Year: 2011

The Party of ‘No Ideas’ Takes Power Today

Buck Banks

The old Gray Lady nailed it today. In an op-ed piece titled “Pomp, and Little Circumstance,” the New York Times‘ editors showed the new Republican-led House of Representatives for what it is — John Boehner’s little stage for light drama. It would seem the new regime is all about the appearance of appearances and keeping the “sub” in “substance”:

The Republicans’ antics are a ghastly waste of time at a moment when the nation is expecting real leadership from Congress, and suggest that the new House leadership is still unable to make tough choices. Voters, no less than drama critics, prefer substance to overblown theatrics.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that that’s what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws. You don’t need a constitution to keep things up-to-date. All you need is a legislature and a ballot box. You don’t like the death penalty anymore, that’s fine. You want a right to abortion? There’s nothing in the Constitution about that. But that doesn’t mean you cannot prohibit it. Persuade your fellow citizens it’s a good idea and pass a law. That’s what democracy is all about. It’s not about nine superannuated judges who have been there too long, imposing these demands on society.

— Justice Antonin Scalia, in an interview with California Lawyer, noting that the U.S. Constitution does not protect women from discrimination.

Swing Voters, You’ve Been Had: Boehner, GOP-T Party Up to Old Tricks; Health-Care Repeal Written in Secret, No Hearings, $143 Bil Cost Unfunded

Jon Ponder

photos-boehner-armeyIn October 2009, John Boehner, now the House speaker-elect, complained to a reporter for the Washington Times, “[Democrats are] writing a health care bill in secret, even though the president called for all of this to be out on an open table and have C-SPAN cameras in the room.” Not surprisingly, the Washington Times, a right-wing propaganda daily owned by Sun Yung Moon, leader of the South Korean “Moonie” cult, published Bloehner’s comment without fact checking.

Boehner’s complaint was classic truthiness. The C-SPAN cameras weren’t allowed in to the hearing room, but otherwise he was lying:

[…]

Verbatim

Buck Banks

You do a whole lot more soul searching on the way down, I think, than on the way up. The irony is, as a human being, I probably have more to offer than I ever had in my whole life, just based on prospective, wisdom that comes with pain. But I probably have a smaller canvas on which to paint than I’ve had at any point in a long time. It is what it is.

— South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), in an interview with the Charleston Post & Courier, on leaving politics.

As Schwarzenegger Exits, Rep. Darrell Issa, the Cry-Baby Pol He Shoved Aside to Become Governor, Sets Sights on Impeaching the President

Jon Ponder

Speaker-Elect John Boehner may be the Republican most associated with sobbing on camera right now, but in California, the pol most famous for a girlie-man crying jag is Rep. Darrell Issa of San Diego County.

“I want seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks,” Issa told Politico. For anyone old enough to remember the Clinton wars in Congress in the 1990s, that certainly sounds like a return to the Chairman Burton era — 280 hearings in search of a bogus infraction that can be trumped up into a high crime or misdemeanor.

Issa is also remembered in California as the Republican pol who funded the recall of Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, only to find himself shoved aside in the race to replace Davis by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger complete his term as governor today.

In 2003, Issa, an accused car thief turned wealthy car-alarm entrepreneur, donated $1.7 million to a cabal of fringe GOP operatives intent on bringing down Davis in order to damage the California Democratic Party. In August of that year, with recall petitions certified, lawsuits settled and the recall officially underway, Issa, then virtually a political unknown, made an indelible first impression on California voters when he broke down in tears at a news conference with national and local news cameras rolling.

Issa’s motivation in funding the recall of the governor had been simple. He wanted the job for himself. But at the news conference, where by all rights he should have been announcing he was in the governor’s race, he was forced to announce he was dropping out instead.

[…]

F I N A L L Y

Trish

Maybe his new year’s resolution was to quit being a schmuck.

After almost two months, Alaska Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller announced Friday that he will end his legal challenge to incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s write-in victory, The Anchorage Daily News reported.

Speaking at a news conference in Anchorage, Miller said it was time to accept the “practical realities” of recent court rulings that had gone against him.

Then again, being a schmuck is hard to quit.

In his first interview after his public concession, Miller appeared on “John King, USA,” where CNN’s Ed Henry asked him if he had called Murkowski to personally concede. Miller said, “I have not called her. In fact, I don’t have her number.” When asked if he had sought out her phone number through the Alaska GOP, he answered, “Well, I think we already have conceded. We’ve asked for it before. I don’t have it.”