The Left And The Midterms..Denial, The First Stage Of Grief

The results of the midterms are in, and the Republican wave election that wasn't supposed to be one is over.

In their own way, the results are even more stunning then in 2010. The Republicans not only retained their control of the House but actually added seats, and took the majority in the senate by eight seats. The senate races that were supposed to be close, or result in Democrat wins - in Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Iowa and North Carolina - ended up being decisive Republican victories, And that included the governor's races,where Republicans held on to nine seats they were supposedly in danger of losing. In the end, Scott Walker, Rick Scott in Florida, Rick Snyder in Michigan, Sam Brownback in Kansas,and Terry Branstad in Iowa all won, and the GOP actually elected governors in three solid blue states, Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois.

Considering the amount of voter fraud that undoubtedly occurred in some of these races, the real margin of Republican victory was likely even larger than reported.

The Left's 'war on women' tactic largely fizzled out, and some of the candidates that attempted it, like Wendy Davis in Texas and Colorado's Mark Udall (mocked as 'Mark Uterus' in the normally Democrat-friendly Denver Post)went down to defeat. While Republicans carried the majority of married women, the Democrats still led when it came to unmarried women but nowhere near what they previously managed to get. Overall, according to the exit polls Democrats managed to take the vote among woman by a mere 5%, 52% versus 47% for Republicans, while the GOP won male voters by 56% to 42%.

The Latino turnout was nowhere near what the Democrats needed, and while blacks turned out in places like Georgia and North Carolina, the numbers there were insufficient to win in those states as well as nationally.

These trends indicate something just as the professional Left's reaction - and the president's - to last night tells us what to expect in the next two years.

In looking at how the Left responded, there are several things they mostly had in common.All of them talked about the midterm electorate being whiter and older than a normal presidential election and about what a 'tough map' it was for Democrats. Few if any of them mentioned the fact that this was a referendum on President Obama and his policies, as the president himself stated frequently in his efforts to gin up turn out.

Supposing that this "young non-white electorate" these people are talking about favors Democrats or simply favored Obama in the past is a rather interesting question when you consider that the likely Democrat nominee in 2016 will be the really old white lady who they rejected in 2008.

Anyone who's actually being honest knows that President Obama won the majority of the black vote and continues to enjoy their support (at least on paper) based to a significant extent on racial grounds. The president and the Democrats spent considerable effort wooing this group by telling them that President Obama was indeed on the ballot and that he was in danger of being impeached if they didn't turn out en masse. Posters featuring a lynching that took place in the 1920's and telling black voters that if they didn't turn out those days would be returning were circulated throughout the South. The fact they mostly didn't is a sign that perhaps enough of them actually took a look at this president's policies and the way they have disproportionally hurt black America to have some second thoughts.

The same is true of women in general, even unmarried women. Married women are generally women with families, and among their primary concerns is security at home and opportunities for themselves and their children. To a lesser extent the same is true of unmarried woman, many whom know that the fairy tales about Republicans wanting to ban contraception are nonsense. What both groups see for themselves is this president's failure to deal with threats abroad or even potential epidemics as well as the increased cost of living and their own reduced economic opportunities.The old story about this being 'Bush's fault' is simply past its sell by date, and it smells worse the longer it continues to be thrown out there.

This is going to affect the 'Democrat coalition', especially as out of the record 100 women in the new congress, the majority are Republicans. The new face of American women might very well be reflected by Iowa Senator Joni Ernst and Mia love, the new GOP congresswoman from Utah.



And speaking of which, the other thing the exit polls don't quite explain is the historic level of Republican seats in the house. The GOP at the grass roots level in the congressional districts is now stronger than it has been at any point going back all the way to the 1920s.

Avoid it however they wish, the Left can't avoid the fact that this election was a referendum on Barack Obama's dysfunctional presidency.Yes, denial, with a healthy helping of sour grapes.

Not even the president can avoid this reality, although he continues to do so.

The president, in a fit of temper refused to send the usual congratulatory messages to GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and instead gave a desultory press conference today. Here's what he said:

"On Friday, I look forward to hosting the entire Republican and Democratic leadership at the White House to chart a new course forward. Obviously, Republicans had a good night, and they deserve credit for running good campaigns. Beyond that I'll leave it to all of you and the professional pundits to pick through the results.

What stands out to me though, is the American people sent a message, one they've sent for several elections now. They expect the people they elect to work as hard as they do. They expect us to focus on their ambitions and not ours. They want us to get the job done. All of us in both parties have a responsibility to address that sentiment. Still, as president, I have a unique responsibility to make this town work.

To everyone that voted, I want you to know that I heard you. To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate in the process yesterday, I hear you too. All of us have to give more Americans a reason to feel like the ground is stable beneath their feet, that the future is secure, there's a path for young people to succeed, and folks in Washington are concerned about them. So I plan on spending every moment of the next two plus years doing the my job the best I can to keep this country safe and make sure more Americans share in its prosperity. "

OK, the actual turnout in the midterms is estimated to be in the mid 40's rather than one third, but what's one more fairy tale from this president? What the actual message the president sent was that the GOP wave - a 'good night' as he phrased it - had nothing to do with him or his policies, but was simply because people are dissatisfied with things 'not getting done'. Which of course is solely due to GOP obstructionism!

