If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. -- Benjamin Franklin
"There's a real demographic problem with the Republican Party," Buchanan said. "It is a heavily white party, quite frankly. And as a share of the electorate, that is diminishing and Hispanics are growing very rapidly, Asians are growing rapidly, and by two-thirds they tend to vote Democratic."You mean the GOP is full of white people?!?
The Purge Of The Moderates from the ranks of the GOP is most certainly underway. That hardcore 20% of America that remains proudly Republican are not the Arlen Specters or the Mitt Romneys or the Susan Collinses of the political world. They are the Steve Kings, James Inhofes, and Michele Bachmanns of the fringe, extremist far right, the paranoid few who scream endlessly about Obama's fake birth certificate, fascist re-education camps, the global warming hoax, gays and lesbians destroying the world, the need to provide creationism as an alternative to the "unproven theory of evolution", and how the Swine Flu epidemic is just a ruse to get Kathleen Sebelius a job at HHS.That internal GOP struggle is now a full blown civil war thanks to Arlen Specter. The results of that war are just as important to Democrats and Independents as they are Republicans. We must absolutely have a viable alternative to the Democrats when they do stupid things, and right now the Republicans just ain't it, man.These are the kind of people who are now left in the GOP at this point. I forsee 2010 and 2012 will purge many of the remaining moderates from Washington as the party becomes not the Mighty Elephant but the Screaming Wingnut, the kind almost begging for another terror attack to hit the US so they can feel vindicated.
The kind of people who are left in the Republican Party are the kind of people who lament Dick Cheney not having run for President in 2008 not because a man with an approval rating even worse than Dubya would have actually won, but because it the campaign season would have purged the weak, useless moderates from the GOP much sooner and the GOP of today would be in better shape to fight Obama now, having already re-emerged from the civil war to reforge itself down to the ashes of Neo-Hoover, Neo-Goldwater conservatism instead of fighting that war now.
The Senate confirmed former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of Health and Human Services Tuesday on a 65-31 vote.And it'll take a little while to fill all the positions. Despite all the months of Republican delay, several voted for her anyway. In the end there was no reason to delay her confirmation, but the GOP did it out of spite. The question is how much did this delay cost America in our response to the Swine Flu outbreak?The timely vote will put Sebelius in office as the Obama administration is up against its first public health outbreak.
She steps into the role as swine flu numbers climb worldwide. As of Tuesday morning, at least 90 cases had been confirmed, including 50 in the United States.
Until her confirmation, the White House, which declared a public health emergency Sunday, was dealing with its first crisis without a secretary. But the administration said it was equipped to handle the situation.
There are still no appointees in place for any of the department's 18 key positions.
In most cases where a position is awaiting Senate confirmation, that job is filled by a career civil servant in an interim capacity. The Obama administration has named five nominees for the open positions.
Mitch McConnell, leader of a Republican minority that is now even smaller, suggested Tuesday that Sen. Arlen Specter's defection endangered not just the party, but the entire country.What makes this funny is the guy who engineered Specter's switcheroo? Joe Biden."I think the threat to the country presented by this defection really relates to the issue of whether or not in the United States of America our people want the majority to have whatever it wants without restraint, without a check or a balance," McConnell said Tuesday.
"Obviously, we are not happy that Senator Specter has decided to become a Democrat," McConnell said. "If we are not successful in Minnesota ... Democrats, at least on paper, will have 60 votes. I think the danger of that for the country is that there won't automatically be an ability to restrain the excess that is typically associated with big majorities and single-party rule."
What makes this even funnier is the fact that Republicans are complaining about checks and balances after a good 8 years of rubber stamping Bush legislation for his signature...and for Bush's thousands of signing statements when he didn't agree with Congress, he would simply ignore their laws illegally thanks to the "unitary executive".
But we're supposed to be worried about Obama and not the GOP.
On Tuesday, a key Democrat came out against the compromise bill, which would allow judges in certain circumstances to modify mortgage terms -- a process known as cramdown. Meanwhile, a second crucial Democratic vote said that he doubted the bill had enough support for his vote to decide it one way or the other.Surprise! Evan F'ckin Bayh again and his merry band of Club For Growth backstabbers!Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) spoke poorly of Durbin's compromise proposal, which is now being circulated. "I don't think it's much of a compromise," Landrieu told the Huffington Post. "My community bankers are really opposed to it and I think it's important for people to realize there is a big difference right now in the country between the health of these large international financial institutions and our local community banks...I think we gotta be careful about adopting processes and procedures that would really hurt our community banks."
