Ex-Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who pleaded guilty to spending campaign cash on things like Michael Jackson and Van Halen memorabilia, is apparently a heck of a karaoke singer. He’s so good, in fact, that a congresswoman thinks it should be taken into consideration as part of Jackson’s sentencing.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) was flirting with the fringe for a little bit here today. He offered an amendment dealing with guns onto a bill that, of all things, dealt with water resources. The amendment likely would have fueled a conspiracy theory that alleges the Obama administration has been buying up all the nation’s ammo to keep it out of the hands of gun-loving regular folk. But by early this afternoon, he apparently had second thoughts and yanked the amendment.

Let me be the first to say that Republicans in Congress have perfectly good reasons for not wanting to return to “regular order” budgeting, just like Democrats had good reasons for not wanting to pass a budget the past four years and Republicans had good reason during that time to pressure Democrats to return to the “regular order” budgeting they now oppose.

But they’re not reasons anyone’s admitting to, and they’re definitely not evidence one party has a greater commitment to the rules and norms of budgeting than the other. It really all comes down to the fact that Republicans can’t negotiate budget policy without the threat of a debt default looming over the whole process.

They’re not even doing a great job of hiding it. Read More