Just compare this to what Speaker John Boehner had to say, that he was "humbled by the responsibility the American people have placed with us."

"But this is not a time for celebration," he said. "It's time for government to start getting results and implementing solutions to the challenges facing our country, starting with our still-struggling economy."

For all the president's talk about 'working together', it's pretty obvious this president has no intention of doing so. For instance, he has already signaled that he's going ahead with amnesty for illegal aliens by executive order during the lame duck session as well as pushing through whatever appointments he can..such as a new, radical attorney general like Thomas Perez.

A real leader, of course would abstain from such tactics, obey the will of the people and try to work out an acceptable compromise with the new congress. That's not what we're dealing with here.

Columnist Peggy Noonan, hardly a right wing Republican, had a column in the Wall Street Journal this week that examined how past presidents like George W. Bush and Bill Clinton dealt with this situation

She referred to their responses as "the sound of political graciousness" and said "it would be nice to hear it from Mr. Obama on Wednesday." Needless to say, we didn't nor will we. Instead, the president will go ahead with actions sure to infuriate the incoming congress and torpedo any ideas they have about working with him before they even take their seats.

Another thing a lot of the professional Left had in common in their responses was a call for the president to use his veto and for the Democrats to use the filibuster to stop the new GOP majorities from using their new clout to accomplish anything. The strategy is obvious...to keep things in gridlock which they will later attempt to blame on Republicans in 2016.

The Republicans need to remember that what happened last night wasn't so much an endorsement of the GOP as a realization that the democrats have failed to govern, that the country is very much on the wrong track and that this is a last chance to get it right.

They were, after all, elected to stop President Obama's agenda and reverse it.

Harry Reid effectively eliminated the use of the filibuster and changed the rules of the senate to please himself. He exercised total contempt for the GOP minority and Republicans were actually locked out of the room when it came to drawing up major legislation like the bogus Stimulus and ObamaCare, something unprecedented in American history. The Republicans should utilize Reid's 'innovations' as a guide and do the same. And a good place to start would be to explain to the American people that they are bringing to a vote over 200 pieces of legislation passed by the House that Senator Reid exercised a one man veto over and kept from ever even coming to the floor.

They are there to govern, and if they fail to demonstrate their ability to do so, the door swings both ways. Here's hoping they take that to heart and proceed to act on it.

A Few Words On The Nevada BLM Standoff

For now, it appears as if the Bundy family have won at least a temporary victory over the Bureau of Land Management and its SWAT team.

Yesterday, Clark County Sheriff Douglas C. Gillespie announced that the BLM would end their siege of the property of cattle rancher Cliven Bundy's home.

“We had a lot of fears. Individuals being shot, trampled. Individuals being run over on the highway. So it took a lot of resources, a lot of resources to associate with this,” Assistant Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said to KLAS-TV.He also stated that Bundy’s cattle would be allowed to graze on the disputed land that was the flashpoint of the entire episdode.

In addition, Bundy's cattle that were confiscated by the BLM will be returned to him..at least the ones that weren't shot and killed. The BLM refused to release the number of cattle killed, saying 'they have protocols. and the information isn't available.'

Here's what ostensibly sparked this incident. Cliven Bundy's Mormon family have been ranching in this remote area of Southern Nevada since the 1870's. And his cattle have always grazed on an adjoining area of county land, for which he paid grazing fees. In a surprise move without any notice or right of appeal by Bundy, that county land was 'reclassified' by the BLM as federal land. The excuse behind this was so transparent as to be ludicrous. The BLM claimed they were trying to protect the supposedly endangered desert tortoise..even though the tortoise population has exploded to the point where the BLM admittedly has killed over 1,000 of them.

When Bundy refused to move, we saw the spectacle of the BLM moving in with SWAT teams, beating and abusing members of the Bundy family, confiscating Bundy's cattle and putting the ranch under virtual siege.

The real reason the land was reclassified is something that has occurred throughout the west..well connected pols want the region's ranchers and farmers out of business so they can gift the land to someone else for their own personal financial benefit.

The head of the Federal Bureau of Land Management is none other than Neil Kornze, Democrat Senator Harry Reid's former Chief of Staff. It's no exaggeration to say that Kornze has the job as a 'Reid appointment.'

The land Bundy was using and paying grazing fees on was in the sights of Harry Reid and his son Rory because it stood in the way of a $5 billion solar plant being built in the county by a Chinese company Reid was connected to, with undoubtedly an undisclosed amount of under the table cash headed Reid's way if he could get the land re-classified and the project moving.

