Sorry Charlie

Now That’s Bipartisanship We Can Support!
Beleaguered Rep. Charlie Rangel defied bipartisan calls for him to step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee despite an ethics committee report that found he violated House rules by taking corporate-funded trips to the Caribbean. (FoxNews.com, 2/26/2010)

Corrupt media alert: The day the report was released it seems like every other story on the New York Times website was about the corruption scandal involving long-time New York Democrat politician Charlie Rangel…….just kidding! We couldn’t find it at all!

Deconstructing the Summit

…Mr. Obama still seemed burdened with the challenges of having pursued a largely middle-of-the-road proposal that has hampered the Democrats all along. It has disappointed some in the party’s liberal base, especially without a public option. It holds little or no appeal for Republicans, and it confuses and scares many people in the middle. (our emphasis)

When you put it that way, Obama’s health care plan sure sounds like a winner to us!

The fundamental question facing Republicans was not whether they could persuade Democrats to take a different approach, but whether continuing their opposition in the wake of Mr. Obama’s grand gesture of bipartisanship could turn into a liability in a tense midterm election year.

Those mean old Repubs! How could they refuse Obama’s “grand gesture?”

(Quotes from NYT, 2/26/10)

Quotables

(Ironic) Quote of the Week
Van Jones is an American treasure. (Benjamin Todd Jealous, CEO of the NAACP, 2/24/10)

(Crazy Joe) Quote of the Week
(On Dem’s health care bill)….Biden acknowledged: "There's pieces of what we put forward I'm not crazy about." (Politico.com, 2/25/10)

(Bonus Crazy Joe) Quote of the Week
"It's easy being vice president — you don't have to do anything." (Do-nothing VP, Joe Biden)

(Brilliant) Quote of the Week
Washington is reverberating with lamentations about government being "broken." Such talk occurs only when the left's agenda is stalled. Do you remember mournful editorials and somber seminars about "dysfunctional" government when liberals defeated George W. Bush's Social Security reforms? (George Will, 2/25/10)

Re-Run

President Obama began his term in office by offering various apologies to the world for perceived American mistakes (or as we might call them “Bush policies he didn’t agree with”) and bowing to foreign dignitaries. When he did, RedStateVT was among those who criticized him for devaluing office he held. The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world. Obama tried to project humility, but ended up showing weakness. Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and North Korea all pounced in one way or another.

Yesterday, President Obama convened a televised health care summit in an attempt to salvage his signature domestic issue. Republicans concerned about walking into a trap needn’t have worried. Once again Obama miscalculated. By appearing in person for the seven hour marathon, Obama undercut the stature of his office one more time. Far from appearing the impartial arbiter, Obama came off as the biased referee who tries to throw the game to the home team. Hardly presidential. It is almost impossible to think of another president, Democrat or Republican who would have put themselves (and the office) in this situation.

Those still looking for Obama’s political brilliance will have to wait.

Local Madness

Criminal(’s) Justice in Vermont
A federal magistrate ordered the release Tuesday of David M. Dean, one of 20 people indicted as members of a crack-cocaine ring and regarded by government informants as “the muscle” who enforced the directives of the operation’s alleged leader.

Magistrate John Conroy ruled prosecutors had not proven Dean represented enough of a danger to the community or a risk to flee to justify keeping him in federal custody while he awaits a trial. “The government has put on no witnesses,” Conroy said. “The court is unable to weigh the strength of the evidence” that Dean’s release would be ill-advised. Conroy acknowledged his decision to allow Dean’s release was “an exceedingly close case.” (our emphasis) (Burlington Free Press, 2/24/2010)

So in a close call, Magistrate John Conroy takes the side of the criminal over that of the welfare of the public. This is what passes for justice in Vermont.

Vermont Senate to 650 Jobs: Drop Dead
In an unusual state foray into nuclear regulation, the Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 Wednesday to block a license extension for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, citing radioactive leaks, misstatements in testimony by plant officials and other problems. Unless the chamber reverses itself, it would be the first time in more than 20 years that the public or its representatives decided to close a reactor.

