February 17, 2011

— Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), in an interview with NPR.

— RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, talking about his unusual name on Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends.

—Karl Rove, telling Fox News that Republicans have to stop the birthers in their party. When asked what percentage of Republican voters were birthers — a recent poll found 51 percent — Rove added: “I don’t know, but whatever it is, it ought to be less, because we need the leaders of our party to say ‘Look, stop falling into the trap of the White House and focus on the real issues.’ “

So Be It: House Votes To Kill Hundreds of Govt-Created Jobs in Ohio GOP Enclaves, Including Speaker Boehner’s 8th District

February 17, 2011February 20, 2011 Jon Ponder

map-evendale-boehner-district — Evendale, Ohio

The House voted yesterday to eliminate a controversial fighter jet program, which, if it survives the Senate and conference negotiations, would result in the closing of a GE plant in Evendale, Ohio, and the layoffs of over 1,000 workers, most of whom live in Hamilton and Butler counties.

In the vote, 110 Republicans joined with 123 Democrats to pass an amendment to kill development of a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet.

While some are interpreting the vote as a slap at Speaker John Boehner, who represents the 8th congressional district, which includes Butler County, others are pointing to it as another example of the incompetence of the speaker and his House leadership team.

Earlier this month, Boehner and the House GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy of California sent several bills to the floor apparently without knowing in advance whether the votes were there to pass them. A vote to extend sections of the PATRIOT ACT failed when about two dozen Republican members voted with Democrats to kill it. A measure to take back $180 million dollars in United Nations dues also failed because of GOP crossovers. The Boehner team then pulled a third bill that would have extended financial assistance to workers who lost their jobs to competition from imports.

Speakers of the House rarely, if ever, schedule a vote on an issue until they know they have the votes to win. Some have discounted these missteps as “rookie mistakes” — apparently forgetting that Boehner has been in the House for 21 years, and in the GOP leadership since 2007.

The vote to kill the Evendale project came just a day after Boehner took to the cameras to insist that if spending cuts resulted in eliminating hundreds of thousands of federal jobs, then “so be it.”

Remember that one of the Republicans’ favorite “big lies” is that the federal government cannot create jobs. Like Boehner’s “so be it” assertion on Tuesday, the snafu over the jet engine vote also exposes this big lie for what it is: The salaries of the workers in the Edendale plant are all paid in principle, if not in full, out of federal government contracts with GE.

It’s certainly possible that Boehner could save the Evendale plant through backroom deals as the budget bills move forward, but if the program is eliminated, it will likely result in hundreds of the speaker’s constituents and their families abruptly finding themselves on the path to financial ruin — a circumstance that could set off a cascade of business failures in Butler County.

If so, it’s likely the speaker’s nonchalance about the plight of laid off federal workers could come back to haunt him in the 2012 campaign.

So be it.

Majority of Americans Say Obama Has International Leaders’ Respect

February 17, 2011 Buck Banks

52%

The majority of Americans who continue to say foreign leaders respect President Obama, down from 2010 (56%) and 2009 (67%). However, Obama’s current measure is more positive than was the case during most of the terms of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Day: February 17, 2011

Verbatim

That’s how you pass or kill something in this country, you use emotion, fear, guilt or racism, and I’ve been in them all — I did immigration, nuclear, Social Security, aging — I learned where the long knives are.

— Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), in an interview with NPR.

Verbatim

My name is what happens when a Greek and a German get married. It’s a clash of cultures but I am learning to live with it. My kids are Jack and Grace, my wife is Sally, my dad is Richard and my sister is Marie. I don’t know how it happened but I am learning to live with it.

— RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, talking about his unusual name on Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends.

Verbatim

Within our party, we’ve got to be very careful about allowing these people who are the birthers and the 9/11-deniers to get too high a profile and say too much without setting the record straight.

So Be It: House Votes To Kill Hundreds of Govt-Created Jobs in Ohio GOP Enclaves, Including Speaker Boehner’s 8th District

Majority of Americans Say Obama Has International Leaders’ Respect

52%

The majority of Americans who continue to say foreign leaders respect President Obama, down from 2010 (56%) and 2009 (67%). However, Obama’s current measure is more positive than was the case during most of the terms of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“One woman at a rally in New Jersey told me last week that she was ‘nauseously optimistic.’ That may capture a lot of people’s last-minute jitters.”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), quoted by Axios, on what Democrats feel ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.”

— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by The Wrap.

“Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.”

— Republican election law expert Ben Ginsberg, quoted by Politico, on the Trump administration’s effort to invalidate Alaska’s election results.

Numerati

3,824

$1.4 billion

-35 points

31%

63% to 38%

KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”