Bundy is the last one left it what was once an area filled with independent cattl4e ranches.According to a statement he made recently, there used to be 52 other ranchers in the vicinity of his property not too long ago - and they're all gone.

As my friend Sara Noble relates at the Independent Sentinel, selling oil and gas leases to foreign buyers while refusing to let American companies drill and explore is another favorite trick of politicians like Harry Reid and his ilk:

Natural News reported that the Bureau of Land Management is in the business of leasing government lands to energy companies. Significant exploratory drilling is being conducted in precisely the same area where the Bundy family has been running cattle since the 1870′s. The “Gold Butte” area can be clearly seen in the map of areas drilled (purple demarcations).

 

Oil has been found in nearby areas but oil and gas drilling have worked alongside ranching over the years without a problem. Of course, if the government can lease the land on which the cattle graze, it will be lucrative for them.

In July 2011, the federal government agreed to allow China to buy up 600,000 acres of gas & oil fields in Texas. This is the same administration that would not allow new drilling; kicked Shell out of Alaska after billions of dollars of investments; shut down most offshore drilling; and tried to shut down Texas oil fields on the remote possibility that it might harm a tiny useless lizard that was most often known for being road kill.

The acreage takes in the Gold Butte area where Bundy grazes his cattle.

Once that story broke, mainly on Drudge and new media, ( and I have to give the usually suspect InfoWars a hand here) the stench was so bad that the BLM removed documents from its website showing that the move to kick the Bundys and their cattle off of the land was because their presence 'impeded development of solar energy' on the land.

And it was then that the BLM backed off..at least for now. The next move will probably be lawfare by Eric Holder and the Obama Justice Department paid for by your tax dollars in an attempt to bankrupt Bundy.

This is the natural fallout from the abuse of eminent domain that started with Kelo v. City of New London, where 'conservative' Supreme Court Justice David Souter was the swing vote that allowed government to seize an individual's private property because they felt like they could make a use of it that would do more to fatten Big Government's coffers.

And Big Government's kleptomania applies, also, to all other resources. For instance, in California, there's a drought, mainly because a lot of the water that used to make the state's Central Valley one of the greatest farm areas on the planet has been locked away due to environmentalist lobby's concern about a fish called the delta smelt. The area is now filled with fields, orchards and farms that are now fallow because they're no longer viable without the water the taxpayers of California paid to harness, and a surprising amount of that once private land has now been 'reclassified' for projects like the bullet train to nowhere. or the ridiculous express train to Las Vegas, something Senator Reid also has his claws into.

In California, there's plenty of water for San Francisco, Silicone Valley, Los Angeles and other places where the coastal,Blue voting elites hang out and do business. It's the other parts of the state that are beinbg his with a 'water shortage.'

What They Won't tell You About The Senate's Unemployment Extension Bill

It sounds like something good that only the mean spirited would oppose, right? A bill to extend unemployment benefits for millions of Americans who have been out of work for a very long time.

That is, until you find out this little factoid.

No less than Democrat Senate Majority leader Harry Reid is blocking an amendment to the bill that would require employers to verify the work eligibility of employees using E-Verify program, a simple web-based program that allows employers to check data against records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to make sure they're not hiring illegal aliens.

As Senator Jeff Sessions revealed, Harry Reid won't even allow the amendment to come to a vote, even though congress passed legislation in 1986 making it unlawful for employers to knowingly hire or employ illegal aliens.

The amendment not only would help American citizens in obtaining work, but it would also help curb identity theft and illegal use of other people's Social Security numbers.

Instead, the Democrats would rather leave American citizens dependent on a government dole.They have no interest in creating jobs for out of work Americans or the effect that importing and enabling a huge pool of low skilled workers will have on unemployment, the cost of health care and housing, and depressing worker's wages. That counts for nothing next to their lust for political power.

The hypocrisy of these people in moving their mouths about increasing the minimum wage while making sure that there's going to be a huge population of workers who van be hired for whatever the traffic will bear is despicable. And yes, it's racist, as it disproportionally effects blacks and Hispanics who are legal citizens, as well as legal immigrants.

If the American people re-elect these self-serving apparatchniks, they deserve to live like the serfs Harry Reid and his friends want them to become.

'Middle class warriors'..ri-ight.

Harry Reid; Not Just A Disgrace To The Senate, But A Disgrace To All Decent Americans

Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been in the news a lot recently. He 's been accusing Republicans of being unpatriotic and 'disrespectful to our commander-in chief' for opposing a Ukraine sanctions bill loaded with corrupt earmarks that have nothing to do with the legislation, in contrast to the clean bill passed bu the House. And his latest mantra has been the Koch Brothers, whose he's accused of everything from bribery and corruption to poisoning your children's puppies.

Senator Reid is the same man who called President Bush 'a loser' during wartime, who opposed the surge which enabled us to exit Iraq and along with his fellow Democrats, Senators Clinton, Obama and Biden did everything they could to sabotage our military efforts and play games with funding while our troops were under fire in in AfPak and Iraq, something they later admitted to Obama Secretary of Defense Robert Gate's anger and astonishment was 'just about politics and 2008'.