The vote came barely over a week after President Obama declared a new era of rebirth for the nation’s nuclear industry, announcing federal loan guarantees of $8.3 billion to assure the construction of a twin-reactor plant near Augusta, Ga. (NYT, 2/24/2010)

So the Vermont Senate gets their trophy vote, all the while sticking it to the people: those who will lose their jobs and everyone who will pay more for energy. Time to vote ‘em out!

Climate Nazis
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is comparing climate change skeptics to those who disregarded the Nazi threat to America in the 1930s, adding a strident rhetorical shot to the already volatile debate over climate change.

"It reminds me in some ways of the debate taking place in this country and around the world in the late 1930s," said Sanders, perhaps the most liberal member of the Senate, during a Senate hearing Tuesday. "During that period of Nazism and fascism's growth — a real danger to the United States and democratic countries around the world — there were people in this country and in the British parliament who said 'don't worry! Hitler's not real! It'll disappear!" (Politico.com, 2/24/2010)

Senator Moonbat is off his leash again!

Dropping Their Guard

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Tuesday that the NATO military alliance is facing "very serious, long-term, systemic problems" sparked by European nations' unwillingness to adequately fund their militaries. (WSJ, 2/24/10)

RedStateVT found the above passage in an article that was generally complimentary of the Danes for their support of the NATO effort in Afghanistan. It speaks to an ongoing RedStateVT theme about the fundamental requirement of any country for a strong national defense. As commentators like Mark Steyn have long pointed out, the Europeans have gone in the opposite direction. Lulled into complacency by the military protection largely provided by and paid for by America, Europe has created an ever increasing nanny state. History has shown what happens when a country becomes weak. Europe’s universal health care and eight week vacations won’t help when the bad guys come knocking.

Triplet

Obama to America: Take Your Medicine!
A mere three days before President Obama's supposedly bipartisan health-care summit, the White House yesterday released a new blueprint that Democrats say they will ram through Congress with or without Republican support. So after election defeats in Virginia, New Jersey and even Massachusetts, and amid overwhelming public opposition, Democrats have decided to give the voters what they don't want anyway. (WSJ, 2/23/10)

Opaque
President Obama, who pledged to establish the most open and transparent administration in history, on Monday surpasses his predecessor's record for avoiding a full-fledged question-and-answer session with White House reporters in a formal press conference. President George W. Bush's longest stretch between prime-time, nationally televised press conferences was 214 days, from April 4 to Nov. 4, 2004. Mr. Obama tops that record on Monday, going 215 days - stretching back to July 22, according to records kept by CBS Radio's veteran reporter Mark Knoller. (Washington Times, 2/22/10)

Endangered: Low Cost Energy and 600 Jobs
A group of business and labor organizations from across the state called Monday for the Vermont Senate to postpone Wednesday's planned vote on whether to extend the life of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon beyond 2012. (TimesArgus.com, 2/23/10)

The No's Have It

No Quarter
President Obama began what may be his final push to win enactment of a health care overhaul, laying out a legislative blueprint on Monday that seeks to unify House and Senate Democrats but makes no big new concessions to Republicans. (NYT, 2/22/10)

It’s now become a bit of a tired cliché, but it still works here. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

No (More) Talking
A senior Iranian official said on Monday that his country planned to build 10 more nuclear enrichment plants — two of them within the next year — and had identified “close to” 20 sites for such facilities. (NYT, 2/22/10)

Let’s say that you believed that President Obama was right in trying to reach out to Iran. At what point do you then say that the strategy didn’t work and it’s now time to put the screws to them?

No Way to Treat a Bodhisattva
But the piece de resistance was how the White House managed to turn what should have been a moment of celebration for the Dalai Lama's supporters in the United States and worldwide into a stunning display of disrespect. Apparently someone forgot to move an enormous pile of garbage from the service entrance that the Dalai Lama used to exit the White House yesterday, so the first image that the assembled press corps snapped was of him literally next to a huge mound of rubbish. Classy. (Kelley Currie, Weekly Standard, 2/20/10)

All those with FREE TIBET bumper stickers need to voice their disapproval!

