Or maybe he doesn’t want to win this one. Would you, in his shoes? Via AoSHQ:

Reid to GOP: It’s your fault if stimulus stalls

As the $820 billion stimulus package heads to the upper chamber, Senate Democratic leaders are launching a pre-emptive strike.

In a Thursday afternoon news conference, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urged Senate Republicans not to line up against the bill, and says Republicans will be blamed for any delay in the landmark economic legislation.

“If we don’t [pass the bill], it’s not our fault, we’re trying,” Reid said. “The president has done a remarkable job covering all the bases on Capitol Hill.”

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Via Ace of Spade HQ’s headlines, and very, very timely.

No explanation or expansion really needed for this one; just go, search, and marvel. And maybe give a Senator or two a call on the subject?

Crossposted at Moe Lane.

Gridlock? What gridlock? That bill got passed by House Democrats, didn’t it? You’ve got enough Democratic votes in the Senate, don’t you? So why don’t you go ahead with it, already, and stop trying to get us on-board?

After all: you won.

Moe Lane

PS: Sucks to be you, Wall Street. Particularly since all y’all voted for him in the first place. I believe that even the British would accept that as being ironic.

Crossposted at Moe Lane.

But it’s starting to look like it’ll be soon:

If Mt. Redoubt blows, Alaskans may get a light show

The volcano watch for Alaska’s Mt. Redoubt continues apace.

According to the Anchorage Daily News:

An observation flight by scientists this afternoon reported no sign of ash emission yet, but discovered significant steaming from a new melt depression at the mouth of the summit crater….

That flight took place Jan. 30.

Not much to add to this, except that: volcanoes are pretty cool, and if there’s an eruption where no-one gets hurt it’d be an interesting and educational thing to see. So if you live near Mt. Redoubt, move well away from the area, please. Let’s not have another Mount St. Helens.

Crossposted at Moe Lane.

Not then.
Not now.
Not ever.

Iraqis vote in landmark elections
Iraqis are electing new provincial councils in the first nationwide vote in four years, with the Sunni minority expected to turn out in strength.

After a slow start, correspondents said voting was brisk, including among Sunni Muslims, who largely boycotted the last elections.

The vote is seen as a test of Iraq’s stability ahead of a general election due later this year.

Security is tight and thousands of observers are monitoring the polls.

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I think that Jake Tapper isn’t going to be getting a Christmas card from the Obama administration.  Ever.

ABC News has obtained the Senate Finance Committee Report on Tom Daschle’s nomination to be Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which indicates that Daschle’s tax problems were even more substantial than earlier reported.

The report indicates that Daschle’s failure to pay more than $101,000 taxes on the car and driver a wealthy friend let him use from 2005 through 2007 is not the only tax issue the former Senate Majority Leader has been dealing with since his December nomination prompted a more thorough examination of his income tax returns.

Mr. Daschle also didn’t report $83,333 in consulting income in 2007.

Via AoSHQ, and let me just add this: I expect to see Tom Daschle lay hands upon a leper at his confirmation hearing and heal that man of his affliction.  Because it’s going to take about that much of a mitigating factor to make this pick for HHS palatable.

Moe Lane

PS: Does any Democratic politician pay his or her taxes properly, and on time? Do any of them know how to, even? It’s a heck of a thing to ask, but circumstances kind of require it right now.

Crossposted at Moe Lane.

In response to this story about how supposedly Senator Nelson of Nebraska had called in Senator Corker of Tennessee to try to get a “bipartisan solution” (read: “Republican cover”) for the Democrats’ debt bill, Sen. Corker’s office contacted Instapundit with the following:

UPDATE: A Corker spokesperson emails: “As I’ve told Fox, we were invited late yesterday to a meeting in Sen. Ben Nelson’s office and were surprised to learn by reading the news this morning that by accepting the invitation we had joined a gang. That’s not accurate and we did not attend the meeting.”

I repeat. The Democrats own this one. Because you won, remember?

Crossposted at Moe Lane.

• June 16th, 2006: Voted nay on a resolution rejecting the imposition of a timeline on the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
• February 16, 2007: Voted to condemn the ultimately-successful surge strategy that allowed us to win the Iraq War.
• March 10, 2007: Clyburn acts as whip for Iraq supplemental bill that included a timeline for withdrawal.
• May 1, 2007: Clyburn condemns Bush’s veto of the anti-victory, so-called “Iraq Accountability Act.”
• July 30th, 2007: “Clyburn: Positive Report by Petraeus Could Split House Democrats on War” (and thus make the imposition of a timeline more difficult for the Democrats).

• January 30th, 2009:

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I would like to thank both the President of the United States of America, and the liberal Democratic group Americans United for Change, for their plans to remind three critical swing states that the Democratic Party is pushing a debt package that only 42% - and dropping - of the country believes in, and that a majority of independent voters oppose.  But there’s something even odder about this strategy:

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Because I think that I can say with some certainty that, on the Great List of People and Groups Whose Economic Status I’m Worrying About*, the wives, girlfriends, and mistresses of suddenly-anxious Wall Street financial types is somewhere on the part of the sheet still left in the printer when I ripped out the list in a hurry on my way out the door. Extra credit for the blog, which I cannot make myself link to. I’ve tried. It just ain’t happening.

I suggest that they start dating electricians. If the electricians are interested, of course. Although Allahpundit’s apparently willing to take the hit for the team…

Moe Lane

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They threw him out 59-0:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been convicted at his impeachment trial and thrown out of office.

