Even in death, Michael Jackson has the power to create controversy.
During the Monday memorial service in Los Angeles, Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee told the thousands of mourners in Staples Center (and the hundreds of millions of fans around the world, eagerly watching on television) that she would introduce a resolution in the hope of honoring the King of Pop for his humanitarian efforts around the world.
The Democratic congresswoman displayed a framed copy of the resolution she was proposing and insisted it would come to the floor.
On the face this would seem to be a no-brainer: iconic singer and long-time donor to charities gets a last recognition. Besides, anyone whose death can so monopolize the public arena should be a slam-dunk for a congressional resolution.
Some Republicans, including Long Island Rep. Peter King, said they had problems with the adulation pouring over Jackson. King, in a video posted on YouTube, called the....
Maybe you remember a large ruckus the other day when Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) expressed puzzlement at least and probably more like distaste over the emotional national reactions to the sudden death of pop icon Michael Jackson at 50.
Now a day after the huge L.A. musical memorial service that drew thousands and glued millions to their TV screens around the world, in case you missed his meaning last time, King has gone a bit further.
In an interview tonight on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" with Bill O'Reilly, Republican King (in photo, right, above) says: "OK, he's a good singer, he's a good dancer. But why -- why is he getting all this coverage? Why has the nation stopped for Michael Jackson? That's why I said strip aside the psycho-babble. This man was a child molester."
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)announced to rousing applause at the Staples Center Jackson service Tuesday that she would be introducing a House resolution calling Jackson a "great American," an icon and someone who would be "remembered forever and ever and ever."
Lee has but one co-sponsor on the resolution, whose political fate is up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and thus uncertain. It's a prickly issue for her and the Democrats as much as they would like to hail the record-breaking musical accomplishments of a world-famous African American.
Debating such an issue in the summer of President Obama's eagerly sought healthcare reform would be a distraction and hand the GOP a publicity bonanza to unite its base and others over what is, in effect, nothing but a ceremonial piece of paper.
Pelosi could well decide it's not worth the effort and the resolution will be buried too. Only without celebrities and ceremony.
Even in Moscow, talking about nuclear weapons, the president was forced to address the Jackson service to break into the news cycle, calling Jackson a member of a long line of black entertainers who impacted American culture. "There are certain figures in our popular culture that just capture peoples' imagination," Obama said, "and in death they become even larger."
On Fox, meanwhile, King said he certainly had no regrets over his weekend statements. "I stand by everything I said, and there's absolutely nothing racist or racial in any of the words I used.”
He added: “I just think that people who are raising this issue are absolutely phony… it's wrong.”
King said what put him "over the edge" was that he'd spent the Fourth of July with firefighters, veterans and police and detected "such a resentment building up" over the nonstop public and media attention about the troubled singer's death.
O'Reilly pressed King about possibly waiting a week or two before saying such things. King said: "I would say an adult male who sleeps with young boys is a child molester.... If nothing else, he's molesting and abusing their psyche."
And he noted: "It was a real reflection on the culture of our country.... It can't be much more down than what Michael Jackson did with young boys, and yet we exulted that over the last 10 days in two weeks. It was wrong."
Then King added something that may strike a note with others: “I was saying what millions of Americans really felt." What do you feel?
So the president offered a round of interviews with American journalists, opining on nuclear weapons. Still, the journalists wanted to talk about was Michael Jackson. So Obama complied, sounding a
bit, well, rueful about having to wait out the international outpouring of
love.
With ABC's Jake Tapper, Obama joked that the only way he would get on television would be to discuss Jackson. He explained it this way: “Michael Jackson, like Elvis, like Sinatra, when somebody who’s captivated the imagination of the country for that long passes away, people pay attention and I assume at some point people will start focusing again on things like nuclear weapons.”
Asked by NBC's Chuck Todd about the Rev. Al Sharpton's assertion that Jackson, whose popularity crossed racial lines, paved the way for mainstream acceptance of top-name African American talents like Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods and himself, Obama said:
And seeking to explain the international fascination for Jackson that was robbing the White House of its usual dominance on the international stage, Obama told CBS: "There are certain figures in our popular culture that just capture peoples' imagination, and in death they become even larger. I have to admit that it's also fed by a 24/7 media that is insatiable."
At the end of its interview with the president, as if to confirm Obama's instincts, CBS urged readers to click on a link "for complete coverage of Michael Jackson's death and today's memorial."