Random Notes

If Obama fails, we all fail. (Thomas Friedman, NYT, 2/21/10)

Well, if you put it that way…….

Senator Patrick Leahy is calling for an immediate hearing into the Justice Department's handling of the so-called torture memos. An internal investigation released Friday found that the government lawyers that authorized waterboarding and other forms of torture under President Bush were "flawed" and showed "poor judgment," but that they did not commit professional misconduct. (our emphasis) (WCAX.com, 2/21/10)

Vermont’s Senator-for-Life continues to focus on the issues that most concern his constituents…..

Actor-director Sean Penn was charged Friday with battery and vandalism charges stemming from an altercation with a photographer in Brentwood last fall. (FoxNews.com, 2/21/10)

What’s so funny ‘bout peace, love and understanding?

Last week, Todd Stern, America's Special Envoy for Climate Change -- yes, there is one; and people wonder where to begin cutting government -- warned that those interested in "undermining action on climate change" will seize on "whatever tidbit they can find." Tidbits like specious science, and the absence of warming? (George Will, Townhall.com, 2/21/10)

George Will conveys more, in fewer words, than just about any other journalist out there.

Wise Cracks

President Barack Obama visits Western battleground states this week in a show of support for two of his party's vulnerable 2010 candidates, in particular embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. (WSJ, 2/18/2010)

RedStateVT is investigating rumors that Obama’s trip is being paid for by the Republican National Committee.


Radio ads slamming Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln began airing in her state this week. But the ads weren't sponsored by her Republican rivals. They were paid for by a left-leaning environmental organization. (WSJ, 2/18/2010)

With friends like these…….


The "shovel ready" projects administration officials pointed to as a source of new jobs have taken months to get organized. (WSJ, 2/18/2010)

Need new category: Nearly shovel ready.


Tensions between President Obama and Nevada elected officials over the president's anti-Sin City remarks escalated Thursday when Las Vegas's mayor refused an invitation to meet with Obama when he arrives in town, FoxNews.com has confirmed. (FoxNews.com, 2/18/2010)

He ain’t gonna play Sin City, uh-huh.


Finally, after a nonstop, nearly 80-year upward climb, government spending has hit a wall. It didn't seem possible but this is a big wall. It's the American voter. (Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 2/18/2010)

Well put!

Hot Air

Thomas Friedman is a best selling author, a lecturer and New York Times columnist. Quite obviously, he’s a bright guy. But his recent column (Global Weirding is Here, New York Times, 2/17/2010) leaves RedStateVT wondering if he’s an honest guy. Friedman objects to the argument that global warming is disproved because of record snowfalls this year. We agree that a single storm or a single year proves nothing…except Friedman doesn’t acknowledge that the warming crowd has been making exactly the same argument in reverse for years, e.g. global warming is real because it hasn’t snowed here or there is a drought over there. Nor does he mention that the climate change crowd has declared that the record snows are actually evidence in support of global warming! Even a child would recognize that you cannot use two opposite arguments to prove the same point.

But Friedman then continues by chastising the warmists:

The climate-science community is not blameless. It knew it was up against formidable forces — from the oil and coal companies that finance the studies skeptical of climate change to conservatives who hate anything that will lead to more government regulations to the Chamber of Commerce that will resist any energy taxes.

So if we hear this right, the problem with the warmists is that they didn’t fight hard enough against the mean old oil companies and the bad old conservatives. Hit ‘em again with that pillow, Tom!

And what about the Climate-gate scandal? Well Friedman again digs deep and gets right to the heart of the matter:

…climate experts can’t leave themselves vulnerable by citing non-peer-reviewed research or failing to respond to legitimate questions, some of which happened with both the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

If he were really an honest guy, Friedman would say: climate experts can’t make stuff up.


Runner-up Quote of the Week
Asked if the administration had focused too heavily on health care changes and new energy initiatives during its first months in office, when the recession had a grip on the economy, Biden said, "We've had to try to walk and chew gum at the same time." (FoxNew.com, 2/17/2010)

RedStateVT's Hit Feature: Who Said It?

“If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.”

