Month: July 2009

When you’re losing NPR…

There is – some – good news for the administration in this latest NPR poll (via Political Wire, h/t Soren Dayton), but when you’re a Democrat getting these kinds of results among registered* voters**:

Those are the chief findings of the latest NPR poll of registered voters conducted nationwide Wednesday through Sunday by a bipartisan team. The pollsters found 53 percent approving of the president’s handling of his job, while 42 percent disapproved — the narrowest gap of the Obama presidency to date. Most of the approving group said they approved strongly, and an even greater majority of the disapproving group said they disapproved strongly.

Poll respondents liked a Democratic statement on solving health care problems better than a Republican statement (51 percent to 42 percent). However, when asked about the plan now moving through Congress, a plurality of 47 percent was opposed and 42 percent said they were in favor, based on what they had heard about the plan so far.

…you have a problem. The poll results also report that voters are also currently favoring generic Republican candidates over Democratic ones, 43/42 (and hastens to add that it’s within MoE): Rasmussen, of course, reported yesterday that the GOP lead the Democrats 42/39 among likely voters (that’s the fifth week in a row that the GOP’s lead on that question).  It’s going to be an interesting August, particularly since it looks increasingly likely that there will be a lot of Democrats that are going to be asked how they plan to vote on healthcare rationing, rather than why they voted for healthcare rationing.  Either one would have been fun to work with, but I suppose that it’s unreasonable to expect to have both.

Moe Lane

*Although the actual poll says “likely” at the very beginning.  I assume that there’s an arcane reason for that.

**Gallup had him at 54% on Tuesday.  All of these numbers will go up, by the way: the President’s approval ratings are linked to his job performance, and presumably at some point he’ll appear to be performing it.  But the days of the President being the One Who Ejaculates Roses are well and truly gone. Continue reading When you’re losing NPR…

CYV Watch: Shatner in the Sky with Diamonds.

Please understand: it gives me no pleasure to do these. But you understand that I can’t be seen as being the sort to make idle promises.

lampoon


Spleen/Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, William Shatner
Amazon.com

There’s more like that out there, you know. There’s so, so, so much more.

Moe Lane

Rep. Maxine Waters (D): Let’s primary Blue Dogs.

OK! Need a list?

This throwaway line in a Hill article (“Dem healthcare infighting intensifies”):

And on Tuesday it prompted Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) to hint that more liberal members of the party should consider challenging centrist Blue Dogs in next year’s primaries.

…eventually led me to this (via The Patriot Room: he also has a related video there) article about what has to be one of the more, ah, creative strategies floated out there this year: taking down ‘conservative’ Democrats in conservative districts by weakening them or replacing them with liberal Democrats.

Wait, what?

Asked if she would recruit more liberal candidates to run against Blue Dogs, Waters said, “That’s normally not done.”

But she added: “There may be people out there listening and observing all of this who may get motivated based on what they’re seeing and throw their hat into the ring.”

She also criticized White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for recruiting many of the House’s more conservative members when he headed the House Democrats’ campaign arm. Now, she said, “The chickens are coming home to roost.”

Continue reading Rep. Maxine Waters (D): Let’s primary Blue Dogs.

‘How they confirm Supreme Court judges.’

The confirmation of judges to the United States Supreme Court is a process that is exclusively the responsibility of the United States Senate.  A candidate (like Ms. Sotomayor) is brought before the Senate Judiciary Committee for evaluation/grilling: once she makes it out of the committee (it’s generally considered a good idea to have at least one crossover vote), she is then voted on by the full Senate.  At no time is the House of Representatives involved.

Why am I mentioning this?  Because apparently the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee doesn’t know any of this.  Doubleplusundead reported that this was the title of a press release*:

Senator Cornyn Votes NO on Sotomayor – Where is Rep. Pete Sessions?

To which FamousDC responded:

In the House.
Not voting on a Supreme Court nominee.
They only do that in the Senate.

