Garance Franke-Ruta is a senior editor covering national politics at The Atlantic.
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She was previously national web politics editor at The Washington Post, and has also worked at The American Prospect, The Washington City Paper, The New Republic and National Journal magazines. At The Prospect she won the 2007 Hillman Prize awarded to its group blog, "Tapped."
In 2006, she was fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Mass., and in 2007, a summer fellow with The Iowa Independent, based in Des Moines, Iowa.
Garance has lectured at the Kennedy School, the Harvard Art Museums, Williams College, Wellesley College, Brandeis and Georgetown Universities, and taught in Georgetown's Master of Professional Studies in Journalism program. She also has made numerous appearances on national and regional television and radio programs.
Born in the South of France, Garance grew up in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico; New York City, New York; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has resided in Washington, D.C., since graduating from Harvard in 1997.
"This is a very difficult time for us. We ask that the media to respect our privacy. There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish that there were so that we could make you feel better. We don't understand why this happened. It may not make any difference, but we wish that we could change the heinous events. We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We are very sorry for their loss."
Permit me a moment of retro media angst: What about Jared Lee Loughner's parents?
Where were they?
And where have they been since the shooting?
For more than two days members of the chattering class have talked about the alleged culpability of Sarah Palin, tea party groups, right-wing pundits, left-wing writers, and the incendiary political environment more generally.
This despite the fact there is no evidence Loughner ever read Sarah Palin's target list; that he was not on the e-mail list or membership rolls of the Tucson Tea Party; and that he appears to have been obsessed with Giffords, reports Mother Jones, ever since she failed to answer a question he posed to her in 2007, "What is government if words have no meaning?"
Jared Lee Loughner was so obviously disturbed a classmate warned a friend about him, writing in an e-mail before he was forced from college last fall, "He scares me a bit.... Hopefully he will be out of class very soon, and not come back with an automatic weapon."
A neighbor was afraid enough of the foreboding house where he lived with his parents, Amy and Randy Loughner, that she wouldn't go there with her daughter to sell Girl Scout cookies.
According to pictures tweeted out by reporter Meredith Shiner -- really, you must look at them, and compare the Loughner house to his neighbor's and the rest of the block -- Loughner lived in a house obscured by a wild jungle of plants, in the middle of a neat desert community where neighbors had cacti and plain desert-dirt yards.
Tucson is not big. Its population is just over half a million people, according to the 2008 population estimates, making it smaller than Washington, D.C.
But as Arizona's second-largest city, it's also no small town. It has excellent medical services, as the survival of so many shooting victims who arrived at hospitals alive attests. And it has one of "the most progressive mental health laws in the country," according to The Washington Post, permitting "[a]ny person, including any of the students in Loughner's classes ... or any of his teachers" to petition "the court to have him evaluated for mental illness."
Its students and educators were attuned to the threat Loughner posed, and reacted appropriately in barring him from classes in an effort to protect themselves.
The systems he encountered worked to flag him. The military kept him from enlisting after he failed a drug test. His philosophy teacher identified him as "someone whose brains were scrambled" and tried to get him to seek help. Ultimately, his behavior grew so erratic his community college responded to the widespread concerns of his teachers and classmates by demanding he receive a mental health evaluation before returning to class.
According to The Arizona Republic, his parents were aware of the university's concerns:
Pima Community College officials said that beginning in February, Loughner had the first of five contacts with police at the college. In September, officials said Loughner posted a YouTube video declaring Pima Community College illegal under the U.S. Constitution along with other statements about the college.
"College administration issued a letter of immediate suspension," officials said in a statement. "Two police officers delivered the letter of suspension to the student at his and his parent's residence and spoke with the student and his parents."
According to Pima Community College officials, Loughner and his parents met with Northwest Campus administrators Oct. 4.
"During this meeting, Loughner indicated he would withdraw from the college," officials said. "A follow-up letter was sent to him Oct. 7, 2010, indicating that if he intends to return to the college, he must resolve his code-of-conduct violations and obtain a mental-health clearance indicating, in the opinion of a mental-health professional, his presence at the college does not present a danger to himself or others."
Did he ever get help after this?
If Loughner had attacked the school, instead of Giffords, we'd be asking about this, instead of Sarah Palin's 2010 target map.
We should do so anyway.
Whatever Loughner's relationships were with what he read on the internet, it was nonetheless the relationships inside the world he physically inhabited that doubtless did -- and had the potential to -- shape him more.
"You try to say something, they'd just ignore you and turn around and walk back into the house," Ron Johnson, who lives opposite the Loughners, told The Washington Post about the parents. "The kid -- I never talked to him. He acted just like his parents and ignored you."
Perhaps we will learn in the days and weeks ahead that Loughner's parents lived in fear of their son, too, seeking and failing to find him the help he clearly needed.
His father was observed sobbing in the driveway as police swarmed their home, collecting evidence.
