A Brand New Day

Yesterday
How divided are Democrats right now? With 19 Democrats withholding support from Nancy Pelosi for House speaker on Wednesday, it represented the largest defection from a party's speaker nominee in nearly a century. (Washington Post, 1/6/11)

Why it seems like only yesterday that the media was falling all over itself to herald the selection of Pelosi as Madame Speaker…

Change You Can Believe In
Jubilant Republicans took control of the House on Wednesday and installed Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio as the new speaker before pushing through an overhaul of House rules intended to expedite their drive to dismantle the new health care law, cut federal spending and provide the tax cuts they see as a way to jump-start the economy. (NYT, 1/5/11)

Healthcare, spending, taxes.  Sounds about right.

The Empire Strikes Back
“We need radical reform, we need a new approach, we need a new perspective,” said Mr. Cuomo, who was giving his first State of the State address. “And we need it now.” The speech was emphatically pro-business and centrist.....The new governor mentioned the word “tax” or “taxes” 21 times, mostly to denounce them and promise to lower them. “What made New York the Empire State was not a large government complex,” he said. “It was a vibrant private sector that was creating great jobs in the state of New York.” (NYT, 1/5/11)

OK, RedStateVT knows that it is dangerous to jump on the Andrew Cuomo bandwagon. We expect to be disappointed down the road, but for now at least, he is saying all the right things. And, by the way, unlike President Obama he is saying them right from the start. It took two years and a political drubbing for Obama to start talking about jobs and taxes.

Come On Down To Our Boat, Baby
He (Howard Dean) said liberals, like him, share one thing with the right-leaning tea party movement: a desire to change the way business is done in Washington. But that has not happened under Obama, said Dean, an unsuccessful candidate for president in 2004. (Burlington Free Press, 1/6/11)

Welcome aboard, Howard!