TPM has confirmed reports that House Speaker Boehner and President Obama may in fact be close to a big time debt deal. All cuts, no immediate revenues. Our story.
Everyone knows that Grover Norquist has long held most of Republican Washington by the short hairs with his no-tax-increases pledge. So any debt ceiling deal that includes tax increases is practically DOA for Republicans, almost all of whom have signed Grover’s pledge.
It may be bad policy. It may give Grover ridiculously outsized influence. But it’s pretty clear cut. Read More
I still think the slow pace of economic recovery and the dismal job situation are a political booby trap waiting to snare President Obama at any moment, but Gallup’s editor in chief says no President in the history of their polling has polled as well as Obama when the public is as unhappy with the economy.
You might have missed this but the “Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011” has already passed the GOP-controlled House and is pending in the Senate, where it will likely die. Still, I don’t think it’s overstating things to say that this bill if enacted would gut the landmark Clean Water Act by subordinating federal regulations to the regulations — or lack thereof — imposed by the individual states.
Tim Pawlenty’s flashes of machismo usually last about 24 hours before he retreats. It’s happened again, this time with the whole Michele Bachmann migraine business. Except this time it didn’t even take 24 hours.
Whatever the mix of business imperatives, political alliances, and corporate culture that led News Corp. into the News Of The World phone-hacking scandal, it’s been hard to believe that NOTW was the only British tab in that fiercely competitive space to engage in such subterfuge. The other shoe may soon drop.
Eric Kleefeld takes a close look at the looming recall effort against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).
The Dan Savage-Rick Santorum saga continues. Fair warning.
TPMMuckraker has obtained a copy of the FBI file of Rep. Donald “Buz” Lukens (R-OH), the disgraced Ohio congressman whose sexual and criminal misdeeds in the ’80s and ’90s opened the door, oddly enough, for the political career of Speaker John Boehner. Lukens died last year, and we’ve been sifting through the bureau’s 1,627-page file on him. It’s quite a blast from muckraking past.
TPM Reader CL:
I am a neurologist at an academic medical center quite familiar with migraines. I think in general, most people would accept that a propensity to migraine should not disqualify one from being President. Readers of your site will all appreciate Rep. Bachmann has far more legitimate reasons to disqualify her.