Good afternoon, Daily Kos readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, or post manifestos.
This is a crosspost from Congress Matters.
Here's some of my own thoughts.
One of my FaceBook friends posed the following question: "when did John Shadegg go completely coocoo for Cocoa Puffs?"
I couldn't answer that, but I did find this story from yesterday.
"I saw the Mayor of New York said today, "We're tough. We can do it." Well, Mayor, how are you going to feel when it's your daughter that's kidnapped at school by a terrorist? How are you going to feel when it's some clerk -- some innocent clerk of the court -- whose daughter or son is kidnapped? Or the jailer's little brother or little sister? This is political correctness run amok."
In fairness, Shadegg did apologize, but the mayor's spokeman won't dignify that remark with a response.
I don't get it. We did all of those horrible things to the prisoners at Gitmo. Now that we are finally conducting a fair trial, the Right Wing thinks that the attack will happen now. Really?
In related news, AG Eric Holder shows that he (and the rest of the country) has a set.
"We need not cower in the face of this enemy," Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee at a packed hearing. "Our institutions are strong, our infrastructure is sturdy, our resolve is firm, and our people are ready."
Meanwhile Michael Gerson thinks Holder is teh suck and implies that he alone knows how to prosecute a terrorist.
Finally, the President told us today what we have known all along: that Gitmo won't close by January.
In an interview in the Chinese capital with Major Garrett of Fox News, Obama said he was "not disappointed" that the Guantanamo deadline had slipped, saying he "knew this was going to be hard."
I took a double take too. It looks like Obama will work with Fox "News" despite their incessant whining.
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ZOMFG! Obama's approval rating has dropped below 50 percent. The good news is that he is not really below 50 percent.
"Although President Obama's job approval rating is below 50 percent for the first time nationally, it is not statistically different from his 50 percent approval rating in October," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute. "Nevertheless, in politics, symbols matter and this is not a good symbol for the White House."
That reminds me of a joke about a physicist, an engineer and a statistician who go deer hunting. Catch me in the comments section of our show to read it.
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Does everyone remember the foot dragging on health care reform by the Senate Finance Committee?Sure you do. Well, dig in for round two.
Clear differences have emerged among the Democratic chairmen of the six Senate committees with jurisdiction over climate change legislation.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Commerce Committee, who both represent states with significant coal industries, would like to proceed cautiously.
For a round up of Baucus' lobbying ties, check out the Sunlight Foundation's research and tell me what the endgame will look like.
At any rate, this bill will be decided on regional and coalition rather than partisan lines. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Jim Webb (D-VA) are giving bipartisanship a chance on clean energy.
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And speaking of health care reform, let's all remember this lesson. If you sit on the fence too long, you will eventually get splinters in your ass. Case in point.
None of those Democrats is feeling the heat as intensely as Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), who has become emblematic of the improbable distance that health-care reform has traveled, and how far it still must go before becoming law.
Her vote and that of two other Democrats expressing serious reservations about the legislation -- Sens. Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Mary Landrieu (La.) -- will determine whether it will garner the 60 needed to break an all-but-certain Republican filibuster.
~snip
And of those three, only Lincoln must face voters next year.
Mitch McConnell, on the other hand, is playing the role of a cool customer on health care reform.
McConnell went out of his way to draw a contrast with the other side. "I've got a cheerful, upbeat, optimistic team ready to go to battle over what most of my members, if not all of them, believe may well be the most important issue they will ever deal with in their time in Congress -- this effort to transform the American health care system into a European type system," he said. "So we are anxious for the debate and are going to give it our best shot. And I don't know how it's going to turn out."
Remember, kids. Mitch already has health care and really doesn't seem to care that there are millions of uninsured Americans. In other words, you poor people can suck it and figure it out on your own. Thanks for playing.
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Bart Stupak defends the coathanger amendment.
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The problem with the House of Representatives is that the members have to constantly be thinking about the next campaign. The Hill offers us a list of some of the more intriguing primaries that will shape the 112th Congress even though the 111th has yet to pass most of its first budget. Process buffs might want to read up on Utah where Bob Bennett might not be conservative enough.
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Dana Milbank calls out Republican Senators for being against the filibuster before they were for it.
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California Democrat Xavier Becerra took on Nancy Pelosi and lost.
"I understand I have tire tracks on my back because Xavier threw me under the bus," witnesses quoted Pelosi as saying. The speaker went on to accuse Becerra of trying to improve his "street cred" with progressives by undercutting her.
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I turns out that almost $800,000 of the stimulus money created 30 jobs in Arizona's 15th Congressional District. The problem, of course, is that Arizona only has eight Congressional Districts.
"The inaccuracies . . . are outrageous, and the administration owes itself, the Congress and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes," Obey said. "We designed the Recovery Act to be open and transparent. . . . Whether the numbers are good news or bad news, I want the honest numbers and I want them now."
My instinct is that someone reported the numbers for the state's 15th state House district.
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If you think the law-making process in the United States is a mess, check out Iraq.
Any postponement of the Jan. 18 election could affect the schedule for withdrawal of American troops, although the American commanding general said he was "flexible" in the event of a delay.
Both of Iraq’s vice presidents, one a Sunni, the other a Shiite, as well as the president, who is a Kurd, can veto legislation.
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Finally, Eugene Robinson explains how Sarah Palin = Evita Peron. Does this mean that the movie version of Going Rogue will star Madonna and Antonio Banderas instead of Tina Fey.
Update: I guess everyone is talking about the CBO score.