Gene Maddaus: January 2010 Archives

Rep. Jane Harman continued her barnstorming tour of the nation's cable news green rooms this morning, appearing with Gretchen Carlson on Fox & Friends:

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is applauding the head of the Russian space agency for advocating a mission to deflect the asteroid Apophis, which is expected to pass close to Earth in 2029 and 2036.

In an interview on Russian radio last week, Anatoly Perminov said:

"People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow us to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people."

Apophis first came to public attention in 2004, when it was estimated to have a 2.7 percent chance of colliding with Earth in 2029. Such an impact would, indeed, be devastating -- 100,000 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb.

But subsequent observations have shown that Apophis will pass harmlessly by in 2029. Scientists continue to track the asteroid because there is an extremely small chance -- 1 in 250,000 -- that it could hit Earth in 2036.

Rohrabacher, who has been warning of the dangers of an asteroid strike for some time, was heartened to hear of Perminov's interest in the subject. On Tuesday, he wrote a letter to the Russian bureaucrat:

"I want to congratulate you for taking the initiative on a very important challenge to mankind. I agree that a mission deflecting the Asteroid Apophis, which will come shockingly close to Earth in the coming decades, is critical for all people on the planet. You can count on me to try to make this a joint project with the United States."

Rohrabacher, that old cold warrior, goes on to invite Perminov to tour JPL in Pasadena with him.

Who has the movie rights to this?

Over at The Corner, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton has credited Rep. Jane Harman with swaying the administration's policy on Yemen:

"The president was faced with a revolt from the Left," says Bolton. "Jane Harman, Dianne Feinstein, and Joe Lieberman were all pressuring him. Stopping the transfers was really the only choice he had. The bigger problem here is that he still doesn't realize that closing Gitmo is a mistake."

Of those three, only Lieberman is saying that closing Gitmo is a mistake. Feinstein and Harman have each sponsored legislation calling for the closure of Guantanamo.

Over the weekend, Rep. Jane Harman advocated that the administration hold off on transferring any more Guantanamo Bay detainees to Yemen. President Obama just announced that he is suspending the transfer of detainees to that country.

Rep. Jane Harman will be on CNN momentarily, but for now content yourselves with her appearance today on Andrea Mitchell's show on MSNBC:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE: Harman was just on "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, and got into a bit of an argument with Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., over whether the Guantanamo Bay prison ought to be closed. Hoekstra has taken some heat for sending out a fundraising letter that cited the Christmas Day attack, and at one point Harman held up his letter and quoted from it. Good partisan theater, for those who are into that kind of thing.

The Bakersfield Californian is the hometown paper of Democratic Sen. Dean Florez, who is running for lieutenant governor. In a story on Friday, the paper examined whether he has a chance against L.A. Councilwoman Janice Hahn:

In a nutshell, pundits say, no.

First there's the "near-impossibility" of a Central Valley resident building the name ID and fundraising base needed to take statewide office, said Vic Pollard, The Californian's former Sacramento bureau chief.

Then there's his most formidable primary opponent so far, Pollard said, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

She's a member of one of the best-known political families in Southern California. Hahn's father, Kenneth Hahn, was a legendary Los Angeles County supervisor while her brother James Hahn was L.A. mayor from 2001-2005.

There are a lot of voters and lots of money in Southern California, Pollard said.

"I would not be surprised if (Florez) drops out, unless he's got a longer-term goal in mind that would not be jeopardized by a loss for lieutenant governor," Pollard said.

Appearing on "This Week" today, Rep. Jane Harman said that the administration ought to hold off on repatriating Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay:

I believe the prison should close, but I also believe we should review again where we're going to send the detainees. I think it is a bad time to send the 90 or so Yemenis back to Yemen.

Watch the video here.