Month: March 2010

‘Nobody… knows… the bill that we’ll see…’

Who is running this rodeo, anyway?

Fox News (Via Hot Air):

President Obama will soon propose a health care bill that will be “much smaller” than the House bill but “big enough” to put the country on a “path” toward health care reform, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday.

“In a matter of days, we will have a proposal,” Pelosi said, pointing to Obama’s forthcoming bill.

“It will be a much smaller proposal than we had in the House bill because that’s where we can gain consensus. But it will be big enough to put us on a path of affordable, quality health care for all Americans that holds insurance companies accountable.”

CNN:

President Obama is likely to lay out a political road map Wednesday for passage of sweeping health care legislation, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

Gibbs said the president will talk about “the way forward” to pass a bill. Among other things, Obama is expected to advocate for an “up or down vote” in Congress if necessary, Gibbs said.


The Hill (via @mkhammer):

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) says there is no truth to reports that President Barack Obama will press Congress to pass a significantly smaller healthcare reform bill.

“I don’t have reason to believe that that’s accurate,” Hoyer told The Hill following a speech at a Federation of American Hospitals conference Tuesday.

You know, Republicans sit down and talk to each other before they do something. It’s a radical notion, I’m sure, but we find that it works for us.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Barbara Boxer (D, CA) to get primary challenger: Mickey Kaus.

Seriously.

Pioneering political blogger Mickey Kaus took out papers filed to run for U.S. Senate in California, he told LA Weekly. The Venice resident said he’ll run this year against Barbara Boxer for her seat. He said he took out filed papers at with the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters, although a spokeswoman there could not yet confirm the filing.

The Democrat has been centrist and even conservative on some of the issues on which Boxer has taken a more left-leaning stand, including immigration: He does not favor amnesty and favors a more restrictive national policy.

Mickey’s even admitted to it on his site, which would explain why it’s not been updated for a week otherwise.  For obvious reasons, I’m not endorsing him – a hypothetical Senator Kaus would caucus with the Democrats, which breaks the first rule of my endorsement criteria – but if you’re a Democrat who is tired of a liberal idiot* or idiots representing you, well, do something useful about it.  Nobody cares if you’re just going to be mortified.

Moe Lane Continue reading Barbara Boxer (D, CA) to get primary challenger: Mickey Kaus.

Fark stole my joke.

Regarding that Al Gore Papal brief on the slow-motion apostasy spreading through his faith:

Al Gore comes out of his hole, sees his shadow…

And by ‘stole’ I mean ‘actually made it before I could be bothered to.’

Moe Lane

PS: I forget: did the Cubslayer ever give back all that dirty tobacco money that he accepted?  I only ask because he brought up the tobacco industry in said brief.

Is Pete Stark (D, CA)… I don’t really like to say, actually. #rsrh

Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I despise the man.  I’ve also called him ‘crazy.’ So you can discount my surprised reaction to the following:

Stark was recently cleared for allegedly taking advantage of a tax credit for Maryland residents. He was accused of abusing the homestead tax credit on his Maryland home — a credit that limits tax assessment increases on a primary residence. Stark’s primary residence is in California, but he filled out the application for his home in Maryland.

The interview with the Office of Congressional Ethics, which refers cases to the House ethics committee, didn’t go terribly well, according to the report. Stark initially said he didn’t know what the tax credit was, but later said he did not want to discuss what he knew. Then he later said he knew the application specified one must be registered to vote in Maryland to apply. He acknowledged that neither he nor his wife are Maryland voters.

Stark originally said he did not recall completing the application online. Later in the interview, the memorandum says, he said he knew he completed the application.

…any way that you like.  It still sounds a little, well, it sounds like there’s a possibility that Rep. Stark may be having legitimate memory and cognitive issues.  Hard to say if he’s gotten any more irritable and erratic in the last few years, of course; Stark was never exactly what one would call tightly wrapped to begin with, and I imagine that old age (he was born in 1931) hasn’t helped that.

No, seriously, I’m wondering if there’s something… wrong, there.  Something that I wouldn’t wish on an enemy.

Moe Lane

Actually, somebody *should* buy up AosHQ. #rsrh

I say that professionally; or semi-professionally; or semi-hemi-demi-professionally.  Ace of Spades HQ is a strong site with a good crew and an engaged readership.  Pretty… freewheeling; but worth the acquisition, I would say. Definitely worth advertising at.

I note all of this because it’s not Ace’s fault that this story is so messed up.  I challenge anybody to report on it without going a little gonzo, frankly.

[UPDATE]: You could do worse than acquire Joy’s site, too.  Old-school respectability is worth something, even if ‘old-school’ is defined as ‘more than five years’ worth of posting history.’

A call for packing the Supreme Court? Is this man MAD?

This is a joke, right?

This may come as a surprise to some people, but the U.S. Constitution does not specify the size of the Supreme Court.

[snip]

So if nine justices is not writ in stone, the embattled President Obama should deal with this hostile conservative/reactionary court by adding three members.

(Via AoSHQ) Leaving aside the fact that author Stan Isaacs apparently felt the need to educate his readers about something which would be familiar to anybody with even a basic working knowledge of 20th century American history*, I’m wondering whether Isaacs can actually count.  The President can declare as many Supreme Court justices as he likes; getting them confirmed requires Senate approval.

And if it was OK for then-Senator Obama to filibuster Alito for ideological reasons, then it’s certainly OK for us to return the favor.  And the GOP has the votes.  And the GOP base will descend like an asteroid from orbit on any GOP Senator that even looks like he or she will not support a filibuster against packing the US Supreme Court.  And then the GOP will rake the Democrats over the coals about it in the November elections.

So, really.  Feel free to try this.

Moe Lane

PS: My initial reaction to the size of the Supreme Court is that it’s not outside the realm of possibility that we’d be better off if the number was reduced to, say, seven.  I’m not wedded to that opinion; I’ve never really thought about it before.

*Insert the standard rant on the American public school system here.

Crossposted to RedState.

Who should Obama campaign for next?

I have a list. Lists, really.

Via Hot Air Headlines comes your feel-good news of the morning:

During his whirlwind visit to Las Vegas two weeks ago, President Barack Obama mentioned U.S. Sen. Harry Reid by name four dozen times, gave him a big hug and talked him up as if he was a long-lost brother.

[snip]

A larger percentage of voters surveyed (17 percent) said they would be less likely to vote for Reid following the president’s visit than said they would be more likely to vote for him (7 percent). Seventy-five percent said Obama’s visit would have no effect on how they vote.

The administration is claiming – now – that the President wasn’t in Nevada to stump for Reid (he certainly wasn’t there to apologize to Nevadans for slamming Las Vegas again), mostly because the administration has far too many people in it who discount the average intelligence of the average American voter.  Meanwhile, they found a political science guy* willing to claim that this isn’t as bad as it looks, because it’s only likely voters that got surveyed, and the President was trying to shore up Reid’s support among registered voters.

No, really.

At any rate, if President Obama feels up to it I’d personally like him to extend his tour.  Could he actively support and stump for every Democrat on this, this, and this list?  Particularly the ones particularly at-risk.  That’d be a help, thanks.

Moe Lane
Continue reading Who should Obama campaign for next?