They crunched some numbers, put together an equation or two, sacrificed three white cockerels to Moloch and came up with… the Democrats picking up three seats in the House, and losing seven in the Senate. Which will lead people all over the spectrum to write posts and articles all using a variant of the concept Yes, probably. (pause) But…
Which is a surprise, given that I didn’t think that there were 318 Republicans in the House… no, wait, there aren’t. 82 Democrats voted against raising the debt limit without accompanying spending cuts; which is highly entertaining, given that 114 House Democrats signed Rep. Peter Welch’s letter requesting… precisely this vote. Do compare the signatories to said letter with the no votes on HR 1954: | Read More »
The Hill reports that the following House freshmen will be given slots on the following committees: Appropriations: Alan Nunnelee, Steve Womack, Kevin Yoder, & Tom Graves on Appropriations. Energy: Cory Gardner, Morgan Griffith, Adam Kinzinger, David McKinley, Mike Pompeo, and Charlie Bass. Financial Services: Quico Canseco, Bob Dold, Sean Duffy, Michael Grimm, Nan Hayworth, Bill Huizenga, Robert Hurt, Steve Stivers, Steve Pearce, and Michael Fitzpatrick. | Read More »
I don’t know whether this new sobriety on the part of the House GOP caucus is due to conviction, or fear: Since all the Republicans will really control after January is the House of Representatives, much of what Boehner and Cantor have had to say has involved changes internal to the House. The new House will, for instance, systematically review federal regulations that depress job | Read More »
It seems a bit odd that Senate Democrats have agreed to use a rules technicality to prohibit the President from making any recess appointments between now and the election – particularly since Senator Dick Durbin (D, IL) seemed to be suggesting earlier this week that a recess appointment for blocked OMB nominee Jacob Lew would be possible if the hold on his nomination was still | Read More »
Today’s conservative pick-me-up of liberal gloom and despair comes from Brent Budowsky, whose I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-the-blackest-irony piece in the Hill (called “Revolution in the air:” again, forsooth) will provide you with a piquant, yet filling, compliment to your coffee-and-beverage. Budowsky has come to the realization that a: there is an epic-level anger out there with the people running things into the ground and b: everybody is extremely | Read More »
This is passing “institutional cowardice” and is rapidly approaching the status of “blackmail threat:” Democratic leaders are likely to punt the task of renewing Bush-era tax cuts until after the election. Voters in November’s midterms will thus be left without a clear idea of their future tax rates when they go to the polls. I can just see the slogan, too. “Vote Democratic, or we’ll | Read More »
Elections have consequences – and here’s one, now. Thursday, the House of Representatives approved the bill 219-206, with 36 Democrats and 170 Republicans in opposition to the measure, which was written by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this year, and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who led the Senate Democrats’ campaign panel in 2008. The bill | Read More »
Loathe as I am to link to Mickey Kaus* until after the California primary is over, the fact remains that I saw this Fred Barnes WSJ article via his site (H/T: Instapundit): Washington has never been held in lower esteem by Americans than it is today. Yet those in control of Washington—President Obama and congressional Democrats—are bent on enacting a series of sweeping domestic policy | Read More »
Heh. I’ve been referring to Congress as being barons and petty-nobility – very, very, very petty nobility – for some time; but it’s nice that other people have noticed. Eleanor Clift (via Instapundit): ?It took just three weeks for upstate New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa to resign his seat in Congress after accusations surfaced that he had sexually harassed members of his staff. The | Read More »
Via Just One Minute (indeed…) comes your feel-good story of the day: Congressional Democrats have managed to thoroughly muck up Congress’ own health care coverage, particularly for new hires. Both staffers and legislators: The law apparently bars members of Congress from the federal employees health program, on the assumption that lawmakers should join many of their constituents in getting coverage through new state-based markets known | Read More »
If this was happening in some other country, I would be laughing hysterically right now. Taking a new position, Axelrod said the White House only objects to state-specific arrangements, such as an increase in Medicaid funding for Nebraska, ridiculed as the “Cornhusker Kickback.” That’s being cut, but provisions that could affect more than one state are OK, Axelrod said. That means deals sought by senators | Read More »
(Via Instapundit) The Hill’s Congress Blog asks a question which has a very obvious answer: Should Obama get tough with Congress? or Should President Barack Obama be more assertive in pushing the rest of his legislative agenda? …and the answer is, of course, “Yes.” Presidents always need to get tough with Congress. They particularly need to get tough with Congress when both the legislative and | Read More »
(Via Hot Air Headlines) Let me add a thought to this observation by Jazz Shaw: It seems to me that Obama is a good enough politician that he can read the writing on the wall. He’s going to have to start dealing with a significantly more powerful Republican force in Congress next year and seems to be laying the groundwork to get something done. Smart | Read More »
Far too soon for DOOMWATCH, but one year in you don’t want to see this kind of reaction if you’re a Democrat: Short version: both Democratic and Republican voters are happier with Congress these days, and Independents are not. The uptick for the first two is easy enough to explain: both side’s partisans are happy that their respective sides are slugging it out. The question | Read More »
Fresh from their general campaign last Saturday of utterly failing to convincing Congress to do anything, Organizing for America is now engaged in regional spamming of their email lists to go after of individual legislators considered either hostile or insufficiently favorable to the President’s plan to saddle the next three generations with even more crushing, unnecessary debt. This is primarily targeting Republicans: in fact, based | Read More »
While I understand the concerns of both Gateway Pundit and Dan Collins of Protein Wisdom Pub about restrictions made on individuals affected by HR 1388 – I don’t particularly trust the government, either – this particular situation is both more and less worrisome than you might think. Which is an impressive trick, really.
While in the process of idly mentioning that the deficit’s going to be worse than originally indicated, Senator Conrad (D-Countrywide) says something very, very interesting: Conrad also said he did not plan to include any instructions in the budget plan he is crafting for health care or the greenhouse gas initiatives. Such instructions written into the budget would give it a privileged status and make | Read More »
He doesn’t approve of the spending bill’s change in Cuba policy (Via Dan Riehl): :The Menendez rebellion was a jolt of political reality for Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Obama, signaling that the solidarity of the stimulus debate is fading as Democratic lawmakers are starting to read the fine print of the bills they will wrestle with in the coming weeks and months, | Read More »
Well, Rep. Flake tried to get the Democrats to vote in favor of ethical behavior again, and again they voted him down. Via Instapundit: House turns back call for PMA probe The House on Thursday night turned back another call to investigate the PMA Group, a once-powerful lobbying firm whose offices were recently raided by the FBI and which has close ties to Pennsylvania Rep. | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}