A) retiring Republican Senator Sam Brownback from Kansas
B) retiring Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky
C) retiring Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
D) RedStateVT
E) Retiring Democrat Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana


If you guessed E) you are RedStateVT’s “Who Said It?” winner of the day…congratulations!


Also on the Bayh-front:
Democrats expressed shock at the development……..The New York Times reported that both Obama and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel tried to convince Bayh to run again, but to no avail. (Yahoo.com, 2/15/2010)

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the news about Bayh was “not a surprise.” (BusinessWeek.com, 2/15/2010)

When is a surprise, not a surprise?

Tuesday Two

Trumped
Billionaire real estate tycoon Donald Trump wants Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize stripped from the Global Warmingist-in-Chief. "With the coldest winter ever recorded, with snow setting record levels up and down the coast, the Nobel committee should take the Nobel Prize back," Trump recently told members of his Westchester, New York, country club according to the New York Post. (NewsBusters.com, 2/15/2010)

Trump to Gore: “You’re fired!

Maher is Less

Bill Maher Saturday said America loves its military members the way disgraced football player Michael Vick loves dogs. In his HBO special "Bill Maher...But I'm Not Wrong," the outspoken comedian went on a vulgarity-laden two-minute rant against Republicans and the troops. "For the longest time, every Republican election has been based on some sentimental bulls**t: the flag, or the flagpin, or the Pledge," he mocked. (NewsBusters, 2/14/2010)

Bill Maher is another in a series of elitists who make their living mocking traditional American values like faith and patriotism. His comments are a cruder take on Obama’s view of people “clinging to guns and religion.” The problem, we suspect, is that Maher’s frame of reference is L.A. and Manhattan, missing everywhere in between.

RedStateVT Celebrates Post # 100

Hillary the Hawk
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that Iran is becoming a military dictatorship, a new U.S. accusation in the midst of rising tensions with Iran over its nuclear ambitions and crack down on anti-government protesters. (FoxNews.com, 2/15/2010)

RedStateVT is no fan of Hillary Clinton, but we do note that she seems to have a more realistic view of the world than her boss. On the foreign policy front, would Hillary have gone on an international apology tour like Obama? We think not. On the domestic front, after the debacle of Hillarycare, would she have doubled down on health care like Obama? We think not.

Funny Quote of the Week…and it’s only Monday!
"After a decade of profligacy, the American people are tired of politicians who talk the talk but don't walk the walk when it comes to fiscal responsibility," Mr. Obama said.
(WSJ, 2/15/10)

Obsession

The liberal media’s obsession with Sarah Palin continues. For someone who they blithely dismiss as a lightweight, they sure devote a lot of ink to her. Perhaps because they are running out of names to call her, they are making up ever more creative put-downs. Writing in the Washington Post, Eugene Robinson (WP, 2/14/2010) describes Palin as an “elitist.” Come again? That strikes RedStateVT as akin to saying Dick Cheney wasn’t tough enough on terrorists! Robinson is going to have a hard time selling that characterization.

In another Palin put-down article, New York Times lib Frank Rich takes a timeout to mix in some harsh words for President Obama, in a sign of the increasing dissatisfaction on the left:

The Obama White House remains its own worst enemy. No sooner did Palin’s Tea Party speech end than we learned of the president’s tone-deaf interview expressing admiration for “very savvy businessmen” like Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs. (Frank Rich, NYT, 2/13/2010)

Crazy Joe

Vice President Joe Biden said Americans can expect more attempted terrorist attacks like the one by the so-called underpants bomber, who tried to detonate explosives on a Detroit-bound jet on Christmas Day....Biden said he thinks an attack on the scale of 9/11 is unlikely. But he anticipates attempts at smaller “but devastatingly frightening attacks.” “I think what you’re seeing morphing here — and it’s a concern to us — is you’ll see the concern related to somebody like a shoe bomber or the underpants bomber, the Christmas attack, or someone just strapping a backpack on them with weapons that are indigenous and blowing up, you know, walking into an airport,” Biden said. “I think there are going to be attempts." (NewsMax.com, 2/12/2010)

Is it just RedStateVT or does it seem that every time Joe Biden's hall pass gets reinstated he turns around and says something dumb? "Devastatingly frightening attacks?" "Backpack bombs?" What does the Veep know that he's not telling us? If he's just postulating, we would have preferred him to say: "Our enemies are very determined and Americans must remain vigilant."