Asked if she was a definite no, Landrieu responded that she was "pretty close to a definite No."
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) wouldn't say whether or not he supported the compromise, but he nevertheless expressed deep skepticism.
"My concern about this is that in our appropriate zeal to help the four or five percent of Americans who might be faced with bankruptcy, we don't unduly raise the costs of homeownership on the 95 percent who never will," Bayh, who supported the legislation last year, told the Huffington Post.
Backers of the bill say that they are close to getting the 60 votes needed; Bayh and Landrieu are key votes needed for passage. Bayh, however, painted a much more pessimistic picture, saying that he was unlikely to be the deciding vote.
Remember folks, the more foreclosures, the longer it takes for home prices to stabilize, and the worse the economy gets. Bayh's Boys are more worried about hurting the banks' feelings than the American homeowner.
In a letter to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the president made the request "at an abundance of caution," and said the funds should be "provided with maximum flexibility to allow us to address this emerging situation."Go ahead, GOP. Unanimously vote against that as pork. Filibuster swine flu funds. Watch what happens.He also suggested the supplementing of anti-viral stockpiles, and assisting international efforts to stem the outbreak could be good uses of the funds. He added that his administration has "carefully been monitoring the situation, coordinating state and local responses, assessing the risk here in the United States and cooperating with international organizations and health officials around the globe."
Via the blog Legal Pad: A three-member panel of the 9th circuit Court of Appeals ruled this morning on a request from the government that it dismiss the Jeppesen case, which focuses on the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.And hopefully the other two state secrets cases will get tossed out on their asses too. The legal arguments were specious when Bush made them, they are even more specious when Obama expanded upon them.From the decision:
Acceding to the government's request would require us to ignore well-established principles of civil procedure. At this stage in the litigation, we simply cannot prospectively evaluate hypothetical claims of privilege that the government has not yet raised and the district court has not yet considered."In other words, asking the court to dismiss the case at this point puts the cart before the horse. The state secrets claim "must be invoked during discovery or at trial," not at the pleadings stage." (court's itals)
The Jeppesen case is one of the three national security cases in which the Obama administration has invoked state secrets (the other two cases involve warrantless wiretapping). This despite the fact that, as a candidate, Obama criticized President Bush for too frequently invoking the privilege.
Today's decision is a major defeat for the Obama DOJ's efforts to preserve for itself the radically expanded secrecy powers invented by the Bush DOJ to shield itself from all judicial scrutiny. Given how Obama recently emphasized how committed he is to defending government secrecy powers in court, it it highly likely the Obama DOJ will attempt to appeal this ruling further -- to a full 9th Circuit panel and/or to the Supreme Court -- but in the meantime, the case will return to the District Court for a document-by-document assessment of what is and is not truly "secret" (and the court today held that a mere decision by the President to classify certain documents is insufficient; the court is required to exercise independent judgment as to whether secrecy is truly warranted). Finally, these 5 torture victims will have their day in court.Still a nation of laws, kids. Still a nation of laws.
Norm Coleman is taking an interesting rhetorical tack in the continued spin war among the Minnesota press. Coleman spoke to local newspaper company ECM's editorial board on Friday, and commented that the winner of this Senate race will always face serious questions.So yeah, Franken will win but he'll "have a cloud". You know, like Bush did for 8 years."No matter who wins the race, there's always going to be a cloud hanging over them -- did they really get more votes than the other guy," said Coleman. "That's a reality. And there's nothing you can do to change that."
With Arlen Specter being 59, the Republicans will never allow Franken to be seated as 60 unless the Supreme Court tells them to. They cannot afford to now.
Well, this absolutely assures that Norm Coleman will never, ever give up without a Supreme Court decision (nor will Minnesota GOP Governor Mark Pawlenty sign off on Franken) and Republicans will absolutely filibuster any attempt to seat Franken.Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to a statement he released this morning.
