Who would you like to see in an Obama cabinet?

Today you can vote on the next Secretary of Energy. Also, the previous rounds are still open for voting. More below the fold.

Keith, first let me say, I have thought you wonderful for years.  But last night, well, I'm done with you.  Had you been honest enough to publicly endorse Obama, then at least I would respect your next words, for they would have been the lies and distortions of an advocate.  However, your failure to do so makes you even less than what you criticize, for at least Senators Clinton and Obama admit they are politicians, advocating for their own election.  You pretend to be an uninterested observer, and are therefore a hypocrite and a liar, at least by omission.

Yesterday I wrote a diary talking about Jesse Jackson Jr. seeming to threaten black superdelegate supporters of Senator Clinton with a primary challenger if they did not switch to Obama. (link)  I based that on this news article. But during my drive time yesterday I heard an interview with Emanuel Cleaver wherein he said that relations between the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are cordial. (link)

What if I told you that Bill Clinton had been calling women who support Senator Obama in states where Senator Clinton won, pointing out the fact that the majority of Democratic voters are women and telling them that if they stand in the way of the first woman president by using their superdelegate status to vote for Senator Obama, that they might have the rug of support yanked from under them and find a female challenger for their seats in the next election?  You'd say that was ludicrous right?  How dare he interfere with their free choice to vote for who they think is the best candidate?

Senator Clinton fired the Iowa staffers. Good. Senator Clinton had Billy Shaheen resign, and personally apologized to Senator Obama. Good. Senator Clinton sent Bob Kerrey packing, and Kerrey apologized to Senator Obama. Good. Andrew Cuomo does not hold any official position within the Clinton campaign. She is no more responsible for his behavior than any of the other candidates are for any of their supporters.

Senator Obama used Donnie McClurkin to raise money for his campaign. McClurkin behaved reprehensibly at the Obama event. Senator Obama has neither condemned McClurkin nor apologized for causing so much pain in the gay community. And I want to emphasize something very important: I do not believe Senator Obama is a homophobic bigot. Unlike some Clinton critics, who inflate everything said or done by one of her surrogates into evidence of racism or race-baiting, I prefer to stick to the facts. The fact is that Senator Obama has been very good on LGBT issues. The fact also is that he used a homophobic bigot to further his presidential aspirations.

Obama is a candidate who talks about running a postive, uplifting campaign and many voters believe this because he always has someone else do the hit jobs!

But I think a lot of  voters caught on to this Jekyll/Hyde persona  in the last debate when the real Obama slipped out with his ugly somewhat snide response to Hillary in "You're likeable enough."

Even the debate commentator was taken aback. And there is a lot more to come out about him from his days as a wheeler/dealer in Chicago politics. So much for being a fighter for the downtrodden, when it is now documented he looked the other way when Rezko tenants were without heat and their housing proved to be substandard. The Rezko trial is probably going to punch a pretty big hole in his 'fairytale' if not sink it.  But this diary is about how he plays the race card. Ready--

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/...

I am surprised nobody has mentioned Jesse Jackson Jr.'s mean-sprited and amazingly dumb accusation that Hillary Clinton cried about her appearance.  She didn't actually cry and her response was about moving the country forward not about her appearence.

It seems like Obama's surrogate has no problem playing the race card with his mantra of Katrina.  This just seems like dirty divisive politics that Obama claims to be transcending.  Jackson's line of attack doesn't really jive with Obama's Kumbaya rhetoric.

One of Obama’s campaign officials went on MSNBC and questioned Hillary’s "tears".  You know... the ones that helped put her over the top in the polls last night?

Yeah the thing is – there were no tears.  And even if there were – who the hell is Jesse Jackson Jr. to question the sincerity of something like this?  It’s like he’s saying, "how DARE Hillary show her vulnerable side?  How DARE she let us see her compassion and humanity?  How DARE she let us see who she really is, contrary to the sick and hateful caricature that the MSM, the Press and the talkers have shoved down our throats for the past 15 years?!"

"They were fake I tell ya... Faaaaaaaaake!  She really doesn’t care about this nation!  

She’s only worked 18+-hour days, 7 days a week for the past year so she can live at the White House again!  

She’s only in this for the money!

For the power!

For the ATTENTION from the press and the media who idolize and love her so!"

As of this point, I'm sick of the news about Clinton's non-tears. We've all seen the video by now, and her getting emotional about her country is beautiful, but should have passed without comment. Of course, that can't happen.

First, we have Edwards denigrate her, but Obama had the correct response of essentially ignoring it.

