Political News - Weekend Update - Saturday-Sunday, December 13-14, 2008

:: Bush attacked with flying shoes by Iraqi reporter.

I've seen this story on numerous blogs for several hours now, and I didn't add it to the update because I couldn't make up my mind how I felt about it. It was just too weird. I was torn between thinking that this kind of thing should not be laughed at, and wanting to laugh because it just seemed so fitting for the end of W's failed presidency. The quote is from Matt Stewart on the Huffington Post. Re the weirdness, he said it better than I could.

It's a strange capstone to a presidency, one of those semi-absurd semi-scary incidents like the pretzel-choking, the back-shooting, the bike-crashing. Yet somehow those ten seconds seem to say everything about the man, about guts and intelligence, humor and luck, the dangerous world Bush has helped make worse. For what the world hopes to be the last time, we've watched the man do just enough to keep himself afloat.

Image from Huffpo.

Watch the video here.

:: The Shoe As A Campaign Metaphor - NPR

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:: The Hill Gossip Mill: Word is that Karl Rove will be leading the fight to oppose the nomination of Eric Holder as Attorney General.

The dissension loving Rove doing what Rove always does.

Ceci Connolly, national staff writer for the Washington Post, said as much on Sunday, when she passed on a bit of hill gossip in the waning moments of "The Chris Matthews Show."

"Word on the street is that Karl Rove is going to be helping lead the fight against Eric Holder when his nomination for Attorney General heads up to the Senate," she said.  HUFFPO

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:: Today, on "This Week With George Stephanopolous", John McCain refused to say that he would support Sarah Palin for president in 2012.

"Have no doubt of my admiration and respect for her and her viability," McCain said, "but at this stage my corpse is still warm!".  HUFFPO

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:: The FBI agent who was the whistleblower on the unwarranted wiretapping by the Bush administration is revealed.

Newsweek asks "Is he a criminal or a hero?". In my mind, there is no doubt. At great personal risk to himself, his family, and his career, he blew the whistle on violations of the constitution by his own government. He is a hero in my eyes.

Thomas M. Tamm was entrusted with some of the government's most important secrets. He had a Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance, a level above Top Secret. Government agents had probed Tamm's background, his friends and associates, and determined him trustworthy.

It's easy to see why: he comes from a family of high-ranking FBI officials. During his childhood, he played under the desk of J. Edgar Hoover, and as an adult, he enjoyed a long and successful career as a prosecutor. Now gray-haired, 56 and fighting a paunch, Tamm prides himself on his personal rectitude. He has what his 23-year-old son, Terry, calls a "passion for justice." For that reason, there was one secret he says he felt duty-bound to reveal.  NEWSWEEK

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:: On Saturday, Obama tapped current New York City housing commissioner, Shaun Donovan, as his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Extensive experience with housing issues, learned in the pressure cooker of New York City, where he has been heading the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Since taking the position in 2004, he has focused on the ambitious goal of building more low- and moderate-income housing in New York City while navigating the web of interests, including landlords, developers and lenders, who all have a stake in the outcome. He also has experience in HUD, where he served as deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing in the Clinton administration, managing a multibillion-dollar housing subsidy program that served 1.7 million people annually.  NYT

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