Either way, if the shooting had found a different target, what happened between Loughner's expulsion from college and the moment on Nov. 30, 2010 when the 22-year-old purchased a Glock 9 mm pistol would be among the most important questions we'd seek to answer.
A spokesman for Western Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet (Colo.) e-mails:
We can confirm that there was a threat against Senator Bennet's office and that the FBI working with the Capitol Police have arrested the individual responsible for the threat. Per their advice, we are referring inquiries related to this matter to the Capitol Police. Michael has full confidence in the law enforcement agencies handling the case and remains focused on his job serving the people of Colorado
Federal authorities have arrested a man accused of repeatedly making threats to Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet's staff.
The most recent threats allegedly came on Thursday, two days before a gunman in Arizona killed six people and wounded 14 others, including a congresswoman.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, John Troy Davis called Bennet's Denver office Thursday upset over his social security benefits and during the call said he, "may go to terrorism." He also allegedly said, "To get your attention, I will go down there and set fire to the perimeter," according to the affidavit.
During a call several days earlier, Davis, who lives in the metro area, told another Bennet staffer, "I'm just going to come down there and shoot you all," while complaining about social security benefits, according to the affidavit.
(Disclosure: Sen. Bennet's brother James Bennet edits The Atlantic.)
Sarah Palin new media aide Rebecca Mansour sought to deflect attention from an electoral map Palin posted on her Facebook page last March in an appearance on Tammy Bruce's radio show Saturday. The images long described as crosshairs or rifle sights were actually just surveyor's symbols, Mansour said.
MANSOUR: I just want to clarify again, and maybe it wasn't done on the record enough by us when this came out, the graphic, is just, it's basically -- we never, ever, ever intended it to be gunsights. It was simply crosshairs like you see on maps.
BRUCE: Well, it's a surveyor's symbol. It's a surveyor's symbol.
MANSOUR: It's a surveyor's symbol. I just want to say this, Tammy, if I can. This graphic was done, not even done in house -- we had a political graphics professional who did this for us.
While there is no evidence the alleged Tuscon shooter ever saw the electoral target list of SarahPAC, Palin's political action committee -- let alone took it to heart as an instruction -- what is clear is that Palin's history with weaponized rhetoric and imagery will be -- and already has been -- cast in a new light by the shooting in Arizona. And the former Alaska governor seems certain to continue to draw unflattering attention in the months ahead, if only because martial metaphors have been such an essential part of the Palin rhetorical quiver and we are now entering a moment of reflection on the wisdom of brandishing such tropes.
Whatever her aide now says about the target list, there is no question that Palin has reveled in creating a political image bristling with weaponry and gun talk, from her support for aerial wolf-hunting to her hunting and halibut-clubbing adventures on TLC's show "Sarah Palin's Alaska."
Indeed, the same day Palin posted the image with the scopes over congressional districts on her Facebook page, she tweeted, "Don't retreat, Instead - RELOAD" and asked her followers to check out her Facebook page for details.
As well, there has been no national political figure in American life more eager to correct media misconceptions in real time that Palin, raising questions about why she did not object in the spring of 2010 when controversy erupted over her imagery, which even Giffords described on national television as representing gun "crosshairs."
One clue to Palin's actual intent comes from a Nov. 4, 2010 Twitter posting where she crows about her record using the targeting map. "Remember months ago "bullseye" icon used 2 target the 20 Obamacare-lovin' incumbent seats? We won 18 out of 20 (90% success rate;T'aint bad)," she wrote.
What do you think of Mansour's explanation? Please leave your thoughts in the comments, below.
Showing no sign of tamping down on divisive political rhetoric in the wake of the shooting of 20 people that left six dead in Tuscon Saturday, the Tea Party Nation group e-mailed its members Sunday warning them they would be called upon to fight leftists in the days ahead and defend their movement.
TPN founder Judson Phillips, in an article linked off the e-mail "The shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and the left's attack on the Tea Party movement," described the shooter as "a leftist lunatic" and Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik as a "leftist sheriff" who "was one of the first to start in on the liberal attack." Phillips urged tea party supporters to blame liberals for the attack on centrist Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who was shot through the head and is now fighting for her life, as a means of defending the tea party movement's recent electoral gains.
"The hard left is going to try and silence the Tea Party movement by blaming us for this," he wrote. Clinton used the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to "blame conservative talk radio, especially Rush Limbaugh" and "The tactic worked then, backing conservatives off and possibly helping to ensure a second Clinton term."
"The left is coming and will hit us hard on this. We need to push back harder with the simple truth. The shooter was a liberal lunatic. Emphasis on both words," he wrote.
The Tea Party Nation is the sponsor of the Tea Party Convention at which former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was the keynote speaker in February 2010.
"America is ready for another revolution!" Palin told the assembled at the conference, to standing ovations.
