Quote Of The Day, Pulling A Boehner Edition

"Why not do the right thing for the American people, even though it’s not exactly what we want."

-John Boehner

Betcha Didn't Know C-Span Doesn't Control the Feed

The Speaker of the House does!

Merry Christmas, Mr. Obama ***Updated***

"Has this place become so dysfunctional that even when people agree to things we can't do it?"

-President Obama, concerning this.

I'm not sure if Fox News is covering this, but what it amounts to is the Congressional Republicans have decided to dig in their heels and not extend a payroll tax cut. I know, weird right? Just as unemployment drops again they seem to think the best thing for the country is to raise taxes on the middle class. Maybe they are upset because there hasn't also been an even bigger tax cut for the rich. Maybe they somehow think that the country will blame Obama for the failure, even though he's all over the news saying please extend this and John Boehner is all over the news saying, no, no, forget it.

It's not just me pointing out this looks bad for Republicans. The Wall Street Journal, for example.

The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play. Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter...

Anyone outside of the liberal mainstream media think the same way? Karl Rove. Of course to be fair, Rove did more than anyone to ensure that a Democrat won the 2008 election. Don't trust him!

***Update*** The House finally voted on the bill a few hours after I wrote this, apparently on the assurances by President Obama that he wouldn't veto it with the provision to approve the Keystone Oil Pipeline included. What this means to me (yes this is spin) is that Republicans are willing to raise taxes and even throw their own poll numbers into the toilet as long as they can serve Conoco. Conoco is a harsh mistress!

Chugging Up the First Hill

Since it's increasingly obvious that Ron Paul is going to be the Republican nominee -- God forbid it would be some guy who is polling well among moderates -- here is a handy guide to the conservative platform for the next eight years.

Further Evidence That Fox Doesn't Want Romney

They're going so far as to talk smack about invading Iran if Romney says he's for it.

To be fair to poppa bear, I don't know what his thinking has been on the subject in the past. Maybe this is perfectly consistant. Anybody wanna help me out here?

Whee!

The roller-coaster of Republican primary politics may have arced again: Newt Gingrich is dropping in the polls. I'd say just give all the money to Romney already but it looks like Ron Paul has been the candidate they've really wanted all along; then once they dump him there's still Santorum and Huntsman. And the only one they've actually forced out of the race has been the African-American, because the nomination goes to whoever is peaking the week they nominate.

Gingrich is probably a little relieved - I don't think he really wanted to be president. He just was looking for a little Tiffany's pocket change. Romney really wants to be president, unless polls show that he shouldn't want to be.

Just The Way the Light's ... oh, COME ON

(H/T Where Are My Keys)

Just the Way The Light's Hitting It Again

The liberal mainstream media will tell you that Nevada is the one on the left! Don't trust them!

Coincidentally I was going to drive to Vegas for the holidays but I can see now it's way too far.

I Need More Page Traffic

Ron Paul is a crazy unelectable freak.

With Friends Like This

Warner Todd Huston Throws The Tea Party Under The Bus!

Just cut ‘n’ pasted from Facebook!


Report/Mark as Spam

Warner Todd Huston

Want proof that Democrats are just liars? In his briefing to the press on how Obama will win in 2012 David Axelrod said that the GOP nomination is controlled by the extremists of the Tea Party. Obviously that is a lie as NEITHER of the two frontrunners are Tea Party nominees. How can the Tea Party be in control if their guys aren't even winning??

LikeUnlike · ·Unfollow PostFollow Post · Share · about an hour ago near Streamwood, IL ·

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    Bob Madden I would submit that since the poster boy for the progressive wing of the republican party leads in most polls that it is either a lie, or he is extremely clueless. Maybe a little of both?
    about an hour ago · LikeUnlike
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    Daniel Krause It may be less of a lie than a fervent hope.
    17 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
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    Warner Todd Huston LOL, could be, Daniel!
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This Time In English

I don't do this very often, but I think I'll clarify a post I put up last Friday. My one reader in the world seems to have gotten the impression that I was defending John Corzine, the former Democrat Senator who "lost" a million billion dollars of investor money. At first I thought, you can read this and think I'm pro-Corzine? But I've said it before, sarcasm is a terrible way to communicate ideas, especially in an environment when people think their political opponents are literally insane.

