Welcome to your Wednesday open thread. So, is there anything else going in your neck of the woods besides O’Donnell nuttiness?
Yesterday Senate Republicans plus 2 Democratic tools voted to block debate on the Defense Authorization bill, which contained the DADT repeal. To add insult to injury, someone in the office of Senator Saxby Chambliss put a homophobic death wish on one the biggest LGBT blogs, Joe.My.God.
I’ve just gotten off the phone with Atlanta Journal-Constitution political writer Jim Galloway who says that Sen. Saxby Chambliss has confirmed that the “All faggots must die” comment left here on JMG earlier today did indeed come from his Atlanta office. Galloway reports that Chambliss told him his office is conducting an internal investigation. For now Chambliss’ spokesperson has issued a preliminary statement:
“We have seen the allegations and are moving quickly to understand the facts. This office has not and will not tolerate any activity of the sort alleged,” Chambliss spokeswoman Bronwyn Lance Chester said. “Once we have ascertained whether these claims are true, we will take the appropriate steps.” The comment was posted on Joe.My.God., a blog dedicated to gay and lesbian issues. “All [gays] must die,” wrote a commenter identifying himself as “Jimmy.” Blog author Joseph Jervis of New York City used the Internet Protocol address attached to the comment to trace the slur to “the neighborhood” of Chambliss’ office in Atlanta. Readers quickly helped. “Among the fields in which gay people are over-represented is the IT field,” Jervis said. The office of U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson is in the same area. But a spokeswoman for Isakson said his staff quickly ascertained that the message did not originate with them.
Welcome to the new GOP, same as the old GOP.
White House officials expect Lawrence Summers to leave his job as the president’s National Economic Council director after November’s congressional elections, according to three people familiar with the matter.
His departure would leave Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as the only member of President Barack Obama’s original top-tier economic team. Summers, 55, and the president have discussed his future plans, according to one person.
Administration officials are weighing whether to put a prominent corporate executive in the NEC director’s job to counter criticism that the administration is anti-business, one person familiar with White House discussions said. White House aides are also eager to name a woman to serve in a high-level position, two people said. They also are concerned about finding someone with Summers’ experience and stature, one person said.
I’d like Stiglitz or Jared Bernstein but I doubt that will happen. I think it’s obvious by now that rich businessmen want to go back to the bad old days. Why not? They got rich and then they got bailed out. They don’t care if the rest of us suffer – there’s always the Koch brothers to gin up crazy rightwingers for distraction.