Other tea party groups took a less combative tone. Tea Party Express Chairwoman Amy Kremer said Saturday her group was "shocked and saddened" by the "terrible tragedy."
"These heinous crimes have no place in America, and they are especially grievous when committed against our elected officials. Spirited debate is desirable in our country, but it only should be the clash of ideas," Kremer said in a statement published by the New York Times. "An attack on anyone for political purposes, if that was a factor in this shooting, is an attack on the democratic process. We join with everyone in vociferously condemning it."
The Associated Press is reporting that Jared Lee Loughner is the suspect in the shooting of 18 people, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in Tuscon, Ariz., Saturday morning.
Animal New York has posted screengrabs of Loughner's MySpace page, which give us the first images of what he looks like.
A YouTube account registered to a person of the same name -- Jared Loughner -- had several videos on it ranting about currency, English speakers and mind control techniques.
The last video posted to the account, "Final Thoughts":
The convoluted language and obsessive thinking revealed by the videos have led to widespread speculation the Loughner who made them suffers from a psychiatric disorder.
Via ABC, here's what he had to say in them about terrorism:
"If I define terrorist then a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon. I define terrorist. Thus, a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon," the video, entitled "Introduction: Jared Loughner," says. "If you call me a terrorist then the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem. You call me a terrorist. Thus, the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem."
And about mind-control:
"In conclusion, reading the second United States Constitution, I can't trust the current government because of the ratifications: The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar. No! I won't pay debt with a currency that's not backed by gold and silver! No! I won't trust in God!" it says.
CNN has reported the suspected shooter was born in 1988. The U.S. Army issued a statement saying that contrary to early reports "the suspect was never in the Army. He attempted to enlist in the Army but was rejected for service. In accordance with the Privacy Act, we will not discuss why he was rejected."
Democrat Gabrielle Giffords and 17 others were shot, Giffords at point blank range, at an event the Southern Arizona congresswoman was holding with constituents outside a Safeway in Tuscon, Ariz., Saturday morning.
All told 18 people were shot in the attack, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said in a televised evening news conference. Giffords was the target in the shooting that has left six dead, he said. In addition to the suspect in custody, Jared Lee Loughner, a second person of interest is being sought in the shooting. Authorities also announced they found a suspicious package outside Giffords's Tucson office, KGUN reporter Sergio Avila told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Saturday evening.
Giffords's surgeon at the University Medical Center in Tucson said shortly after 4 p.m. Eastern that he was "very optimistic about her recovery" and that she had completed surgery. "She was shot in the head," he said, with a bullet that went "through and through." Ten patients arrived at the hospital, including one child. One, the nine-year-old child, died and five remain in critical condition, he said, with five in the operating room.
President Obama issued a statement and followed it with a short speech televised from the White House. "She is currently battling for her life," President Obama said, noting that the roster of those who lost their lives today included federal judge John Roll. Roll is the Chief Judge of the US District Court of Arizona.
"Gabby Giffords was a friend of mine," Obama said, describing her as "warm," "caring," "well-liked by her colleagues" and "well-liked by her constituents."
"I know that Gabby is as tough as they come and I am hopeful that she is going to pull through," Obama said.
"We are going to get to the bottom of this, and we are going to get through this," he said.
Giffords, who was re-elected to a third term in November, was hosting a "Congress on Your Corner" event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.
Giffords was talking to a couple when the suspect ran up and fired indiscriminately from about four feet away, Michaels said.
Gawker spoke with an eyewitness, Steven Rayle. Their account of what he saw:
The gunman, who may have come from inside the Safeway, walked up and shot Gifford in the head first. According to Rayle, who is a former ER doctor, Gifford was able to move her hands after being shot.
After shooting Gifford, the gunman opened fire indiscriminately for a few seconds, firing 20-30 rounds and hitting a number of people, including a kid no older than 10 years old. Rayle hid behind a concrete pole and pretended to be dead. When the gunman apparently ran out of ammunition he attempted to flee, but a member of Gifford's staff tackled him. Rayle helped hold the gunman down while waiting for the sheriff to arrive, about 15-to-20 minutes later. The EMS came about 30 minutes later. Rayle said he was "stunned" by how long it took medical help to arrive.
The gunman was young, mid-to-late 20s, white, clean-shaven with short hair and wearing dark clothing and said nothing during the shooting or while being held down, although he struggled at first. He was "not particularly well-dressed"; he didn't look like a businessman, but more of a "fringe character," Rayle said. The sheriff's department arrived, arrested the gunman and cordoned off the parking lot.
A man working near the scene described what happened.
"What I first heard, I heard about 15-20 gunshots in the parking lot, I came outside immediately, did not see vehicle or any people fleeing, just saw people running, screaming towards where shooting happened, everyone screaming that it was Gabrielle Giffords. I did see them take her away on a stretcher to the life-flight. She was moving with what I saw with my own eyes," said Jason Pekau. "Yes, from what I am being told from people who had seen it, was she shot point blank in the head by the shooter. Then after that basically all chaos broke loose. There was some bullets that went through the window into the Safeway that I can see."
