Ohioans are stepping up to take on their Tea Party Governor, John Kasich. Daily Kos: The effort to get a referendum on Ohio’s SB 5 needed 231,149 valid signatures from 44 counties. Today, pro-repeal groups marched in Columbus to deliver 1,298,301 petition signatures to the secretary of state. Two weeks ago, when the repeal campaign announced that more than 700,000 signatures had been collected, Chris Bowers provided an overview : The only public polls released on SB 5 have shown wide majorities of Ohio voter in favor of repeal. A Quinnipiac poll from mid-May showed repeal ahead 54%-36%, while a PPP poll from later in May showed repeal winning 55%-35%. This signature gathering campaign does not just force a November referendum on the bill. It actually prevents the bill from going into law until the results of the referendum are certified. As such, if the repeal wins in November, which seems likely, then SB 5 will never become law. This is shaping up to become a total defeat for Ohio Governor John Kasich and his union-busting allies. That defeat won’t come without a lot more hard work, but today the campaign to get enough signatures to force a referendum ends, and the campaign to win the referendum begins. Excellent news. NY Times has more: An effort in Ohio to repeal a law reducing the power of public workers to bargain collectively moved forward this week, with the group leading the effort saying it had enough signatures to put it on the ballot and could deliver them to the state on Wednesday. Volunteers from We Are Ohio , a coalition of public and private sector workers, collected 714,137 signatures over about two months, said Melissa Fazekas, a spokeswoman for the group. Some will probably be declared invalid by county officials, but the number is still far more than the approximately 230,000 required to get the measure on the ballot in November, she said. The law, Senate Bill 5, was introduced this spring by a Republican member of Ohio’s Senate. Similar to legislation in Wisconsin, it sought to limit the bargaining power of public workers in order to give local governments more control over their costs. Its passage struck a nerve, and Democrats promised to put it on the ballot this fall, arguing that it dealt a blow to an already weakened middle class. The bill would reverse decades of practice in labor disputes, by making it illegal to strike, and allowing public employees to bargain only if their employer chose to do so. Unlike Wisconsin’s law, Ohio’s also applied to the police and firefighters.
Continue reading …Danilo Restivo convicted of murder and mutilation of neighbour after nine years
June 29, 2011 No Comment
Italian faces extradition to homeland over 1993 death of teenager whose remains were found in Potenza church A man with a fetish for surreptitiously cutting locks of hair from girls and women will be jailed for life on Thursday for the ritualistic murder of his neighbour and is facing extradition over the killing of a teenager in Italy. Danilo Restivo was convicted of murdering Heather Barnett at her Bournemouth flat in 2002 and mutilating her body before placing a hank of someone else’s hair in her right hand and a clump of her own beneath her left. Restivo, an Italian national, has also been accused of killing 16-year-old Elisa Claps in the loft of a church in Potenza, southern Italy, in 1993 and leaving cut strands of her own hair in her hands and next to her body, which was not discovered until last year. As well as being questioned over the killing of Claps, Restivo may also eventually be investigated over other murders in southern France and Spain. In the UK, the Criminal Cases Review Commission has been watching the seven-week trial amid claims that he might also be behind the killing of a student, Jong-Ok Shin, in Bournemouth four months before Barnett was murdered. Outside court on Wednesday, Barnett’s relatives expressed relief that nine years after her death, Restivo, 39, had been brought to justice. But they were angry at what they see as failings in the Italian police investigation into the murder of Claps, pointing out that if he had been caught then he could not have killed Barnett. Claps’s body was found in the church where she had last been seen and there are conspiracy theories in Italy that people in Potenza knew the body was hidden there. There have also been rumours about the role of the mafia and the church. It has been a long ordeal for Barnett’s family, some of whom criticised British police on Wednesday for not being aggressive enough in the early stages of their inquiries. The murder on 12 November 2002 of Barnett, a mother of two who worked as a seamstress from her home in Dorset, could hardly have been more brutal and disturbing. Barnett, 48, was battered around the head with a hammer-like object and dragged into her bathroom. Her throat was cut, she was partially stripped and her breasts were sliced off. The killer left a clump of another woman’s hair in Barnett’s right hand and some of her own beneath her left. Her children, Terry, then 14, and Caitlin, 11, found their mother’s body on their return from school. Terry told how his sister “went absolutely ballistic” as she opened the bathroom door. When he peered in he was horrified. “I saw her lying on her back. I saw blood absolutely everywhere and I thought ‘Oh no.’” When officers arrived at the scene Restivo was comforting Terry and both children were taken into his home while forensic scientists began work. Detective Superintendent Mark Cooper, the senior investigating officer, said police were instantly suspicious of Restivo. “He was