Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman challenges Obama to let her play in his all-guys basketball games

Nancy Lieberman, a Basketball Hall of Fame member, is calling the president out.

Barack Obama, who's noted that he's surrounded by females with his wife, two daughters and mother-in-law living with him, loves his basketball with male pals.

The president has had some recent basketball games on the White House basketball court  -- guys only. Mainly congressional guys.

Last Sunday for the first time as president he allowed a female to join his regular golfing foursome.

And that fraternity-like atmosphere has caused some gender grumbling.

Now, in a "frank" open letter to the Democrat chief executive today on More.com, Lieberman challenges Obama to some hoops mano a mana, so to speak.

She says:

Some women are saying you need a time-out. Your men-only basketball games have been scrutinized — and criticized for consistently leaving women out.

Your defenders call that charge ridiculous, saying everyone knows that women can play golf with men, but not basketball...which of course only annoys women more.

Well, I have a solution. To score some real points with the public, stop arguing and just play ball — with the best. Shoot some hoops with yours truly.

Lieberman, an Olympic gold medalist at 18, WNBA veteran and ESPN analyst, even signed a short-term contract to play as a pro at age 50. 

Her good-natured but firm letter says she'd like to help him bring change to the country. "It's what I've done my whole life as a woman in sports," she writes.

"It's always good for sports when new barriers are broken," she adds.

And Lieberman promises:

If invited to play at the White House, I solemnly vow to protect, preserve and defend the basketball until my team wins.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of three-pointers: Full gender equity over here. Anyone can get good political stories by clicking here for Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us   @latimestot  And we are also now on Facebook over here.

Photos: Associated Press; ESPN.

Citing thousands of hate crimes against gays, Obama signs, celebrates new law

Eleven years after a pair of notorious hate crimes -- one against an African American in Texas, the other against a gay man in Wyoming -- President Obama signed legislation today that included expanded federal protections.

The measure was actually part of a defense appropriations bill, but it was the hate crimes part that prompted a celebratory reception in the East Room of the White House this evening.

"After more than a decade of opposition and delay," Obama said, "we've passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are."

The opposition to the new measure came from those who said new federal coverage was unnecessary, that sufficient protections at both state and federal levels already exist. They pointed out that the perpetrators in the two fatal 1998 crimes were convicted under current state laws.

First Lady Michelle Obama was absent from tonight's reception, attending the first game of the Phillies-Yankees World Series in New York.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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President Obama's remarks at White House reception to mark signing of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, as provided by his office:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you so much, and welcome to the White House. 

There are several people here that I want to just make mention of because they helped to make today possible.  We've got Attorney General Eric Holder.  (Applause.)  A champion of this legislation, and....

Could drop in black turnout cost Democrats the House?

In next month's gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia -- widely seen as a referendum on the Democrats running the White House and Congress -- one constituency may stay home.

African American voters, crucial to Barack Obama's success in those two states in last year's presidential races, are telling pollsters they don't plan to vote in the off-year elections. In a recent poll in Virginia, the Washington Post found that while African Americans made up 20% of the electorate last year, just 12% are expected to show up this year. 

The poll also suggested a wider problem for Dems -- many white voters who helped lift Obama to the White House last year may also stay home. Call it a backlash against Washington's policies on the economy, healthcare and Wall Street, a massive infusion of government spending that has still left unemployment rates soaring.

But it's the disaffection among black voters -- perhaps a natural falloff from the high turnout levels they posted during the historic election of the first African American president -- that is drawing attention from analysts. Some think it could cost Democrats control of the House in 2010.

“If what looks like is going to happen in Virginia plays out on a national level, I do think Democrats will lose the House,” Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling told The Hill newspaper. In a recent column, he predicted that in a number of Southern congressional districts "Democrats are going to have a world of trouble ... if black voters aren't engaged to a greater extent than what the Post is finding in Virginia."

David Bositis, an expert on black turnout at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, told The Hill that he doubts Virginia will be a bellwether on the 2010 elections, because results will likely turn on the individual candidates and their outreach to black voters.

"It’s going to be a stretch to say that what happens in Virginia will, in any way, be telling about next year,” he said. “But it definitely is something they are going to be concerned about in terms of 2010.”

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo: Holly Jackson and 6-month-old daughter, Hollin, and her '"Vote" sticker at a Colorado Obama rally in November 2008. Credit: Ed Andrieski / Associated Press.

Hillary Clinton rules out run for presidency -- is she actually happy in her work?

For years, even decades, she was the feminist emblem of ambition, a political figure whose smarts, work ethic and connections (largely through her husband, political rock star Bill Clinton) marked her for historic firsts.

And she has certainly piled them on -- the first former first lady to become a U.S. senator, the first female candidate with a serious shot at the presidency.

But now, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insists that she is not planning to run for president again. Ever.

