This quote is from the same piece David linked below on Charlie Crist. But I think it may be a quote that ends up on a book they write about the GOP or perhaps even the country in 2010 …
“It’s hard to be more conservative than I am on issues — though there are different ways stylistically to communicate that — I’m pro-life, I’m pro-gun, I’m pro-family, and I”m anti tax.” … “I don’t know what else you’re supposed to be, except maybe angry too.”
See the rest here.
It seems like we may have another case for those Fox execs eager to discipline or fire staffers for ‘errors’/flagrant fibs meant to misinform views. This one’s about the Public Option allegedly being financed by taxpayer dollars as opposed to premiums from people buying into the program.
From TPM Reader JB, an old senate hand, now decamped to distant parts …
As you know, I used to work in the Senate. When I did, the threat of extended debate was made fairly often: usually to delay legislation until some matter of parochial concern to one or more Senators was dealt with, occasionally to threaten with extended publicity the passage of legislation thought to be unpopular.
It was always understood that legislation thought deeply inimical to one or more states’ most vital interests might be opposed with every resource at the disposal of an individual Senator or group of Senators. The inhibitions — all of them unwritten — against deploying those resources routinely, though, were considerable. If this had not been the case, legislation like the 1986 Tax Reform Act (which overhauled the entire federal tax code), the Goldwater-Nichols bill of that year restructuring the Pentagon, and the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments could never have been enacted.
It’s all tea leaves. But it looks like President Obama may be making or already made his decision on Afghanistan tonight.
A political scientist TPM Reader begs to differ with TPM Reader JB on the filibuster and the difficulty of getting hard bills through the senate …
I am a political scientist who has studied the Senate filibuster. As much as I’d like to agree with JB’s post, it misses the mark in important ways — leading people to blame Obama and Reid for what is really way beyond their control. (Note: that is not to say that Reid hasn’t made mistakes or Obama has not made mistakes — but that is a separate question).
A little late night fun: digging to find the origin point for a made-up GOP budget number. First, Ensign. Then traced back to McConnell and then ultimately to Judd Gregg.
Meanwhile, on the ‘reality, what a concept’ front, I’d totally missed this. But HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a state by state breakdown of what the Senate bill would mean in different states — how many more people could get insurance, how many would qualify for subsidies and tax credits to purchase insurance, etc. Worth a look.
The AP debunks GOP meme on the length of the health care bill: It’s only half as long as War and Peace. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Muslim intern spy hunt kingpin Dave Gaubatz now says his recent call for $25,000, a Winnebago and a couple motorcycles to conduct counter-terrorism research in North Carolina in December (in which one lucky contributor could tag along for the sleuthing) was an elaborate ruse (“bait”) to draw in what he calls terrorism-supporting reporters like TPMMuckraker’s Justin Elliott so they wouldn’t see the real counter-terrorism research he was this month.
Got that? Justin hops into the Gaubatz rabbit hole for the latest on the story.
Rep. Michele Bachmann recently asked Dems why they aren’t bigger fans of hers. Now the TPM Photo Feature team assembles this special Michele Bachmann greatest hits of the crazy photo feature for your viewing pleasure.
I’ve been wondering a lot about how and why the American traveling press came away from the president’s trip to Asia with the idea that the trip was some sort of shameful failure. Call it the thinking man’s bow nonsense. James Fallows, in a series of posts over the last few days, has some very insightful background on this.