| Sorry, Mr. President. Someone Just Took Your Dream Job.
Selig will soon become the second-longest-serving commissioner ever and may want to try to break Landis's all-time record of 24 years. Judge Landis was hired to rescue baseball after the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Selig has a chance to go in the history books for presiding over both scandal and crackdown. But perhaps Selig is actually doing the owners a favor by staying. If he left next year, the owners would be under enormous pressure to swallow their friend Bush as his replacement. Considering Bush's unprecedented unpopularity, as well as his expertise in running up losses rather than turning a profit, that would be like the U.S. Olympic Committee deciding in 1981 to tap Jimmy Carter because of his experience with the 1980 boycott. Condi Rice, who wants to be NFL commissioner, faces the same hurdles—her current job isn't going too well, while the job she wants is taken and the sport is doing famously without her.
Merck agrees to pay $4.85 billion in Vioxx settlement
The agreement with plaintiffs lawyers heading the U.S. federal and state cases against Merck resolves a legal battle that threatened to drag on for years and had already dogged the drugmaker since Vioxx was pulled off the market three years ago.
At least 38,000 of the 60,000 Vioxx plaintiffs must sign on to the settlement for it to be viable, according to the company. But Merck officials said they believe the settlement will be attractive to many more than the minimum amount.
Regardless of how many plaintiffs enter the settlement, the total pie is fixed at $4.85 billion.
While the drugmaker said it would still defend all claims not included in the settlement, the deal marks a shift in strategy for Merck. It had maintained since the day of the withdrawal it would fight Vioxx litigation on a case-by-base basis rather than consider a broad settlement.
Failing the Lohan Test
There was no evidence in the story of the attack raising doubts at the school. It was just too dull a hed to pass up! 8:51 P.M. link Those Irish election results in full through Irish eyes at Slugger O'Toole. ... 7:44 P.M. U.S. insistence on aerial spraying of poppy fields in Afghanistan still seems crazy to me. How about this deal: The U.S. agrees to forego spraying if anti-Bush journalists agree to not then write "See, they're growing poppies! America is failing!" stories. ... [via Andrew Stuttaford at The Corner] ... See also Hitchens. ... 12:43 P.M. If the relentless, semi-desperate Bush White House spin on immigration has even alienated Powerline, maybe John Podhoretz is right: Who's Bush going to rely on to back him on Iraq in September? Teddy Kennedy? ...
Scots Singer's Showdown As The X Factor Finals Begin
IT'S a meeting of gorgeous gals and handsome hunks as the X Factor contest gets serious tonight. The flirty dozen acts - the best-looking collection of finalists since the show began - move into a luxurious new home together. But the tensions are already threatening to wipe those pretty showbiz smiles off their faces as they face the terrors of the recording studio for the first time. And Scots contestant Leon Jackson comes close to tears as he battles crippling nerves to chase his dream of a million-pound recording contract. But with his looks and talent, the 18-year-old karate kid from Whitburn, West Lothian, is still keen to shine. Shop assistant Leon said: "You just realise how much is involved in a one-minute 30-second piece of music.
Continuing to use "cocaine," Matthews again falsely claimed Penn ...
Summary: Chris Matthews once again falsely claimed that Mark Penn, chief strategist for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, "raise[d]" the issue of "cocaine" "on my show twice." Contrary to Matthews' assertion, Penn was not the first to "raise[]" the issue; Matthews devoted the entire Hardball segment to the controversy over comments about Sen. Barack Obama's past drug use by Billy Shaheen, a Clinton campaign co-chairman who subsequently resigned. On the January 23 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews once again falsely claimed that Mark Penn, chief strategist for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) presidential campaign, "raise[d]" the issue of "cocaine" "on my show twice" and also falsely suggested that Bob Johnson, president of Black Entertainment Television and a Clinton supporter, had also used the word "cocaine" in reference to Sen.
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