Tag Archives: jeffrey toobin

My Top Five Picks for Monica Lewinsky in the Next Chapter of 'American Crime Series'

Esteemed producer Ryan Murphy has secured the rights to Jeffrey Toobin’s “A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Brought Down a President.” Here’s who I think should play the infamous role. … read more

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My Top Five Picks for Monica Lewinsky in the Next Chapter of 'American Crime Series'

Lamenting Tenth Anniversary of Bush vs. Gore, CNN’s Toobin Mangles Media Recount Reality

From his perch at the liberal magazine The New Yorker on Tuesday, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin recycled his lament that the Bush-Gore 2000 chad fight should have lasted several more months. (Toobin's 2001 book Too Close to Call also carried Al Gore's water.) Toobin fights against the popular notion that liberals should get over 2000, for it revealed conservative judicial activism, most appalling to Toobin when “equal protection” is applied to white males, as if they're entitled to it. But Toobin simply gets it wrong in finding media recounts were not conclusive: Bush v. Gore would resonate, in any case, because the Court prevented Florida from determining, as best it could, whether Gore or Bush really won. (Recounts of the ballots by media organizations produced ambiguous results; they suggest that Gore would have won a full statewide recount and Bush would have won the limited recount initially sought by the Gore forces.) Wrong. As Brent Baker reminded readers in 2008 , both media recounts, including a statewide recount of undervotes, concluded the Court did not decide the election: read more

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Lamenting Tenth Anniversary of Bush vs. Gore, CNN’s Toobin Mangles Media Recount Reality

CNN’s Toobin: Judge’s Ruling a ‘Major Setback For Stem Cell Research’

On Monday’s Situation Room, CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin used dire language to describe a federal judge’s decision which struck down federal funding for embryonic stem cell research: “The bottom line is this is a major setback for stem cell research and for the Obama administration ….it will certainly cut way back on federal funding.” Anchor Suzanne Malveaux labeled it a ” potential wedge issue .” Malveaux led the 5 pm Eastern hour with the “breaking news” about Judge Royce Lamberth’s decision, who issued a preliminary injunction against federal funding for the life-destroying research. The anchor brought in Toobin and asked, “What does this mean today?” Toobin immediately gave his “major setback” assessment and described the grounds on which Judge Lamberth gave in his 15-page opinion. The CNN senior legal analyst, like many in the media, omitted that embryonic stem cell research isn’t the only field when it comes to stem cell research. The federal government has actually spent much more on adult stem cell research. According to a July 18, 2008 report by PBS , the NIH “spent $200 million funding non-embryonic stem cell research, and only $38 million on embryonic stem cells.” Less than a month ago, on August 2, the Associated Press actually highlighted the successes of adult stem cell research. Toobin used similarly dire language later in the report: “To be sure, the Obama administration will appeal this ruling to the D.C. Circuit, and it may well be overturned. This case has already been to the appeals court once. But if it stands up, it will certainly cut way back on federal funding for stem cell research .” But he also refreshingly noted that ” this is yet another battleground, broadly defined, of the abortion struggle in America, because, ultimately, that’s what stem cell research and the fight over embryos has really come down to .” Malveaux concluded the report with her “wedge issue” label of the controversial research. The full transcript of Suzanne Malveaux and Jeffrey Toobin’s segment from Monday’s Situation Room: MALVEAUX: Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research is now on hold- a U.S. District Court judge here in Washington issuing a preliminary injunction a short while ago. In the ruling, the judge says the research involves the destruction of human embryos, against the will of Congress. Now, this comes over a year after President Obama signed an executive order repealing Bush-era limits on federal tax dollars to study embryonic stem cells. Many Americans see that research as key to finding cures for spinal cord injuries, cancer, Parkinson’s- other diseases. I want to bring in our senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who is on the phone, to help us explain what this means.  Now, Jeffrey, in covering President Bush for all of those years, one of the things he was dead-set against was allowing for these federal dollars to be used for embryonic stem cell research. What he proposed was a compromise, saying- look, no more new funding- just allow the funding for 21 existing lines. President Obama reversed that, and now, we have the courts involved in this. What does this mean today? TOOBIN: Well, the bottom line is this is a major setback for stem cell research and for the Obama administration, because what the judge said was, that in 1996, while President Clinton was in office, Congress passed a law that said there could not be any use of federal money for research where embryos are destroyed. Both President Bush and President Obama worked within the framework because the president, unilaterally, can’t overturn a law. By expanding the opportunities for federal funding of research, as President Obama did shortly after he was elected, Judge Royce Lamberth, the judge in Washington, today said he- President Obama- violated that 1996 law. He tried to basically say that that law didn’t count any more, and the president can’t unilaterally overturn an act of Congress, and that’s why the judge suspended the Obama rule today. MALVEAUX: So, Jeff, what does this mean, in terms of projects that have already been funded? Do they continue, or do they stop, or does this mean that there’s just not additional funding for new projects? How does this work today? TOOBIN: Well, as usual, those questions will mean more work for lawyers, because Judge Lamberth’s 15-page opinion does not really deal with all the details of how this will play out in the real world. To be sure, the Obama administration will appeal this ruling to the D.C. Circuit, and it may well be overturned. This case has already been to the appeals court once. But if it stands up, it will certainly cut way back on federal funding for stem cell research, and it is not clear, from Judge Lamberth’s order, what happens to those projects that are under way as we speak. MALVEAUX: And Jeff, just real quick here, what is the next step in the legal process? Where does this go? TOOBIN: Well, the Obama administration, I assume, will go D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and ask for a stay of this ruling while it’s appealed, but the anti-abortion/pro-life forces who were behind this lawsuit, among others, will certainly oppose that, and this is yet another battleground, broadly defined, of the abortion struggle in America, because, ultimately, that’s what stem cell research and the fight over embryos has really come down to. MALVEAUX: Okay, Jeffrey Toobin, thank you so much. Again, another potential wedge issue that may weigh-in in the midterm elections- this decision coming down today, just earlier this afternoon. 