in the inquiry right from the start. From day one he was on our list,” said Cooper. Four days after the murder, police visited Restivo’s house and a detective sergeant asked what shoes he had been wearing on the day of the killing as police believed the killer’s footwear could have been contaminated with blood. Restivo showed them a pair of trainers lying in the bath, which smelled of bleach. They had been dirty, Restivo said. Police began to dig into Restivo’s background. He was born in Sicily but moved to Potenza in southern Italy when his father was hired to set up a prestigious library there. The link to Claps propelled Restivo from person of interest to prime suspect. As a 21-year-old Restivo fell for Claps but she rejected him. On 12 September 1993 he met her at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Potenza. And then she vanished. In 1995 he was convicted in Italy of giving false information about an injury to his hand on the day Claps vanished. Police and the Italian media suspected he had killed her but no body was found by that stage and there was no proof. In May 2002 Restivo moved to Bournemouth having met a woman on the internet. Six months later Barnett, who lived opposite him, was dead. Cooper said that by early 2003 Restivo had become the “sole focus” of the investigation. Police did not have the evidence to charge him and instead began intense surveillance. They were soon alarmed by his behaviour. In May 2004 police watched Restivo at secluded locations observing or following women. On one occasion he was stopped by officers who found he had a large knife, a balaclava and two pairs of scissors. “He was an immediate and real danger to women,” said Cooper. Police continued to watch Restivo, sometimes 24 hours a day. Meanwhile they were following up inquiries into the hair left in Barnett’s hand. Detectives discovered that numerous women in Potenza and Bournemouth had complained of having hair snipped while on buses or, on one occasion, sitting in the dark of a cinema. There were 15 reports from women in the UK and nine in Italy. Restivo would claim at his eventual trial that he started cutting hair at around age 15 for a bet. “I started liking it and I kept doing it. The problem was that I liked touching the hair and also smelling it. It was not a sexual attraction,” he claimed. In November 2006 Restivo was arrested and his home searched. Police found a lock of hair tied with green cotton – which Restivo said must have been planted. In 2008 scientists finally made a link between DNA material found on a green towel recovered from Barnett’s flat and Restivo. Still it was not judged strong enough to charge him. Then in March 2010 the body of Elisa Claps was found a few metres from where she had met Restivo 17 years previously. Her remains had been hidden in the loft of the church beneath a pile of old tiles. She had been stabbed and, most significantly, strands of her own hair cut from her head shortly after her death had been placed in each hand and locks of hair had been placed near her body. Restivo was charged with Barnett’s murder two months later. He showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered. Barnett’s daughter, Caitlin, sobbed. Outside court, Barnett’s sister, Denise Le Voir, said the family feared Restivo, who continued to live in the same flat in Bournemouth after the killing, would return to murder Caitlin. She criticised the Italian inquiry saying: “Elisa was found in the church where she had last been seen and I cannot understand why that church wasn’t thoroughly searched top to bottom sooner. It would appear someone was covering up.” Crime Italy Europe Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Danilo Restivo convicted of murder and mutilation of neighbour after nine years
June 29, 2011 No Comment
Italian faces extradition to homeland over 1993 death of teenager whose remains were found in Potenza church A man with a fetish for surreptitiously cutting locks of hair from girls and women will be jailed for life on Thursday for the ritualistic murder of his neighbour and is facing extradition over the killing of a teenager in Italy. Danilo Restivo was convicted of murdering Heather Barnett at her Bournemouth flat in 2002 and mutilating her body before placing a hank of someone else’s hair in her right hand and a clump of her own beneath her left. Restivo, an Italian national, has also been accused of killing 16-year-old Elisa Claps in the loft of a church in Potenza, southern Italy, in 1993 and leaving cut strands of her own hair in her hands and next to her body, which was not discovered until last year. As well as being questioned over the killing of Claps, Restivo may also eventually be investigated over other murders in southern France and Spain. In the UK, the Criminal Cases Review Commission has been watching the seven-week trial amid claims that he might also be behind the killing of a student, Jong-Ok Shin, in Bournemouth four months before Barnett was murdered. Outside court on Wednesday, Barnett’s relatives expressed relief that nine years after her death, Restivo, 39, had been brought to justice. But they were angry at what they see as failings in the Italian police investigation into the murder of Claps, pointing out that if he had been caught then he could not have killed Barnett. Claps’s body was found in the church where she had last been seen and there are conspiracy theories in Italy that people in Potenza knew the body was hidden there. There have also been rumours about the role of the mafia and the church. It has been a long ordeal for Barnett’s