"Ceremony" - Chromatics
- The House Republicans are insane and uncontrollable. Boehner's Plan B -- under which all income under $1 million would continue to be subject to the Bush tax cuts -- couldn't muster enough support among Republicans to be brought to a vote tonight. And then the House recessed for Christmas. It's very bizarre. I assume that this might well be the end of Boehner's speakership.
- I remain astonished that Obama is willing to give Scott Brown another shot at the Senate by picking John Kerry for Secretary of State. This is a horrible idea. I am sure that Kerry would be a fine Secretary of State, but I suspect Obama can find someone else who will fit the bill. In the meantime, he needs every Senate vote he can muster -- especially when one considers that in 2014 the Democrats will have many vulnerable seats, including Landrieu in Louisiana, Pryor in Arkansas, Begich in Alaska, Johnson in South Dakota, Rockefeller in West Virginia, Baucus in Montana, and Hagan in North Carolina. It is easy enough to see a scenario in which five to six of these seats are lost. With a 55 to 45 edge, we simply cannot afford to give up any seats. Find someone else.
- Just as I don't see a fiscal deal being reached because of the intransigence of the House Republicans, I also don't see any gun control initiative getting through Congress. All of this talk about things having changed due to the slaughter in Connecticut ignore the fundamental nature of the GOP's House contingent, which remains fundamentally reactionary and completely immune to pressure from saner quarters.
- The vicious attacks on Chuck Hagel by the Israel First lobby are completely outrageous. There has to be a point where people of good will say enough to this kind of thing.
- And in the spirit of the season, the passing of Robert Bork should remind us of how fortunate we were that Ted Kennedy and others stopped this incredible reactionary from having spent a quarter century dragging American jurisprudence even further to the right than it went.
- Paula's discussion of the stupidity of Charlotte Allen (even dumber than Megan McArdle), made me dredge this one up from the archives.
What else is going on out there?
