Tag: paul ryan

#rsrh Let me explain ‘courage’ to MSNBC.

Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s Morning Joe seems to think that President Barack Obama was not a gutless coward by using his podium to insult Republicans – specifically, Paul Ryan, who Obama personally invited, apparently specifically so that Ryan would be insulted.  Let me clear this up for Mika, and every other member of the steadily-dwindling Obama cheering section.

  • When you are the President of the United States and speaking in a formal setting, it is standard practice for other people to show deference to the position that you hold, given that it is an office that is almost two and a half centuries old, and one that has been held by some of the finest men in America.  This deference is unfortunately informal, which means that there’s no actual rule against a President abusing it by using said deference as a shield behind which he may safely snipe at his betters without fear of retaliation.
  • Which effectively means that President Obama is no more ‘brave’ for insulting Paul Ryan in an arena where Paul Ryan cannot swing back – because Ryan respects the office more than President Obama himself does – than I am for formally calling President Barack Obama a gutless coward for doing this.
  • Admittedly, it’s for ostensibly different reasons.  In the President’s case, it’s because there’s no individual out there who can effectively call him on the carpet for being a gutless coward; in my case, it’s because I’m this random guy on the Internet on the wrong side of one heck of a political power imbalance.  But in both cases there is the appearance of bravery, but not the actual substance of it.

I would hope that this clears it up for Mika, but I kind of doubt it. Continue reading #rsrh Let me explain ‘courage’ to MSNBC.

Paul Ryan to give GOP SotU response.

The Washington Post reports that Representative Ryan will be giving it from the House Budget Committee room, which is simultaneously: nicely symbolic; and a reminder that there’s a reason why Ryan is now the House Budget Chair.

It’s an interesting choice.  As the WaPo noted, the last two choices were Governors Jindal (2009) and McDonnell (2010).  While I actually liked Jindal’s response, there’s no denying that the message being conveyed by both of the GOP’s picks was more or less parallel to the actual speeches themselves.  In Jindal’s case, the Republican message was The Democratic party lies when they claim that we hate minorities; in McDonnell’s, it was You ain’t so tough, Barry.  You can be beat.  Knowing what I know of Rep. Ryan – I expect to see at least three graphs during his response – the underlying message here is We will be talking about fiscal responsibility, whether or not the President chooses to himself.

If President Obama is smart, he’d be well-advised to not permit too much of a contrast in that regard between his remarks, and Rep. Ryan’s.  He’d also be well-advised to take Ryan’s advice, but I’m not about to start relying on “And then a miracle occurs” when it comes to domestic policy.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Paul Ryan given power to bind and to loose.

Mostly ‘bind.‘

Elections.
Have.
Consequences.

And here’s one coming up, now: the incoming House majority will be establishing a rule that will give the House Budget chair the ability to set the spending ceiling for any 2011 budget.  This rule is currently causing House Democrats to freak out like koalas deprived of their eucalyptus leaves/junkies deprived of their heroin/hipsters deprived of their iPhones, for two reasons:

  • The Democrats never passed a budget in 2010, so this is going to affect spending for this fiscal year.  A lot.
  • Who is going to be the House Budget chair?  Why, Rep. Paul “Embrace the sweet pain that comes from cutting entitlements” Ryan.

And when I say “freak out,” I mean freak out: the Democrats are so upset about this that they’ve lost all control of their higher brain functions and have reverted to babbling about Social Security privatization.  And unilateralism!  We haven’t heard that one in a while. Continue reading Paul Ryan given power to bind and to loose.

Paul Ryan guts Chris Matthews.

Yeah, I know.  This is news?

I don’t like to encourage taking Chris Matthews seriously… and I guess that I’m not doing that here, either.  God knows that Rep. Paul Ryan (R) didn’t particularly raise a sweat in making both Matthews and Rep. Joe Crowley (D) look like dolts:

The ref should have stepped in and stopped that fight, huh? Crowley should be particularly incensed, given that he got knocked down by the spillover. I mean, really: by the time it was over Rep. Crowley was effectively bragging that his district was too poor to support small businesses that were successful enough to be affected by the tax rollback. That’s either… stupid, or ignorant; take your pick, they’re about equally unflattering to Crowley’s mother-wit. Continue reading Paul Ryan guts Chris Matthews.

This sums up the Democratic Congressional strategy perfectly.

On Tuesday night, be given a health care bill the size of Delaware that nobody in your office had a chance to read (over 1,000 pages, in this case).

On Wednesday, watch it be jammed through various committees.

On Thursday, find out from that the nonpartisan oversight group that’s supposed to be regulating this sort of thing hasn’t been able to read it, either.

Note that none of this is considered sufficiently important enough by the Democratic leadership to be worth taking the extra time to read the bill, let alone assess it. Because you should never let a good crisis go to waste, hey?

Moe Lane

PS: If you’re wondering why Rep. Paul Ryan didn’t rip off CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf’s head in that video, it’s because this isn’t Elmendorf’s fault. In fact, Senate Democratic leaders spent some time mocking Elmendorf’s concerns on the bill, presumably because they could. Also: don’t expect the so-called ‘Blue Dogs’ to hang tough on this. They never do.

Crossposted to RedState.

Blue Dogs feeling betwixt and between.

The poor things.

In the process of reading “Centrist Dems: Dogged If They Do, Dogged If They Don’t” by Froma Harrop (short version: pity the poor Blue Dog Democrats; the Left wants them to fall into line behind the progressives and the Right wants them to actually act as if fiscal conservatism meant something), I noticed this particular passage.

And Blue Dogs hold undisguised contempt for recent Republican conversions to fiscal rectitude. [Rep. Paul] Ryan’s appeal “to help us defeat this unprecedented taxing, borrowing and spending spree” drew a tart response from Louisiana Rep. Charlie Melancon.

“These statements come from the same individuals who wrote the president a blank check for eight years, driving spending to the highest levels in our country’s history,” said Melancon, a co-chair of the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition.

It struck me as an… odd reaction. Continue reading Blue Dogs feeling betwixt and between.