family, some of whom criticised British police on Wednesday for not being aggressive enough in the early stages of their inquiries. The murder on 12 November 2002 of Barnett, a mother of two who worked as a seamstress from her home in Dorset, could hardly have been more brutal and disturbing. Barnett, 48, was battered around the head with a hammer-like object and dragged into her bathroom. Her throat was cut, she was partially stripped and her breasts were sliced off. The killer left a clump of another woman’s hair in Barnett’s right hand and some of her own beneath her left. Her children, Terry, then 14, and Caitlin, 11, found their mother’s body on their return from school. Terry told how his sister “went absolutely ballistic” as she opened the bathroom door. When he peered in he was horrified. “I saw her lying on her back. I saw blood absolutely everywhere and I thought ‘Oh no.’” When officers arrived at the scene Restivo was comforting Terry and both children were taken into his home while forensic scientists began work. Detective Superintendent Mark Cooper, the senior investigating officer, said police were instantly suspicious of Restivo. “He was in the inquiry right from the start. From day one he was on our list,” said Cooper. Four days after the murder, police visited Restivo’s house and a detective sergeant asked what shoes he had been wearing on the day of the killing as police believed the killer’s footwear could have been contaminated with blood. Restivo showed them a pair of trainers lying in the bath, which smelled of bleach. They had been dirty, Restivo said. Police began to dig into Restivo’s background. He was born in Sicily but moved to Potenza in southern Italy when his father was hired to set up a prestigious library there. The link to Claps propelled Restivo from person of interest to prime suspect. As a 21-year-old Restivo fell for Claps but she rejected him. On 12 September 1993 he met her at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Potenza. And then she vanished. In 1995 he was convicted in Italy of giving false information about an injury to his hand on the day Claps vanished. Police and the Italian media suspected he had killed her but no body was found by that stage and there was no proof. In May 2002 Restivo moved to Bournemouth having met a woman on the internet. Six months later Barnett, who lived opposite him, was dead. Cooper said that by early 2003 Restivo had become the “sole focus” of the investigation. Police did not have the evidence to charge him and instead began intense surveillance. They were soon alarmed by his behaviour. In May 2004 police watched Restivo at secluded locations observing or following women. On one occasion he was stopped by officers who found he had a large knife, a balaclava and two pairs of scissors. “He was an immediate and real danger to women,” said Cooper. Police continued to watch Restivo, sometimes 24 hours a day. Meanwhile they were following up inquiries into the hair left in Barnett’s hand. Detectives discovered that numerous women in Potenza and Bournemouth had complained of having hair snipped while on buses or, on one occasion, sitting in the dark of a cinema. There were 15 reports from women in the UK and nine in Italy. Restivo would claim at his eventual trial that he started cutting hair at around age 15 for a bet. “I started liking it and I kept doing it. The problem was that I liked touching the hair and also smelling it. It was not a sexual attraction,” he claimed. In November 2006 Restivo was arrested and his home searched. Police found a lock of hair tied with green cotton – which Restivo said must have been planted. In 2008 scientists finally made a link between DNA material found on a green towel recovered from Barnett’s flat and Restivo. Still it was not judged strong enough to charge him. Then in March 2010 the body of Elisa Claps was found a few metres from where she had met Restivo 17 years previously. Her remains had been hidden in the loft of the church beneath a pile of old tiles. She had been stabbed and, most significantly, strands of her own hair cut from her head shortly after her death had been placed in each hand and locks of hair had been placed near her body. Restivo was charged with Barnett’s murder two months later. He showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered. Barnett’s daughter, Caitlin, sobbed. Outside court, Barnett’s sister, Denise Le Voir, said the family feared Restivo, who continued to live in the same flat in Bournemouth after the killing, would return to murder Caitlin. She criticised the Italian inquiry saying: “Elisa was found in the church where she had last been seen and I cannot understand why that church wasn’t thoroughly searched top to bottom sooner. It would appear someone was covering up.” Crime Italy Europe Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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David Cameron says pension changes are ‘fair’ as up to 750,000 public servants from four unions prepare for industrial action The coalition government faces the first industrial uprising against its austerity measures today as up to 750,000 public servants strike over planned changes to their pensions. A third of schools are expected to close and two-thirds of universities have cancelled lectures. Benefits will go unpaid, court cases will be postponed, police leave has been cancelled in London and airports are bracing themselves for backlogs at immigration. Mark Serwotka, leader of the Public and Commercial Services union, said it was the most important strike in his union’s