Day: July 13, 2011
Debt Debate Debacle
As the debt standoff went from bad to worse,
The public didn’t know who to curse.
In the game of fiscal chicken,
With the deadline clock tickin’
It sure looks like the Republicans blinked first.
Yea! Alan Grayson Is Being Quoted Again
It’s exactly like I said, the Republican health care plan: don’t get sick. The Republican unemployment plan: go find a job. The Republican homelessness plan: move in with your relatives. They have no answers to anything.
— Former Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), in a TPM interview, on why he’s running again for Congress.
Obama Gives Cantor a Smack-Down
Frankly, your speaker has it. Am I dealing with him, or am I dealing with you?
— President Obama, quoted by the Washington Post, snapping back at House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) who demanded details of the president’s “grand bargain” for a deficit reduction deal.
Piers Morgan Knew About Phone Hacking When He was Editor of News of the World
Apparently if you don’t change the standard security code that every phone comes with, then anyone can call your number and, if you don’t answer, tap in the standard four digit code to hear all your messages. I’ll change mine just in case, but it makes me wonder how many public figures and celebrities are aware of this little trick.
— Piers Morgan, writing in his 2005 book, The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade, showing an early knowledge of phone hacking when he was editor of the British tabloid News of the World.
Ex-Sen. Alan Simpson Finds GOP ‘Disgusting’
The stuff that’s going on in my party, where the — pettiness overcomes the patriotism — it’s just disgusting to me.
— Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), quoted by ABC News, in reaction to House Republicans rejecting President Obama’s “grand bargain” on raising the debt ceiling.
California Is a Bad Place for Republicans
200
Number of elections —including Janice Hahn’s (D) special election victory in California’s 36th congressional district — in which Republicans have failed to pick up a Democratic-held U.S. House seat since 1998, according to Smart Politics.
Democrat Hahn Wins CA 36 Special Election
But they were delusional — California’s 36th District includes anything-goes-and-then-some Venice Beach, for crying out loud. Plus, the Republican in the race was a teavangelical, who self-funded his race, which is an increasingly unpopular strategy among California voters. It didn’t help the Republican that an outside right-wing group produced an ad against the Democrat, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, that keyed off her work in gang intervention to recast her as a pole-dancing stripper.
Hahn, whose family has been movers and shakers in the Democratic Party in Los Angeles for decades, bested the bagger by nine points:
