Rubio’s Anti-Abortion Crusade, Nugent Weighs Presidential Bid, and More

Morsi’s Replacement:

There’s a new president in Egypt on Wednesday night after Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the country’s military and opposition leaders earlier in the day. Adly Mansour, the chief justice of the nation’s Supreme Constitutional Court, has been named interim president by the Egyptian military. Mansour was appointed by Morsi to the chief justice position in May, but he had started in his new post only two days ago. More from The Wall Street Journal: “Underlining Egypt’s political instability, Mr. Mansour hasn’t even been sworn in as the court’s head, said Mr. Al Beheiry. He was supposed to take the oath Sunday, but the ceremony was delayed because of the nationwide protests.” (Read more)

Rubio’s Makeover: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is being criticized by the same far right conservatives who helped put him into office nearly three years ago after his role in brokering the bipartisan immigration reform bill that recently passed through the Senate. So in an effort to win back supporters from the far right, the ex-tea party darling is attempting to appeal to them by becoming an “anti-abortion warrior.” Rubio will be the primary sponsor of an anti-abortion bill that is similar to the controversial one Republicans have proposed in Texas that would ban the procedure after 20 weeks. Salon’s Joan Walsh says that Rubio is taking a page from Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s playbook. Perry has experienced somewhat of a political revival among conservatives because of his support of the extreme anti-abortion bill. She writes: “Rubio can see how being an antiabortion crusader revived the political standing of once-shamed Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and he’s going to try it himself.” (Read more)

Oval Office Response: Months after they were first posted, the White House has finally responded to several anti-Westboro Baptist Church petitions—which includes requests that the WBC be classified as a hate group and calls that the organization’s tax-exempt status be revoked–on its We The People site. In its response, the White House comments: “To the extent that these petitions request a particular law enforcement or adjudicatory action, we cannot issue a comment. In addition, as a matter of practice, the federal government doesn’t maintain a list of hate groups.” It concludes with an image of the U.S. that shows where support for one of the petitions came from, noting that, “While support for these petitions came from all over the country, it was densely clustered in two places that have unique insight into the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church — Kansas, the state the church calls home, and Newtown, Connecticut, where the church threatened to picket the funerals of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.” (Read more)

SCOTUS Opinion: The majority of Americans aren’t happy with the Supreme Court’s decision last week in which the justices, by a 5-4 vote, struck down a major provision of the Voting Rights Act. According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, 51 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the justices’ ruling, while 33 percent approve. The rest—15 percent—are undecided. The high court’s ruling on the gay marriage cases, were much more popular with 56 percent of respondents expressing satisfaction over the justices’ decision in the Defense of Marriage Act case (versus 41 percent), while 51 percent approved of the court’s decision in California’s Proposition 8 case (versus 45 percent). (Read more)

Nugent for Pres?: Ted Nugent, the outspoken conservative and gun enthusiast, told The Washington Post Magazine that he’s “thinking” about running for president in 2016 because “things are so wrong in the country now.” And if he does decide to run, Nugent says he already has a slogan ready: “Hi, I’m Ted Nugent. I have nine children from seven women, and I’m running for president.” Perhaps if he somehow were to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, maybe he’ll pick Donald Trump as his running mate? By the way, this isn’t the first time Nugent has discussed possible political ambition; he toyed with the idea of running for governor of Michigan in 2006 and 2010. (Read more)