Giffords, 40, was the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona State Senate before winning a Congressional seat in 2006. She married Mark E. Kelly, a NASA astronaut and space shuttle commander, in 2002, in a wedding covered by the New York Times Vows column. The couple has two children.
Giffords represents Arizona's 8th Congressional District, "a diverse area that covers 9,000 square miles including a 114 mile border with Mexico," according to her website.
She has previously has security issues in the Southern Arizona district, and her office was vandalized after she voted in favor of the health-care overhaul in March.
Her last tweet before the shooting: "My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now. Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later."
Republican House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement condemning the shooting. "I am horrified by the senseless attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and members of her staff," he said. "An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve. Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society. Our prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords, her staff, all who were injured, and their families. This is a sad day for our country."
President Obama also condemned the attack, which he called "an unspeakable tragedy."
"While we are continuing to receive information, we know that some have passed away, and that Representative Giffords is gravely wounded," the president said.
"We do not yet have all the answers. What we do know is that such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society," he continued. "I ask all Americans to join me and Michelle in keeping Representative Giffords, the victims of this tragedy, and their families in our prayers."
Giffords narrowly won reelection in 2010 against tea party-backed candidate Jesse Kelly. She also was one of the Democrats targeted by former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in an online map that controversially placed rifle scope marks over the districts of Democrats.
"Sarah Palin ... has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district and when people do that, they've gotta realize there are consequences to that action," Giffords told MSNBC in March.
Palin issued a statement on Facebook Saturday afternoon offering "My sincere condolences ... to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today's tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice."
Giffords' father told The New York Post he suspected the attack was politically motivated:
The congresswoman's father Spencer Gifford, 75, was rushing to the hospital when asked if his 40-year-old daughter had any enemies.
"Yeah," he told The Post. "The whole tea party."
In 2009, a tea party supporter brought a gun to a Giffords event, Gail Collins recounted in a column looking at the anti-health-care overhaul protests:
Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, was not actually holding a town hall when her gun incident occurred. She was conducting a "Congress on Your Corner" at the Douglas Safeway -- a simple event where people line up to get help with things like Social Security or documentation. But the health care protests have spread way beyond actual meetings about health care, and a handful of irritated conservatives have been following Giffords around almost everywhere. "When you represent a district -- the home of the O.K. Corral and Tombstone, the town too tough to die, nothing's a surprise," she told a reporter later, showing a commendable ability to respond to any crisis by throwing in a plug for local tourist attractions.
Rudy Ruiz, the father of one of Giffords's college interns, saw the gun hit the floor. "It was an older gentleman, 65 or so. Basically, he was one of the ones holding up a banner saying 'Don't Tread on Me,' " said Ruiz. "He bent over, and it fell out of the holster is what it did. It bounced. That concerned me. I just thought what would happen if it had gone off? Could my daughter have gotten hurt?"
Pima County Sheriff Dupnik, during his news conference Saturday evening, angrily denounced the heated rhetoric that he said helped foster an environment of violence.
"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government... The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that foes on in this country is getting to be outrageous, and unfortunately I think Arizona has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for hatred and bigotry," he said.
"That may be free speech, but it's not without consequences," he added, returning to the point.
Statements of support for Giffords poured in from both sides of the aisle Saturday, including from Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). "This senseless attack today in Tucson is a national tragedy," McConnell said, "and all America mourns those who lost their lives in the very act of public service. I join the entire Congress in condemning this horrifying act of violence, and on behalf of the entire Senate family, Elaine and I extend our deepest expressions of sympathy and heartfelt prayers to Rep. Giffords and the families of those who have been killed or injured."
"Congresswoman Giffords is a brilliant and courageous Member of Congress, bringing to Washington the views of a new generation of national leaders. It is especially tragic that she was attacked as she was meeting with her constituents whom she serves with such dedication and distinction," said Pelosi.
For his part, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the senior senator from Giffords' home state, called for the shooter to be harshly punished. "Whoever did this; whatever their reason, they are a disgrace to Arizona, this country and the human race, and they deserve and will receive the contempt of all decent people and the strongest punishment of the law," he said.
The U.S. Capitol Police issued a statement advising all members of Congress and their staffs "to take reasonable and prudent precautions regarding their personal security" in the wake of the shooting, and confirmed that the shooting suspect is in the custody of authorities in Arizona.
Word is trickling out from the White House that the great mentioning of names to succeed outgoing Press Secretary Robert Gibbs includes several women because new Chief of Staff William Daley would like to see a woman in the job.
That's all well and good -- there are several Democratic women with the chops for the job, and it could be good politics heading into an election cycle in which the White House could have to rely even more heavily on female voters -- but why is it necessary to say so?
