Welcome to the weekend version of your open thread. I’m still here in Vegas attending Netroots Nation. I’ve been to a lot of interesting panels: how to get progressive legislation through states, online muckraking tools, how to meet with legislators and more! I haven’t had time to write these up yet because I’ve been busy, busy, busy.
Every year when there’s been Netroots Nation conservatives have always held their own convention called Right Online. It’s always in the same city as Netroots Nation. This year they’re bragging that their conference is actually bigger than NN10:
AFP started RightOnline to counter Netroots Nation, celebrating its fifth anniversary and holds the event each year in the same city as the progressive event.
Telford received huge cheers for saying that with 1,100 registered attendees, RightOnline was larger than Netroots Nation. He said the progressive event had estimated “between 1,000 and 2,000 attendees.” But Netroots Nation’s official spokeswoman Mary Rickles told TPM that Netroots has 2,100 registered attendees.
As RightOnline-ers enjoyed a formal three-course dinner, Americans for Prosperity’s Tim Phillips told them he has message for President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: “November is coming.”
Phillips also boasted about the (faulty) attendance figures. “In our third year, Right Online is bigger than Netroots Nation,” he said, to cheers. Phillips added that he believes the netroots crowd at the Rio casino isn’t happy. “They are really angry and bitter,” he said.
Obviously the Right Online folks have taken their math courses from Glenn Beck U. I’m surprised they didn’t say they had 10,000 attendees. The people they have speaking at Right Online: Mike Pence, Sharron Angle, Michele Bachmann.
The forgotten John Ensign scandal may be forgotten for not much longer. Senator Coburn, who tried to avoid the authorities by claiming he was John Ensigns physician (Coburn is an OB-GYN) has turned over emails to investigators:
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has handed over e-mails to authorities investigating criminal misconduct allegations against Sen. John Ensign, a spokesman confirmed Friday.
Coburn was a former roommate with Ensign at a Christian group house on Capitol Hill and served as an intermediary for a period in 2008 between the Nevada Republican and Doug Hampton, the husband of Ensign’s mistress at the time.
Spokesman John Hart confirmed that Coburn turned over e-mails in response to a request by the Justice Department, which is conducting a probe of Ensign’s extramarital affair and allegations of efforts that covered it up for a time.
If you remember the early days of the scandal, Coburn was the one who convinced Ensign to pay off his mistress’s husband. I wonder if Coburn will face any ethics charges?