Matthew Continetti at the Washington Free Beacon has a must read column on this corrupt, obscene tumor on the body politic that simply must be read. Here's a healthy slice:

Another man might have assumed, correctly, that launching a campaign of insult and insinuation against two billionaires would result in renewed attention to his own finances. Not Harry Reid. The Senate Democratic leader since 2005, and the Senate majority leader since 2007, is not one to reflect before speaking. His mouth runs far ahead of his brain.

In recent years Reid has declared an American war “lost” while our troops still fought overseas; praised President Obama for his “light” skin and “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”; asserted falsely and without evidence that Mitt Romney had not paid any taxes for a decade; and said “Why would we want to do that?” when asked if he would fund cancer research during the government shutdown.

Now, with his majority in danger, his president unpopular, his floor agenda obstructed by members of his own caucus, Reid thrashes about uncontrollably. He calls Obamacare horror stories “untrue.” He says Obamacare numbers are not as high as projected because Americans “are not educated on how to use the Internet.” His Senate Majority PAC launches a $3 million ad campaign tying Republican candidates to two men most Americans have never heard of, two men who, funnily enough, are more popular than Reid.

From the floor of the Senate Reid says these two men, Charles and David Koch, are “un-American,” are trying “to buy America.” Without the terrible specter of the Koch brothers Harry Reid would be disarmed. He has no issue for his Democratic Senators to run on; the minimum wage and climate change are not enough. Nor has he another means of inspiring donors to open their checkbooks. He only has fear, fear of the Kochs, fear of extractive industry, fear of the portion of the elite that favors economic freedom. The Koch brothers, Reid says, “rig the system to benefit themselves.” He should know.

The fact that Harry Reid’s political and influence operation includes his five children has been established for some time. A few weeks ago, when I first heard Reid accuse private citizens of being un-American, I dredged up a Los Angeles Times article from 2003 with the headline, “In Nevada, the Name to Know Is Reid.” Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper’s meticulously researched and reported article begins with the story of the “Clark County Conservation of Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002,” a land bill of the sort that puts people to sleep. “What Reid did not explain” when he introduced the bill in the Senate, Neubauer and Cooper wrote, “was that the bill promised a cavalcade of benefits to real estate developers, corporations, and local institutions that were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees to his sons’ and son-in-law’s firms.” I wonder why he left that part out.

Firms tied to the Reid family, the Los Angeles Times reported, earned more than $2 million from 1998 to 2002 “from special interests that were represented by the kids and helped by the senator in Washington.” How much more have they earned in the 11 years since this article was published? Land, energy, water, gaming, and mining—the Reids manage a diversified portfolio. They are not financial investors but political ones.

There's much more at the link about how this lying, corrupt tool has disgraced his office to enrich himself, while hiding behind his congressional immunity to slander far more honest men from the floor of the senate.

Senate Blocks Obama's Appointment Of Radical Cop Killer Advocate To Justice Department

Today the senate blocked President Obama’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division, with 7 Democrats joining Republicans.

The nominee, Debo P. Adegbile, was a lawyer for the NAACP who filed a brief arguing that cop killer and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal’s murder trial was 'racist'.

Mumia Abu Jamal, AKA Wesley Cook murdered police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981 execution style during a routine traffic stop, according to three eyewitnesses. Two policemen and one hospital security guard testified to the court that while Mumia Abu Jamal was being brought into the hospital following the altercation with Faulkner, he shouted repeatedly, “I shot the mother f---er, and I hope the mother f---er dies.” He was unanimously convicted by a racially mixed jury. Faulkner left behind a wife and three young children.

Of course, Mumia Abu Jamal became a cause  for the Left, with celebrities like Ed Asner,  communists Ossie Davis and Pete Seeger and a host of the usual suspects. The NAACP was quick to move to  defend this killer, and  Adegbile led the charge, making the basis of his 'case' that the jury instructions were unclear and that the trial was 'racist'. Or in other words, he fished for technicalities to get a murderer  freed because of his race, even though there was no doubt that Jamal murdered Daniel Faulkner in the least. Adegbile went beyond mere competent  legal defense and into outright advocacy to try to get Jamal freed.

While Adegbile was unable to quite pull that off, he and the Leftist cheering section involved were able to create enough noise and race based heat  so that Jamal avoided the death penalty and is still incarcerated, a gross miscarriage of justice. It is disgraceful that the president even put his name forward. You can just imagine how he'd behave as one of Eric Holder's sturmbannführers.

Since Majority Leader Harry Reid exercised the nuclear option to essentially destroy the rights of the minority party to filibuster, all sorts of President Obama's radical nominees have been shoved through, including some remarkably unqualified ambassadors whose sole qualification was fundraising for the Obama campaign. So the president obviously expected Adegbile to sail right through.

