Stories to Watch: 9/19/11

Making zucchini pancakes to go with some fish. I don’t have a recipe, I’m just going to wing it by adapting my sourdough pancake recipe. Wish me luck. Now here’s the news…

The best take I’ve seen on Republican Rep. John Fleming, who barely manages to scratch together an existence on a mere $400k in profit a year, from Scott Lemieux of the blog Lawyers, Guns, and Money: “Again, the central premise of the contemporary Republican Party is that people making $400K+ a year are living a hardscrabble existence, while a teacher or police officer making $50K a year is enjoying a pampered life of unimaginable luxury.” The worst part about all this? The morons in the Tea Party or who listen to talk radio believe exactly that.

Greg Sargent sees President Obama turning the “class warfare” charge around and putting it where it belongs — around Republicans’ necks.

Meanwhile, Obama vows to veto a deficit reduction bill that doesn’t balance cuts with tax increases on the wealthy.

More bad press for Rick Perry as the Justice Dept. determines that Texas’s redistricting is gerrymandering that violates the Voting Rights Act.

Bill O’Reilly seriously overestimates his own popularity.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will die tomorrow after a long and pointless battle with reality.

Just in case you missed it, Andrew Breitbart wants to kill you. So stay frosty.

Ed Rollins, Michele Bachmann’s former campaign manager and current talking head, says Shelly’s got enough resources left to fight in Iowa, then she’s done. Expect her to amp the crazy up to eleven, because that’s been working so well for her so far.

Finally, Andrew Sullivan looks at polling and finds that Obama’s plan to soak the rich looks like it’s already really popular.