— Conan O’Brien
“Ralph Nader announced his running mate for the upcoming presidential election. … The guy’s name is Peter Camejo – an investment advisor from here in California . He ran for Governor in the recall election and finished just below Gary Coleman, but 200 votes ahead of Gallagher — so that’s a strong addition to the team. Nader says the election is theirs to lose, and that’s their plan.”
— Jimmy Kimmel
“Nader says he chose Camejo because he has experience, wisdom, plus his parents have a garage where they can practice.”
— Craig Kilborn
“After Reagan’s death, the cable channels insisted on reliving the right wing’s fantasy version of the 80s. Now that Clinton’s book has been released, we are now forced to relive the right wing’s fantasy version of the 90s.”
— Bad Attitudes
Link via Atrios
None other than Larry McMurtry reviews Clinton’s My Life for The New York Times.
[B]y a generous measure, the richest American presidential autobiography – no other book tells us as vividly or fully what it is like to be president of the United States for eight years.
A review well-worth reading.
From the Denver Post —
Pete Coors isn’t sure whether the busty, blond Coors Light Twins are a liability or an asset in his race for the U.S. Senate.
“The religious right doesn’t understand why we would have the twins in our advertising,” Pete told me last week. “But I’ve had an equal number of people come up and say, ‘Boy if you took the twins on the campaign trail, we’d really vote for you.”‘
“Dan Rather compared Bill Clinton’s life story to the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. Ulysses S. Grant? I think Hugh Grant would be more like it, wouldn’t it?”
Jay Leno
“It’s actually longer than the new Harry Potter book. And both of them, I believe, are about a boy and his wand.”
David Letterman
“We think Dick Gephardt is our father’s oldsmobile and uninspiring.”
NewMexiKen has been provided with some background on the 22nd Amendment, including a paper by Bruce G. Peabody and Scott E. Gant, “The Twice and Future President: Constitutional Interstices and the Twenty-Second Amendment.” (Minnesota Law Review (1999), 83 Minn. L. Rev. 565).
The paper concludes there is no constitutional bar to a twice-elected president becoming president other than by election as president.
Particularly interesting to NewMexiKen however, was this material regarding Eisenhower.
As the election of 1960 neared, however, attention again turned to the Twenty-Second Amendment. In a press conference on January 13, Eisenhower invited reporters to look into the question of whether he would be eligible to run as a vice presidential candidate under the terms of the Twenty-Second Amendment. As Eisenhower put it, “the only thing I know about the Presidency the next time is this: I can’t run. [Laughter] But someone has raised the question that were I invited, could I constitutionally run for Vice President, and you might find out about that one. I don’t know. [Laughter]”
…
At a press conference two weeks after Eisenhower first raised the possibility of his serving as Vice President, he was asked whether he had received an “official opinion” on the question. Eisenhower was somewhat circumspect but he did say
that the afternoon of that [first] press conference, there was a note on my desk saying a report from the Justice Department–I don’t know whether the Attorney General himself signed this, but the report was, it was absolutely legal for me to do so. That stopped it right there, as far as I’m concerned.…
While Eisenhower ultimately backed away from the idea that he might run as Vice President, there is some evidence that, despite the constraints of the Twenty-Second Amendment, he did not completely relinquish his presidential ambitions at the end of his second term. Only four months after Kennedy’s inauguration in May 1961, Eisenhower indicated that he would have considered running for a third term if he had not been constitutionally barred from doing so and he had been able to foresee Nixon’s defeat in the 1960 election. Eisenhower’s son, John, also indicated that he and White House officials believed that had Eisenhower not been barred from running for reelection, he probably would have done so in 1960. And some political commentators have speculated that if Eisenhower had run, he would have been renominated and reelected.
Kevin Drum catches Gov. Schwarzenegger in a fancy card trick.
From Whiskey Bar
Q: Thinking back to when Bill Clinton was in office, would you say you approve or disapprove of the way Clinton handled his job as president?
Approve: 62%
Disapprove: 37%
No opinion: 1%Source: Washington Post/ABC News poll, June 17-20, 2004.
Earlier today NewMexiKen asked what ever happened to the idea of Clinton as Kerry’s running mate? It was a rhetorical question, but RWC commented that “He isn’t allowed; the VP has to be able to be P.”
As far as I can tell, Clinton is eligible to be President. He just isn’t eligible to be elected President. Here are the operable sections from the Constitution —
Amendment XXII
Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.Amendment XII
But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
The plain language of Amendment XXII seems self-evident to me.
So, while I am not really suggesting that Clinton be considered by Kerry (though there are worse choices being mentioned), I would like to learn what I am overlooking in the Constitution if, in fact, RWC is correct and Clinton isn’t allowed to be President again. I’ve seen this question debated before, but have never read what appeared to be a definitive resolution.
