Barack Obama

Beat Goes On For Florida Doc: McKalip To Step Down As AMA Delegate

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 6:00PM

The fallout from David McKalip's racist email showing President Obama as a witch doctor continues.

A Florida newspaper reports that the prominent St. Petersburg neurosurgeon has said he'll step down from the influential post of delegate to the American Medical Association, saying "I think people will wonder if they can trust me."

The AMA position gave McKalip a role in shaping the national platform of the doctor's lobby. The AMA yesterday had issued a statement distancing itself from the email.

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Barack Obama

Top Anti-Reform Group Working Closely With McKalip, Tea Partiers

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 4:11PM

David McKalip, whose racist email showing President Obama dressed as a witch doctor triggered a barrage of outrage, has worked closely in recent weeks with one of the leading organized efforts to stop health-care reform.

After we posted McKalip's racist email yesterday, he sent a message to several online discussion groups attacking what he saw as "race baiting by Obama camp" and accusing TPM of "painting me as a racist." In addition to the Tea Party group to which he had sent the original image, that second message also went to an address for a discussion group run by Conservatives for Patients Rights, the prominent anti-reform group founded and bankrolled by multimillionaire former hospital CEO Rick Scott, and spotlighted in May by the Washington Post.

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Barack Obama

Tea Party Leader To McKalip: "We All Have Your Back My Friend!"

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 2:53PM

The national coordinator of the American Tea Party movement is standing behind David McKalip and has pledged her help as he struggles with the fallout over the racist email he sent showing President Obama dressed as a witch doctor.

In an email exchange on the Tea Party listserv, obtained by TPMmuckraker, Amy Kremer wrote:

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David McKalip

McKalip Quits As Medical Association President

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 1:42PM

David McKalip is resigning as president-elect of the Pinellas County Medical Association.

In a resignation letter reported on by the St. Petersburg Times, McKalip wrote:

I believe that it would be in the best interests of the Pinellas County Medical Association and its mission to serve patients, if I step down from the association at this time.

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David McKalip

Citing Email Flap, McKalip Says He'll Withdraw From Public Debate Over Healthcare

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 12:40PM

Dr. David McKalip has told fellow conservative activists that thanks to the flap over his racist email showing President Obama as a witch doctor, he will no longer appear publicly in opposition to health-care reform.

"For now, in the interest of protecting this movement from any collateral damage, I am withdrawing from making media appearances on health system reform," McKalip wrote this morning in an email -- obtained by TPMmuckraker -- to fellow members of an online health-care discussion group affiliated with the Tea Party movement. The email went to the same recipients to which McKalip sent the original racist email.

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David McKalip

Rubio Won't Say Whether He'll Sever Ties With McKalip

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 11:05AM

Are David McKalip's political allies backing away from him -- despite his apology for sending a racist email depicting President Obama as a witch doctor?

A spokesman for Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Marco Rubio declined to tell TPMmuckraker whether Rubio would continue to work with McKalip, who last month co-hosted a $500-per-person fundraiser for Rubio at the Grand Bellagio Clubhouse in Clearwater.

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Barack Obama

McKalip: I'm No Racist -- I Once Had A Career Counseling Day For Black Kids

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 9:12AM

More McKalip fallout:

The Florida Medical Association yesterday condemned McKalip's racist email and called on him to apologize to the president:

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Racism

Doctor On Racist Obama Email: "I Sincerely Apologize"

Zachary Roth | July 24, 2009, 8:49AM

David McKalip -- the Florida neurosurgeon and healthcare reform opponent who sent a racist email showing President Obama dressed as a witch doctor with a loin cloth and a bone through his nose, which was posted yesterday by TPMmuckraker -- has apologized directly to the president.

Through a P.R. representative, McKalip put out the following statement:

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Sex

Abstinence-Supporting GOP State Lawmaker Admits To Sex With 22-Year-Old Intern

Zachary Roth | July 23, 2009, 4:19PM

Paging Keith Olbermann. You can call off the search...we've found your Worst Person in the World for tonight.

