In the Right

Lawrence O'Donnell is a jerk.

And I don't mean the Navin Johnson character created by Steve Martin, I mean a real jerk, the kind of guy who, in the words of Denis Leary's fabled (but close enough to obscene that it's not appropriate for family listening) song, "has fun at someone else's expense."

Wednesday evening, subbing for Chris Matthews as host of MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews," O'Donnell interviewed Katy Abram, the woman who stood up to Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Specter) at his recent health care town hall meeting.

"Katy Abram, I know you're not a regular at this stuff, and you don't do it every day, so, take it easy, we're just going to go through some simple questions about this."

That was how O'Donnell introduced Mrs. Abram to his audience, his voice like silk, as smooth as the guy Sade sang about 25 years ago.

Will someone please pass this message to the people running the Republican Governors Association: "Please, sirs, stop running the inane negative spots attacking Jon Corzine, and instead start running positive spots building up Chris Christie?! Or, at the very least, if you insist on running attack spots, could you at least run attack spots that might actually have a chance of working?"

I've written before about the strategic imperative facing Republicans who want to win this year's contest for New Jersey governor: To do so, they first must win the war over GOP nominee Chris Christie's image.

Virtually every likely voter in the state knows and has an opinion about Corzine, the incumbent Democrat -- according to the latest survey from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, for example, only 6 percent of the survey sample said they hadn't heard enough about Corzine to form an opinion.

I'm a conservative, so that title could work for any number of pieces I might want to write.

In this instance, I'm referring to an exchange on last night's edition of MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews," which begins at about 9:27 into this clip featuring Matthews interviewing Rep. Bob Inglis and Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips:

Matthews: The conservatives talk reasonably when Democrats get in power, and say, "Well, we have an alternative that's more free market, it's less onerous, it's less, you know, big shot, big government stuff, and I accept all that. But when you guys are in power, you don't do anything on health care. And that's what happens, and that's why, for, God, almost a century of foot dragging on this. The Democrats get in power, whether it's Truman, whether it's Bill Clinton, or it's Hillary Clinton, or it's Barack Obama, they try something, it fails, because you guys are good at playing negative politics. You're really good at destroying Democrats' plans, chances to reform. But when you get in power, when you have George W. Bush in there, with both houses of Congress, or you've got Reagan in there, with complete ideological control, you don't do anything on health care."

Really?

Well, the new survey from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute is out, and the race for New Jersey governor is tightening: GOP challenger Chris Christie clings to a 6-point, 46 percent to 40 percent lead over incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, with independent candidate Chris Daggett drawing 7 percent of the vote.

That's a significant movement from the July 14 survey, which showed Christie leading Corzine by 47 percent to 38 percent, with Daggett at 8 percent.

"Significant movement" when it's just a 3 point difference? Yes, it's significant, when 3 points is the difference between a 9-point lead and a 6-point lead. In that difference, the 3 points represents a 33 percent cut -- so Corzine's team can say, "We've cut Christie's lead by a third."

Plus, in a poll where the margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percent, that 6-point lead begins to look even smaller -- because it might just be a 3-point lead, and there's still 12 weeks to go.

Why in the world would a powerful former committee chairman and current ranking Republican of a committee as powerful as Energy and Commerce want to throw away his House clout, only to become the most junior member of the United States Senate, ranking behind even Roland W. Burris and Al Franken?

That's the question that has Capitol Hill veterans scratching their heads as they read about Texas Republican Joe L Barton's possible interest in making a play for the U.S. Senate seat soon to be vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has signalled plans to resign the seat to focus on her contest with Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the 2010 Texas GOP nomination for governor.

CQ Politics' Greg Giroux has one idea -- under Texas's quirky law on special elections for U.S. Senate seats, Barton could make the run without having to give up his House seat.

"If at first you don't succeed ... wait two decades for a new Congress, and then try again."

If that credo isn't matted, framed, and hanging on the office wall of Rep. John P. Murtha, it should be.

On July 22, Murtha's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee reported out a $636 billion appropriations bill that included funding for new airplanes in which the Air Force could ferry Members of Congress around the world.

Dear Flag@whitehouse.gov,

In re: your Tuesday request that I forward to you any information I might have on "fishy" emails or "casual conversations" that might come to my attention regarding President Obama's health care reform proposals, please be aware that on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 5, 2009, at 1:08 PM, I received an email from "President Barack Obama" -- the actual email address was "info@BarackObama.com" -- that made a couple of spurious (some might say "fishy") claims.

First, of course, I need to point out that the individual who sent this email may or may not actually be President Barack Obama.

After watching coverage last night of Bill Clinton's meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, and reading more coverage this morning of his trip to recover two American journalists who had been held prisoner by the megalomaniac's regime, I'm sure I'm in good company when I say I'm concerned about the potential fallout from the whole exercise.

I am speaking, of course, about what the future holds for Jesse Jackson -- because I cannot think of anyone who is less happy with Bill Clinton today than is Jesse Jackson.

First, Clinton beat Jackson to the punch in the presidential sweepstakes, twice winning where Jackson twice had fallen short, and earning for himself the title "America's First Black President."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs suggested Tuesday morning that angry protesters showing up at the town hall meetings held by members of Congess are in fact some kind of manufactured opposition, presumably being driven not by their opposition to the Democrats’ plans for health care overhaul, but instead by their service to some corporate master.

“I hope people will take a jaundiced eye to what is clearly the Astroturf nature of grass-roots lobbying,” Gibbs said in this morning’s gaggle. “The Brooks Brothers brigade … appear to have rented a similar bus and are appearing together at town hall meetings throughout the country.”

House and Senate Democratic leaders are sending members home for the August break equipped with information on health care overhaul efforts to share with constituents. The talking-points cards list faults of the current system, benefits of the proposed plan and the plan’s effect on specific districts. Members have been encouraged to hold town hall meetings to discuss the issue.

How long will it be before Gibbs is linking his “Manufactured Opposition Theory” to the story of Jack Bonner and forged letters of opposition to the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade climate change bill?

Follow me on Twitter!

Check out New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's latest television spot.

Is it just me, or does this leave you with the impression that the incumbent has caved to pressure from powerful Democratic Party bosses, and announced his decision to let Barack Obama run at the top of the ticket with Corzine as lieutenant governor?

This ad is notable for four things:

1) It's Corzine's first positive ad of the campaign season.