history. “Everything we have ever worked for is under attack,” he added. The government was trying to avoid inflaming the situation . David Cameron told the Commons: “What we are proposing is fair: it is fair to taxpayers but it is also fair to the public sector because we want to continue strong public sector pensions.” He said Labour was avoiding the issue, accusing the party of being “paid for by the unions [so] they can’t discuss the unions”. None of the four striking unions, with members in schools, colleges, universities and the civil service, is affiliated to the Labour party. Nearly every other union is poised to move towards strike action by the end of the year if the bitter standoff over public sector pension reforms is not resolved. Roads in central London will shut as thousands of people march in demonstrations that will be echoed across the country. Police leave has been cancelled so officers can cover for striking police community support officers, call handlers on the 999 lines and security staff. Some groups calling for peaceful civil disobedience are planning events in the capital. There were suggestions on the web that anarchists may target the events. Downing Street said it believed only one in five of the 500,000 civil servants would strike and predicted that a third of England’s 24,600 schools would close, a third would partially close and a third would be unaffected. Nearly 8,000 state schools have confirmed that they will either close or reduce lessons. Liverpool will be the worst hit city, with three-quarters of schools affected. In Newcastle, 72% of schools will be short-staffed or closed and in Manchester and Birmingham around half are affected. Up to 20,000 teachers in private schools may also go on strike. BAA said delays and disruption were possible at its airports, as up to 14,000 staff at the UK Border Agency affiliated to the PCS prepared to stage walkouts. UKBA advised airlines this week that passengers should rethink their travel plans amid fears of long queues at passport control, but then appeared to back away from that advice, saying it would work hard to keep delays to a minimum. The PCS said it expected delays at the port of Dover and Heathrow, Manchester and Gatwick airports. Ryanair called on the government to allow the army or police to staff passport booths and customs desks and said what it called union “headbangers” should not be allowed to disrupt flight schedules.
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David Cameron says pension changes are ‘fair’ as up to 750,000 public servants from four unions prepare for industrial action The coalition government faces the first industrial uprising against its austerity measures today as up to 750,000 public servants strike over planned changes to their pensions. A third of schools are expected to close and two-thirds of universities have cancelled lectures. Benefits will go unpaid, court cases will be postponed, police leave has been cancelled in London and airports are bracing themselves for backlogs at immigration. Mark Serwotka, leader of the Public and Commercial Services union, said it was the most important strike in his union’s history. “Everything we have ever worked for is under attack,” he added. The government was trying to avoid inflaming the situation . David Cameron told the Commons: “What we are proposing is fair: it is fair to taxpayers but it is also fair to the public sector because we want to continue strong public sector pensions.” He said Labour was avoiding the issue, accusing the party of being “paid for by the unions [so] they can’t discuss the unions”. None of the four striking unions, with members in schools, colleges, universities and the civil service, is affiliated to the Labour party. Nearly every other union is poised to move towards strike action by the end of the year if the bitter standoff over public sector pension reforms is not resolved. Roads in central London will shut as thousands of people march in demonstrations that will be echoed across the country. Police leave has been cancelled so officers can cover for striking police community support officers, call handlers on the 999 lines and security staff. Some groups calling for peaceful civil disobedience are planning events in the capital. There were suggestions on the web that anarchists may target the events. Downing Street said it believed only one in five of the 500,000 civil servants would strike and predicted that a third of England’s 24,600 schools would close, a third would partially close and a third would be unaffected. Nearly 8,000 state schools have confirmed that they will either close or reduce lessons. Liverpool will be the worst hit city, with three-quarters of schools affected. In Newcastle, 72% of schools will be short-staffed or closed and in Manchester and Birmingham around half are affected. Up to 20,000 teachers in private schools may also go on strike. BAA said delays and disruption were possible at its airports, as up to 14,000 staff at the UK Border Agency affiliated to the PCS prepared to stage walkouts. UKBA advised airlines this week that passengers should rethink their travel plans amid fears of long queues at passport control, but then appeared to back away from that advice, saying it would work hard to keep delays to a minimum. The PCS said it expected delays at the port of Dover and Heathrow, Manchester and Gatwick airports. Ryanair called on the government to allow the army or police to staff passport booths and customs desks and said what it called union “headbangers” should not be allowed to disrupt flight schedules.