Well, it's finally over. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled 5-0 today that Democrat Al Franken won the more than 2.9-million vote Senate election there by a landslide 312 votes.
Hours later Republican incumbent Norm Coleman conceded defeat to the former comedian. Coleman said he "will abide by its results" and "now congratulate Al Franken and his victory in this election."
Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has indicated he will sign the official election certificate according to the state's top court decision.
Now, Coleman, the former mayor of St. Paul, can decide on his rumored run to replace Pawlenty in the governor's office next year, while Pawlenty ponders a presidential run in 2012.
Besides bringing an often-blue sense of humor to one of the world's most exclusive clubs, Franken will be the 60th Democratic vote out of 100, preventing the possibility of any Republican filibuster if GOP members could ever agree on such a thing.
And providing that the recent Republican turncoat Arlen Spectervotes with his new-found Democratic BFFs, which he's warned he won't always do. Which explains Rep. Joe Sestak's developing primary challenge back home in Pennsylvania.
And providing that 91-year-old West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd keeps surviving his frequent hospitalizations. As reported by renowned Byrd expert Don Surber here, the longest-serving senator ever was released most recently today after recovering from a staph infection contracted while he was fighting a minor infection..
Texas Sen. John Cornyn,chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said: "I would like to commend both Norm Coleman and Al Franken on a hard-fought campaign. In particular, I would like to be among the first to welcome Al Franken to the United States Senate."
Well, here we go again on theBarack Obama birth certificate controversy that just won't die because it's one of those zombie issues like who really killed JFK.
No less an authority on politics, history and government archives than thePat Boone is now raising serious questions about the legitimacy of the entire Obama administration and everything it has done since those 21 guns went off shortly after noon on Jan. 20.
This is because a lot of people, including firebrand conservative Alan Keyes (as The Ticket described here in February) and now Boone, insist or suggest or imply that Obama cannot be president of these United States because they insist, suggest or imply he wasn't really born in Hawaii but was actually born in Kenya, his father's homeland.
(Helpful Ticket Political Reminder: Obama thoroughly thumped Keyes, a last-minute hopeless fill-in GOP candidate, in his initial 2004 U.S. Senate run in Illinois. So there may be a lingering issue there in the mind of Keyes, wherever that is.)
Now, none of this should actually matter because Obama's mother was an American, if you consider Kansas America. So she could have been on Mars when wee Barry emerged and he'd still be American. All the courts have consistently thrown out challenges to the first African American president's legality. And Obama's spending, golfing and official POTUS Air Force One jacket sure don't indicate he's got any doubts about his legitimacy.
Anyway, the latest development is that Pat Boone, in an article headlined "Mr Obama, Show Us Your Birth Certificate," goes on a long while about the hassle of non-terrorists trying to board commercial American flights nowadays. Which is so true, isn't it?
It's gotten so bad, Pat reports, that he's actually turned down some gigs just to avoid the airport hassle. Which must be a nice position to be in, even with the hassle.
Pat -- we call him that because we've never met -- questions the validity of the certificate of live birth published on The Ticket. He raises dramatic fears about what will happen if years down the road Obama is actually proven to be legally barred from holding the Oval Office as is, say, California's Austrian-born Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But then PB gets to his main point:
If I have to produce my passport, my driver’s license, my birth certificate, for things like leaving the country and returning, buying and selling and leasing and renting — all the things ordinary citizens are required to do all the time — why then, in the name of decency and equality, and, in the “open” and “transparent” approach to government Obama promised, should our elected leader not do the same?
Now, some might say, who is this Pat Boone to question the legitimacy of the president of the United States? Well, he's a lifelong conservative who had a very nice voice and made so many popular hits for your parents that for many years he was second only to a singer who died of drug issues (that would be Elvis).
Pat's qualifications also include popularizing the wearing of white suede shoes about a century or so ago, even though such foot gear is impossible to keep unscuffed for more than 27 seconds..
Pat says Obama is dismantling America’s free markets, taxing the higher-earning middle class into despondency, spending and taxing the nation into bankruptcy, imposing socialistic, government-run healthcare, seriously weakening our military and encouraging our enemies and enacting crippling and fraudulent “global warming” laws, among other nefarious things.
And, he asks, what if "he wasn’t even legally entitled to be president at all. Yes, it is important, crucially and everlastingly important. America’s very future depends on the defense of, and obedience to, our basic constitutional laws."
So while it seems unlikely Pat will be invited to perform at the next White House lesbian gay pride celebration, this birth certificate thing doesn't seem to be going away as quickly as white suede shoes.