This one was just a bridge too far, especially with midterms coming up. And it's notable that all of the Democrats who voted against Adegbile - Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania where the murder occurred, Chris Coons of Delaware, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and John Walsh of Montana - are all facing tough odds of getting re-elected in 2014, with the exception of Coons, who apparently decided to put right and wrong ahead of politics.

An angry Harry Reid accused the Republicans of racism, naming Robert Wilkins,who's now a judge on the DC Court of Appeals, and FHA Finance Agency Director Mel Watt as Obama nominees who were shoved through under the new Harry Reid diktats that the GOP was opposed to solely because of race.

Yes, when you take a look at their stellar backgrounds, it must have been ra-aa-cism.Right.

After his tantrum, Reid was forced to vote against the nominee in order to be able to ask for an eventual re-vote — which he did.

Oddly enough, there were several Democrat senators who voted to confirm Adegbile that might end up having to pay a politicalprice fo rit this year, including Sens. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mark Udall of Colorado, Mark Warner of Virginia, Al Franken of Minnesota and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

Apparently Reid was leaning pretty hard to try and get this particular radical nominee through for the president.

Harry Reid Changes His Tune On Iran Sanctions Bill

 

Last week Democrat Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said that he  would  “ support” a bill that would tighten the sanctions. “The Senate must be prepared to move forward with a new bipartisan Iran sanctions bill, when the Senate returns after Thanksgiving recess. And I am committed to do so,” he said.

Ah well, he's received his orders from the White House and today is a different day. Now, Senator Reid is saying the Senate will act only “if we need to do stronger sanctions.”

Reid's fellow Democrats Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez were outraged at what occurred in Geneva this weekend and are attempting to drum up support for new sanctions legislation .What Harry Reid is telling us here is that President Obama won;t be subjected to the political embarrassment of having to veto the bill - Reid will just use his powers as leader to table it.

Quite a piece of work, that Harry Reid.

Roundup: Reactions To The Nuclear Option

 

Well, Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled the trigger on the Nuclear Option, destroying the filibuster and taking away the rights of the Republicans to have any input at all on judicial appointments 'except the Supreme Court' as Reid was quick to add. That will last until there's a vacancy President wants to fill with a young, far Left radical,who can now be appointed by a simple majority. Even Vice President Joe Biden can provide the winning vote if the senate is split.

Making Legislation passable with a simple majority will likely come next.

This is a major historic change far more than many people realize, and the reactions have been interesting and even surprising in some quarters.

While he's apparently forgotten how Democrats behaved over George W. Bush's judicial nominees like Janice Rogers and was careful to utter the mantra of how the Republicans brought this on themselves by 'being obstructionist, reliably left Dana Milbank over at the pro-Obama Washington Post was surprisingly prescient on what a bad development this move is,calling it 'the Democrat's naked power grab' :

If Congress wasn’t broken before, it certainly is now. What Reid (Nev.) and his fellow Democrats effectively did was take the chamber of Congress that still functioned at a modest level and turn it into a clone of the other chamber, which functions not at all. They turned the Senate into the House.

Here’s what then-Sen. Joe Biden said in 2005 when a Republican Senate majority threatened to use a similar “nuclear option” to allow a simple majority to carry the day: 

“The nuclear option abandons America’s sense of fair play . . . tilting the playing field on the side of those who control and own the field. I say to my friends on the Republican side: You may own the field right now, but you won’t own it forever. I pray God when the Democrats take back control, we don’t make the kind of naked power grab you are doing.” 

Sen. Carl Levin (Mich.), one of just three Democrats who opposed his colleagues’ naked power grab, read those words on the Senate floor Thursday after Reid invoked the nuclear option. The rumpled Levin is not known for his oratory. But he is retiring next year and free to speak his mind — and his words were potent.

“We need to change the rules, but to change it in the way we changed it today means there are no rules except as the majority wants them,” Levin said. “This precedent is going to be used, I fear, to change the rules on consideration of legislation, and down the road — we don’t know how far down the road; we never know that in a democracy — but, down the road, the hard-won protections and benefits for our people’s health and welfare will be lost.”

Levin's right about that. The Republicans are only six seats shy of a simple majority and getting there is not exactly a huge or impossible task given President Obama's fading numbers and given how the incumbent's party normally loses seats in the midterms anyway,particularly in a second term. Should the Republicans win that simple majority in the senate, they will have absolutely no incentive whatsoever to work with Democrats on anything. And this is not a healthy development.

Of course, aside from the pressure put on him by the president and the Congressional Black Caucus, the chance of losing the Senate was Reid's real motive for this.They can now go ahead and appoint a whole slew of radical Leftist judges to the bench to keep their agenda alive even after the American people have rejected it electorally.

Needless to say, this sort of thing is applauded by the Left generally, given the totalitarian nature of most self-styled 'progressives'

The New York Times referred to this as 'Democracy returns to the Senate', which is exactly the reverse of what Pravda-on-the-Hudson had to say back in 2005 back when GOP Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist mulled over pulling the Nuclear option when he was faced by hysterical opposition to former President George W. Bush's appointments. Back then it was, "The Senate, of all places, should be sensitive to the fact that this large and diverse country has never believed in government by an unrestrained majority rule. Its composition is a repudiation of the very idea that the largest number of votes always wins out."

