After secretly reviewing several years worth of tax returns, and consulting with his top advisers, Mitt Romney chose working class hero Paul Ryan as his same-sex partner.
It was a bold move—as bold as John McCain's embrace of Sarah Palin (though not quite as popular).
Like Palin, Ryan has excited the base (both of them, actually), and like Palin, he appeals to teh ladies with his record of fiscal conservatism and his taste for animals.
However, not everyone is feeling the love.
Numerous Republican operatives and candidates are worried that Ryan's positions on hot-button issues will hurt their chances in November, but that's to be expected.
After all, haters gonna hate.
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D); Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R); Roundtable: Chuck Todd (NBC News), Atlanta, GA Mayor Kasim Reed (D), US Senate Candidate Ted Cruz (R-TX), E.J. Dionne (Washington Post) and Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal).
Face the Nation: Sen. (D-IL); Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (9/11); Grover Norquist (american for Tax Reform); Neera Tanden (Center for American Progress); Roundtable: John Dickerson (CBS News), Nia Malika-Henderson (Washington Post), Jeff Zeleny (New York Times) and Carl Hulse (New York Times).
This Week: Obama Campaign Deputy Manager Stephanie Cutter; Romney Campaign Senior Adviser Kevin Madden; Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA); Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD); Former TARP Inspector General Neil Barofsky; Former Chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers Austan Goolsbee; Grover Norquist (American for Tax Reform); Kimberley Strassel (Wall Street Journal).
Fox News Sunday: Obama Campaign Senior Adviser Robert Gibbs; Romney Campaign Senior Adviser Ed Gillespie; Roundtable: Bill Kristol (Weekly Standard), Republican Strategist Karl Rove, Democratic Strategist Joe Trippi and Former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN).
State of the Union: Romney Campaign Senior Adviser Eric Fehrnstrom; Obama Campaign Deputy Manager Stephanie Cutter; Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA); Reliable Sources: George Washington University Professor Steve Roberts; Contessa Brewer (MSNBC); Jonathan Martin (Politico); Amy Holmes (Glenn Beck TV); David Shuster (Current TV); Bob Schieffer (CBS News); Author Gail Sheehy.
The Chris Matthews Show: Howard Fineman (Huffington Post); Kelly O'Donnell (NBC News); Helene Cooper (New York Times); Major Garrett (National Journal).
Fareed Zakaria GPS: Returns August 26.
Up with Chris Hayes: Judith Browne-Dianis (The Advancement Project); Student Tanya Wells; Maya Wiley (Center for Social Inclusion); Radio Host Sam Seder; Author Michael Grunwald; Ari Berman (The Nation); Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA).
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: an interview with the bank examiner who examined the collapse of Lehman Brothers (preview); an interview with the Archbishop of Dublin, who is an outspoken of the Irish Catholic Church (preview); and, an interview with Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith (preview).
On Comedy Central...
Jon Stewart looked at Republican hypocrisy concerning the tenor of the presidential campaign.
And Stephen Colbert examined the bolder side of Mitt Romney.
Note: The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will be airing reruns this week.
Elsewhere...
A white Republican House candidate in Nevada argued that basketball makes him blacker than his black Democratic opponent.
Danny Tarkanian, a Republican House candidate in Nevada, accused his Democratic opponent, Steven Horsford, of pretending to be black and taking the African-American community for granted. Horsford is the state's first black Senate majority leader.
Tarkanian told the Las Vegas Review Journal last week that he could reach the black community in the district, touting his ties to local basketball programs. His father, Jerry Tarkanian, is a legendary former University of Nevada-Las Vegas basketball coach, and Tarkanian played for UNLV in the early 1980s.
"My dad's worked in that community for a long time. And my mother has," Tarkanian said. "My basketball academy, which is very close to the district, has a lot of players and families in that district that are in our academy now for 10 years."
Meanwhile...
Republican lawmakers in Kentucky are doing their very best to live up to negative stereotypes of the state.
"I think we are very committed to being able to take Kentucky students and put them on a report card beside students across the nation," Givens said. "We're simply saying to the ACT people we don't want what is a theory to be taught as a fact in such a way it may damage students' ability to do critical thinking."
Givens said he asked the ACT representatives about possibly returning to a test personalized for Kentucky, but he was told that option was very expensive and time-consuming. [...]
Another committee member, Rep. Ben Waide, R-Madisonville, said he had a problem with evolution being an important part of biology standards.
"The theory of evolution is a theory, and essentially the theory of evolution is not science — Darwin made it up," Waide said. "My objection is they should ensure whatever scientific material is being put forth as a standard should at least stand up to scientific method. Under the most rudimentary, basic scientific examination, the theory of evolution has never stood up to scientific scrutiny."
And, in other news...
The morons on Fox & Friends debated whether a lesbian cabal is keeping The Man down at the Department of Homeland Security.
RIVERA: Is the sub-text of the Department of Homeland Security scandal that there is some kind of lesbian cabal, that it's a same sex takeover. It seems everyone is talking around it. Is that really what people are saying, that men are disadvantaged because women and specifically lesbians are ruling the roost there?
CARLSON: I don’t know about that last part.[...]
KILMEADE: We don't know for sure. But it's easy to come to that conclusion that there is some different type of glass ceiling separating the Homeland Security Department in this case.
RIVERA: No machos need apply?
Women: Can't live with them, can't burn them at the stake.
- Trix