Sort of dueling autopsies on opposite sides of the country today: One case in LA possibly involving OxyContin and that famous singer what's-his-name, who died at 50 last week, and the other in Tampa involving OxiClean spokesman Billy Mays, who also died at 50. Hmmm.
And we affectionately celebrated his big presence and big voice and big heart. Turns out today's autopsy results indicate it was that big heart that gave out.
The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner reports the exuberant TV pitchman died quietly in his sleep from hypertensive heart disease -- the left ventricle was enlarged, a key symptom.
The M.E. also said there was no evidence of head trauma. So the heart rate of U.S. Airways lawyers' is slowing down now. During a rough landing Saturday, something fell out of an overhead bin and hit Mays on the head, raising speculation of one of those silent brain injuries without symptoms that claimed Natasha Richardson after a skiing accident left her feeling fine for several hours.
The stocky Mays was taking painkillers for a bad hip, but the M.E. found the dosage was appropriate.
OK, here's the connection. Politicians sell stuff. So did Billy Mays. Like it or lump it.
Regular Ticket readers will already know we love Billy Mays. (And not just because he was a reader.) He died today. Almost 51. Only the latest of numerous recent celebrities to depart -- Ed McMahon, Farrah, MJ, Natasha Richardson, who felt fine after bumping her head skiing. No doubt others. (And we've got a special Billy video tribute below too.)
Billy had a really rough landing on a commercial flight back home to Tampa yesterday. He said he felt fine after being hit on the head by something falling. Then, wasn't feeling well last night. No one knows yet what happened to one of the world's most famous, most successful pitchmen, straight out of the original Atlantic City Boardwalk School of Salesmanship.
Billy was the American insomniac's best friend. Always there late at night or early in the morning. Always happy to see you. Giving you that old thumbs-up sign of Mays approval. Always selling something terrifically wonderful, so much so that even folks with graduate degrees found themselves grabbing their credit card and reaching for the phone to beat that phony "Next 10 minutes" deadline.
In fact, he didn't put insomniacs to sleep. How could anyone sleep around Billy's obviously genuine enthusiasm and energy? He just kept us -- that is, our friends -- company while we -- they -- worked through the long night or waited for dawn to arrive.
He was no doubt sound asleep himself somewhere else. But through the magic of video Billy was right there in our living rooms showing us a mop that could not only clean all pet hairs off the floor but probably off the dog too.
Here's the deal: Billy was real. He would only sell products that passed his test, that worked and that he himself used at home. He even handed out samples to guests.
You don't see that much elsewhere in American society today, especially in politicians. For instance, if Billy was, say, president and trying to sell us all on a massive national public education reform program costing billions of dollars, you just know he'd have his kids in those very same public schools, not off safely in some fancy private place.
If Billy set his mind to closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, he was so good at selling that he'd have towns clamoring to take not just one, not just two, but three suspected terrorists for local incarceration. Count on it.
And his Oval Office desk wouldn't be all bare, shiny and sterile for bill signings. It'd be covered with his favorite programs/products to get them some TV time.
But there's more to Billy: You really believed him. If he'd been in politics, he could sell fiscal responsibility to a Democrat. He'd have those stubborn deficit stains outta there in just five minutes or less. Five!
Get Billy selling cars and you don't need the government to own GM. If he'd been one of the country's 1,417 surviving Republicans today -- well, he'd have to lose the black beard first -- but if he'd been a Republican, he could -- what? -- well, maybe sell party members on stopping the internal knife fights.
Anyway, another special thing about Billy Mays that is also rare among today's U.S. politicians: He could genuinely make fun of himself. Not with some obviously made-up line about his kid taking him down a notch. Har-har-har.
But by joking about his own distinctive gung-ho style. Pointing the finger directly at himself, not someone else pointing at him. Real genuine self-deprecation, which they must not teach in Campaign School anymore.
That's why, as a special bonus for Ticket readers today ONLY, we're adding this wonderful video below. The real Billy Mays mocking the real Billy Mays, captured on tape ordering at a McDonald's drive-thru in his very own inimitable late-night TV style. No extra charge.
Enjoy.
And may God bless our Billy up on the Ultimate Boardwalk.
Here’s something we hadn’t planned on contemplating: Karl Rove, the early years.
But that’s what comes to mind reading about a new production of a political morality play, “Farragut North,” which just opened a run at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.