End of the line....

Eight-term Rep. Patrick Kennedy says his 'life is taking a new direction' and he will not be a candidate for re-election this year. For the first time in nearly half a century, there may not be a member of the Kennedy clan in Congress. Kennedy recently received some negative polling numbers. (FoxNews.com, 2/12/2010)

Crunch Time

For thousands of years, the attempt at appeasement is a recurring factor in the fall of civilizations. When appeasement is attempted by a state that is confronted by an outside aggressor, the attempt is not only fruitless but it is a signal to the aggressor that the time to strike is now. (Larry Kelley, TownHall.com, 2/10/2010)

Sobering words, particularly in light of today's pronouncement by Iran's Ahmadinejad that Iran is now a "nuclear state."

Tasty Morsels

Luke, I am your father…
Dick Cheney is not the most popular of politicians, but when he offered a harsh assessment of the Obama Administration's approach to terrorism last May, his criticism stung—so much that the President gave a speech the same day that was widely seen as a direct response. Though neither man would admit it, eight months later political and security realities are forcing Mr. Obama's antiterror policies ever-closer to the former Vice President's. ….the Administration has tried to break from its predecessors on several big antiterror issues, and it is on those that it is suffering the humiliation of having to walk back from its own righteous declarations. This is Dick Cheney's revenge. (WSJ, 2/9/2010)

Blame Bush
This weekend, Americans were treated to something new: Barack Obama defending his war policies by suggesting they merely continue his predecessor's practices. The defense is illuminating, not least for its implicit recognition that George W. Bush has more credibility on fighting terrorists than does the sitting president. (William McGurn, WSJ, 2/9/2010)

More Dem Bailouts for Bankers
Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey urged the Federal Reserve last July to approve an acquisition to save a struggling bank in his state. He didn't mention that the bank's chairman and vice chairman were big contributors to his political campaign. If the acquisition had been approved, it would have prevented the two executives from losing what was left of their investments in the bank. The Fed didn't act on the request from Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, and First BankAmericano, which was closely held, failed July 31. (WSJ, 2/9/2010)

Agenda Under Siege

Even More Cracks
The Obama Administration has been moving full-speed ahead on anticarbon regulation, never mind waiting for Congress to pass a bill. But now opposition is building among senior Democrats, with two powerful committee Chairmen introducing a bill last week to bar the Environmental Protection Agency from declaring that carbon is a dangerous pollutant. (WSJ, 2/8/2010)

President Obama may soon find that he has bigger problems then Republican “obstructionism.” His own party may be turning against his agenda.

Could it be true?
When Republicans take President Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care this month, they will carry with them a fairly well-developed set of ideas intended to make health insurance more widely available and affordable, by emphasizing tax incentives and state innovations, with no new federal mandates and only a modest expansion of the federal safety net. (NYT, 2/8/2010)

So, notwithstanding President Obama's characterizations, it turns out that the Republicans do have a plan after all....and a "fairly well-developed" one at that!

Unsettling
Just over two years ago, Rajendra K. Pachauri seemed destined for a scientist’s version of sainthood: A vegetarian economist-engineer who leads the United Nations’ climate change panel, he accepted the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the panel, sharing the honor with former Vice President Al Gore.

But Dr. Pachauri and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are now under intense scrutiny, facing accusations of scientific sloppiness and potential financial conflicts of interest from climate skeptics, right-leaning politicians and even some mainstream scientists. (NYT, 2/8/2010)

But wait, we thought that the issue of climate change was “settled science!”

