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Republican Bondage Club Party Should Cost Steele His Job
Tweet Share on Facebook March 31, 2010 Comment (24)By Linda Killian, the Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Whoever thought we would be using the phrase "topless bondage themed nightclub" and Republican National Committee in the same sentence? You just couldn't make this stuff up. Obviously, it's not called Grand Old Party for nothing.
The escapades of the RNC staffers and donors at the Voyeur nightclub in West Hollywood and the subsequent $1,946.25 expense account submission to the RNC is a perfect, albeit crude and somewhat hilarious, example of what so many people around the country are thinking right now--people in Washington just don't get it.
Even David Letterman, no slouch in the inappropriate behavior department, gets it. His Top 10 list Tuesday featured the RNC incident and one of the reasons he listed for the RNC's actions was--"If we can't spend donor money at a strip club the terrorists have won."
Late-night talk show host Craig Ferguson said that in one week, the Republicans have gone from the party of no to the party of "no don't stop."
This really is too easy, but sadly, this is not just fodder for blogs and late-night comics. It actually reflects a serious problem.
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Meet the Coffee Party, a Kinder, Gentler, More Liberal Tea Party
Tweet Share on Facebook March 15, 2010 Comment (32)By Linda Killian, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Over the weekend I attended a meeting in Haymarket, Virginia. It was one of an estimated 350 such gatherings in 44 states around the country organized by the Coffee Party, whose mission is to promote civil discourse and compromise in the political system. The two dozen people gathered at the Haymarket Town Hall on that rainy Saturday morning for coffee, donuts, and discussion were a pretty diverse group with different party affiliations and political philosophies.
What they all seemed to have in common was a frustration with the current political situation and a feeling that they are not being well served by the system. But it was a quiet frustration expressed at a simmer rather than a boil. Coffee Party rules don't allow for raised voices, name-calling, or rudeness.
Still, I heard plenty of populist frustration over a ruling class of politicians and business leaders who seem to be doing well while everyone else is struggling.
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Forget the Senate, House Hurdles Threaten to Sink Health Reform
Tweet Share on Facebook March 2, 2010 Comment (5)Linda Killian, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
There's been endless talk about counting votes and using reconciliation to pass healthcare in the Senate. But with the realization that the Democrats probably don't have a majority of votes for the plan in either chamber of Congress right now, attention is shifting to the House.
House members feel a little bit like Charlie Brown with the football expecting the Senate/Lucy to pull it away just as they are ready to kick it. That's why there is some complicated back room choreography going on about who goes first.
But according to Jason Altmire, a moderate Democrat from Pennsylvania's 4th District, the order doesn't matter. What matters is what's in the bill.
Altmire voted against the House plan in November, and he says he hasn't seen or heard anything since to convince him to change his mind.
"I don't think that anything has changed. We're hearing the same talking points we've been hearing for a year. I don't think the debate has moved one way or the other," Altmire says.