It's been 17 years since DeeDee Myers broke the gender-barrier at the White House podium as press secretary for Bill Clinton. Should the next press secretary also be a woman, one would hope the word the White House would want to put out is that they picked her because she was the person with the most experience doing the sort of day-in and day-out high-profile work the job requires, not because they were specifically seeking someone of her gender.
Unless, of course, this is just the political equivalent of complying with the Rooney Rule in the NFL, which dictates that at least one minority candidate must be considered when new head coaches are selected (in this case, replace "minority" with "female").
One could be forgiven a sense of deja vu with the way the search for the new director of the National Economic Council was conducted. Last September, the Great Mentioners mentioned half a dozen women as possible candidates for the position, including several women of color. The Washington Post reported that gender was a consideration in the search -- "administration officials are also eager to find a woman to fill a top economic role" -- and the Wall Street Journal's first round of leading candidates for the post was substantially female. "Woman CEO sought for Summers job," reported Politico.
And then the job went to the most conventional choice possible: not just a white man, but one of the very ones who'd held the position in the last Democratic administration.
Gene Sperling, named today as the new director of the NEC, will doubtless be a natural in the post thanks to his previous experience in the job, and seamlessly fit into his new administration role. There's no one seriously questioning the pick of one of the party's most senior and hard-working economic thinkers.
But the way women came to be touted first for the post seems, in retrospect, Rooney Rule-esque. (Not to mention a clear response to pressure from women's groups to add more women to the ranks of Obama economic advisers.)
If the White House wants to select a woman to be the next press secretary because she is talented, well-liked, well-connected, calm under pressure and the most experienced of the candidates under consideration -- not to mention good for the political optics of the next two years -- it should do so.
But it's not clear what good it will do the White House to let it out that it's seeking a woman, let the Great Mentioners name several -- and then, in the end, settle upon the most conventional pick that can be made.
If the White House wants to hire a woman, it doesn't need to say so; it just needs to hire one.
President Obama is expected to announce Gene Sperling (L) as his new director of the National Economic Council, replacing the recently departed Larry Summers (R), at an even in Landover, Md., today.
If you want to know more about his philosophy, his 2007 manifesto on "Rising-Tide Economics," published in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, is good place to start. He writes:
In my White House days, I was known for tormenting the speechwriters by insisting that we should rip off Ben Franklin's caution that we "must indeed all hang together, or ... hang separately" with the economic refrain "we will grow together or grow apart." My line never made it into a speech, but with the spread of globalization it has never been more apt....
Perhaps a better phrase to capture the notion of shared prosperity was John F. Kennedy's observation that "a rising tide lifts all boats." For progressives, the rising-tide metaphor is not a causal assumption that growth will automatically raise everyone. Rather, it is the aspiration and test for economic policy: Does it both raise the tide and lift all boats? This vision of shared prosperity is not only demanded by the global, interdependent economy, but rooted in the historic values of the progressive vision of the United States. Moving forward, we must recognize that the economy is undergoing a profound transformation, making it distinct from both the industrial era and even the beginnings of the Internet Age just a decade ago. In such a world, economic growth can be explosive, but growth alone is not enough. For Americans, shared prosperity, an opportunity for upward mobility, and economic outcomes determined more by merit than the accident of birth are fundamental to who we are as a nation....
So what can the government do to save and create jobs? In the 1990s, with booming job creation, we focused on laying the foundation for job creation with smart long-term investments. This is what former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and I used to joke was a public investment "Field of Dreams" strategy: If we build the right research facilities, have the right preschools and lifelong learning programs, and spread the reach of the Internet, they-middle-class jobs-would come. Implicit in that vision was that the "next big thing" would drive virtuous economic cycles of growth and job creation in ways we couldn't imagine at the time. Today, however, when a large percentage of workers think the nation is going in the wrong direction and are worrying about their jobs, a universal pre-K or research agenda-however good long-term policy-is understandably not the most comforting response.
The challenge for progressives today is to continue their "field of dreams" focus on vital long-term investments in education and modern infrastructure, but also to be more aggressive in devising policies that answer the "where are the new jobs coming from" question without falling into the trap of "picking winners" or relying on large public works programs. First, we should be focusing our policies on making the United States a magnet for good jobs. These days many corporations see themselves as international firms, with little preference about what is performed where, as long as it improves the bottom line. But while these CEOs may feel that their fiduciary duty to shareholders should make them indifferent about where productive investment and high-value jobs are located, it should matter to American policymakers. We shouldn't assume that what is good for GM or Intel is good for Americans; rather, we should look for the intersection of a company's bottom line with the interests of the workers, wages, and standard of living of our people and devise policy accordingly. Take tax policy. Currently, we reward any U.S. multinational firm that operates abroad by letting it defer taxes on operating profits in lower-tax jurisdictions. Companies may be right that they need this tax break to compete for foreign market share in low tax nations. Yet U.S. policymakers should take those arguments into account only if companies can establish that locating in such tax havens ultimately translates into more jobs and better wages at home-an argument that I suspect is getting harder and harder to make.
