When you hear that Jeb Bush is meeting today with family and top donors in a meeting convened by his 91-year-old ex-President father and attended by his 69-year-old ex-President brother to discuss the future of his campaign … does anyone on this campaign think about optics?
I mean, dad calls a meeting to discuss the future of Jeb’s campaign? It almost has the feel ‘Sorry, but time to end the summer project, son. You gave it a great shot …”
The details are still not altogether clear but it seems like John Boehner will do Paul Ryan an immense, immense favor by resolving all the potential budget stand-offs and possible legislative hostage takings through the end of next year. It still seems like there might be some poison pills Republicans are planning to include. But this would basically confirm for the House firebreathers everything they’ve always said about Boehner, take all their bombs and fireworks away for the next 18 months or so and again, do Paul Ryan an immense, immense favor by taking away the grounds for potential confrontations through 2016.
We’re hiring a Reporter to work out of our Washington, DC office. Job description and listing after the jump …
As I mentioned just after the first Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton’s support has increased substantially among our readers. But the gender breakdown is striking. Now, needless to say, I’m not surprised that Clinton has stronger support among female voters. But the split between men and women is quite stark.
Here’s an article in The Times of Israel (an English language Israeli news website) about Bill Clinton reflecting on the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Clinton is warm with praise. A much younger man at the time, Clinton developed a deep bond with Rabin. And it still shows. I think he may be a little optimistic when he says he’s certain that Rabin would have been able to make peace within three years. Rabin faced the same escalating round of terrorist violence and the campaign of incitement against him and the peace process led by Benjamin Netanyahu. But he’s right that Rabin had a credibility both with Israelis and the Palestinian leadership that made it possible. Clinton is in Israel to memorialize the 20th anniversary of Rabin’s murder on Nov. 4.
Other than the World Series, this week’s best spectator sport is watching Republicans pretend that the budget deal is all John Boehner’s doing, Paul Ryan bears no responsibility for it, and it’s the result of a process that “stinks.” Everyone gets a little something out of maintaining these fictions, and there’s just enough plausible deniability to pull it off. But it’s still an elaborate fiction that helps ease the way for the GOP’s big surrender from its crisis-threatening brinksmanship.
How do you cleanse yourself of your big cave on budget brinkmanship? You begin impeachment proceedings against the IRS director.
Rep. Raul Labrador was just on the TV saying the Paul Ryan seems to be off to a good start pandering to the Freedom Caucus.
I guess the only question is who’s playing who.
Stories like this really raise the question of whether Ben Carson understands even the basic rudiments of how the budget process works or even what the federal budget is. Carson says that if he’s elected he won’t sign any budget that increases the debt ceiling. Not he won’t sign it unless there are cuts or whatever else, but no increases to the federal debt ceiling at all. That’s ambitious since it means hundreds of millions of dollars in immediate cuts to the federal budget and even then could make it difficult to service the existing national debt.
But there’s a bigger problem – one that goes beyond extremist nonsense to a basic breakdown of logical reasoning.
The only mystery of any consequence remaining about the budget deal and Paul Ryan’s ascension to speaker was whether Ryan would vote for the budget deal, or leave all the dirty work to John Boehner. Now we have an answer. Or as Greg Sargent put it: “Paul Ryan’s transformation from safety-net-obliterating, Ayn Rand-worshipping conservative hero to RINO squish Obummer-enabling sellout is complete.”