Bye-partisan

President Obama said Sunday that he would convene a half-day bipartisan health care session at the White House to be televised live this month, a high-profile gambit that will allow Americans to watch as Democrats and Republicans try to break their political impasse….Republican leaders said they welcomed the opportunity and called on Democrats to start the debate from scratch, which the president said he would not do (our emphasis). (NYT, 2/8/2010)

Well then it’s not really “bipartisan” is it? President Obama’s approach – as we have noted – is to run around saying “bipartisan, bipartisan, bipartisan” in order to fool the public into thinking that he is trying to work with those pesky Republicans. In point of fact, he is willing to concede nothing.

Follow-up to our recent post
Just two years after Mr. Obama helped his party pull in record Wall Street contributions — $89 million from the securities and investment business, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics — some of his biggest supporters……have become the industry’s chief lobbyists against his regulatory agenda. Republicans are rushing to capitalize on what they call Wall Street’s “buyer’s remorse” with the Democrats. And industry executives and lobbyists are warning Democrats that if Mr. Obama keeps attacking Wall Street “fat cats,” they may fight back by withholding their cash. Though Wall Street has long been a major source of Democratic campaign money (alongside Hollywood and Silicon Valley), Mr. Obama built unusually direct ties to his contributors there. (NYT, 2/8/2010)

So it’s official folks, Wall Street is Democrat territory. Furious at the financial meltdown, bailouts and bonuses? You now know who to blame.

Truth to Power

Wall Street’s Democrats
Wall Street’s current disaffection is intriguing, as Mr. Schumer served for 30 years as Horatio at the bridge, guarding against too many incursions against the financial industry. He artfully sidetracked an effort to tax hedge funds and pushed for repeal of legislation that prohibited commercial banks from engaging in risky investments like trading stocks or mortgage-backed securities. And he helped craft a bank-friendly bailout. In return, he has taken in more money from the securities and finance industry over the course of his career than any Democrat other than Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. (NYT, 2/4/2010)

Democrats love to pin the shenanigans of Wall Street on Republicans. The dirty little secret is that the fat cat bankers are, as often as not, Democrats supported by Democrat politicians. (See Corzine, Jon)

That Old Kennedy Magic!
A stung U.S. Sen. Scott Brown lashed out at U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy today for insulting his landmark win by calling his candidacy “a joke.”

Brown said Kennedy’s remarks are “mean-spirited,” especially coming on the day he was celebrating being sworn into office.

“This is where he shows that when they need him, he’s in the tank for the Republicans,” Kennedy is quoted as saying.

A WPRI-12 poll shows Kennedy with a 56 percent unfavorability rating in his district. (Boston Herald, 2/5/2010)

RedStateVT hereby accuses Democrat Patrick Kennedy of being “in the tank” for the Democrats! How do you plead, sir?


The President Will See You Now
President Barack Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama later this month, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday. Gibbs declined to give a specific date. (CNN, 2/4/2010)

Recall that last October the Dalai Lama was in town, but the President chose not to meet with him.

Rahm Emanuel's Macaca Moment

RedStateVT is certainly no fan of Rahm-bo Emanuel who is now embroiled in the latest political correctness – loose speech controversy. As we said (see Quote Unquote, January 12, 2010) when Harry Reid’s description of President Obama (light-skinned, no Negro dialect except when he wants to) surfaced, politicians talk a lot and are going to say dumb things. We are inclined to give them a pass or even two……but only if the courtesy extends both ways. Except it never does.

George Allen, Representative, Governor and Senator from Virginia calls someone a “macaca” and his presidential aspirations are destroyed even though, to this day, most people don’t even know what a macaca is. And, of course, there is Sarah Palin who is forever being ridiculed for not delivering the political equivalent of a Shakespearean soliloquy whenever she speaks.

Disarray

White House Refutes…White House
Answering a participant in a town-hall meeting in Nashua who asked about green jobs—those connected to renewable energy—and so-called cap-and-trade legislation, Mr. Obama said, "The only thing I would say about it is this: We may be able to separate these things out. And it's possible that that's where the Senate ends up." A White House spokesman downplayed the president's comments, saying Mr. Obama still favored a bill that would combine measures to encourage jobs in green-energy fields with the establishment of a trading mechanism for emissions. (our emphasis) (WSJ, 2/3/2010)


Anybody else catch this one?