Another interesting reaction came from Senator John McCain, who was instrumental in undercutting Frist back in 2005 by assembling the so-called Gang of 14 who pledged not to vote for a nuclear option no matter what. Now I haven't checked myself, but it wouldn't surprise me if some of the Gang of 14 Democrats who were on board with McCain back then were among the Democrats who voted with Harry Reid this time, who of course, back in 2005 was quite vocal on what a horrible idea the Nuclear option was and how it would destroy the Senate.

McCain, with all the stuttering rage of an unpaid prostitute who forgot that age old rule about getting the money in hand first before putting out angrily said that the Democrats were going to pay a heavy price for this.

I'm tempted to provide a link to the Soros-funded Talking Points Memo story on this to let you read how brutally the Lefties flogged him over this,but I'll let you find it for yourself. I would almost say that it couldn't have happened to a more deserving recipient. Almost,but not quite.

The bottom line is that McCain and his fellow 'moderates' stupidly trusted Harry Reid and got screwed hard without any lubricant.I would hope some of them learned a lesson from this, but I'm not holding my breath. People in abusive relationships do seem to go back to them many times, no matter how badly they get hurt.



At the end of it, this has made our government a lot less stable, leading to fast and dramatic policy changes based on one of two votes, a lot less of an atmosphere of compromise, and a lot more hi-octane partisanship. The Democrats who voted for this not only voted to poison the well for a short term political advantage,but to lessen their own power.Holds by an individual senator who wants to negotiate something or prolong deliberations to gather additional facts before a vote are no longer possible.

Another reason this was a bad idea, at least for Democrats is because it has, to a degree, united the Republican caucus in a way they weren't united before. Even Maine's Senator Susan Collins, about as close to a Democrat as a Republican can be without changing her party affiliation is making angry noises about this.

I have a feeling that the Democrats are going to look back on this in the future and wish they hadn't done this. It was bad for the sneate, worse for the country and possibly worst of all for them.

Congressional Black Caucus Pressured Harry Reid To Use Nuclear Option

 

Now this is interesting. It appears that the Congressional Black Caucus was one of the factors putting pressure on Harry Reid to trash the Senate rules and use the nuclear option.

Apparently Melvin Watt (D-NC), one of their members was up to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency which overseas the FHA, and become another Franklin Raines. And Robert L. Wilkins. who is also black, was nominated by President Obama to serve as a judge on the DC Court of Appeals.

Wilkins, just by coincidence, was a classmate of Barack Obama's at Harvard Law school. He was a appointed by the president in 2010 to to a judgeship on the DC District Court and confirmed by a solid Democrat majority in the Senate less than a month before the new Ssenate elected in the 2010 midterms took over. His views on racial politics and other matters are about what you'd expect from an Obama nominee.

Watt is a well established time server in congress thanks to a racially gerrymandered district, and was formerly the chairman of the CBC. He now belongs to the Progressive Caucus as well as the CBC. Before getting into congress, he was a lawyer who specialized in gaming the federal and state governments for minority set asides and contracts.

He's on record as being instrumental in stopping a bi-partisan bill calling for an audit of the federal reserve, HR 1207..and apparently he's not adverse to using racist epithets against white people either, even when it's one of his fellow 'progressives'.

He was also formally investigated by the Office of Congressional Ethics for serious ethics violations in 2009 over a series of fundraising events he was involved in, after which he suddenly withdrew proposals he had introduced to subject auto dealers to more stringent regulations. He was cleared on a strictly partisan vote, after which his response was to introduce a bill to slash funding of the Office of Congressional Ethics. In other words, a real credit to congress.

The Republican say their objections to Wilkins are based on legitimate concerns about the need for additional judges on the D.C. Circuit, which is actually overstaffed right now. In the case of Watt, they're concerned about his qualifications for the job and the belief that oversight of FHA is not the place where any politician should be employed, and especially not one like Watt, since it can, shall we say, be a real moneymaker if you're not adverse to feathering your personal nest.

The CBC? Oh, it's racism of course.

“It’s not the controlling point but it’s a factor, no question about it,” Butterfield said. “The fact is, no sitting member of Congress in 150 years has been denied an up-or-down vote on a confirmation. Race has got to be a factor here.”

“It goes without saying,” added Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., another senior member of the CBC. He called Republicans the descendants of Confederates.

“No one makes a big deal of it, but if you’re a fly on the wall in any of their homes — I’ll tell you what: If you track the Confederate Army to the Dixiecrats, to the conversation of the Republicans, to the districts that were affected, you may be dealing with different labels, but if they were ever able to track down their ancestors, there’s a Confederate general in every damn living room.”