So, again - actually I think Corzine is at best a wildly incompetent manager, but more likely a guy who just stole a million billion dollars of his investors money. And I was using his situation to make a point that there is little, if anything, in current Republican thinking to stop a guy like him. They're against regulations (they want far less of them) they're against enforcement of regulations (always pushing for less money to inspectors and watchdogs) and as far as I can tell, they simply want the free market to take care of charlatans like him. He took your life savings? Don't invest with HIM next time!

Political affiliation aside, what would Republicans do to prevent the next Corzine from ruining his investors' lives?

Those Who Do Not Know Newt Are Forced To Repeat Him

This exchange between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich (the latter a Republican candidate for president, the former - well, what would you like him to be?) reminds me of a point that's been rattling around in my mind for a while now. It is a point that I find myself in agreement with on Republicans.

Freddie Mac is a government agency which clearly overspent on services. $6 million for an historian? That's insane. Even the most elite historian makes 100-200k a year. So I'd call that criminal. By the same token though, it's even more criminal for an historian to CHARGE that much. Maybe it's not against the law, but certainly somebody who does a thing like that must be labeled a charlatan, and never trusted with power over large sums of your money. A guy who would soak the government for that kind of money must be a terrorist.

A mitigating factor in the Newtisphere is this, a pledge that Newt signed to uphold traditional marriage. Here's a key passage:

I will support all efforts to reform promptly any uneconomic or anti-marriage aspects of welfare and tax policy. I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others.

That's a solemn vow! And you know how important THOSE are to Gingrich.

It's Just The Way The Light's Hitting It

What's wrong with that picture? Hint: Compare March to November.

Derangement Syndrome

Fan: “ People I would vote for in 2012 for President: Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachman, Rick Santorum, a bag of beans, a sack of flour, an inanimate object, anyone or thing but what we have now.” DM: “I would vote for Blago right now.”


- Dennis Miller, Facebook

A Job Creator

People say that Republicans are always trying to trash Democrats, but that's simply not true. Not when they're the Job Creators! For example, here's Jon Corzine.

Mr. Corzine told the House Agriculture Committee that he was “stunned” when he learned late on Oct. 30 that about $1 billion of customer money could not be located, a discovery that thwarted a sale of the firm and led to its filing for bankruptcy. Regulators and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are now hunting for the money and examining potential wrongdoing at the firm.

Thursday’s testimony was his first public comments since the bankruptcy and came after the committee voted last week to subpoena him.

The former senator insisted that he always tried to “do the right thing.”

“I never intended to break any rules,” said Mr. Corzine, dressed in a dark suit but without his trademark sweater vest. “I know I had no intention to ever authorize the transfer of segregated moneys. I know what my intentions were.” Mr. Corzine has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Why don't we leave Corzine alone? He doesn't deserve this grilling! The man should be back in his office or on his way to the Bahamas, where he can create jobs! And we certainly should stop trying to regulate a guy who's just trying to run a small business.

He did not rule out possible wrongdoing at MF Global. In theory, an employee may have misused customer cash after misinterpreting the chief executive’s words, he said.

Still, over three hours of testimony, Mr. Corzine danced carefully around questions touching on the scandal of the missing funds, using phrases like “never intended” and “not to my knowledge.”

And he offered little insight into the whereabouts of the missing money. He surmised that one potential cause of the shortfall was the “extraordinary number of transactions during MF Global’s last few days,” calling it a “chaotic” period that was “extremely difficult” to “reconstruct.”

See? If we'd just let him go back to his office (or the Bahamas) then he'd be able to find that money. We should let the free market take care of this!

Political Wire Buries the Lead

Newt Gingrich, a man so beloved of Republicans that they once censured him, is in a little trouble now for promising a cabinet post to someone before he has been elected, an apparent violation of election law. Big deal! The real sizzler here is the detail - he's promising to appoint John Bolton Secretary of State.

