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For GOP and the Debt Ceiling, Reality Crashes Into Campaign Rhetoric
Tweet Share on Facebook July 1, 2011 Comment (23)I’ve written a few posts in this space criticizing Republicans for their intransigence on the debt ceiling debate. It was fun at the time, but now I’ve been forced to take a hard look at myself, and I’m not sure I like what I see.
It’s Marc Thiessen, writing in the Washington Post, who sent me on this journey of self discovery. You see, according to Thiessen, many of us have entirely missed the real victims in the debt ceiling debate. It’s not you or me or the trillions of people across the globe who will suffer economic calamity if Republicans continue to stonewall, it’s the Republicans themselves. And it’s especially those newly elected Republicans who toddled onto the electoral stage full of innocence and light and made all sorts of campaign promises that now—gasp—they may not be able to fulfill.
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House Republicans Stop Pesky Food Safety Regulations
Tweet Share on Facebook June 23, 2011 Comment (16)Folks, it’s with great pleasure that I report more good news from the House of Representatives. I know, it’s hard to imagine the House getting any better, but a few days ago they did something that can only be described as delicious: They stopped the government from getting all mixed up in food safety.
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Why Polls Are Sinking for New GOP Governors Like Scott Walker
Tweet Share on Facebook June 13, 2011 Comment (20)If you’ve been wondering lately who's been writing the Republican playbook, I think I’ve found him. It’s none other than Lenny Dykstra.
Back in his baseball playing days, Dykstra was a tough as nails leadoff hitter famous for filling his cheeks with huge wads of tobacco and crashing into outfield walls. After his playing days were over, he wowed the world with his stock-picking acumen. Made millions. Drove fancy cars. Owned an $18 million mansion. He even had a sink that cost $50,000. (It’s true.)
And then, it all came tumbling down. He went bankrupt. His house was seized. He was indicted. And what did he do? He broke back into his old house ... and stole his prized sink.
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Republicans Advance a Gibberish Agenda
Tweet Share on Facebook June 6, 2011 Comment (13)Sometimes I’ve used this space to be a little hard on Republicans in Congress, but not today. The truth is: I’m chagrined. Something happened recently in the House Appropriations Committee that forced me to take a deep dive into myself. And what I found was some humble pie.
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Public, Media, Congress All Fail on Debt Ceiling Debate
Tweet Share on Facebook May 27, 2011 Comment (32)There’s lots of frightening numbers being thrown around on Capitol Hill these days. $14 trillion is one. For Republicans, H.CON.RES.34 has turned into another. But for me, maybe the worst showed up in the pages of The Washington Post this week. It’s the number seven.
Here’s why:
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Republicans’ Debt Ceiling Strategy Is Divorced From the Truth
Tweet Share on Facebook May 20, 2011 Comment (26)One spring morning you’re sitting at an outdoor café eating brunch. A man runs up to you, points at your pancakes and says “I want that!” You decline. Then he walks into the middle of the street, stepping into the path of an onrushing truck. “Hey!” you say, “get out of the street!” “No sir,” he replies. “I will not. Not until you give me your pancakes.”
That, you think to yourself, is a novel strategy, courting personal disaster to try and get someone else to do what you want. It’s the kind of thing you might expect to see on “Celebrity Rehab” or maybe a classic episode of Jerry Springer. As it turns out, there’s another place you can find it too: the Republican caucus on Capitol Hill.
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Bin Laden Death Photo Coverage Is Media's New Birther Moment
Tweet Share on Facebook May 5, 2011 Comment (4)On Tuesday morning, counterterrorism official John Brennan was interviewed by NPR’s Steve Inskeep about the death of Osama bin Laden. For about eight minutes, listeners were treated to a serious and in-depth exploration of the circumstances surrounding bin Laden’s discovery and demise.
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Washington Post as Spineless as GOP in Debt Ceiling Debate
Tweet Share on Facebook April 21, 2011 Comment (19)Yesterday, The Washington Post editorial page turned into Springfield, circa 1991. Not Springfield, Illinois or Springfield, Massachusetts. That more famous Springfield. The one that’s home to the Simpsons.
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3 Lessons From Tea Party Budgeting
Tweet Share on Facebook April 7, 2011 Comment (8)Three lessons I’ve learned from Tea Party budgeting:
1. Charles Lightroller was a chump.
Lightroller was the second mate on the Titanic. Legend holds that no one enforced the command to allow women and children to board the lifeboats first more rigorously than he did. Some call him a hero. But not me. That’s because I, like Rush Limbaugh, think Paul Ryan’s budget is “wonderful.”
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Kucinich's Libya Impeachment Talk May Hurt Democrats in 2012
Tweet Share on Facebook March 24, 2011 Comment (7)Oh, Dennis Kucinich.
Was it only months ago that the world stood still as you took on that lumbering beast, the Longworth House Cafeteria? You bit into a sandwich wrap—and lo!—your tender teeth encountered an angry olive pit. Pain. Despair. A lawsuit. Imagine the ballads minstrels will someday sing about this inspiring tale.
