But on cable television ratings are off the charts, and its been a 24-7 story ever since. Commercial networks have joined the scrum along with major print operations.

Even New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, at the Aspen Ideas Festival last week, said Jackson’s death put an end to the U.S. Twitter interest in the situation in Iran which, in terms of potential news importance, outranked the news in the music world.

On CNN, the coverage has been the most intense and repetitive. Sunday’s Reliable Sources program generated an intense debate among journalists in which the host, Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz, fought a losing battle over justifying the non-stop media hype.

Attention has turned to the public memorial service Tuesday at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles where over 1.2 million Jackson fans from all over the world have registered in a lottery for 17,500 free tickets.

How much the city, with a $530 million deficit, should pay for security could draw more than a half million fans to a cordoned off arena area – certain to involve of thousands of Los Angeles police and related agencies – is a major concern.

Los Angeles based AEG Live, the promoter which shelled out millions in preparation for the world wide concerts and was expected to suffer a major financial blow with the singer’s death, may yet recoup its losses with unexpected profits from insurance, rehearsal footage and souvenirs.

AEG Live, which owns Staples where the Los Angeles Lakers play, helped pay for the team’s parade honoring the NBA champions last month which cost the team, private donors and the city nearly $2 million. The question is who pays for several millions more this time around. For my two cents plain the promoters should pick up the tab.

It may be weeks before it’s known whether a powerful sedative found in the singer’s rented Los Angeles mansion was the cause of Jackson’s death. The LAPD, DEA and the California Attorney General’s office are involved in the investigation. If so, the media frenzy will only escalate.

The Democratic drum roll, with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa dropping out, is expected to be between former Gov. Jerry Brown, the current State Attorney General who has rechristened himself as the Apostle of Common Sense, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has became the champion of same-sex marriage, and is described as “vivacious and something of a political thrill-seeker. As the underdog he the race as “past versus future.”

Popular Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, told Leibovich it’s unlikely she will run, and yet coyly clinging to the “not ruling anything out” line.

The major Republican candidates, State Insurance Commissioner and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Poizner, and Meg Whitman, the former eBay C.E.O., are billionaires who bring private sector discipline to the contest. Both are socially moderate Republicans and favor abortion rights.

Brainy socially liberal and former Congressman Tom Campbell polls well, gets press plaudits for his financial expertise but lacks deep pockets. What the trio fear most is that a social conservative may entry the race and throw the primary into chaos.

About the state’s deepening financial crisis Schwarzenegger told Leibovich that he doesn’t walk away from his office depressed. “I will sit down in my Jacuzzi tonight. I’m going to lay back with a stogie.”

Respected UC Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain has a different take about the governor’s stewardship: “The result is that he’s a rudderless ship that has lost all credibility with his Republican base and that the Democrats don’t trust him because he turns on them.”

Cain is equally critical of the two parties which are largely controlled by what he calls “the Taliban,” resulting in Sacramento gridlock, and a standoff between the parties.

People strained to hold the giant flag in place, as it grew heavy with water from above. The colors bled onto the street, into gutters, and still these Americans, nearly broken by dual blows of dust and despair, these people who felt somewhat betrayed by a country they hardly recognized, held the flag. They were clinging to something much more lasting than fabric.

Timothy Egan, Capture the Flag, The New York Times, July 1. Egan wrote for the Times for 18 years, and won the National Book Award for his history of people who lived through the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time.

It’s not immediately clear why the overly ambitious Palin punted before half time in her first term but she said her decision had been in the works “for a while.” Since returning to Alaska early this year she’s faced repeated ethical inquiries but said she wouldn’t allow taxpayers money to be spent to investigate her.

Speculation that questions raised in the lengthy Vanity Fair story suggesting she’s overly erratic, temperamental and prone to ignore the advice of her own political advisers may also have hastened her decision.

Palin derided what she called “a superficial political blood sport” since emerging from obscurity to fame last summer as the Republican vice presidential candidate. Still smarting, she’s portray herself as a change agent. Sound familiar?

She hinted at a presidential run, crediting Gen. Douglas MacArthur: “We are not retreating; we are advancing in another direction.” (MacArthur got just 3% of the national Republican primary vote in 1948.)

The bombshell comes after two other Republicans known to be weighing runs for the presidency, Nevada Sen., John Ensign, and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, admitted having extramarital affairs with other women.

