According to Bob Byrd’s hometown paper, Senate Democrats have begun to discuss contingency plans to deal with his extended absence from Washington. And some have even jumped the gun and declared the passing of the 91 year old: Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s state of health has prompted some quiet, behind-the-scenes discussions in the event the senator is unable to return to office. I understand Gov. | Read More »
After the shooting at the Holocaust Museum, and the shooting of George Tiller, the Left tried to make a case both that: the offenders in each case were conservatives; and, the right’s political culture encouraged them to violence That argument has a host of problems – the Holocaust Museum shooter didn’t fit anyone’s profile of a conservative, the theory ignored criminals on the Left, etc. | Read More »
It’s cute nowadays to get into debates with Democrats about the supposedly helpless and directionless Republican party. They really think their party is doing just fine. They think that because their fans in the press write hopefully about ‘green shoots,’ the economy isn’t going to crash under the weight of unsustainable debt. They think that because Barack Obama polls well on his handling of foreign | Read More »
False disclosures, conflicts of interest, lying about the implications of his new disclosures… he’s really racked up quite a list of offenses in one financial filing: A new appraisal of the Irish cottage owned by Sen. Christopher Dodd concludes that it is worth about three times as much as Dodd has been reporting on his financial disclosure forms… Dodd has been criticized for understating the | Read More »
I guess the Democrats are going to buy America some really great health care; they clearly don’t plan to be frugal with our money: Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said. Democrats will work on the bill’s details next week | Read More »
Remember how having a bunch of brilliant grown-ups in the White House was going to restore our tattered relations with key allies? And how the ‘stimulus’ bill would create millions of jobs here in the United States? Instead, the bill has sparked a trade war with Canada – one that will get worse if it is not addressed. And while the Obama team can offer | Read More »
Right now the Obama team is swearing up and down that General Motors is only going to be a government property for a short time – a few years, at the most. But there’s nothing harder to kill than a federal program. There’s already plenty of evidence that both the White House and Congressional leaders view GM as a jobs program, rather than a company. | Read More »
No surprise here: The House ethics committee indicated Thursday that it was reviewing the links between a number of lawmakers and the now-defunct lobbying firm The PMA Group. The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as the panel is called, issued a statement responding to a resolution (H Res 500) the House adopted June 3. The resolution directed the ethics committee to notify the chamber | Read More »
There mainstream media and the Left are all over themselves in recent weeks, trying to pin Republicans down on who leads our party. Is Rush Limbaugh our leader? Is it Mitch McConnell? Or is it Sarah Palin, or John Boehner, or Michael Steele, or someone else? You can rest assured of two things: The only reason they want to know is so that they can | Read More »
Unbelievable. Can you imagine the reaction if a Republican had tried this? Top aides to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) called a last-minute, pre-emptive strike on Wednesday with a group of prominent Democratic lobbyists, warning them to advise their clients not to attend a meeting with Senate Republicans set for Thursday. Russell Sullivan, the top staffer on Finance, and Jon Selib, Baucus’ chief of | Read More »
According to Senator Tom Harkin (D-Labor), the Senate may vote next month on a Card Check compromise: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) indicated Wednesday that he will be ready to bring up the long-stalled Employee Free Choice Act next month, following weeks of negotiations with key stakeholders. “We’re in meetings right now. I’m still hopeful that we can get something done,” Harkin said. The Iowa Democrat | Read More »
Roll Call reports that Democrats in Congress are starting to get serious about forcing the Obama administration to reduce the number of auto dealership closings: Lawmakers concerned about car dealerships being forced to close amid General Motors and Chrysler restructuring moved fast this week to shine the spotlight on the matter — and seem to have gotten the attention they wanted. The House Energy and | Read More »
Growing up in New York, I recall an old commercial for the lottery that sought to sucker in the math-challenged by telling them ‘you gotta be in it to win it.’ While I still consider that an indefensible way for a state to get people to throw away their money, it’s undoubtedly true when it comes to political campaigns. You may be unable to predict | Read More »
With the federal deficit spiraling out of control, with unemployment approaching 10 percent, and with confidence in the Obama economic plan waning, it might be useful to go back and look at what team Obama promised if the porkulus passed:
Today is a big day for the Blue Dog Democrats. They’ve spent the first 6 months of this administration supine, voting for whatever spending Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi told them to. As a result, the federal deficit is approaching $2 trillion – with nothing to show for it. All along, Barack Obama has paid lip service to the Congressional budget rule known as PayGo. | Read More »
[UPDATE] As I’ve already noted in comments, Hiram Monserrate is in point of fact no prize: he’s currently under indictment for going after his girlfriend with a broken beer bottle. Can’t say that he looks any better with an R after his name than he did with a D, although I’m perfectly willing to bet that his former compatriots will immediately proclaim that he magically | Read More »
Democrats in Congress would have Americans believe that they have largely given up on their attempts to restrict the right of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms. Barack Obama tried to fudge questions on gun control during the campaign, but has nominated to the Supreme Court a judge whose radical view of the Second Amendment is that states and localities have the right to | Read More »
While Skanderbeg offers an appropriate tribute to the heroes of D Day, not everyone is commemorating the day the same way. If you click over to Google for example, you’ll find an unusual and unexpected tribute: I can conceive of Google choosing not to pay tribute to the heroes who saved freedom, and who bravely gave their lives. But it’s stunning that they could decide | Read More »
Roll Call reports that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is effectively siding with Republicans who want more aggressive scrutiny of ethical charges against leading Democrats. He plans to offer a motion to reveal whether the Ethics Committee is investigating corruption charges against senior Democrats (notably John Murtha and Pete Visclosky) with regard to their dealings with a defunct lobbying group: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer | Read More »
John Murtha just never gets old. Just when you think there’s nothing more that he could possibly do to earn an ethics investigation, he goes and surprises you. Today Roll Call reports that Murtha redirected an earmark away from a company that had dropped his brother as its lobbyist, and to a current client of his brother – a firm that pocketed the money instead | Read More »
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