John Bolton! A man so beloved of Republicans that they failed to confirm him as our Ambassador to the UN! This is the guy that Gingrich would send around the world to persuade countries to cooperate with us. After that, he may try to convince Nancy Pelosi to run the RNC. I wonder if he can get George W. Bush out of retirement to handle INS?

Honestly, I think Newt is trying to torpedo his candidacy. Between this promise and the child labor talk, he pretty obviously is laying the groundwork for a Rick Perry/Michele Bachmann/Herman Cain style popularity arc.

Life's Been Good To Him So Far

Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois tweeted this 16 hours ago:

My office was invaded by the Occupy Protesters today & all I saw were $1000 laptops & vomit on the carpet. Thank God for #febreze


A darling of the Tea Party, Rep. Walsh's comment is illuminating. He got where he is by articulating the Tea Party positions. Here, he revels in their contempt of the ill and the middle class.
 
I probably should show my work, as the math teachers say. Contempt for the ill is pretty obvious. A constituent in his office vomits and his only concern is that the carpet might be ruined. God knows he wouldn't want to offer that guy even a glass of water... that would be socialism! It's not your Government's job to worry about your welfare! That's YOUR job, loser! Go be sick somewhere else! In fact, go DIE OF YOUR ILLNESS somewhere else. (Going too far? Listen to the applause lines at the next Republican debate).
 
I'm glad to see those guys are giving up on the whole "compassionate conservatism" thing. Wasn't working.
 
Why middle-class? It's the implication of those $1000 laptops. The poor would be carrying $300 laptops. Note that if you spent less than a grand on your hardware, the Tea Party isn't interested in your problems. You can't even voice a concern unless you got Alienware, honey.
 
I will say this though, Walsh does respect brand names. He took the trouble to tag AND spell Febreze correctly. Wouldn't want to offend corporations! They're people, you know.

Barrier to Entry

Herman Cain has decided to suspend his presidential campaign. It's true! Here's a link for people who don't believe the New York Times.

It would be great if he had been forced to pull out because of obvious lack of knowlege on a variety of subjects, especially foreign policy. However, Cain cited the many scandals involving his love life (all of them both false AND untrue, he says) as his reason for quitting. This bugs me, as I've said before - a guy's personal life is messy and shouldn't be a disqualification for higher office, because it doesn't have to interfere with his ability to do his job. In fact, it pretty clearly didn't interfere with Cain's, because he was a very successful businessman in spite of these things.

But now I'm beginning to think I like this state of play in American politics, because big business is one of the only fields that is more corrupt. People can get pretty arrogant when they're CEOs. Being able to buy off any accusers, or negotiate a contract where you get a multi-million dollar bonus even if your company's profits go into the toilet, can make you think you're invincible. You become convinced that nothing you do is wrong, that maybe you're not above good and evil but at least you won't pay any penalties. We don't need people like that running the country.

Humility is a good quality. It checks radicalism.

So maybe the next election cycle we'll have less billionaires buying a spot on the lawmaker express. Who needs that kind of trouble? Less billionaires making laws, less resistance to letting the Bush Tax cuts expire, less public debt for future generations.

Clarification Please!

This is a little complicated, and hopefully someone in my stable of commenters can explain it to me:

Antitax campaigner Grover Norquist advised a room of House Republicans on Thursday that a failure to extend the  payroll-tax cut would not be tantamount to raising taxes.

Okay, I can see that point of view, as long as you don't believe that extending the Bush Tax cuts would be tantamount to raising taxes. But if you do, what makes one a good idea and the other a bad one?

If You're Listening, You're Probably The Ones He Hates

Seems harsh, but at least he's not like Obama, who HATES AMERICA! Rush loves America, except for the lazy, grasping Americans who inhabit it.

Do Your Homework, 12/01

Michele Bachmann, embassies, Iran -- on second thought, never mind. We're talking about Michele Bachmann here.