Syrian President Bashar Assad sat down for an interview in Damascus on Wednesday with Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Fox News’ Greg Palkot. When asked by Kucinich whether or not he had chemical weapons, he responded “it’s not a secret anymore” and said his government will follow the agreement reached between the U.S. and Russia to turn over his chemical weapons.
The human resources department at Fox News has certainly been busy the last few weeks. After dumping former Bill Clinton campaign manager-cum-conservative blowhard Dick Morris and Real Housewife of Wasilla Sarah Palin, Fox has signed on a slate of brand new contributors to wax political on the news of the day. Let's get to know them.
This should go well. Wednesday afternoon, Fox News announced they'd hired Dennis Kucinich as their newest contributor. Kucinich is a two-time presidential candidate and former Democratic congressman from Ohio best known for his strong anti-war views. He's also known as the guy who sued the congressional cafeteria over an olive.
Buried in the rubble of Muammar Qaddafi's Tripoli compound is a sheaf of documents indicating that David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs under the Bush Administration who now works for infrastructure giant Bechtel, was providing urgent and detailed advice to the Qaddafi regime as the NATO bombs fell.
Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich acquired plenty of attention this week when he floated the idea that President Obama committed an "impeachable offense" by starting a war in Libya without congressional authorization last week, before flying to Brazil for a few days. Where in the Constitution, Kucinich asked, does it allow the president to jaunt off to Rio without even inviting Dennis Kucinich? And what about the "starting a war without telling anyone" thing, too?
Congressman Dennis Kucinich bought a sandwich from the Longworth House Office Building cafeteria in April 2008, and bit into it only to find an unpitted olive that cracked a tooth. This month, he sued the cafeteria for selling "dangerous" sandwiches.
Actor (and Michael Bloomberg supporter) Matt Damon turns 39 today. Soon-Yi Previn, or Mrs. Woody Allen, is turning 39, too. Chevy Chase is 66. Rev. Jesse Jackson is turning 68. Sigourney Weaver turns 60. Former presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich is turning 63. Director Ed Zwick is 57. Children's author R.L. Stine is turning 66. Netflix founder Reed Hastings is 49. Comic book writer Harvey Pekar turns 70. Nick Cannon is 29. Jeremy Davies is 40. And actor Paul Hogan of Crocodile Dundee fame turns 70.
• A half-dozen bidders have emerged for AIG's asset management unit, although efforts to sell it have been "complicated," not surprisingly. [WSJ]
• Congressman Dennis Kucinich has asked the SEC to determine if Bank of America violated the law by not disclosing Merrill Lynch's bonus plan. [DB]
• GM is speeding up preparations for a possible bankruptcy filing. [BN]
• Quadrangle Group has halted fundraising for its next fund. [Crains]
• The Tokyo office of Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity has been closed. [DB]
• RBS may eliminate an additional 9,000 jobs. [BN]
• It's never been a better time for a hostile takeover. [NYP]
• What's Hank Paulson doing with his money these days? He's backing his son's effort to bring Major League Soccer to Portland, Oregon, that's what. [BN]
The $700 billion bailout that leaders of Congress ran out in the middle of the night to shout about, maybe isn't happening after all. Dealbreaker reports that Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich is now telling the press that the bailout plan just doesn't have the votes to get through Congress. "I will tell you right now I don't know if they have votes...If the votes were there, this would be on the floor [...] None of this has been subject to a critical analysis. We haven't had access to the books to the people who are claiming they are going broke. They rushed this Congress into the Iraq resolution and look what happened. Catastrophe for this nation as well as for the people of Iraq." After the jump, video of Kucinich blowing his lid over the proposal on the House floor this afternoon.
MSNBC's appeal to block Nevada courts from forcing them to include magical elfin candidate Dennis Kucinich in tonight's debate is going before the Supreme Court right now! But we have no idea what network to turn to for coverage, as no one wants to report a story about the UFO-riding leprechaun with the only consistent voting record on the war. [Media Mob]
Update: The ladies of The View side with Dennis. Even Elisabeth! [NYT (last graf)]
The online news-voting site Digg has added a page tracking the Democratic and Republican candidates for president. Digg's a virtual unknown inside the Beltway, so the page's geek-skewed results aren't a true barometer of candidate popularity. They're more a gimmick by Digg founders Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose to guilt candidates into participating on their site. Predictably, the Internet's unlikely favorites lead: Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel on the Democratic side, Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee on the Republican side. You can view the candidates' favorite Digg stories — or rather, some anonymous campaign staffers' favorite stories. The lone holdout among candidates with a real shot at the nomination? Hillary Clinton. Her lack of participation shows she understands the true value of Web 2.0 in today's presidential election: none. An image of the current "Digg the President" leaders after the jump.