Saturday update: MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported that according to “people very close to Sarah Palin” she “told her supporters that she is is out of politics, period.”

Read ‘em and weep

“We’ve seen a lot of nutty behavior from governors and Republican leaders in the last three months, but this one is at the top of this.” John Weaver, the veteran Republican adviser and McCain acolyte to The Washington Post.

Alleged details of the case involving reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee for Current TV, a San Francisco-based media venture founded by former Vice President Al Gore, were released by state media just hours before President Barack Obama met at the White House with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

There’s a strong belief that the two women are being used as bargaining chips by Pyongyang in its standoff with South Korea and the United States, which are pushing for U.N. sanctions to punish the North for its latest nuclear test and a barrage of missile tests – which have caused Washington to bolster its missile defense system in Hawaii.

While Gore has been notably silent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has appealed for the two women’s humanitarian release, saying the charges against them were baseless.

Former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson, instrumental in negotiating for the release of U.S. citizens in an incident in the 1990s, expressed confidence that with no espionage charge, and completion of the legal process, negotiations for “their humanitarian release can begin.”

Read ‘em and weep

“Sweat is my sanity.” Sarah Palin to Runners World, in an interview where she says she can beat President Obama in a (foot) race.

By election time top McCain aides who tried to work with Palin were barely on speaking terms with her, and some news organizations were reporting that various aides saw her as a “diva” and a “whack” job. It’s a rare look at a hasty and ill-conceived campaign in which soon after the GOP convention began to fall apart and doomed John McCain.

While few campaign sources are directly quoted in the meltdown of the vice-presidential pick it’s doubtful many will dispute Purdum’s account. Barack Obama told aides, the article reports, that it took him months to be a national candidate, and added, “I don’t care how talented she is, this is really a leap.”

Sanford: end is near

This week’s piece by Politico’s Roger Simon which suggested four reasons why the South Carolina governor might still have a political future already needs revision after Sanford’s interview with the Association Press. He says he “crossed lines” with a handful of women other than his mistress – but never had sex with them. I mean, it doesn’t get more Clintonesque than that. Sanford says his Argentine mistress is his soul mate as he tries to fall back in love with his wife. I predicted he’s be gone by the end of July. It will be much sooner.

Read ‘em and weep

“The great paradox of the age is that Barack Obama, the most riveting of recent presidents, is leading us into an era of Congressional dominance. And Congressional governance is a haven for special interest pleading and venal logrolling.” David Brooks, the New York Times columnist, on the balance of power in Washington. [Editor’s note: Ironically, under Bush 43, it was the executive branch which craved absolute power.]

What’s interesting is that both Pawlenty and Sanford have been mentioned as possible Republican presidential candidates in 2012. The Minnesota governor didn’t just slap Sanford on the wrist for going to Argentina to see his mistress but went out of his way to praise the governor’s wife for a commitment to her family and not standing with Sanford at a press conference.

Pawlenty also said he has no plans for further delay in certifying the results of the state’s disputed U.S. Senate election so that Republican Norm Coleman can pursue a federal court challenge.

He made it clear that he’s prepared to sign the certification as soon as the Minnesota Supreme Court gives him the green light. Democrat Al Franken has a slight lead.

The Republican National Committee has spent nearly a million dollars to pay Coleman’s bills and keep his hopes alive but Pawlenty appears anxious after eight months to have the issue resolved.

California dreamin’

Today’s D-Day for a resolution of the festering $24 billion budget problem before the state issues IOUs for the first time since the 1990s. Gov. Schwarzenegger has vowed a veto of any majority-vote solution with new taxes, calling the Democratic maneuver “illegal” and dead on arrival.

The Sacramento Bee noted that by sending the governor a majority-vote budget package Democrats want to be able to say that they passed a solution but that Schwarzenegger, who wants a the entire budget issue solved, rejected it. So the meltdown will begin.

Read ‘em and weep

“Is it fair to call climate denial a form of treason? Isn’t it politics as usual? Yes, it is – and that’s why it’s unforgivable.” Paul Krugman, responding to a declaration by Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) that climate change is nothing more than a hoax.”

.

How has it happened, the San Francisco Chronicle asked, that this nation-state of 33 million with a budget larger than most countries has once again been brought to its knees in a life-or-death struggle for financial survival?

