Author: Moe_Lane

Democrats moving to distance themselves from Obama’s veterans policy.

There’s been quite the flareup over the disastrous Shineski comments on potential changes in veteran policy, and the Democrats in Congress have wasted no time in distancing themselves from the administration on this one. As just one example, we have Senator James Webb*: when contacted regarding the recent CNN article indicating the possibility of a “controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance,” Webb’s office provided this response from the Senator: “Treatment for service-connected injuries is clearly within the responsibility of the U.S. government through the Department of Veterans Affairs—period.” This statement to RedState is a duplicate of the statement also made to the Huffington Post; the story there also mentions a letter being put together by House Democrats opposing any such change. Very, very, loudly, and to anyone who will listen.

It’s become increasingly obvious that the administration’s tin ear when it comes to dealing with groups not inclined to be forgiving about it remains in full force. They haven’t gotten any faster at correcting their mistakes, either: Obama’s profoundly unsuccessful meeting with American Legion President David Rehbein should have been resolved yesterday, not tomorrow. Assuming that it will be: it’s possible that Obama will try an I-won and a flash of the charisma that he does not, in point of fact, actually have.

No, really. Bill Clinton would have had Rehbein walking out of there all smiles in the first place. For that matter, so would have George W Bush; but then, Bush had the advantage of being a Republican.

Moe Lane

*I’ve also contacted Senator Patty Murray’s office, but they haven’t gotten back to me yet.

Crossposted to RedState.

Start the Geithner Resignation Pool!

“The president has complete confidence” in Geithner, Gibbs told reporters.

Via Allahpundit. I’m taking Thursday, March 19th, 11 AM, for the notification that the SecTreas needs to spend more time with his family; this was a bit of a tough call for me, but by now the joke that administrations always pick Friday afternoons for bad news like this is just too well known. Besides, they’re going to want the Dow to rally for the weekend (it’s bad news politically, not economically).

By the way: that offer I made regarding finding a Commerce Secretary for Obama? I’d be happy to pick a Treasury Secretary, too… only, I won’t promise a liberal Democrat for this one. Nothing personal, but I think that we kind of need somebody who can project assurance, calmness, and competence.

A Republican, in other words.

Crossposted to RedState.

Hey, what do you call a six point shift in the partisan identification numbers?

[UPDATE] Hi to Ace of Spades & Hot Air readers.

“Republicans Take Small Lead.”

I’m not really criticizing Rasmussen, here: they have to be cautious. And it will almost certainly flip back and forth from last week’s Dem +3 and this week’s Rep +2. Nonetheless… you do have to wonder just how badly we are getting hurt by actually sticking to principles for a change.

Crossposted to RedState.

A special St. Patrick’s Day message for Dodd, from the NRSC.

[UPDATE] Hi to Instapundit readers.

It takes a lot for me to admit to the existence of St. Patrick’s Day; like virtually everybody else who can legitimately claim full-blooded Irish descent (15/16ths, in my case), I despise this holiday. Drunken non-Celtic buffoons with bad accents vomiting all over the place doesn’t appeal*. So, it requires something special to get me to even acknowledge the iconography.

This’ll do:


Continue reading A special St. Patrick’s Day message for Dodd, from the NRSC.

The most interesting thing about this J-List thing…

…as mentioned by Brother Erick Erickson here, about this article here, is that nowhere does the Politico state that they got their information about this particular echo chamber from their own J-List members. The only on-the-record quote from a named Politico J-Lister is, in fact, rather innocuous. Which suggests that either: Politico doesn’t want its own members being accused of dishing out some of the more salacious details; or that they have independent sources willing to forward juicy details to the Politico.

Either way, sounds like they’re breaking Rules #1 & #2 of Fight Club. Always the way, when you get too close to DC…

Moe Lane

PS: Thanks for letting us know that Toobin’s on that list, by the way. Alterman we would have guessed, anyway, but there are people who actually still believe that Toobin’s somewhere close to objective.

Crossposted to RedState.

And so the 2010 fundraising cycle begins.

Via Andrew Malcolm we see that Obama’s first Presidential fundraiser is scheduled for March 25th, for the DNC. Currently, the Democrats are trying to lower expectations, which… doesn’t mean much of anything, really. They did a lot of that last year to heighten their eventual totals, and it worked out pretty well for them.
Continue reading And so the 2010 fundraising cycle begins.

Scott Murphy (D) thinks that the voters of NY-20 are stupid.

Give as much as you can.

That’s a provocative title, to be sure – but after reading this Weekly Standard article that’s the only conclusion that you can draw. Between lying about his opponent’s stance on the stimulus, lying about how he’s not checked out on the Solomon amendment (in NY-20! That’s like not knowing about the CBC in MD-07, or corrupt machine politics in IL-05), and – coming to the conclusion that being anti-gay is also racist? That one was a little incoherent – we’re seeing quite the flailing. Continue reading Scott Murphy (D) thinks that the voters of NY-20 are stupid.