Second, we need an investment strategy targeted toward the innovation jobs of the future. Progressives must draw a distinction between the narrower "picking winners and losers" approach associated with industrial policy and strategies that encourage more high-value-added jobs in areas where we know America must be competitive. With the strength of our university system and our capacity to create high-return "clusters" of research parks, universities, and pools of entrepreneurs, the United States should engage in an all-out battle to keep research jobs on our shores. A crucial area of opportunity is energy. Rather than the government seeking to pick a single winning technology or oil alternative or relying on an energy-based public jobs initiative, we need a broad and dramatic commitment to energy innovation, incentives for energy efficiency, and climate-change targets that could unleash new export opportunities and millions of new private-sector jobs.
Finally, while high-wage, innovation-related jobs should be the primary focus of public policy, there is more that can be done to compete for lower-skilled jobs through non-protectionist means. For example, there is no reason there could not be more policy incentives to help poor rural and urban parts of the United States-with lower labor costs-compete for the call-center and back-office jobs that are increasingly outsourced to lower-wage nations.
Read the full story at Democracy (excerpted with permission).
"Just remember, no dates til you're 30," Vice President Biden admonished the female child of a new member of the Senate during a swearing-in day photo op. And then he did it again, with another family's girl. And then again. And yet again.
ABC has compiled the Jon Stewart-ready video clip, above.
Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski became the longest-serving woman in Senate history Wednesday.
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe and three others held a small ceremony on the Senate floor in the morning to mark the milestone, as Mikulski replaced former Maine senator Margaret Chase Smith as the record holder. Chase Smith, a Republican, served for 24 years.
Milkulski in late December sat down with CNN and reflected what life was like for her as the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate in her own right:
Mikulski says that when she arrived in the Senate, what she wore become a "very big deal."
"I'm most comfortable wearing slacks, and well, for a woman to come on the (Senate) floor in trousers was viewed as a seismographic event," says Mikulski.
She said she had to alert Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, then the Democratic leader, that she intended to wear pants to work.
"The Senate parliamentarian had looked at the rules to see if it was OK. So, I walk on that day and you would have thought I was walking on the moon. It caused a big stir," she remembers with a mischievous smile.
Also honoring Mikulski at the ceremony were Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.).
"Having been privileged to know Senator Mikulski for more than 30 years, beginning with our mutual service in the House of Representatives, I cannot conceive of anyone I would rather witness overtaking such a sacrosanct milestone than the Senior Senator from Maryland - a beloved, vigorous champion of the people of her state, and unquestionably the women of America," said Snowe in prepared remarks.
"Indisputably, for both my Maine colleague Senator Collins and me, the landmark occasion we are commemorating is all the more personal and poignant given we are both colleagues and dear friends of Senator Mikulski, and also direct inheritors and beneficiaries of Senator Margaret Chase Smith's groundbreaking service," she added.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) also offered Mikulski "my heartfelt congratulations" in a statement on the Senate floor, though she was not at the morning event.
"This occasion has a special meaning for me. As she begins her 25th year in the Senate, Senator Mikulski now surpasses my personal role model in public service, Senator Margaret Chase Smith. Just as the Great Lady from Maine inspired me and countless other young women of my generation to serve, Senator Mikulski inspires the young women of today," Collins said.
Robert Gibbs' announcement today that he will be stepping down from the White House podium to take an advisory role offers an opportunity for the White House to repair relationships with the community Gibbs derided as "the professional left" as the president gets ready for a reelection campaign that will need to renew excitement among progressives even as it woos more centrist voters.
Gibbs "will continue to shape the dialogue politically for many years to come," Obama told The New York Times in an interview after Gibbs said he'd be departing in early February.
"We've been on this ride together since I won my Senate primary in 2004," Obama said. "He's had a six-year stretch now where basically he's been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay. I think it's natural for someone like Robert to want to step back for a second to reflect, retool and that, as a consequence, brings about both challenges and opportunities for the White House."
The first opportunity is to bury the hatchet with a community of people that has felt itself repeatedly and needlessly insulted by Gibbs and also by former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
While it is absolutely the case that liberals continue to be Obama's core base of support -- every poll shows them to be his most ardent backers -- the professional left, as it were, can be critical during a campaign cycle, as its members provide ground troops and an online megaphone for favored candidates.
In the leadup to the 2010 elections, tweaking progressives might have been hoped to send a message that the president had some distance from them as his support among more centrist voters and independents began to plummet. It also appeared to express a genuinely felt sentiment of frustration as progressives continued to criticize the president even as he shepherded into law some of the most significant progressive achievements since the 1960s.
But the Republican sweep in the fall -- coupled with the dramatic fall-off in those calling themselves Democrats since 2008, plunging the percent of Americans identifying as Democrats to its lowest level in 22 years -- suggests an approach that again seeks to broadly inspire rather than selectively alienate might again be needed.
