Updated at 8:05 a.m.
As president and CEO of FreedomWorks, the political action committee responsible for the Tea Party's Taxpayer March on Washington last September, Matt Kibbe knows something about rallies. And he says he doesn't understand the controversy surrounding Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, which will coincide with the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech.
Though Beck has advertised the event as a nonpolitical celebration of "our heroes, our heritage and our future," the political subtext of a Tea Party-identified rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28 is ripe, and some civil rights activists are furious -- including Al Sharpton, who has a rally of his own scheduled on the National Mall the same day. FreedomWorks, also hosting a PAC forum this weekend, has promoted the Beck rally and supplied volunteers.
Kibbe spoke with NationalJournal.com about the event, its surrounding controversies and its potential ramifications on November's election. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Tea Party Leader: We All Shared King's Dream.
At some point in the next week, BP will likely initiate the "bottom kill" procedure that permanently plugs the Macondo well, bringing to an end the worst maritime oil spill in American history. No more 24/7 video of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. No more weekly tutorials on the intricacies of deepwater oil drilling. No more sludge cloud shadowing the Obama administration's every move in the 2010 summer of discontent. Now only the clean-up and long-term repercussions remain to sort out.
Perhaps no one has a better first-hand grasp of the Deepwater Horizon disaster than retired Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander who also coordinated the federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Recently, National Journal spoke with Allen about lessons learned from the crisis and federal response, and how they might affect future policy. Edited excerpts from that interview follow.
Continue reading Deepwater Horizon's Enduring Lessons.
Mary Kay Henry, the new president of the 2.2 million-member Service Employees International Union, stopped by National Journal on August 2 to talk about health care reform, immigration, her predecessor Andy Stern, and the future of organized labor. The union, one of the fastest-growing in North America, represents health care workers ranging from nurses to lab techs; state and local government employees, including bus drivers and day care workers; and residential and commercial building security officers and cleaners.
Below are highlights from the interview. Subscribers can read the full interview here.
It's a long shot, but if Republicans pull off an inside straight in November and pick up the 10 Senate seats needed to grab the majority, GOP senators almost certainly would make the soft-spoken but tough-as-nails Mitch McConnell of Kentucky the next majority leader. McConnell, 68, the minority leader, wouldn't bite when asked what his agenda would be if his party gains control. Though confident, he doesn't want to be presumptuous.
In an interview on August 2 in his spacious office in the Capitol, the bespectacled lawmaker made it clear that he thinks that President Obama has steered the country in a far-left direction, out of step with voters. So it's a safe bet that bruising clashes, especially over domestic policy, will follow if McConnell becomes the Senate's top leader -- at least until both sides decide that it's in their interest to compromise. Such deal-making took place in the 1990s after President Clinton was confronted with newly installed Republican majorities in the House and Senate. But given the level of partisanship in Washington and the anger in the country today, bipartisan deal-cutting is hard to imagine. McConnell also defended his party's stances in policy battles with the White House over nominations and on legislation dealing with the oil spill in the Gulf. He also explained the strong opposition of most Republicans to the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.
Read the full interview here.
A Navy secretary under Ronald Reagan who was famous for his drive to build a 600-ship fleet, John Lehman recently served on the "alternative Quadrennial Defense Review" panel chaired by Stephen Hadley, formerly national security adviser to George W. Bush, and William Perry, former Defense secretary under Bill Clinton. He spoke with National Journal about the commission's already controversial report, currently being discussed on National Journal's National Security Expert Blog.
Continue reading How To Pay For A Much Larger Force?.
