A lot of stuff happening the world today. Lerner takes the 5th. The Congressional investigation ends in a shambles.
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Debo Adegbile is rejected. Obama calls Senate rejection of his civil rights nominee ‘a travesty’
Senators from both parties on Wednesday rejected President Obama’s nominee for head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, following a discussion on the Senate floor that repeatedly returned to the nominee’s association with a notorious “cop-killer” case.
Debo Adegbile, a former director at the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, was briefly involved in the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner some 32 years ago. Mr. Adegbile joined the case 25 years after Mr. Abu-Jamal’s conviction, when the NAACP handled an appeal to overturn Abu-Jamal’s death sentence.
It was the first time that the Senate has blocked one of Mr. Obama’s nominees since Democrats amended filibuster rules in November. The rule change allows a simple majority to confirm the president’s picks instead of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
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Hillary steps into it. Clinton Walks Back Putin Nazi Comparison
Speaking at an event at UCLA Wednesday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denied she drew a parallel between Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine and Nazi Germany at a fundraiser Tuesday.
“I’m not making a comparison, certainly,” Clinton said. “But I am recommending that we perhaps can learn from this tactic that has been used before.” She also called Putin “a tough guy with a thin skin.”
Clinton’s comments Tuesday raised eyebrows after a Long Beach Press Telegram reporter at the $1,500 a plate fundraiser in California wrote that Clinton had spoken of similarities between the Nazi policy of offering protection to ethnic Germans outside of Germany in the run up to World War II and Vladimir Putin’s policy of offering passports to ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea region.
What difference does it make, Hillary?
The atmospherics of the last few days have changed. It’s like the Teflon, though not quite worn out, is beginning to catch and snag at edges.
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Open thread.
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