Meet Tennessee state senator Paul Stanley. He's a solid conservative Republican and married father of two, who according to his website is "a member of Christ United Methodist Church, where he serves as a Sunday school teacher and board member of their day school." (Check out the religious imagery on the site -- the sun poking through clouds, as if manifesting God's presence -- which of course shows Stanley's deeply pious nature.)

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FBI

Orthodox Jewish Informant Was Key To NJ Arrests

Zachary Roth | July 23, 2009, 3:42PM

If you're wondering how the Feds wrapped up so many public corruption and money laundering cases simultaneously, leading to today's mass of New Jersey arrests, it looks prosecutors have provided an answer.

As the Wall Street Journal explains it (sub. req.):

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FBI

Feds: Brooklyn Man Trafficked In Human Kidneys

Zachary Roth | July 23, 2009, 1:10PM

There's a lot to dig into on this story about New Jersey mayors, lawmakers, and rabbis being charged in connection with a federal corruption and international money laundering probe.

But we've been focusing on one of the few New Yorkers: Issac Rosenbaum, a Brooklynite who works in real estate -- and has been charged with trafficking in human kidneys. It's not clear how or whether this case is tied to the public corruption probe. But with details like these, who cares, frankly...

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C Street

Sign Of The Times: Lawmaker Won't Say Whether He Lives At C Street

Zachary Roth | July 23, 2009, 11:33AM

These are tough times for C St.

The usually low-profile Capitol Hill-based Christian dorm and bible study group has been at the center of a media frenzy after three separate Republicans with ties to C St admitted to extra-marital affairs in recent weeks. And now, things have gotten so bad that one Christian lawmaker is treating the issue like a state secret, refusing even to say whether he lives there.

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Racism

Conservative Activist Forwards Racist Pic Showing Obama As Witch Doctor

Zachary Roth | July 23, 2009, 10:34AM

The election of our first black president has brought with it a strange proliferation of online racism among conservatives.

And we've got the latest example.

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Financial Crisis

Stiglitz, Galbraith, Reich To Financial Crisis Panel: Get To The Truth!

Zachary Roth | July 22, 2009, 5:28PM

Looks like were not the only ones who are concerned that the Congressional commission to look into the causes of the financial crisis may struggle to get to the truth.

A group of distinguished economists, academics, and thinkers -- including Joseph Stiglitz, Jamie Galbraith, and Robert Reich -- has written an open letter to the newly-named commissioners, urging them to come together "in non-partisan cooperation to investigate the origins of the financial crisis in ways that lead to a full understanding of the institutions, people and practices that are responsible for our economic collapse."

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Defense Department

U.S. Soldier Captured In Afghanistan: What Happened?

Zachary Roth | July 22, 2009, 3:45PM

We've told you recently about Ralph Peters, the Fox News analyst who accused a U.S. soldier, captured in Afghanistan, of deserting his buddies. Peters, a retired U.S. Army officer, said said the Taliban could save the U.S. "a lot of legal hassle" by executing the soldier.

But Peters' heartlessness and stupidity aside, the underlying story of the captured soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, is worth a closer look too -- especially because the Pentagon so far hasn't given a clear story about just how Bergdahl ended up in enemy hands.

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AIG

Financial Crisis Panel Will Probe AIG Bailouts, Says Chair

Zachary Roth | July 22, 2009, 12:26PM

The man who will lead the special congressional effort to probe the causes of the financial crisis says his panel will also consider the government's response to the events of last fall -- including the controversial serial bailouts of AIG.

In an interview with TPMmuckraker, Phil Angelides, the former California treasurer who was recently named by Congress to chair the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, noted that the statute that created his panel required it to look not just at the financial institutions that failed, but also at those that would have failed but for massive government intervention. That means that "it's going to be hard not to touch on those issues," said Angelides, referring to the various AIG bailouts -- which some have portrayed as disingenuous backdoor efforts to save AIG counterparties like Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch from the consequences of their bad bets -- as well as other moves by the government to prevent a wider collapse of the financial sector.

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Barack Obama

Yet More Obama Secrecy: Won't Release Info On Visits From Health-Care Execs

Zachary Roth | July 22, 2009, 10:06AM

And the beat goes on....

