Moe Lane

You know, when you can’t even get Talking Points Memo – look at the name, people – to sign off on your own side’s bill, you have a problem.  In this particular case: in his haste to throw up (use of term deliberate, of course) some sort of pseudo-clever agitprop on ending oil subsidies, the Transcendent Benevolent Cosmic Space Teacher currently manifesting in our dimension as Senator Harry Reid has forgotten one small, minor, technical detail.  To wit: as written the bill raises revenue, and all bills that raise revenue must originate in the House of Representatives.

Article I.  Section VII.

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

And this is why the new House leadership insisted – insisted - that the new session start with the Constitution being read.  It’s because you can never assume that any Democratic politician has read the blessed thing.

As they keep demonstrating.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

In the process of trying to convince people that Tom Perriello might possibly have a chance at keeping his seat in Virginia’s Fifth District (given Perriello’s bad habit of voting as directed by his party’s liberal leadership) against Robert Hurt, the Washington Post tried to trot out this particular line of nonse… ah, conventional wisdom:

Though polls suggest that Republicans are by far the more energized party this year, the Democrats argue that — unlike the last time they lost the House, in 1994 — they aren’t being caught off-guard.

Not off-guard?  Let’s take a look at the chart below. (more…)