So John Boehner has given his surrender press conference. But there were some things he said in his very dispirited recitation that I suspect we’ll be hearing in TV commercials next year. I get the sense that Boehner’s been beat up so bad over the last 72 hours that he just couldn’t get the candor in check.
You know, sometimes, it’s hard to do the right thing. And sometimes it’s politically difficult to do the right thing. But, you know, when everybody called for a one year extension of the payroll tax deduction, when everybody wanted a full year of extended unemployment benefits we were here fighting for the right things. May not have been the politically the smartest thing in the world, but let me tell you what. I think our members waged a good fight.
And then a bit later …
If you can get this fixed, why not uh, why not do the right thing for the American people – even though it’s not exactly what we want?
Video after the jump … Read More
LGBT apology to just-resigned Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch: “We apologize that our selfish requests to marry those we love has cheapened and degraded traditional marriage so much that we caused you to stray from your own holy union for something more cheap and tawdry.”
The Senate just passed by unanimous consent the slightly tweaked version of the payroll tax deal it already passed a week ago. That clears the way for the House to pass it as well, expected shortly.
For students of congressional procedure, the more precise way to phrase this is that the Senate has agreed to deem the tax cut extension passed as soon as it passes the House. The reason for that is all tax bills must originate in the House.
But the procedural niceties aside, the Senate has in essence officially signed off on the deal.
The House just passed the payroll tax holiday extension. So that pushes this whole mess off until … February. That’s when things get really contentious.
Brent Bozell goes on Fox News last night and calls President Obama a ‘”skinny, ghetto crackhead.”
Newly unearthed direct mail piece signed by then-Rep. Ron Paul circa 1993 and pitching sales of his newsletters refers to “the coming race war in our big cities” and the “federal-homosexual coverup on AIDS.”
In the case of some of the toxic stuff in his newsletters, Paul has claimed not to have known about or sanctioned the content. But in the case of this mailer, his campaign says he’s not denying having written it.
The Ron Paul camp is now denying to TPM that Paul himself wrote the circa 1993 direct mail piece that Reuters first reported about last evening. So let’s unpack this. Read More
What’s that? You didn’t know it was almost Christmas?
Let Fox & Friends fix that for you.
President Obama and congressional Democrats are doubtless savoring their pretty thorough victory in their standoff with House Republicans over an extension of the payroll tax holiday. The congressional spit fights to come will soon take off some of the sheen.
But perhaps the real political win – the one with real electoral implications – is that more Americans now know that they actually have a payroll tax cut to lose, and the President emerged looking most like the one who wants to keep them from losing it.