Specter's decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next Senator from Minnesota. (Former Sen. Norm Coleman is appealing Franken's victory in the state Supreme Court.)
"I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary," said Specter in a statement. "I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election."
He added: "Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans."
Also, it's not like Arlen Specter's going to be much help. He's basically the equivalent of Nebraska's Ben Nelson or Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat that's basically a moderate Republican.
Still. When Franken DOES get seated, it's 60. (Republicans can suck it.) Practical upshot though is I get to use the Democrat Stupidity tag instead of the GOP Stupidity tag for any Arlen Specter based posts from here on out.
[UPDATE] The Wingers are doing the Kubler-Ross stages of grief thing again, but mostly Anger, Bargaining, and Depression.
[UPDATE 2] Puts that poll where only 21% of Americans now identify themselves as Republicans in real perspective, doesn't it?
What conclusions can we draw? 1) The government's $3 trillion and counting TARP program represents the greatest opportunity for sharp operators to profit at taxpayer expense in history. 2) The Obama administration is either in favor of giving Wall Street sharks this opportunity or, at a minimum, doesn't much mind doing so. (If this seems odd, remember where Obama got the biggest chunk of campaign contributions in 2008.) 3) It may be that the TARP complex of programs is the beginning of a national-socialist type takeover of the financial services industry by the federal government. Thus, 4) we can only hope that this turns out not to be the case, and TARP is only the biggest--and perhaps, by the end of the day, the crookedest--waste of taxpayer money in history. Finally, 5) so far the only person or organization who appears to be looking out for the taxpayers is the Special Inspector General. We will be reading his future reports with great interest.While #3 there is really just kneejerk winger compaints about Plan N/Recievership (which Hindy still sees as THE DREADED SOCIALISM), he's right on the rest. TARP is a hell of a scam, it's costing us trillions, and there's still no accountability.
These numbers come on the heels of Steve Schmidt, former campaign manager for Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential bid, declaring the Republican party a "shrinking entity" last week-- citing the decline of GOP numbers in the west, northeast and mountain west as evidence.The Purge Of The Moderates from the ranks of the GOP is most certainly underway. That hardcore 20% of America that remains proudly Republican are not the Arlen Specters or the Mitt Romneys or the Susan Collinses of the political world. They are the Steve Kings, James Inhofes, and Michele Bachmanns of the fringe, extremist far right, the paranoid few who scream endlessly about Obama's fake birth certificate, fascist re-education camps, the global warming hoax, gays and lesbians destroying the world, the need to provide creationism as an alternative to the "unproven theory of evolution", and how the Swine Flu epidemic is just a ruse to get Kathleen Sebelius a job at HHS.And they show a somewhat significant decline from even last November's election when exit polls showed 32 percent of voters identifying as Republican as compared to 39 percent for Democrats and 29 percent for independents and others. (A caveat: voters tend to see things through a more partisan lens after having just voted in a presidential election than they do in an April poll.)
The Post poll numbers show the challenge for Republicans in stark terms.
The number of people who see themselves as GOPers is on the decline even as those who remain within the party grow more and more conservative.
That means that the loyal base of the party has an even larger voice in terms of the direction it heads even as more and more empirical evidence piles up that the elevation of voices like former vice president Dick Cheney does little to win over wavering Republicans or recruit Independents back to the GOP cause.
These are the kind of people who are now left in the GOP at this point. I forsee 2010 and 2012 will purge many of the remaining moderates from Washington as the party becomes not the Mighty Elephant but the Screaming Wingnut, the kind almost begging for another terror attack to hit the US so they can feel vindicated.
The kind of people who are left in the Republican Party are the kind of people who lament Dick Cheney not having run for President in 2008 not because a man with an approval rating even worse than Dubya would have actually won, but because it the campaign season would have purged the weak, useless moderates from the GOP much sooner and the GOP of today would be in better shape to fight Obama now, having already re-emerged from the civil war to reforge itself down to the ashes of Neo-Hoover, Neo-Goldwater conservatism instead of fighting that war now.
When the smoke clears, the GOP will be the party of Malkinvania, Glennsanity, and Bachmanniac.
Get used to that one in five thing, gentlemen.