Free to Be Me
Mr. Dodd also appeared slightly annoyed that President Barack Obama threatened during his State of the Union speech last week to veto the legislation if administration officials weren't satisfied with it. Mr. Dodd called it "somewhat interesting" that the White House would threaten a veto when Mr. Dodd's bill was the only major piece of legislation in the Senate that had a chance of attracting Republican support. White House officials didn't respond to questions about Mr. Dodd's comments on the veto threat.

Mr. Dodd also slammed the White House for not having answers to technical questions about the proposals, saying he was calling the administration and "not getting good answers." (WSJ, 2/3/2010)

See what happens when a Dem is no longer beholden to Obama?

More Cracks
President Barack Obama's 10-year budget plan is off to a rocky start in Congress, where his Democratic allies have spent much of the past two days picking it apart.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.) complained about cuts to farm subsidies. Rep. Mike Thompson (D., Calif.) was upset about a user-fee proposal that would force wineries and others in the alcoholic-beverage sector to fund the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.) bemoaned a proposal to end four tax breaks for the coal industry. "I want you to know there really isn't anything in this budget which I can take home or talk about in favorable terms," he told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a Tuesday hearing.

But underneath the parochial concerns—which perhaps are to be expected from a budget that attempts to chip away at trillion-dollar-plus annual deficits—lies a deeper unease about Mr. Obama's response to unemployment that remains above 10% and the continued reliance of the federal government to borrow for its spending needs. (WSJ, 2/3/2010)

Slip sliding away....

Floundering

RedStateVT asks: when will the mainstream media write the story that the Obama presidency is floundering? (Adrift or unraveling will also work as descriptors). If this were any other president that story line would be everywhere. It does not even take a partisan observer to make the case. The facts speak for themselves:

--A highly divisive attempt to change the very nature of health care in this country, characterized by backroom deals and political bribes.

--Stunning political defeats in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts – even after Obama campaigns.

--National security confusion including where and how to try 9/11 conspirators and now the revelations that the handling of the Christmas bomber was botched.

The list goes on. Obama purports to have heard that Americans are concerned more about jobs and deficits than global warming. And so he packs his State of the Union address with references to these topics. But now, one week later, what is the new hot button issue from Team Obama? Gays in the military! This is a presidency that has lost its way.

If Journalists Told the Truth

At a moment of what appears to be great if unexpected opportunity, the Republican Party continues to struggle with disputes over ideology and tactics, as well as what party leaders say is an absence of strong figures to lead it back to power, from the party chairman to prospective presidential candidates. (NYT, 1/30/2010)

At a moment of what appears to be great if unexpected opportunity, the Republican Party continues to struggle with disputes over ideology and tactics, as well as what party leaders say is an absence of strong figures to lead it back to power, from the party chairman to prospective presidential candidates. Of course, these disputes pale in comparison to those faced by the Democrats who have now consecutively lost three important elections. (RedStateVT, 1/30/2010)


For a president who campaigned on a promise to close Guantánamo, and who just missed a self-imposed one-year deadline to get the job done, the meltdown of a potential Manhattan 9/11 trial is the latest measure of the stubborn complexity of his national security inheritance. (NYT, 1/30/2010)

For a president who campaigned on a promise to close Guantánamo, and who just missed a self-imposed one-year deadline to get the job done, the meltdown of a potential Manhattan 9/11 trial is the latest measure of the Administration’s inability to get results. (RedStateVT, 1/30/2010)


President Obama will send a $3.8 trillion budget to Congress on Monday for the coming fiscal year that would increase financing for education and for civilian research programs by more than 6 percent and provide $25 billion for cash-starved states, even as he seeks to freeze much domestic spending for the rest of his term. (NYT, 1/30/2010)

President Obama will send a $3.8 trillion budget to Congress on Monday for the coming fiscal year that would increase financing for education and for civilian research programs by more than 6 percent and provide $25 billion for cash-starved states, even as he seeks to freeze much domestic spending for the rest of his term. Of course, this freeze effectively locks in an average 22% increase in domestic spending during Obama’s first year. (RedStateVT, 1/30/2010)