Asked about a future bid during an interview on NBC's "Today" program, Clinton laughed. ''No,'' she said. ''No, I mean, this is a great job. It is a 24/7 job, and I'm looking forward to retirement at some point.''

It is tempting for some to cling to hope, and their Hillary for President buttons. But most commentators see in the statement a glimmer of inner peace, as if Barack Obama's former rival for the presidency has actually found contentment in her role as the chief diplomat in his administration.

"It’s as if she has checked out of that tiresome phallic competition and acknowledged what’s different — and valuable — about her own female nature, wrote one of her biggest fans, the Daily Beast's Tina Brown.

And if you listen to her words, Clinton does, as one Australian outlet put it, give "a pretty good impersonation of a person who is happy with her lot."

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Asked about reports that she's been marginalized at the State Department, she called them "absurd" and added, "Maybe there is some misunderstanding which needs to be clarified. I'm not one of these people who feels I've got to have my face in the front of the newspaper or on TV every moment of the day. Maybe that is a woman's thing. Maybe I'm totally secure and feel absolutely no need to go running around for people to see what I'm doing. It's just the way I am.''

A woman's thing? Happy in life? Not running for president again?

We take her at her word. After all, this could be the first time she's even raised the prospect of retirement.

Still, not everyone agrees. Said hotair.com: "Dude, she's totally running."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo credit: Getty Images

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Barack Obama gives a nod to same-sex couples in his Family Day proclamation

In an official proclamation this afternoon, President Obama declared today Family Day 2009.

What is significant is the way he defined "family."

The president gave a nod to the gay community when he praised all families, "whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian." (Emphasis ours.)

His shout-out to same-sex couples is sure to draw heat from some social conservatives. Interestingly, it has been met with some hostility from gay rights activists too.

One commenter on gay blogger Pam Spaulding's website called today's statement "honeyed words, easy to say."

"Mr. President," the commenter asked, "when are you going to actually DO something for same-sex couples and their children? Other than make ceremonial proclamations, that is."

Obama's proclamation has fueled an ongoing debate among gay rights activists about whether the president is living up to his promise that he would be a "fierce advocate" for LGBT equality.

Many gay rights activists greeted...

Gay marriage continues to stir campaigns in Iowa

The battle to legalize gay marriage in Iowa may be over, but the war to keep it so is just beginning.  Two supporters of same-sex marriage have gone to state authorities and filed a complaint against a group that helped outlaw same-sex marriage in California.

The issue revolves around an open state House seat and whether New Jersey-based National Organization for Marriage broke state campaign laws by spending more than $86,000 in TV ads to support the GOP candidate. The complaint against NOM, as it is known, was filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

Though he’s not part of the complaint, the whole issue relates to the campaign of Stephen Burgmeier, who wants to put the issue of same-sex marriage up for a public vote. His plans fit in with a campaign NOM has launched, dubbed the Reclaim Iowa Project, to overturn a state Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage out in the heartland.

The group’s goal is to target legislative races and help get candidates elected who want to get the issue on the ballot – and make such marriages illegal. So how big of a deal was it that ...

Republicans looking for 'great white hope' to counteract Obama? Congresswoman says she didn't mean it that way

One of the instructive (and occasionally entertaining) aspects of the presidency of Barack Obama, the nation’s first black commander in chief, has been the intermittent surfacing of traditionally submerged racial attitudes. These incidents often take form as slips of the tongue, or perhaps “jokes,” that may or may not indicate racism. But the reaction to such statements serves to remind those in the public glare that potentially offensive references to race -- whether deliberate, accidental or unconscious -- will be ruthlessly picked apart in the blogosphere. 

Especially if you are a Republican. (Macaca, anyone?)

The latest pol to receive a self-inflicted egg facial is Lynn Jenkins, a freshman Republican congresswoman from Kansas, who according to the Associated Press told a group of constituents Aug. 19 that the GOP is “struggling right now to find the great white hope.”  She added: "I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington." (Poor quality video is here. Comment is at about 50 seconds.)

The tape was -- naturally -- turned over to the Kansas Democratic Party, whose spokesman pronounced Jenkins's remark “a poor choice of words.”

Later, at another event,  Jenkins pleaded ignorance: “I was unaware of any negative connotation,” she said.  “And if I offended anybody, obviously, I apologize.”

Now, we don’t expect all of our legislators to be fans of boxing -- nor even theater or movies, for that matter. But we find it strange that an educated person such as Jenkins, who is a certified public accountant, never knew that the phrase “great white hope” is freighted with racial animus.

"Great white hope" was coined early in the last century to describe the search for a white boxer who could regain the world heavyweight boxing title from Jack Johnson, the first African American to win it.  Johnson -- and the ugly reaction of many whites to his 1908 victory -- was the subject of the 1967 play "The Great White Hope," which won a Tony for actor James Earl Jones in 1969, who also starred in the film. In 2005, PBS aired a Ken Burns documentary about Johnson, "Unforgivable Blackness."

