Filed under: Larry King Live • Politics

All Eyes on Arizona!

John McCain’s Senate seat on the line –
will this be his toughest re-election yet?

Plus!

Like father...like son?
Former Vice President Dan Quayle’s son takes
a shot at politics – will he come out on top?

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comments about tonight’s show!

Filed under: Larry King Live • Politics

Left vs. Right!

Conservative Laura Ingraham’s on the war path!  The left and right battle it out over
Sarah Palin, President Obama, the
Afghanistan intelligence bombshell and more!

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Filed under: Larry King Live • Politics

Filed under: Larry King Live • Politics

Filed under: Larry King Live • Politics

Sen. Ted Stevens Dies in Plane Crash

A deadly plane crash in Alaska claims the life
of Sen. Ted Stevens – and at least five others!
Good Samaritans help save four survivors,
including NASA chief Sean O’Keefe.
The latest!

Plus!

President Obama and the Democrats – on the ropes?
Could the economy and same-sex marriage
controversy help to derail the Democrats in November?

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Filed under: Larry King Live • Politics

Don't miss Wyclef Jean on Larry King  Live Tonight at 9 p.m ET !

(CNN) - Six years ago, hip hop icon Wyclef Jean released a soulful tune called "President," in which he fantasized about what it would be like to lead a country.

That fantasy may come closer to reality when the Haitian-American recording artist announces exclusively on CNN's "Larry King Live" that he intends to run for president of Haiti.

Jean, who had been an outspoken proponent for Haiti through his Yele Foundation, told CNN Tuesday that plans to make the major announcement on King's show Thursday night.

Born in Haiti, Jean shot to fame in the mid-1990s as a member of The Fugees, a U.S.-based hip-hop and reggae group. He performs now as a solo artist.

He was one of the first celebrities to offer aid after the devastating earthquake there in January.

He told CNN late last month that he has filled out the necessary paperwork to make a run at the country's highest office.

In February, Jean said he has tried to promote Haitian issues in his work.

"I've always promoted Haiti in my music, since my first album with the Fugees where we talked about what Haitians are going through and about human rights for people around the world," Jean said. "This is how we came in the game, we never thought we were going to be music stars because the topics we talked about were not very popular in mainstream music."

(READ MORE)

Filed under: Politics • Wyclef Jean

By Dr. Drew Pinsky, Larry King Live Guest Blogger

I am certainly by no means a legal scholar.  Nor do I have any special understanding of American History.  I am an American citizen with a deep appreciation of the brilliantly balanced system our founding fathers created.

There was a reason they set up our system as a republic and not a direct democracy.  The Jacksonian Revolution started us in a direction whereby direct appeal to the people and direct democracy gained a distinct priority in our value system.

But never did the founding generations expect that we might see the advent of a system where a simple appeal to a majority could result in any whim the majority might decide to assert.

A main concern of the founding fathers was to create a system that was sufficiently balanced and thoughtful so as to buffer against one group exerting its will upon another.  This to them, was nothing other than mob rule. While we retain a distinct preference for the gloss of a direct democracy the fact is we are not and thankfully so.

Throughout history democracies have inevitably fractured and failed.  Even the Greeks felt that a democracy was impossible in populations greater than 100,000 members.  Not only are we so much larger but more heterogeneous making this even more treacherous.

Alexis De Toqueville, a Frenchman who came to America in the opening decades of the nineteenth century to study Democracy in America, in his objective assessment remained very concerned that our system had a potential to allow for something he called the Tyranny of the Majority.  That is to say he was concerned that merely by being a majority one group could exert its will upon another, even restrict its civil liberties and rights.

Unfortunately, the referendum system in the State of California has become the mechanism for actualizing precisely this tyranny. The California Supreme Court determined that the argument against same sex marriage was untenable.

The opinion, written by Chief Justice Ronald M. George, cited the Court's 1948 decision in Perez v. Sharp where the state's interracial marriage ban was held unconstitutional. It found that "equal respect and dignity" of marriage is a "basic civil right" that cannot be withheld from same-sex couples, that sexual orientation is a protected class like race and gender, and that any classification or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is subject to strict scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause of the California State Constitution (source: Wikipedia).

In other words it was the concerted opinion of the judicial authority that the logic used against interracial marriage was the same as that, which was being used against same sex marriages. In spite of this very clear understanding of the law and the logic of prejudice, the response rendered by the referendum system with the passage of Proposition 8 was: “too bad”.

Now my point here is not to get into whether or not gay marriage is good, right or should even be included in the definition of what we consider marriage.  My concern is that the referendum system in California can rescind the civil rights of a minority group, independent of the operation of other governmental authority.

Abraham Lincoln famously argued in his debates with Stephen Douglas that there are certain things that the majority simply cannot decide.  We simply could not allow for a majority to decide that it is acceptable to enslave another population of humans no matter how substantial that majority.

He famously quipped that “squatter sovereignty’s” right to determine whether or not a state should be free or slave was based on an argument that was thinner that the soup made from the shadow of a pigeon that was starved to death!  And so are the arguments flying about today to justify and legitimate Prop 8 and the Referendum system from which it was unleashed.

I ask my fellow citizens to give this careful thought.  The protection against the tyranny of the majority has been an important consideration throughout the history of our government and we have quietly allowed, out of our own ignorance and apathy, a very important threshold to be crossed.  A majority has restricted the basic civil rights of a minority.  Beware, it may be your rights next to be trampled merely because there are enough people who think it should be so.

Dr. Drew Pinsky is the host of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab" and a frequent guest on Larry King Live.

Filed under: Larry King Live • Politics

Via USMagazine.com

Roger Clinton, former President Bill Clinton's half-brother, says he was blown away seeing Chelsea walk down the aisle over the weekend.

"She was more beautiful than ever," he tells Entertainment Tonight of the former first daughter, 30, who wore a stunning Vera Wang gown.

Adds Roger, "It was a great night." Chelsea exchanged vows with longtime beau, investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, 32, Saturday in a lavish ceremony at the Astor family palace in Rhinebeck, N.Y. "Marc gave an eloquent speech about his love for Chelsea," a wedding guest tells the New York Daily News.

"At the end of his speech, he ignored the rest of the room and looked very intense. He looked right into Chelsea's eyes. Oh, it was something. The whole room was quiet. You could feel the energy in the room. He impressed a lot of people."

Former President Clinton, 63, couldn't hold it together, added another guest. "Bill's chin began quivering and he tried to fake a smile as a tear came down his cheek," another guest told The News. "He whispered something into Chelsea's ear, and she wiped the tear off his face. It was so touching. There wasn't a dry eye in the house."

He cut in after the newlyweds had their first dance to Jerome Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight," performed by the wedding band, the paper reports.

Another wedding highlight - when the father of the bride toasted his daughter.

"Bill's toast was vintage Bill Clinton," a guest said. "He spoke quite elegantly about what it was like to welcome Marc into the family."

Added another, "It hit all the right marks. It was perfect."

TAKE OUR POLL: DO YOU THINK CHELSEA CLINTON
WILL END UP IN POLITICS LIKE HER PARENTS?

Filed under: Politics

Filed under: Larry King Live • Politics