Continue reading …The Affordable Care Act won a big round today in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals when a court with two Republican appointees and one Democratic appointee ruling it constitutional. For anyone keeping score, that means 4 out of 6 appellate courts have upheld its constitutionality. But what makes this decision particularly significant is that it broke the partisan chokehold around it during its journey through the courts. Adam Serwer : Martin’s decision rejected the notion that going without health insurance constitutes an “inactivity” that can’t be regulated under the Commerce Clause, noting that, “The uninsured cannot avoid the need for health care, and they consume over $100 billion in health care services annually.” Martin adds that “Self-insuring for the cost of health care directly affects the interstate market for health care delivery and health insurance. These effects are not at all attenuated as were the links between the regulated activities and interstate commerce in Lopez and Morrison.” That last point is key, because Republican appointees concocted the “inactivity/activity” distinction as a rhetorical loophole to appeal to Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia argued in a recent medical marijuana case that ” “where Congress has the authority to enact a regulation of interstate commerce, it possesses every power needed to make that regulation effective.” This is a big win and a big deal , assuming that certain justices on our current Supreme Court can be trusted to actually be intellectually honest about how they rule in certain cases. But before it gets there, two more circuit courts need to rule on it — the Fourth and Eleventh Circuit Courts, who have similar cases pending.
Continue reading …The Affordable Care Act won a big round today in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals when a court with two Republican appointees and one Democratic appointee ruling it constitutional. For anyone keeping score, that means 4 out of 6 appellate courts have upheld its constitutionality. But what makes this decision particularly significant is that it broke the partisan chokehold around it during its journey through the courts. Adam Serwer : Martin’s decision rejected the notion that going without health insurance constitutes an “inactivity” that can’t be regulated under the Commerce Clause, noting that, “The uninsured cannot avoid the need for health care, and they consume over $100 billion in health care services annually.” Martin adds that “Self-insuring for the cost of health care directly affects the interstate market for health care delivery and health insurance. These effects are not at all attenuated as were the links between the regulated activities and interstate commerce in Lopez and Morrison.” That last point is key, because Republican appointees concocted the “inactivity/activity” distinction as a rhetorical loophole to appeal to Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia argued in a recent medical marijuana case that ” “where Congress has the authority to enact a regulation of interstate commerce, it possesses every power needed to make that regulation effective.” This is a big win and a big deal , assuming that certain justices on our current Supreme Court can be trusted to actually be intellectually honest about how they rule in certain cases. But before it gets there, two more circuit courts need to rule on it — the Fourth and Eleventh Circuit Courts, who have similar cases pending.
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If Michele Bachmann becomes the next President of the United States, it’s safe to say that Tom Petty won’t be playing the inauguration. When the newly minted Republican presidential candidate left the stage in Waterloo, Iowa, after making a nationally televised speech to announce her candidacy, Petty’s track “American Girl” could be heard playing her
Continue reading …Rachel Maddow on NBC’s Today: ‘Embarrassing’ and ‘Rude’ Christie ‘Screams’ at Constituents
June 29, 2011 No Comment
Appearing on Wednesday's NBC Today, left-wing MSNBC host Rachel Maddow slammed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: ” …his brand at this point is, 'I'm the guy who screams at my own constituents'….his brand is 'I will be rude.' And rudeness is actually what he's trying to sell as a form of political authenticity.” Co-host Ann Curry mentioned Christie criticizing President Obama for being too focused on popularity rather than policy and wondered: “Does the New Jersey Governor have a point that the President is making mistakes because he wants too much to be liked?” As Maddow launched into her rant against Christie, Curry interrupted: “But beyond argument and ad hominem, let's talk about, though, about Obama specifically. Do you think he's trying too hard to be liked?” View Video Below Maddow never really addressed the criticism of Obama, but continued to tear down Christie: “When he was asked recently by a constituent whether or not there was an issue of fairness with him sending his kids to private school when he was cutting public education so drastically, he screamed back at that constituent, 'That's none of your business!'