In a primary season that has already seen the odious Eric Cantor kicked to the curb by voters for not being quite odious enough, it’s probably smart to take nothing for granted. Charlie Rangel certainly isn’t, despite the latest poll showing him up by double digits over rival Adriano Espaillat mere days before tomorrow’s vote in the New York 13th. If he wins, Rangel might want to mend some fences with the New York Times, which endorsed Espaillat last week.
Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran, another odious Republican, faces a runoff against teabagger Chris McDaniel on Tuesday, after nearly being bested by him in the June 3 primary. McDaniel’s support among blinkered conservative tax-me-not voters has been steadily increasing even as their state slides ever further toward Third World status. If Republican infighting is one of your favorite spectator sports, check out the Cochran campaign’s eleventh-hour ad, which takes a metaphorical 2×4 to McDaniel’s metaphorical cranium.
After passing a resolution on Saturday calling for President Obama’s impeachment (ostensibly for exchanging five Taliban detainees for POW Bowe Bergdahl, though mostly, I suspect, for being not entirely white) the South Dakota Republican Party can now go on to other important business, like resolutions opposing gravity and the changing of the seasons. Word is they’ll also consider a resolution to seize Mount Rushmore from the National Park Service and alter all the faces to likenesses of Ronald Reagan.
Speaking of Sgt. Bergdahl, he was discharged from hospital last week and transferred to Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, where he will receive outpatient care for up to a month. His long-term prognosis is still unknown, but what’s already certain is there’s no known cure for the syndrome that has so many on the right still howling about his release and repatriation.
John Kerry kicked off a busy week with a visit to Cairo for talks with new Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri on Sunday, before making a surprise visit to Iraq for private meetings with PM Nouri al-Maliki and several sectarian leaders. To the edification of absolutely nobody, least of all the Iraqis, he described the current precarious situation as “a critical moment for Iraq’s future” and “a moment of great urgency.”
Also on the Secretary of State’s agenda: a stop in Amman for talks with Jordan’s foreign minister Naser Judeh, a visit to Belgium for a NATO foreign ministers conclave, and a final stop in Paris for multilateral meetings on Syria, Iraq and various other volatile situations in the Middle East.
Abu Khatallah, accused leader of the attack on the US mission in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 – the day that changed everything, at least for ankle-biting Congressional Republicans – is said to be aboard the USS New York, sailing toward the US “at normal speed” (i.e., slowly enough for a leisurely series of conversations with his escorts). When he finally arrives, he’ll be greeted with a quick arraignment, one of many stages of his prosecution destined to draw a torrent of reflexive and comically ill-informed GOP criticism.
Ahmet Uzumcu, director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, announced today that the last of Syria’s stockpile of chemical munitions has been surrendered. John McCain and Lindsey Graham will be along any minute to explain to us all why this is, in fact, a bad thing.