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CNN’s Toobin: Judge’s Ruling a ‘Major Setback For Stem Cell Research’

The Sexual Lives of News Anchors: A Guide

Jeff Toobin’s fetish is too-hot-to-print . Outing Anderson is a national pastime and Barbara Walters has more sex than you do. If gravitas, hairspray, and that thousand-mile teleprompter gaze are your thing, here’s your dossier for meth-smoking, anal-fisting, camera-loving news anchors . Last weekend The New York Daily News reported that CNN legal analyst Jeff Toobin’s sweet nothings were too dirty to print in a “family newspaper,” and caused one woman to say, “I couldn’t believe my ears. It was so disgusting. At the time, I never even knew people did that.” After a rousing game of “guess that fetish,” Foster thinks he figured it out —but the whole affair got us to thinking: The news anchor’s necessary embrace of confidence, narcissism, and taking oneself very, very seriously makes for the perfect storm of splashy, sordid sex fiends. And, they’re in your living room every night! Click here to view on one page . Jeff Toobin: CNN Legal Analyst Orientation: Straight, married but fascinated with swing voters Turn ons: An alleged ” anal fixation ,” propositioning strangers, the thrill of the chase. (” The woman says Toobin ‘really chased me for a while. He called me at the office and left several sick messages.’ “) Turn offs: Look out for sensitivity about the love child he had with apparent mistress Casey Greenfield (daughter of CBS News analyst’s Jeff Greenfield), whom he is now battling in family court . How to seduce: Meet Toobin at a party. Sidle up and whisper sweet nothings about your sphincters into his ear. Anderson Cooper : CNN Anchor Orientation: Glass-closet gay Turn-ons: Firemen , Benjamin Maisani’s biceps , club kids , bicycles built for two , saving humanity. Turn-offs: Admitting the obvious . How to seduce: Slide down the brass pole in his firehouse, work yourself to a lather about the plight of Haiti, then jump on a banquette with a pack of gay scenesters and begin gyrations. You’re competing with Maisani, though, so you will probably lose. Lara Logan : CBS News’ Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Orientation: Straight, prone to love triangles Turn-ons: Reporting from Baghdad, Logan ended up in a love triangle so complex, it was more like a prism : Two men—one a married State Department contractor, the other a CNN reporter—plus a bitter ex-wife freak-out, plus her own estranged husband. So I’m thinking drama, power, close proximity and dangerous geopolitical environments are Lara’s favorite things. Turn-offs: Be nice to her baby, born amid mama’s stormy sex scandal , with all kinds of media watchers breathing heavily through the third trimester. How to seduce Work your way up the ladder in an international bureau where war and terrorism run rampant. The hotties will come to you. Proffer war loot in lieu of flowers . Bill O’Reilly : Fox News Anchor, Chief Antagonizer of Liberals Orientation: Straight, bicurious for Greek cuisine, into polyamory Turn-ons: I can do no better than The Smoking Gun’s one-year falafel anniversary summary : “vibrators, phone sex, threesomes, masturbation, Caribbean shower fantasies, a Thai sex show, falafel, stewardess trysts, vehicular coupling, and Al Franken.” Wait, what about “big boobs,” oral sex, insubordinates, talking about his penis. O’Reilly’s libido: Vast as space, timeless as infinity. Turn-offs: Nothing, actually. He doesn’t even mind liberals, as long as they have vaginas. How to seduce: Billo does not get seduced. Billo seduces . And if he aims his powers of seduction at you, there is unfortunately nothing you can do, other than press charges. Richard Quest : CNN Reporter Orientation: Gay, stranger-sex-friendly Turn-ons: His 2008 Central Park meth bust revealed a passion for bondage (rope tied around his genitals), erotic asphyxiation (same rope was also around his neck, think “kinky bolio tie”), insertables (carried a dildo in his boot), all of which suggests one of those old-fashioned gay bacchanalia milieus, like they had back when Edmund White was a young, hot whippersnapper. Turn-offs: Kissing and telling. After going through rehab and making a comeback, Quest is presumably high on only life, now—and lamenting the loss of “prih-vuh-see.” (That’s British for “privacy.”) How to seduce: Tap twice in a public restroom . Pretend you don’t recognize him. Barbara Walters: Anchor, Reporter, Grand Dame of The View Orientation: Straight, thrice-married and thrice-divorced, reveling in the glory of an orgiastic youth Turn-ons: Power. This includes powerful senators , powerful economists , powerful television executives , powerful military men, powerful leaders in the arts , and powerful McCarthyite closet cases . Must be “fascinating.” Turn-offs: Sex tapes (unless she can use them to humiliate you), weakness. How to seduce: Score Tiger Woods’ first post-rehab interview for her, and you’ll be Baba’s king. Collin O’Neal , CNN iReport Citizen Journalist Orientation: Gay, capable of keeping erections for long periods of time in front of rolling cameras Turn-ons: Sure, he’s not an anchor yet, but he’s got the best wet t-shirt look at CNN, so if cable news is still trying to win back young demographics (and if they want to just quit while they’re ahead, who blames ’em) this man is your future! And, yes, he’s a gay porn star . Which means the performative part of his sex life is well-documented. Turn-offs: Catty queens . How to seduce: You’ll need a studio and klieg lights. The man is a professional.

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The Sexual Lives of News Anchors: A Guide