The Obama administration and the state’s powerful congressional state have made it clear that they can’t come to the rescue. Tough love is out.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the state’s senior senator, was emphatic: “Do you know what the state is getting in stimulus money? $50 billion.” History matters. 

Consider actor and then-gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger flaying California leadership over out-of-control finances – in 2003: “Our elected officials in Sacramento are facing a budget crisis unseen in this state since the Great Depression, and it was entirely avoidable,” he complained. “Teachers are getting pink slips, cops are being laid off and the taxpayers are facing an increase in taxes and California’s future is in danger.”

As governor Schwarzenegger has been an abysmal failure, putting a series of failed propositions on the ballot in his first term, and again this spring which only underscore his ineptness in steering the ship of state away from financial icebergs.

As recently as Saturday, the governor gave majority Democrats a list of changes to social service programs and state employee pensions he hopes could create agreement to close the budget deficit.

Having once proposed eliminating the state’s welfare program he switched to suggesting a 6 percent cut to recipient’s monthly grants. Democrats have proposed cuts but far less than the governor has demanded.

George Skelton, the veteran Los Angeles Times columnist, wrote that the governor could fire every state employee under his control – roughly 235,000 – and that wouldn’t come close to balancing the budget.

Read ‘em and weep

“The Republican Party will never revive itself until its sanctimonious pantheon – Sanford, Gingrich, Limbaugh, Palin, Ensign, Vitter and hypocrites yet to be exposed – stop being two-faced.” New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

[Update] The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for white firefighters over promotions on Monday, reversing a decision by high court nominee Sotomayor. Retiring Justice David Souter, who Sotomayor is expected to replace, signed onto Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent.

Senate hearings on the federal judge, currently on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York, begin on July 13. If confirmed Sotomayor would become only the third female justice. Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and current Justice Ginsburg back President Obama’s nomination.

The poll found no gender gap in support for her, with men and women about equally certain to be on her side.

Critics have seized on a passage in a 2001 speech she gave on separating personal views from an objective reading of the law, to the conclusion that “a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion that a white male.”

Most Americans disagree that her life experiences influence the way she decides cases. Fifty-nine percent said that the fact that she is a woman does not factor in, and 52 percent said the same about her racial and ethnic background.

The poll did, however, surface predictable partisan, cultural, race and ethnicity differences, particularly within the Republican Party, that are revealing.

While nearly eight in ten Democrats and two-thirds of independents support Sotomayor’s confirmation that drops to 36 percent among Republicans. Predictably, more than seven in 10 conservative Republicans said the judge is too liberal.

Abortion politics is once again a deep dividing line among Americans. About three-quarters of those who are pro-choice or lean so, back Sotomayor, compared with less than half of those who favor greater restrictions. Currently six in ten want the new justice to uphold Roe v. Wade. Most Republican men want her to overturn Roe, while GOP women are split evenly on the question.

Obama, with higher poll numbers than the President, has a new chief of staff more in tune with getting her and her team on the West Wing’s radar. She’s also hiring a full-time speechwriter and has instructed her staff to think “strategically” so that every event has a purpose and a message. She also has a plan that takes her and the girls out of Washington, where she thinks they can have more fun and independence.

As in FDR’s presidency my sense is she, like Eleanor Roosevelt, will be a very active First Lady, traveling around the country, surveying living and working conditions, and then reporting her observations to the President while becoming a champion for the rights and needs of the poor, the disadvantaged, prevention and wellness for health-care reform.

I would not be surprised if Obama at some point began to write a syndicated column, along the lines of Roosevelt’s “My Day,” which began in late 1935 and continued until shortly before her death in 1962.

Values debate

The combined meltdown of John Ensign and Mark Sanford within a week has ratcheted up the issue confronting grassroots social conservatives who make up a solid block of the Republican base not to lose faith.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and a key player in the debate, lamented the problem to the New York Times.

“I think there is somewhat of an identity crisis in the Republican Party. Are they going to be a party that attracts values voters, and are they going to be the party that lives by those values?”

What they said

“I don’t know how this thing got blown out of proportion.” Gov. Mark Sanford, shortly before ‘this thing’ got blown into the media stratosphere. Prediction: he’s toast before the end of July.

“Health care may actually be an issue that helps resurrect the GOP.” Karl Rove, dreaming on in his Wall Street Journal column.