I’m sure that we all hope that the DCCC has taken this lesson in elementary civics to heart, and earnestly that the offending press release in question is at least not lonely, wherever it’s been memory-holed*.  Then again, it’s probably keeping company* with all those press releases on how well the DCCC is recruiting this cycle, so at least it has friends* in this, its time of sudden darkness.

Moe Lane

PS: Of course the NRCC would love to hear from you.

*Allegedly.

Crossposted to RedState.

Actually, canaries are vicious.

(Via Protein Wisdom) Pound for pound, they’re some of the deadliest birds out there.  Particularly if they’ve been bred and beaten to the Death Ring as these birds have been.  It’s like Dobermans: they’re sweet, wonderful dogs, but you can brutalize them into being vicious killers.  It’s the same with canaries, except that they’re easier to warp.  You don’t hear about it, but large enough flocks have even been known to kill men; that’s why the traditional name for a group of canaries is a rabble. Continue reading Actually, canaries are vicious.

Cabinet *not* to Thunderdome this weekend.

They’ll be “bonding,” instead. No, really: that was the word used. Which leads me to the image of Clinton writing down five things that she likes about Geithner while Chu makes Napolitano a personalized clipboard.  And everybody’s had their shoes taken away at the beginning, and nobody’s allowed to watch TV, and the people who smoke will have to listen to the happy-shiny lecturing of the people who won’t, and then THE RAIN FITFULLY STARTS… sorry.  Got sucked into a bad place in my memories there for a second.

Cabinet Will ‘Retreat’ to Blair House to Hand Out Report Cards

Aides promise that there will be no trust circles or “sharing” exercises, but President Obama’s Cabinet will gather Friday and Saturday to mark the administration’s sixth month in office with a high-level retreat.

The gathering, to be held at Blair House and the White House Conference Center, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the executive mansion, will feature all 22 Cabinet-rank members for a series of policy presentations, several officials familiar with the planning said Tuesday.

They’ll also get graded on their performance – presumably, on a curve – which would suggest an interesting reality show of let-them-compete-in-weird-contests-to-keep-their-departments, but that idea’s been not only done to death; it’s been done to death, the corpse reanimated as a zombie, and the zombie then beaten to pieces with a stick.  So no, we might as well just go to the gladiatorial combat and be done with it.

40 quatloos on the Secretary of State! Continue reading Cabinet *not* to Thunderdome this weekend.

I think that it might even be worse then getting Wales*.

People are trying to get the perfect title for this story:

Patrizia D’Addario: Silvio Berlusconi offered me a seat in European Parliament

The prostitute at the centre of the sex scandal involving Silvio Berlusconi says that the Italian Prime Minister offered her a seat in the European Parliament.

…but I don’t know. There’s a certain simplicity to that, right there.  Besides, I’m sure that if I actually read Italian I’d be rolling on the ground in response to these.

Moe Lane

PS: Chintzy so-and-so.

*Classical reference.

Crossposted to RedState.

Sometimes they let the kids run the track switchboard, too.

(Via Drudge) I’d find this funny, except that somebody’s going to lose their job over it…

MTA Operator Let Kid Drive Train, Rider Claims

Driving a subway is so easy an 8-year-old could do it – and one straphanger claims that’s who he saw behind the controls of his train.

Jules Cattie, a 41-year-old lawyer who lives on the East Side, was shocked when he saw a young child at the helm, next to the driver, of his Lexington Avenue express train Sunday, according to the Daily News. And the MTA says it’s launched “a vigorous and thorough investigation” into the allegation.

…which is a shame (says the son of a railroad man). Letting your kid take a supervised shot at the greatest train set in the world is in fact a tradition; it’s kind of a working class thing – one that’s kind of linked to the old days, when child followed parent into a particular job – so it’s not really something that you can explain properly. I mean, I know perfectly well why this woman was showing her son how to operate the subway car; but expressing why to somebody who don’t get it seems to be frankly a bit of a chore, seeing that I’m not personally involved.