The midweek edition of the Morning Jolt looks at The Atlantic’s troublesome new advertiser, how the media chooses to cover the NRA, and then this development, sapping a confirmation fight of some of its drama . . .
Chuck Schumer Saves Chuck Hagel
With Chuck Schumer on board, you can probably expect “Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel” to become reality in the near future.
Jen Rubin: “It is no mystery what happened. As I reported this morning, the letter from Chuck Hagel to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) trying to pretty up his record was so haphazardly done and so poorly received that the White House had to do something. So the Hagel handlers prevailed upon Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) not to wait to voice a view informed by the confirmation hearings as he previously said he would do, but to rush forth with a partial nod after a meeting with Hagel. He didn’t say how Hagel cleared up his record or what he possibly could have done to explain such slurs as his declaration he is not the senator for Israel. But Schumer feels better, he now tells us.”
ADDENDA: Syrian government forces may have used chemical weapons on December 23 . . .
If you didn’t see it yesterday, I had the first interview with former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, now that he’s officially running for the U.S. House of Representatives…
Finally, the Galactic Empire issues a press release in response to yesterday’s news that the Obama administration will not build a Death Star, despite 34,435 people signing an official White House petition calling for the massive construction project.
IMPERIAL CENTER, CORUSCANT — The overwhelming military superiority of the Galactic Empire has been confirmed once again by the recent announcement by the President of the United States that his nation would not attempt to build a Death Star, despite the bellicose demands of the people of his tiny, aggressive planet. “It is doubtless that such a technological terror in the hands of so primitive a world would be used to upset the peace and sanctity of the citizens of the Galactic Empire,“ said Governor Wilhuff Tarkin of the Outer Rim Territories. “Such destructive power can only be wielded to protect and defend by so enlightened a leader as Emperor Palpatine.”