Here's the latest example of the Obama White House mimicking its predecessor's reflexive preference for secrecy over openness: the administration has turned down a request from a good-government group to release the names of the health-industry execs who have gone to the White House to discuss health-care reform, reports the Los Angeles Times.

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Max Baucus

CORRECTED: Oops! Baucus Caught Out On Claim He Renounced SAYS HE RETURNED Health-Care PAC Dollars

Zachary Roth | July 21, 2009, 4:00PM

LATE UPDATE: A BAUCUS SPOKESMAN TELLS TPMMUCKRAKER THE DONATION WAS RETURNED.

Gotcha's don't come much purer than this one.

Today, the Washington Post reported that although Sen. Max Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance committee, has raked in big bucks from private health-care interests, he has taken one step to in the direction of good government:

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Edolphus Towns

Congress: IG Firing Was "Legitimate" And Lawful

Zachary Roth | July 21, 2009, 3:11PM

A congressional committee looking into the White House's firing of the AmeriCorps inspector general has said that the firing was carried out for "legitimate reasons" and did not violate the Inspector General Act.

Late last week, Gerald Walpin filed a lawsuit against three officials from the Corporation for National and Community Service, accusing them of unlawfully firing him as inspector general for the agency last month.

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Mark Sanford

NBC's Gregory: "I Wasn't Promising A Friendly Forum" For Sanford

Zachary Roth | July 21, 2009, 12:16PM

Over the weekend, NBC's David Gregory responded to charges raised by TPMmuckraker and others that he was overly solicitous in trying to woo Mark Sanford to come on Meet The Press during the imbroglio over the South Carolina governor's disappearance.

In an email to a blogger at Daily Kos, Gregory wrote:

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John Murtha

FBI Getting Closer To Murtha?

Zachary Roth | July 21, 2009, 11:45AM

Is the noose tightening around John Murtha?

For months now, the Pennsylvania Democratic power-broker's name has been popping up in connection to a wide-ranging FBI investigation of defense contractors and lobbyists to whom he has ties. And yesterday brought more bad news...

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John Ensign

CREW: DOJ Integrity Unit "Punted" On Ensign Complaint

Zachary Roth | July 20, 2009, 5:17PM

The Justice Department has responded to a formal complaint filed by a good-government group over the John Ensign matter by saying in a letter that the complaint should be filed with the FBI, rather than the department's public integrity unit, reports the Las Vegas Sun. And the good government group -- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) -- has itself responded to DOJ's bureaucratic fastidiousness with what we can only describe as a sassy retort that rubs salt in some recent DOJ wounds.

As requested, CREW has forwarded its complaint to the FBI. Executive Director Melanie Sloan writes:

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Gerald Walpin

Walpin Lawsuit Names AmeriCorps Officials, Not White House Brass, As Defendants

Zachary Roth | July 20, 2009, 3:01PM

We're getting a few more details about that lawsuit filed Friday by Gerald Walpin, alleging that his firing as inspector general for the AmeriCorps program was unlawful.

The Washington Post reports that the suit names as defendants three top officials at the Corporation for national and Community Service (CNCS): Acting CEO Nicola O. Goren, Human Resources Director Raymond Limon and General Counsel Frank Trinity. Documents relating to the firing, which occurred last month, show that Walpin had long had a contentious relationship with CNCS officials, Trinity in particular.

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Sex

C Street Rebranding: GOP Cheaters Need Our Discreet Counseling!

Zachary Roth | July 20, 2009, 1:09PM

A little creative re-branding has worked wonders for the likes of Diddy (now back to Puff Daddy), Joe Lieberman, and the Volkswagen Beetle. So why not for C Street?

In recent weeks, the secretive Christian fellowship group, whose red-brick townhouse on Capitol Hill has for years served as an in-session dorm for religious lawmakers, has been getting some unwanted publicity. Thanks to its ties to three recent Republican sex scandals -- those of Nevada senator John Ensign, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, and former congressman Chip Pickering -- C Street has started to get a reputation as somewhere between a halfway house and frat house for conservative politicians looking to cheat on their wives while convincing themselves they're still upstanding guys.

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