Charming. But race - and racial politics - trumps everything for these people. Note what I emphasize here:

Following the Wilkins filibuster, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., chairwoman of the CBC’s Judicial Nominations Working Group, released a statement saying she would “lead a strategy discussion at the CBC meeting on Wednesday on moving African American judicial nominees through the Senate.”

One tactic could be an extrapolation of what CBC members are already doing: attack Republican obstruction of Obama’s nominees — particularly African-Americans. That could boost turnout from a critical Democratic voting bloc in 2014 and undercut the GOP’s “big tent” rebranding efforts.

“One of the severe impacts of [the filibusters], and in large part you see this in the Judiciary, is that the Obama administration has been working tirelessly to diversify the bench, and that means women and people of color on the bench,” said Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group that tracks judicial nominations. “I think regardless of the motivation, it’s having a disproportionate effect on minorities and people of color, and that’s something to be upset about, and I do think it’s going to have an impact in 2014.”

Yes, it's all about ginning up turnout in the Democrat's urban strongholds, withotu which they can't win elections.Harry Reid understands that.

As for Ms.Baker, apparently she and the rest of her far Left cohorts over at People For the American Way strongly disagree with Dr. King's dictum that people should be judged - and appointed to office - on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. That sounds pretty racist to me.

And inconsistent, since Clarence Thomas certainly didn't get a pass from these people during what he referred to, appropriately, as 'a high tech lynching'.

So apparently, it's only certain blacks, like Mel Watt or Robert Wilkins who merit unqualified support based on their race.Thanks to Harry Reid and the CBC, it looks like they've achieved it, too.

Larry Elder was right.

Reid Going Nuclear; McConnell: If I Were Responsible For Obamacare, I'd Change The Subject Too

Well, Harry Reid is destroying the Gang of 14 compromise as I write this  and using the nuclear option to push through Obama's radical choices for the DC circuit court by simple majority.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has moved to adjourn the senate.

This is going to ignite all-out partisan war in the future, but on the plus side, we now know it's only going to take 51 votes to repeal ObamaCare...and the rest of the Left's poisonous agenda.

Here's McConnell's speech, and it's not bad: (hat tip Drew M. over at Ace's place)

“Over the past several weeks, the American people have been witness to one of the most breathtaking indictments of big-government liberalism in memory. And I’m not just talking about a web site.

 “I’m talking about the way in which Obamacare was forced on the public by an administration and a Democrat-led Congress that we now know was willing to do and say just about anything to pass it into law.

“The President and his Democrat allies were so determined to force their vision of health care on the public that they assured them up and down that they wouldn’t lose the plans they had, that they’d save money instead of losing it, and that they’d be able to keep using the doctors and hospitals they were already using. 

“But of course now we know that rhetoric just doesn’t match reality.

“And the stories we’re hearing on a near-daily basis now range from heartbreaking to comic. “Just yesterday I saw a story about a guy getting a letter in the mail saying his dog had qualified for insurance under Obamacare. So yeah, I’d probably be running for the exits too if I had supported this law.

“I’d be looking to change the subject just as Senate Democrats have been doing with their threats of going nuclear and changing the Senate rules on nominations. If I were a senator from Oregon, which hasn’t enrolled a single person yet for its Obamacare exchange, I would probably want to shift the focus too.

 “But here’s the problem with this latest distraction. It doesn’t distract people from Obamacare. It reminds them of it. It reminds them of all the broken promises. It reminds them of the power grab. It reminds them of the way Democrats set up one set of rules for themselves and another for everybody else.

“It’s basically the same debate.

“And rather than distract people from Obamacare, it only reinforces the narrative of a party that is willing to do and say just about anything to get its way. Because that’s just what they’re doing all over again.

“Once again, Senate Democrats are threatening to break the rules of the Senate in order to change the rules of the Senate. And over what? Over a court that doesn’t even have enough work to do.

“Millions of Americans are hurting because of a law Washington Democrats forced upon them – and what do they do about it? They cook up some fake fight over judges that aren’t even needed.

“Look: I get it. As I indicated, I’d want to be talking about something else too if I had to defend dogs getting insurance while millions of Americans lost theirs. But it won’t work. And the parallels between this latest skirmish and the original Obamacare push are just too obvious to ignore. “Think about it: The Majority Leader promised over and over again that he wouldn’t break the rules of the Senate in order to change them. On July 14 he went on ‘Meet the Press’ and he said: ‘We’re not touching judges.’ “He may as well just have said ‘If you like the rules of the Senate you can keep them.’

"And this Democrat strategy of distract, distract, distract is getting old. Because the American people aren’t fooled. “If our colleagues want to work with us to fill judicial vacancies that actually need to be filled, then let’s do it. “If our colleagues want to work with us to spare the American people from the pain of Obamacare, then let’s do that.

“But if they want to play games and set yet another precedent that they will no doubt come to regret, well…that’s a choice only they can make. “Let me be clear: the Democrat playbook of broken promises, double standards, and raw power…the same playbook that got us Obamacare…it has to end.