“We have been through a skein of national disasters, for which [Bush] accepts no blame, because he literally doesn’t understand enough about the job to realize how a better President would have responded.”
Read what Amy Tan and Scott Turow have to say about 2004 via Tristero.
Link via Body and Soul.
it’s good to have Bubba back in the spotlight.
What ever happened to the idea of Bill Clinton as Kerry’s running mate?
We’ll elect a father and son (Adams and Bush) or a grandfather and grandson (Harrison) president, but they only get two terms between them.
Four times in American history the candidate with fewer popular votes has been elected.
None of the four has been reelected.
Two lost. One didn’t run. George W. Bush is the other.
Lots of new polls out today. NewMexiKen still thinks they need to organize them a little differently:
Juanita Jean Herownself at Juanita’s, The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc., sums up the difference between the parties:
Democrats will lie to you about sex, but they will look you right in the eye and say, “We’re going to raise your taxes and give it to little hungry children.” They don’t lie about taxes; they tell you up front. You can whine. They kinda expect you to.
Republicans, on the other hand, will lie about taxes. They’ll use smoke and mirrors to pilfer more money out of you, and then they’ll expect you to thank them for it. If you don’t, they call Tom DeLay and get him to announce that you’re a atheist communist heathen Hillary-lover who might be harboring terrorist in your…garage.
From The Washington Post —
Thomas B. Griffith, President Bush’s nominee for the federal appeals court in Washington, has been practicing law in Utah without a state law license for the past four years, according to Utah state officials.
Griffith, the general counsel for Brigham Young University since August 2000, had previously failed to renew his law license in Washington for three years while he was a lawyer based in the District. It was a mistake he attributed to an oversight by his law firm’s staff.
Update: Functional Ambivalent has some details.
Angry Bear predicts the future:
Tuesday is the day for My Life, Bill Clinton’s book. Here I shall write for you, the reader, a list of what you will hear over the next few days, so that you can safely ignore the blathering pundits:
- Clinton is hurting Kerry by stealing the spotlight.
- Clinton is hurting Kerry by stealing the spotlight, so that Kerry will lose and Hillary can run in 2008.
- Clinton’s charisma and eloquence make Kerry look bad [but they will rarely if ever be contrasted to W. Bush’s lack of skills in those areas.]
- Clinton got blowjobs. In the Oval Office.
- Bill Clinton’s book is outselling Hillary’s 7 to 1.
- Monica Lewinsky. Monica Lewinsky. Monica Lewinsky. Monica Lewinsky. And, did I mention, Monica Lewinsky?
- Whitewater. Travelgate. FBI files. Waco.
- And, maybe if you listen very closely, at just the right time: eight years of peace and prosperity. Budget surplus. Record job growth. Surging home ownership. Real income growth. Fiscal responsibility. Compassion. Good relations with allies around the world. More popular than Reagan, based on exit polls in 1989 and 2001.
Brad DeLong has a suggestion:
It’s not too late for the grownup Republicans to act. There’s still time for the House and Senate Republican caucuses to go to Bush and force his and Cheney’s resignations. Then Hastert and Stevens can decline the job, and the presidential succession passes to Colin Powell.
This then gets us a president who:
- is a Republican.
- certainly does not have a smaller chance of winning in November than George W. Bush.
- would in all probability be good at the job.
It’s what would have already happened to any political leader in a parliamentary system. It’s what the grownup Republicans owe the country. And it may well be to the partisan political advantage of the Republican Party to close down the current Clown Show as quickly as possible.
“Bill Clinton’s official portrait was unveiled at the White House yesterday. Don’t kid yourself, there’s already trouble. Yesterday, Clinton’s portrait was caught hitting on Dolly Madison’s portrait.”
David Letterman
“Yesterday at a White House ceremony, the official portrait of President Clinton was unveiled. Apparently, Clinton’s portrait is so realistic that Hillary immediately started yelling at it.”
Conan O’Brien
“Yesterday at the White House they unveiled the official portrait of Bill Clinton. It’s very classy. It’s on black velvet.”
Jay Leno
“The Bushes hosted their predecessors at the White House yesterday, for the official unveiling of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s White House portraits. The occasion moved the current commander in chief to a rare show of gracious bi-partisanship. … Bush then handed the mic over to Clinton. It’s been a long time since this skilled orator spoke in the White House. I’m sure he’s got some profound words to share … [clip of Clinton: ‘All those kind and generous you said, made me feel like I was a pickle stepping into history.’] … Uhhh, I don’t get that at all. As a matter fact, if I remember correctly, your pickle’s already stepped into history.”
Jon Stewart
The Fox News reviewer:
It turns out to be a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail.
As much as some might try to marginalize this film as a screed against President George Bush, “F9/11” — as we saw last night — is a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty — and at the same time a indictment of stupidity and avarice.