Sam Stein reported from the Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday morning with former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who cheered the White House staff changes for this very reason:
"[M]ost of the people who were [causing the friction] are either out of the White House or going," Dean said. "So I guess I would say there is in process a huge senior staff shakeup going on at the White House. I think that is a very good thing and I think that will help."
While Obama may differ with progressives on certain policy issues, Dean said, "The core issue is the contempt, which not just the progressives were treated by but lots of people were treated by, by senior advisers around the president who have been here for 20 years and thought they knew everything and we knew nothing. That is a fundamental flaw in any kind of administration. As they say, 'Don't let the door hit you in the you-know-what on the way out.'"
The former governor, who has often been a pugnacious critic of the president, insisted that his critiques were not directed at departing press secretary Robert Gibbs or former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
"It is more than just Gibbs or Rahm. It was a whole mindset going on," he said.
Michele Bachmann is considering a bid for the presidency, her office confirmed Wednesday.
The Minnesota Republican and tea party movement leader will be traveling to Iowa later this month for a fundraiser with a key conservative anti-tax group in Des Moines whose backing can help boost candidates in the state's early Republican contests, such as the Ames Straw Poll, scheduled for this August 13.
"She's taken nothing off the table," Bachmann spokesman Dough Sachtleben said. "She wants to travel and speak to people. We can't have another four years of President Obama."
Bachmann is the founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, which she chairs, and was a leading opponent of President Obama's health-care overhaul, which she protested at rallies in Washington and St. Paul. Her outspoken manner and slick personal style have made her an icon on the right and especially among its new generation of conservative women, but also a figure of fun and derision on the left.
A Bachmann run would seem to compete directly with a run by former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who also has cast herself as a tea party leader and who has a much higher public profile. But Bachmann proved herself a formidable fundraiser in 2010, raising an astonishing $13.2 million for her House reelection bid.
And she has repeatedly sought to increase her profile; after Republicans retook the House, Bachmann briefly entertained a bid for House Republican Conference Chair, the majority party's fourth ranking position.
She will headline an event for the Iowans for Tax Relief political action committee on Jan. 21.
The filibuster may be unconstitutional, creating as it does a mechanism for a Senatorial veto.
One thing's for sure: Filibusters are also pre-constitutional. They are even pre-colonial.
The original filibusters were pirates of the Caribbean, and the contemporary Senate procedure continues to bear traces of the word's origins in the disruptive and lawless practices of the privateers who boosted the goods of ships traveling under Spanish sail. Later, the word came to describe an American movement with a base in the pre-Civil War South to seize Spanish West Indian and Central American lands and goods in the name of Manifest Destiny.
The word derives from a Dutch term for pirate and began to be applied to efforts "to hold the Senate floor in order to prevent a vote on a bill" in the in the 1850s, according to the Senate Historical Office.
It is believed to derive from the Dutch word vrijbuiter, which means "to plunder," with vrij meaning "free" and buit meaning "booty."
And booty, according to Michael Sheen, a retired Chicago English teacher who writes the WordMall blog, means "collective plunder or spoils" such as "household goods seized and carried off" by armies.
These "freebooters" or "filibusters" traveled under no nation's sail -- they used various iterations of the Jolly Roger, instead -- and often sought to "privateer" goods and gold being transported by Spanish ships in the Caribbean, from slaves to gold. The word to describe them was first recorded in English in the late 16th century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Filibustering first took on a political meaning in the early 19th century when it was transferred from pirates who seized goods to individuals who sought to seize goods, land -- and states.
In the 1800s, the term took on new meaning, referring to a group of adventurers who, without the consent of the American government, tried to assume power in a number of Latin American and Caribbean countries. Filibusters were intent on overpowering the 'lesser peoples' despite neutrality laws that forbid Americans from privately engaging in warfare with other countries.
Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Mexico were all victims of filibusters from 1830 to 1860.
Famous filibusters were larger than life characters such as Narciso Lopez, a Venezuelan-born soldier who, aided by sympathetic Southern money, liberated Venezuela from Spanish rule. He then attempted three times to free Cuba.
William Walker, a southerner from Tennessee, annexed parts of Mexico and named himself president. In his proclamation of control over Lower California (then part of Mexico), Walker explains why the territory was rightfully his, an explanation that neatly sums up the filibuster movement.
Thus abandoning the peninsula, and leaving it as it was "a waif on the waters," Mexico cannot complain if others take it and make it valuable. On such considerations have I and my companions-in-arms acted in the course we have pursued. And, for the success of our enterprise, we put our trust in Him who controls the destinies of nations, and guides them in the ways of improvement and progress.
Despite the vehement objections of the Mexican government and the anger of the U.S. authorities, many Americans thought this was a triumph for filibustering. However, Walker eventually gave up, finding it too difficult. He was tried by the U.S. and acquitted.