Liberal blogger Matt Yglesias over at Think Progress believes a comment like Jenkins' should not shock anyone: "Now to be fair," he writes, "there are virtually no nonwhite Republican members of Congress, so in suggesting that the party’s future hopes rest essentially on white talent, Jenkins was arguably just stating the obvious."

Ouch.

-- Robin Abcarian

Photo: Lynn Jenkins addresses her use of "great white hope" today in Kansas. Credit: Associated Press

N.Y. Gov. Paterson blames unpopularity on his skin

New York's Democratic Gov. David Paterson has figured out why his popularity there has declined from the heady days when the lieutenant governor succeeded sex scandal-plagued fellow Democrat Eliot Spitzer.

Paterson told a radio interviewer today it's because he's black and there aren't enough black media outlets to counter the white ones. He also suggested the same racist forces will soon take after President Barack Obama.

After a period of high popularity, Paterson has fallen on hard political times in the Empire State, drawing severe criticism even from key fellow Democrats for how he's run state government and handled the state's budget problems and even for the on-again-off-again nomination of Caroline Kennedy to fill Hillary Clinton's vacant Senate seat.

Paterson's approval rating plummeted to 18% at one point, below even Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but has since crept back up to 30%. A humorous and unscientific online poll with the Daily News on this gubernatorial outburst shows 2% agree with Paterson, 1% is undecided and 97% want him out of office "because he stinks."

"My feeling is it's being orchestrated. It's a game. And people who pay attention know that," Paterson told N.Y. Daily News columnist Errol Lewis today.

According to state Sen. Kevin Parker, a fellow Democrat and African American from Brooklyn: "He's given the media more than enough to feed on with the incompetence shown in his administration."

Paterson said the goal is to force him out of an election campaign next year. Polls have shown that state Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo would annihilate Paterson in a primary struggle. On the Republican side, there's always ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press (Cuomo, left, Paterson, right).

Justice Sonia Sotomayor: 'No words can adequately express what I am feeling'

The first Latino Supreme Court justice was introduced today by the first African American president of the United States at a White House that has seen so many firsts in the last few months historians may some day marvel at the speed of change.

Both of them teared up.

At a reception in the East Room honoring Sonia Sotomayor, the newest Supreme Court justice, President Obama said, "We're here not just to celebrate our extraordinary new Supreme Court justice. We're here to celebrate an extraordinary moment for our nation…. We celebrate the greatness of a nation in which such a story is possible.''

With a host of activists, officials and relatives looking on -- including New York Gov. David Paterson, New York Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau and Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens -- Obama talked about how Sotomayor has already influenced Americans.

"It's not just about her," Obama said. "It's about every child who will grow up thinking to his or herself, 'If Sonia Sotomayor can make it, then maybe I can too.' "

But it was really the court's new, 111th justice who stole the show.

No longer in the brightly colored jackets of her confirmation hearings but dressed all in black, Sotomayor said that "no words can adequately express what I am feeling." Thanking her family and her colleagues, the president and the Senate, she said, "I am so grateful to all of you for this extraordinary opportunity."

But she gave most of the credit to America. Saying she was "struck by the wonder of my life," Sotomayor added, "I am most grateful to....

Sotomayor clears Senate committee, but gun lobby pressuring Republicans to vote no on Senate floor (Updated with video)

(Updated 9:31 a.m.: Sonia Sotomayor wins the backing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. See the 13-6 committee roll call vote on the video below. Her nomination now goes to the full Senate for a vote, possibly next week. For Californians, or those who simply like Democrat Sen. Diane Feinstein, we've also included at the bottom a video of her brief statement in support of the judge.)

When President Obama's first nomination for the Supreme Court reaches the Senate floor, probably next week, the dilemma for Republican senators will be choosing between their gun-loving constituents and their Latino ones.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is about to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor (see the excellent piece by my Ticket colleague Kate Linthicum on how to pronounce her name). Judging from their speeches so far this morning, all the committee's Republicans -- except South Carolina's Lindsey Graham -- are expected to vote no.

One reason: the National Rifle Assn. has been ratcheting up the pressure in recent days to oppose Sotomayor, calling her "hostile" to the 2nd Amendment and promising to use the confirmation vote when the powerful lobby group calculates its ratings of lawmakers' voting records. 

Four Latino congressmen -- who are considered pro-gun -- fired back. “We are concerned that your opposition will alienate Hispanic NRA members and dismayed that you may unnecessarily force some well-intentioned senators to choose between disappointing the NRA or....

... infuriating their Hispanic constituents,” wrote Reps. Joe Baca of Rialto, Solomon P. Ortiz and Silvestre Reyes of Texas and John Salazar of Colorado.

As Illinois Democrat Sen. Richard J. Durbin put it this morning, Sotomayor was only following the law in the case that inspired NRA opposition.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Videos courtesy of C-SPAN. Photo: Jason Reed / Reuters