His removal comes nearly two months after his arrest on charges of trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. He becomes the first U.S. governor in more than 20 years to be removed by impeachment.

…and AoSHQ reports that they’re apparently setting it up so that he’ll never hold office in Illinois again.

In light of that: Blagojevich likes literary references.  I’m making one under the fold.

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I got the tip from fellow RedState gonzo blogger absentee that Susette Kelo’s house - the one that the Supreme Court ratified the City of New London’s taking away from her, in what was frankly not liberalism’s finest hour - still hadn’t been replaced by anything. If that post by This Woman’s Weblog is accurate, it sure looks like it:

As you know, Susette’s little pink house and the homes of her neighbors were seized through eminent domain in a landgrab sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court. New London promised to put a glitzy new private development project on the land, but now, nearly four years after the ruling and $78 million in taxpayer money spent, literally nothing has been built on the land; it remains vacant, the neighborhood bulldozed.

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It’s not up yet at THOMAS, but really: it’s the thought that counts. From Representative JOHN CARTER OF MARS!… err, actually, Texas’ 31st district (and a Republican, of course), we have this fun little bill:

All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.

Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.

Via AoSHQ, where they’re just as aware as we are that the Democratic Congress would never dare let this become law. After all, where would the country be if the proletariat was able to access the same considerations and exceptions currently enjoyed by the aristos running the place?  - Still, nice point there, Warlord.

…

What?  Has Edgar Rice Burroughslived in vain?  What did some of you people do growing up?

Moe Lane

Crossposted at Moe Lane.

Early reports suggest that no Republican voted Aye.

More as I get it.

From Allahpundit:

Update: Final vote: 244-188. It was 242-190 moments before they gaveled it — with every last Republican voting no — but two no votes switched at the last minute and they didn’t say who they were. I assume they’re Blue Dogs, but I’ll check. Either way, for good or ill, this is entirely the Democrats’ baby now.

Yes. Yes, it is.

We were starting to worry.

Via Allahpundit. Alfonzo’s on Big Hollywood now, which is frankly a shame: I wanted him for this site. He and Caleb could have had wacky adventures together…

Moe Lane

PS: Although they could still do that MI6/CIA Bond thing. ‘Zo. Call us…

Let the pain start now:

President Obama’s choice to run the Justice Department has assured senior Republican senators that he won’t prosecute intelligence officers or political appointees who were involved in the Bush administration’s policy of “enhanced interrogations.”

Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, a Republican from Missouri and the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in an interview with The Washington Times that he will support Eric H. Holder Jr.’s nomination for Attorney General because Mr. Holder assured him privately that Mr. Obama’s Justice Department will not prosecute former Bush officials involved in the interrogations program.

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I’m not nearly as sanguine about this as Ed was:

EXCLUSIVE: Loophole allows terrorist detentions

President Obama’s executive order closing CIA “black sites” contains a little-noticed exception that allows the spy agency to continue to operate temporary detention facilities abroad.
[snip]

Current and former U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition that they aren’t identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said such temporary facilities around the world will remain open, giving the administration the opportunity to seize and hold assumed terrorists.

The detentions would be temporary. Suspects either would be brought later to the United States for trial or sent to other countries where they are wanted and can face trial.

…I wasn’t sanguine when I noticed this last week, and I’m not sanguine about it now.

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(Via Rachel Lucas, via AoSHQ) Because apparently resetting to zero their karma counter wasn’t exciting enough:

US Airways passengers get $5,000 each; is it enough?

Many US Airways (LCC) passengers who endured a crash landing in the Hudson River 12 days ago say they appreciate the $5,000 that the airline has offered — but some say it’s not enough.

Joe Hart, a salesman from Charlotte who suffered a bloody nose and bruises, says he “would like to be made whole for the incident.”

It’s too soon after the accident to determine what emotional distress he has suffered, he says.

…time to generate some negative karmic juice by going after the company who pretty much saved their lives. Smooth move, that.

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(Via Instapundit) I am not exaggerating. We are dealing with the real world now, and in the real world you do not cavalierly and abruptly disrupt groups providing vitally critical medical assistance without ill result:

During Obama’s transition, Dr. Mark Dybul was initially asked to stay on as the coordinator of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for several months until a replacement could be found and confirmed. Because Dybul was the main architect of the program and one of its guiding visionaries, few were surprised by the offer. With Ambassador Randall Tobias, Dybul organized the most staggeringly successful foreign assistance effort since the Marshall Plan — eventually helping support lifesaving AIDS therapy for more than 2 million people.

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Or, as Heritage put it, “The Pelosi-Reid-Obama Debt Plan”. Anyway, Politico reports:

President Barack Obama is coming to the Capitol this afternoon to curry favor with congressional Republicans. But it appears GOP leaders have already made up their minds to oppose his $825 billion stimulus plan.

House Republican Leader John A. Boehner and his No. 2, Whip Eric Cantor, told their rank-and-file members Tuesday morning during a closed-door meeting to oppose the bill when it comes to the floor Wednesday, according to an aide familiar with the discussion. Boehner told members that he’s voting against the stimulus, and Cantor told the assembled Republicans that there wasn’t any reason for them to support the measure, according to another person in the room. Cantor and his whip team are going to urge GOP members to oppose it.

In a nod to the president, Boehner did point out that this is the third time that Obama has met with Republican leaders, compared with the zero meetings they’ve held with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — a now-familiar refrain from Republicans in the House. But Obama’s diplomacy clearly isn’t buying any votes yet.

(H/T: Instapundit) Apparently, “I won.” counts as diplomacy these days.

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