
In Armando Iannucci's new HBO series Veep, we join Selena Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, early on in her vice presidency. She has the potential to be powerful, but after assuming office alongside her running mate (a man the show never identifies), the former senator finds herself suddenly in the backseat.
"There's something interesting about being so near but so far," Iannucci, the show's creator, said of the vice presidency. "Having been influential yourself, to think you're going one step up, but there's always that doubt that you might have taken a step down."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Long before she was frustrating her Democratic opponent Chris Coons with her allegations that he's a closet Marxist, Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell was busy aggravating celebrities on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect.
Maher dropped another O'Donnell clip on his HBO program Real Time on Friday. This one wasn't focused so much on the things O'Donnell said as it was the way guests reacted.
Amongst the celebrities featured in the clip -- many of whom O'Donnell left exasperated -- are Al Franken, Bob Saget, Ben Affleck, Danny Bonaduce, Dana Carvey, magician Penn Jillet, Jimmy Kimmel, actor Patrick Duffy (the dad on Step by Step) and Sisqó, of "Thong Song" fame. "Ah, the 90s!" jokes Maher at the end of the montage.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The Atlantic's Josh Green reports that millionaire businessman Rich Iott, the Republican nominee challenging Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D) in Ohio's Ninth District, has an unusual hobby: He likes to pretend he's a Nazi.
Iott, a tea party-backed candidate, spent time fighting another battle before he hit the campaign trail against Kaptur as a member of the 5th SS Wiking Panzer Division, a group of Ohio World War II reenactors.
According to their website, the Wikings strive to "salute" the "idealists" from occupied northern Europe who saw the Third Reich as "the protector of personal freedom and their very way of life" and signed up to fight for the Wermacht and "gave their lives for their loved ones and a basic desire to be free."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)In 1999 Christine O'Donnell told Bill Maher that she'd briefly tried Buddhism, and that she'd tried to be a Hare Krishna but couldn't take the vegetarianism.
"I was dabbling into every other kind of religion before I became a Christian," O'Donnell said on "Politically Incorrect," a July 19, 1999 clip revealed tonight on Maher's HBO show "Real Time."
Then the kicker:
I was dabbling in witchcraft, I've dabbled in Buddhism. I would have become a Hare Krishna but I didn't want to become a vegetarian. And that is honestly the reason why -- because I'm Italian, I love meatballs!PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)
Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell challenged comedian Bill Maher on evolution more than a decade ago, wondering aloud about why monkeys haven't evolved into humans.
Maher showed the brief segment from his 1990s era show "Politically Incorrect" tonight on his HBO show "Real Time." In the Oct. 15, 1998 clip which you can watch below, O'Donnell argued with Maher and his guests.
"Evolution is a myth," O'Donnell said as the others piped up incredulously. She repeated herself, then added:
Well then why aren't monkeys still evolving into humans?PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)
Eleven years ago a boisterous Christine O'Donnell confessed to Bill Maher and his ABC audience that she'd dated a witch, "dabbled into witchcraft" and even went on a midnight date involving blood on an altar.
Maher aired the Oct. 29, 1999 clip last night on the season premiere of his HBO show "Real Time." You can watch it below. Maher repeatedly called O'Donnell a "nice" person, and twice noted, "I created her!"
O'Donnell appeared on his "Politically Incorrect" nearly two dozen times, speaking about her faith and her conservative beliefs. Now she is the Republican Senate nominee in Delaware.
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Christine O'Donnell: Anti-Masturbation Crusader. Witchcraft Dabbler. Republican Senate Nominee.]
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)
Wednesday marks the anniversary of President Barack Obama's historic election, and White House staffers, campaign volunteers and supporters are reliving the moment.
Most prominent in the coming week is Tuesday's HBO debut of the "By the People" documentary, a retelling of the long campaign.
Also happening this week are reunions put together by the volunteers still active in Organizing for America, the next generation of the Obama campaign.
On a sign-up sheet for local reunion events, OFA tells supporters:
"One year ago, President-Elect Obama told us that the election victory was only the beginning of the change we all sought -- and today, through Organizing for America, we're fighting just as hard to make health insurance reform a reality, this year. But while we seek to live up to the President's words, we're planning to gather together to reconnect, celebrate, and remember that moment, last year, when we won a historic victory.PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)So this week, we're holding reunion events across the country for folks who were involved in the campaign. Can you attend one near you?"