Now, Obama sends a campaign manager to MSNBC to tell everyone that not only is Clinton a crybaby, but she only cries about her appearance and not, say...Katrina.

From TPM's Election Central comes the story of Jesse Jackson, Jr., Barack Obama's national campaign co-chair, commenting on "Hilary's tears".

So which is it? Emotionally stunted iceberg, or weeping first lady of the campaign trail, turning on the tears at the flick of an internal cue card? That's an insulting and unrealistic question for one Democrat to ask another, about a Democratic candidate. (Never mind Chris Matthews).

It is not a noble moment for Barack's campaign, as Jackson questions what he sees as "other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for". Such politics of the denial of humanity may appeal to GOP dead-enders; it does not appeal to optimistic Americans.

Check the video below the jump!

[Promoted from the Diaries by Meteor Blades]

In December of 1998, the House of Representatives, through a bill authored by serial adulterer Henry Hyde, during a lame-duck session of Congress where Speaker and serial adulterer Newt Gingrich (who started up with a mistress while his wife was in the hospital with cancer) had to hand over his gavel to Ray LaHood, during a floor debate marred by the resignation of potential House Speaker candidate and serial adulterer Bob Livingston, voted to impeach the President of the United States for only the second time in American history.  The count was 228-206 on the perjury charge, and 221-212 on obstruction of justice (two other counts failed).  Being the anniversary week, C-SPAN decided to air large portions of the House debate.

I couldn't stop watching.

The Libby commute may be the best thing that ever happened for the pro-impeachment movement since we took over Congress, because the Libby commute is easy for the general public to recognize as being a very bad thing done by Bush, as Keith Olbermann pointed out two nights ago.

Olbermann sees the Libby commute as being akin to Nixon's epochal & pivotal firing of Archibald Cox (known as the "Saturday Night Massacre"), an event which the general public could readily recognize as a naked abuse of power by Nixon.

Like with the Libby commute, Nixon's firing of Archibald Cox was technically "legal", but everybody knew in their gut that it was a very very bad thing that Nixon had done here.

After the firing of Archibald Cox, things rapidly fell apart for Nixon. It was a pivotal and defining moment in the Watergate saga.

Via the AP and WQAD News:

Jackson: Put impeachment back on table

Associated Press - July 3, 2007 11:04 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressman Jesse Jackson Junior wants his fellow Democrats to reconsider impeaching President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Illinois Democrat today reacted to Bush's decision yesterday to commute the sentence of former vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

I chose that one for the headline, obviously.

For a fuller quote, we'll go with John Nichols at The Capital Times:

"In her first weeks as leader of the Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi withdrew the notion of impeachment proceedings against either President Bush or Vice President Cheney," announced Jackson. "With the president's decision to once again subvert the legal process and the will of the American people by commuting the sentence of convicted felon Lewis Scooter' Libby, I call on House Democrats to reconsider impeachment proceedings."

It's enough to make a fella wanna shoot another guy in the face, I'd bet.

Yesterday, I attended the Political Economic of the 10th Annual Rainbow Push Wall Street Project, organized by Rev. Jesse Jackson.  Jackson of course has been a national figure for 40 years now, having been a top aide to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the founder of Operation Breadbasket, the founder of first Operation Push, then the Rainbow Coalition, and now the merged Rainbow PUSH organization.  

A major candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1984 (3rd in total delegates) and in 1988 (2nd in total delegates), Jackson has been a visible and important presence at every Democratic National Convention since 1968.  He is the father of Rep. Jesse Jackson of Illinois, and he himself served as a Shadow Senator for the District of Columbia, as Ambassador at Large in the Clinton Administration, and as a spiritual counselor to President Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

It certainly seems as though Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is sticking up for Speaker Dennis Hastert.  According to a Sun-Times story, via TPM Cafe, Daley defended Hastert despite the Speaker knowing about Foley's behavior for nearly three years.
Daley was asked about Hastert in which he responded:

Chicago may have a humdinger of a mayor's race coming next year, with Jesse Jackson Jr. increasingly drawing comparisons between Mayor Richard Daley and George Bush.

Though Tim Kaine was tapped to give the official Democratic Response to President Bush's State of the Union Address, Democrats and other progressives have offered their own responses to what beltway insiders have dubbed one of the weakest performances by a Commander-in-Chief in more than two decades.

Read below the fold for comments by Senators Barack Obama, Jim Jeffords and Ted Kennedy, Representatives Barbara Lee and Jesse Jackson Jr., and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, on issues ranging from energy independence and economic growth to jobs, poverty, and health care.