In his review today, our colleague Charles McNulty describes the play by Beau Willimon as an “engaging drama about the dirty tricks and brutal back stabbing of those conducting the spin war for aspiring presidents.” McNulty says the play has the ring of truth, observing that the playwright once worked for Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York and former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont. (We wonder if the play features a character who screams.)
Central to the play, McNulty writes, is its “attractively malign central character,” Stephen Bellamy, a 25-year-old press secretary for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Except for the Democratic part, this brings us to Rove. “Imagine Karl Rove as a fit, chicly dressed media strategist for the other side and you have some idea of the nature of this latest boy genius,” McNulty writes.
Bellamy is played by Chris Pine, who this year boldly went where William Shatner had gone before. Pine plays a young Capt. James T. Kirk in the latest movie incarnation of "Star Trek."
In a review of a New York production of the play last fall (yes, election season), the New York Times’ Ben Brantley had this to say about the Bellamy character (played by John Gallagher Jr.):
When Stephen is smooth-talking a reporter or a potential sexual conquest, like an ambitious 19-year-old intern named Molly...he sounds absolutely authentic. It’s when he is forced to speak from the heart, in anguished apology, that he sounds robotic. Spontaneity has become a foreign language.
Sounds like required viewing for pols everywhere. Even if you can’t see the play or find a copy -- we couldn't when we looked this morning -- the reviews by McNulty and Brantley still make for thought-provoking reading. Click here for McNulty, here for Brantley and here if you want more on Pine.
Sometimes it seems Wolf Blitzer has interviewed pretty much every single person on the planet by now on CNN's "The Situation Room." Fact is, Wolfie is literally a stand-up interviewer and a real pro, even with people you don't know, because Wolf, it seems, knows everybody.
Newswise, everything is gonna be Michael Jackson-Farah Fawcett here for a while, which is a godsend for Gov. Mark Sanford while his meds take effect and VP Joe Biden can finally have his time-consuming private meetings, well, in private.
But it also means folks might overlook Wolf's incredible or incredulous chat today with Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri.
Now who, most people might ask, is MHG? Another nobody CNN scooped off the streets of Washington by CNN bookers to comment on something we didn't know we needed to know about? Well, no. He's the ambassador of Iran to Mexico.
Clearly, MHG was authorized by the Big Bearded Boys back home to say what he said here about the now globally iconic Neda Agha-Soltan, who in her vivid videotaped death has become a part of even American politics.
And MHG chose to speak in Persian so he would not make any career-ending -- or worse -- mistranslations. (NB: Eyewitnesses have said Neda was shot in the chest.)
So here it is, as The Ticket often does, in his own words:
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we're anxious to hear your government's response to all of these developments which have been very dramatic over the past two weeks.
A key question many people around the world are asking is, why did your security forces kill that 26-year-old beautiful student named Nada?
MOHAMMAD HASSAN GHADIRI, IRANIAN AMBASSADOR TO MEXICO: I prefer to answer this in Persian.
BLITZER: Go ahead.
GHADIRI (through interpreter): This death of Ms. Nada is very suspicious. She was shot from behind. The location was where there was not much demonstration, there was no police presence and the gun that shot and killed her was a smuggled gun. It was not a government-issued gun.
BLITZER: There have been others, though, that have been killed, as well.
GHADIRI (through interpreter): In our view, this would be the work of those who wanted to put more fuel to the flame against the government.
I'll tell you what Mr. [Giulio] Andreotti, who was an Italian politician who was the prime minister of Italy. Mr. Andreotti was talking about a terrorist group, the Gladiators, and CIA had found that. And therefore, the United States was for the Communists to come to power during the election. That's why they would terror-assassinate anti-Communist people and politicians and they would blame the Communists for that.
It's natural that the public opinion may believe that assassinated person like that was . . .
Following is a statement issued minutes ago by the office of California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggerregarding the death of pop star Michael Jackson:
“Today, the world has lost one of the most influential and iconic figures in the music industry. From his performances with the Jackson 5, to the premiere of the ‘moonwalk’ and ‘Thriller,’ Michael was a pop phenomenon who never stopped pushing the envelope of creativity.
"Though there were serious questions about his personal life, Michael was undoubtedly a great entertainer and his popularity spanned generations and the globe. Maria and I join all Californians in expressing our shock and sadness over his death and our hearts go out the Jackson family, Michael’s children and to his fans worldwide.”
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Our Bloggers
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the Countdown to Crawford blog here at The Times.
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