At long last, Rep. Peter King finally got to hold his hearing on the radicalization of American Muslims this week.
And, without a doubt, King was the right person to head up such a hearing, having expressed his own support for violent extremism.
Among those who testified was Rep. Keith Ellison—the first Muslim elected to Congress—who tearfully recounted the story of a Muslim first responder killed on 9/11.
Predictably, some people found it hard to believe that Ellison loves America, given that he's only been married once, and has never admitted to cheating on his wife.
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY); Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R); Roundtable: Michele Norris (NPR), Dan Balz (Washington Post), Former Bush Adviser Ed Gillespie and Former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn.
Face the Nation: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT); Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA).
This Week: Live from Japan.
Fox News Sunday: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY); Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA); Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA); Roundtable: Bill Kristol (Weekly Standard), Bill Zeleny (New York Times), Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino and Kirsten Powers (New York Post).
State of the Union: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL); Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ); Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA); Reliable Sources: Terence Smith (PBS); Alicia Shepard (NPR).
The Chris Matthews Show: Katty Kay (BBC); David Ignatius (Washington Post); David Brooks (New York Times); Kelly O'Donnell (NBC News).
Fareed Zakaria GPS: Abderrahim Foukara (Al Jazeera); Ciolumbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi; Ashraf Khalil (Al Masri Al Youm); Rami Khouri (Daily Star); Pakistani Reporter Ahmed Rashid; Prime Minister of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: an interview with the Iraqi defector code-named "Curve Ball" (preview); a report on the fight against drug counterfeiting (preview); and, a report on a NYC charter school's experiment with paying non-unionized teachers a higher salary (preview).
On Comedy Central:
Jon Stewart—who doesn't scare Sarah Palin—surveyed the GOP's weak presidential field.
And Stephen Colbert put Mike Huckabee on notice.
Note:: The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will both be airing reruns this week.
Elsewhere:
Rep. Michele Bachmann proved that she isn't smarter than a 5th grader.
"What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty," the potential GOP presidential candidate said. "You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord. And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has ever arisen in the annals of man in 5,000 years of recorded history." [...]
"I'm thankful that you are the first in the nation state because you are the liberty state," Bachmann said. "That is your charge. You keep that baton of liberty. You’ve done it very well for almost 20 generations from the time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, and I’m sure the very first one came up to New Hampshire and said, 'This is where I want to be.'"
These mistakes were hardly surprising, given Bachmann's difficult relationship with facts.
Meanwhile:
Republican State Rep. Martin Harty mistook New Hampshire for Nazi Germany.
Barrington Republican Martin Harty told Sharon Omand, a Strafford resident who manages a community mental health program, that "the world is too populated" and there are "too many defective people," according to an e-mail account of the conversation by Omand. [...]
Harty confirmed to the Monitor that he made the comments to Omand. [...]
Omand says Harty then stated, "I wish we had a Siberia so we could ship them all off to freeze to death and die and clean up the population." Omand said Harty appeared to be serious. After Omand responded that his idea sounded like what Adolf Hitler did in World War II, Omand said Harty responded, "Hitler did something right, and I agree with (it)."
And in other news:
Thanks to a new book written by one his former lovers, we now know way too much about Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas' sex life.
McEwen gushes over Thomas’ prowess and "fantasy [package]," describing his body as "coffee-bean … velvet-covered cement."
He was a "national treasure," she said, one she shared with other women in ménages à trois and in a voyeuristic pleasure palace. And she described her then-lover as being "easily aroused," with a "strong interest in pornography."
Kill me now.
- Trix