Perhaps it is appropriate given the history of the filibuster movement that the longest filibuster in U.S. history came from a Southern senator, the late Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who held out for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. After all, according to PBS, "The filibuster cause was successful largely thanks to a strong support base in the South" where "parades were held in their honor, songs written and their adventures glorified."
Barack Obama's job approval rating reached the symbolic 50% mark in the latest three-day average from Gallup Daily tracking. Obama's approval rating has been in the mid-40% range for much of the latter half of 2010. He last hit 50% approval in a three-day average near the end of May/beginning of June.
Notably:
the latest numbers ... come at a time when the president was on vacation in Hawaii and out of the political spotlight, following a highly publicized pre-Christmas session with Congress that resulted in the passage of several major pieces of legislation.
There's something inherently odd about a public, televised debate between candidates vying for a post only 168 people get to vote for, and whose votes are won based on old-school, closed-door politicking far from the panel room. So while the Republican National Committee Chairman debate Monday provided a window into the sort of presence each of the four candidates challenging embattled incumbent chair Michael Steele would have if given the committee's podium, it did little to clarify the contours of a race in which all on stage promised allegiance to the party's conservative social platform and improved fundraising and administration in the two years ahead.
Michael Steele fidgeted his way through the debate, a study in discomfort as his record of financial management -- in particular, his handling of the GOP's once vaunted 72-hour turn-out program this cycle -- was raked over the coals and the very presence of four challengers spoke to intraparty dissatisfaction with him.
He looked down. He looked up. He covered his mouth with his left hand, rested his head against both hands, bit his lip, looked to his left, rested his hand on his forehead, and gnawed again on his lower lip. Less than half an hour of the two-hour debate sponsored by The Daily Caller and Americans for Tax Reform, with co-sponsorship from the Susan B. Anthony List, had elapsed.
The opening statements were a litany of complaints against his leadership. "Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for some tough love at the Republican National Committee," said former ambassador Ann Wagner, adding that the RNC "is broken and it needs to be fixed."
"The Republican National Committee is at a moment of crisis," added Saul Anuzis, the former Michigan GOP official.
In the end, however, Steele proved that as a performer in the setting, he still had the sand to pull off a strong defense of his agenda. "My record stands for itself. We won," he said.
"Find me the state that didn't have a winning election and maybe their program wasn't funded. I think we won in all 50 states this year," he added. "And that's the goal."
How the others did:
Reince Priebus: Even as he promised to improve the RNC's fundraising, administration and Republican "unity," the former Steele ally showed he has the potential to step into as many minefields as the man he would replace. He said everything right for the audience he was seeking to woo, but the reception he received among tweeters following the #rncdebate was vicious and some of his statements seemed guaranteed to turn off party moderates as he promised to hold elected officials accountable from the RNC's chair for hewing to conservative principles.
"I'm not running against anyone," he said in his concluding remarks, sounding a conciliatory note and saying he hoped to be a "workhorse," put on a great convention and unite the Tea Party and other factions of the party.
"We are not in competition with the conservative movement, we are part of the conservative movement," he said.
Saul Anuzis: The former Michigan GOP chair promised more of a big tent party and pointed to his track record of administrative success at every level of his state party. "I think we need someone who can make the trains run on time," he said. He also emphasized that the RNC members should elect one of their own, and that he understood the members as one who had worked his own way up through the ranks.
Ann Wagner: An amusing presence who cracked up the crowd after she misheard a question about her favorite book for one about her favorite bar -- and answered it -- Wagner seemed to be still introducing herself even in her concluding remarks, suggesting she'll have an uphill climb over the less than two weeks before the vote at the RNC's Winter Meeting as she reaches out to committee members. She made sure to refer listeners to her plan at AnnWagner.com. She also won the how many guns do you have in your home contest, listing between herself, her husband and her in the Armed Forces son a grand total of 16. (Anuzis had four, while Priebus said he had five. Neither Cino nor Steele keep guns in the house, they said.)
Maria Cino: Cino laid out the most concrete plans but had the least stage presence. She proposed that the RNC budget run on a two year cycle that matched the election cycle and pointed to her 18-month state victory plan. The former deputy chairman of the RNC said she was "uniquely qualified" to be chairman of the RNC "because I have done this job before."
The 2009 RNC Chairman Debate was the first in the history of the party broadcast live on television.
Scroll to 3:48 minutes in to see Michael Steele's pitch -- and just how consistent his message, with its emphasis on the grassroots and brash talk, has been since he first laid it out.
And here's a thought experiment: Listen also to South Caroline Republican Party chair Katon Dawson starting at 5:52 minutes in, and imagine what the past two years would have been like had he been the face and voice of the GOP, especially right after Obama was elected.
Dawson was the last man standing against Steele, who ultimately beat him in the sixth round of balloting to win the chairmanship.