….he's embarrassing himself in his own state, leaving – taking a state helicopter away from his son's baseball game so he can go meet with Iowa Republican donors.” Here is a full transcript of the June 29 segment: 7:09AM ET ANN CURRY: Rachel Maddow is the host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, joins us now. Rachel, good morning. RACHEL MADDOW: Hi, Ann. CURRY: Sarah Palin first, how much longer can she wait before she announces her decision? MADDOW: I think she can wait a long time. I think what the candidates are doing right now is essentially introducing themselves to a public who may not remember who Rick Santorum is or who Michele Bachmann is, for that matter. Sarah Palin does not have that problem. Nobody in America doesn't know who she is. I think she can wait a long time. We're a half year away from the Iowa caucuses still. CURRY: Really? So if she does wait that long or not, if she does announce that she's going to run, how will that change the Republican race? MADDOW: Well, I think that as long as Mitt Romney is the unquestionable front-runner, there is going to be some hunger among a significant number of Republican activists in particular for somebody else with a big name to get in. There's dissatisfaction with Mitt Romney as the front-runner. And so as long as there's nobody challenging him, and it looks like Tim Pawlenty does not pose any threat of doing that, I think that the race is going to remain quite wide open. CURRY: Well, Michele Bachmann seems to be considered right now a front-runner. I'm wondering, it seems to me that it might be argued that she's taking some of the support that Sarah Palin would want from the Tea Party. So one might argue – and there are those who are arguing that those two are going to have to confront each other at some point. Do you agree with that? MADDOW: You know, I don't think that there's any reason to think of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann competing for the same voters any more than there is to see that sort of competition between Herman Cain and Rick Santorum or between Jon Huntsman and Tim Pawlenty. I think we're sort of past the glass ceiling where in people have to compete to be the female candidate. CURRY: Okay, that point well taken, but we are still talking about Tea Party favorites, right? So on that level. MADDOW: Sure, but there's a lot of competition for that. I mean, Tim Pawlenty wants to be seen as a Tea Party favorite. I mean, we just heard in Kelly's report there, Michele Bachmann is trying to make this case that she's a purist Tea Party candidate despite the fact that she has this hypocrisy problem with having benefitted herself from so much government spending. CURRY: Meantime, I want to get your take on something that Chris Christie said about President Obama, talking about the Democratic side of the ticket. Let's take a listen to what Chris Christie said. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: The President and the People; Is Obama Failing to Connect to Everyday Americans?] CHRIS CHRISTIE: I think he's so concerned about making sure everybody likes him that he's paralyzed to be able to make decisions. And I think that's what it does when you're worried about being liked. You don't want to decide anything because you know you're going to aggravate somebody. CURRY: Does the New Jersey Governor have a point that the President is making mistakes because he wants too much to be liked? MADDOW: I think Chris Christie is really good at polishing his own brand. And his brand at this point is, 'I'm the guy who screams at my own constituents.' When he was asked recently by a constituent whether or not there was an issue of fairness with him sending his kids to private school when he was cutting public education so drastically, he screamed back at that constituent, 'That's none of your business!' That's his brand. CURRY: Okay, but beyond argument and ad hominem, let's talk about, though, about Obama specifically. MADDOW: Well, no, I- CURRY: Do you think he's trying too hard to be liked? Is it affecting his ability? MADDOW: It's not – it's not an ad hominem argument. Chris Christie is auditioning for vice president. Chris Christie would like to be taken seriously on the national stage. That's why he's embarrassing himself in his own state, leaving – taking a state helicopter away from his son's baseball game so he can go meet with Iowa Republican donors, when he's not running for president. CURRY: Right. MADDOW: He is auditioning. And his brand is 'I will be rude.' And rudeness is actually what he's trying to sell as a form of political authenticity. So to attack the President on that ground is to invite a favorable comparison with his own style. CURRY: So you're saying he doesn't have a point, okay. MADDOW: Well, he has a point for himself. CURRY: Okay, alright, there you go. And there also seems to be, however, growing discontent in the Left at President Obama, a discontent over his position on Libya, Afghanistan, the budget. Is this something that his campaign really needs to worry about as we now move towards the election? MADDOW: I think that the President – I mean we'll see some of it today, the President hosting a gay rights reception at the White House, still sort of sitting uncomfortably on his assertion that he does not support same-sex marriage. The gay community very excited about same-sex marriage rights having been extended in New York and that tension between the President's position and what the community sees as a victory. I think the President's going to have to worry about the Left when it comes time to rubber meeting the road and organizational enthusiasm on the part of the Democratic base being important to get out the vote. It may be too early for him to really be courting the Left, but we'll see it in terms of his strategy. CURRY: Alright, Rachel Maddow, thank you so much. Sorry to spring the Latin on you, but I knew you could handle it. So thanks so much. MADDOW: Oh, you know, I enjoyed it. Thanks. CURRY: And you can catch The Rachel Maddow Show weeknights at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on MSNBC.
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