• The movement is maturing. The rallies were good for last year, because that’s what we could do last year. This year we have to change things. We have got to win.
• Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips • Regarding his organization’s goals (along with the overall movement’s goals) for 2010, which they tried to push at this weekend’s convention in Nashville. They want a conservative congress in 2010 and a conservative president in 2012. Problem is, the movement doesn’t really have a leader and kinda shares disdain for Republicans and Democrats. “This movement doesn’t need a leader,” said Anthony Shreeve of the Tennessee Tea Party Coalition. “It’s a ‘We the People’ movement.” Too bad he undercut his point by protesting the convention outside. Get organized, kids. source

• It’s not just stopping abortions. Tebow wants to convert people, like his father does in Muslim areas of the Philippines. Until now, he’s been subtle in his outreach.
• Slate sports columnist Jason Fagone • Regarding the soon-to-be-infamous Super Bowl commercial he’s doing with Focus on the Family, where he talks about his mom not getting an abortion. What one probably doesn’t know from his time with the Florida Gators is that he comes from an ultraconservative background and his dad is a missionary. In the past, he’s referred to himself as a “missionary who plays football.” He wears bible verses on his face, for chrissakes! So, in other words, it’s quite likely that the dude is going to follow his dad’s footsteps, whether he’s a Ryan Leaf or a Peyton Manning in the NFL. source

• the left The conservative media is sticking behind the gonzo journalist despite the alleged breaking into Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office. Also, sources like Fox News barely covered the story, in comparison to the much-hyped ACORN videos. source
• the right The U.S. Attorney who was spearheading the criminal case against O’Keefe just stepped down. Also, O’Keefe sat in jail for 28 hours without an lawyer. Andrew Breitbart says it was to spin the case as a “Watergate Junior.” source

• On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building.
• “Gonzo” conservative journalist James O’Keefe • Regarding that whole arrest thing that happened earlier this week. His claim? “The government has now confirmed what has always been clear: No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office.” Who said this? Who? Anyway, O’Keefe and his three cohorts could face up to ten years in prison for maliciously interfering with a telephone system operated and controlled by the U.S. government. They claim they were just trying to shoot funny, embarrassing videos. Sure. source

• Too often, conservative sites have failed to distinguish between solid scoops and feverish conspiracy theories, between methodical reporting and harassment, thereby damaging their credibility.
• Daily Beast columnist Benjamin Sarlin • Regarding the James O’Keefe arrest in the grander scheme of things. Which is to say that many conservative Web sites excel at opinion but completely fail at credible reporting. O’Keefe’s take on gonzo journalism is interesting, but definitely not ethical. And other conservative Web icons – including Powerline (which broke the Rathergate saga) and Michelle Malkin – have had shining moments but inconsistent results. BigGovernment.com, which paid O’Keefe, may now be headed down that road. Sarlin gives credit to Tucker Carlson of the just-launched Daily Caller for trying to raise the standards to the likes of The Huffington Post. Will it work? We’ll see. source

• He can now be mentioned in the same sentence as Watergate! James O’Keefe, the conservative activist previously best-known for destroying ACORN’s dignity (and working for BigGovernment.com), was arrested for trying to break into Sen. Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office, along with three others. They were pretending to work with the phone company, which is some serious LOLz and a lot less creative than the pimp/ho getup they used with ACORN. A lot of people have felt schadenfreude in reaction to all this, not the least of which ACORN itself. We just think it’s proof that Tom Green-style tactics like this don’t work in politics. source

• Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is an important case. This may be one of the most important cases that we see in our lifetimes, because it’ll have a direct effect on who gets elected, what laws get passed, and who can say what during an election. It’s such an important case that the dissenting opinion is as important as the decision itself. So, here goes.

The case at hand:

• It was about a movie that trashed Hillary Clinton. The producers of “Hillary the Movie,” which was designed by a highly-funded conservative nonprofit political organization to smear the then-presidential candidate, wanted to show the film during the 2008 primaries, but couldn’t because of campaign finance laws (most notably, one passed by John McCain and Russ Feingold back in 2002). Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission had a narrow scope, and dealt with a small part of campaign finance law.

Key points in campaign finance reform:

• 1971 The Federal Election Campaign Act passes, requiring campaigns to report hard-money contributors to their campaigns, but leaving the door for “soft money” contributions wide open.
• 1990 Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce was decided by the Supreme Court, a key decision which upheld the longstanding restriction on corporate speech that could influence elections.
• 2002 The McCain-Feingold Act passed, which limited so-called “soft money” contributions and limited the broadcast of corporate and non-profit political messages near elections, passes.

Main points of the majority opinion:

• Chilling political speech Anthony Kennedy’s opinion argues that the “speech that is central to the meaning and purpose of the First Amendment” is getting frozen with current campaign finance laws, despite their good intentions.
• Broad, not narrow Instead of focusing on the narrow view of Citizens United, the court decided to widely interpret the law, rendering nearly 100 years of campaign finance laws and judicial rulings useless.
• Corporate ad crazy The court decided to overturn some of the most important elements of Austin and McCain-Feingold, so now we can be barraged with annoying political ads all the way up to election day!

Why John Paul Stevens is awesome:

• 89the age of John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court’s oldest justice and also its most liberal
• 90 number of pages of pure, unadulterated dissent from Johnny boy; not bad bro source

The main point of his (mostly) dissenting opinion:

• The Court’s ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation. The path it has taken to reach its outcome will, I fear, do damage to this institution.
• John Paul Stevens • In his lengthy, massive dissenting opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, probably the most dramatic decision the court has made in at least a decade, due to the impact it has on the electoral process. He apologizes for the length for the document before leaping in. But he really had to. This thing is huge – it’s nearly twice the size of the opinion it refutes. source

What does all this mean for you, ShortFormBlog fan?

• one Corporate influence is once again going to be a major factor in political campaigns. And they won’t have any limits on their speech.
• two You’re going see more ads on TV in the days leading up to major elections. The ads could be from corporations or nonprofits.
• three If Fred Thompson runs for president again, TNT can air repeats of his episodes of “Law and Order” all the way up until election day. source

• Today’s a big day for ideological parity. Five years after Arianna Huffington launched “The Huffington Post,” Tucker Carlson‘s got his own toy, “The Daily Caller.” And we want to see it succeed, because we like Tucker (even when we dispute his politics). That said, bro, we have a few thoughts for you as you go forward. Let us know what you think.

• The design = meh We think that The Daily Caller has a lot of potential, but the font usage – Arial for the logo and typography, and the usage of Hobo here – leaves a lot to be desired. HuffPo’s design isn’t great either, but at least her serifs don’t anger the natives.
• We like S.E. Cupp In terms of conservative columnists, we’d pick Cupp any day of the week over Ann Coulter. More acerbic, but in the right ways. More fun, too. We’ll probably disagree with her, too, but she doesn’t make us want to destroy things like Coulter.
• Ideological smarts OK, we don’t buy the whole “conservative response to HuffPo” thing, but we do like the fact that you clearly aren’t afraid to show your biases. We need our journalism to be ideologically honest. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s definitely a good start.

• 40% of people identify themselves as conservative
• 36% call themselves moderates and other bad words
• 21% say they’re really freaking liberal and don’t think it’s a bad word source