“That’s why Republicans are going to keep their focus where it belongs: on the concerns of the American people. It means we’re going to keep pushing to get back to the drawing board on health care – to replace Obamacare with real reforms that do not punish the middle class. And we’ll leave the political games to our friends on the other side.”

Harry Reid is going to be remembered as the man who wrecked whatever collegiality and bi-partisanship existed in the senate, to the detriment of the country. And the Democrats going along for the ride are going to regret this.

It's that Golden Rule thing, you know. And this isn't  going to be forgotten.

Harry Reid Ready To Destroy 'Bi-Partisan' Agreement, Go Nuclear On The Filibuster

With Harry Reid as Democrat Senate Majority leader, it was easy to predict that the bi-partisan agreement John McCain, Lindsay Graham and the other RINOs who constituted the Gang of 14 back in 2005 when Republicans controlled the Senate would fall apart as soon as the Democrats felt like it and had a majority.

The deal back then was that Bill Frist,then the  GOP Senate Majority leader wanted to change the Senate rules to allow the confirmation of judges by simple majority. McCain and his playmates undercut him with a bi-partisan group of senators that pledged not to use the Nuclear option and change the rules, but to compromise and not filibuster except 'under extraordinary circumstances'. The Republicans figured that someday they would be in the minority and would want their rights similarly respected.

Harry Reid,the Minority leader at that time thought this was a dandy idea and praised  the compromise  as a true example of bipartisan cooperation.With a straight face, and without busting out laughing.

As soon as the Democrats got the senate majority all that kumbaya stuff went out the windowq of course. Aside from changing procedural rules to shove through ObamaCare, Reid used the nuclear option in October of 2011 to kill a a post-cloture amendment by a simple majority on the president's Jobs bill....even though he had to ignore the Senate parliamentarian's ruling to do it.

Reid is now threatening to use the nuclear option again to permanently change the senate rules and cut off all filibusters by the minority party, in this case, the Republicans.

The reason is that the Republicans are filibustering   judicial appointments to the DC Court of Appeals, which the president wants to pack with radical appointees because its rulings have a significant impact on federal regulatory policy. Even though that court is currently split between Republican and Democrat appointees, our Dear Leader has suffered more than a few defeats there and wants to, shall we say, eliminate the uncertainty.

Is Reid serious? I have a feeling he's just throwing the threat out there to see if the Republicans cave in, but if he goes there it's not exactly smart policy. President Obama's numbers are rapidly plummeting and as unpopular as ObamaCare is now, it's going to be even worse next year when the ObamaCare mandates gut the employer-provided group insurance policies the way its hit the individual policies this year. There are 21 Democrat senate seats up for re-election this year,and a lot of them are in Red States, held by incumbents who joined the president in lying to their constituencies about ObamaCare.

Things could change, and change significantly. I find it hard to believe that Reid doesn't realize that if the filibuster isn't honored as a check and balance, a GOP majority could treat the Democrats exactly the way they're being treated now, with presidential appointments and legislation being subject to a simple up or down majority vote..which could lead to the undoing of ObamasCare and pretty much everything else Harry Reid and this president have shoved through.

And hyper-partisanship will definitely ramp up, even worse than now.

We'll see what happens...

Harry Reid Blocks Vote On Border Security Amendment To Senate's Amnesty Bill

I told you the Democrats weren't serious about securing the border. This time, they're not even bothering to lie about it:

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blocked a vote on the border security amendment to the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill offered by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

Grassley was pushing for an up-or-down vote by the Senate on his amendment, which would have required the border to be secured for six full months before any legalization of illegal immigrants in America began. Reid objected to Grassley’s motion, effectively implementing a 60-vote threshold that completely blocked any attempt at a fair vote on the amendment.

To be honest about it, I'm not sure the amendment would have passed anyway, given the number of delusional RINOs in the Senate. But not even to allow a vote on something that the American people have been given lip service on since the Gang of Eight bill first surfaced from the slime of DC is a contempt that matches the way ObamaCare was shoved through. And sadly, while the Democrats wooed them sweetly and made certain promises to them, a number of Senate RINOs are still probably so deluded that they don't realize that the liquid they unexpectedly find in their mouths isn't soda pop.

That especially applies to Marco Rubio, who's getting to the point where he can't even keep his lies straight on the matter any more.

The ironic part is that the Republicans who are so desperate to pass amnesty are stupidly slitting their own throats.

Most of the conservative Republican base is never going to vote for them again, especially if this passes. And neither will either the newly legalized Hispanics or the majority of Latino voters already here.

As I've pointed out, the heavily publicized Hispanic tidal wave of 2012 was more of a gentle ripple.

Those whom identify as Hispanics ( a very loose term for an extremely diverse and intermarried group) are 9.07 of the current electorate, 23.7 million voters). Of those, only 12 million or so of that 23.7 million bothered to vote in 2012, and they went for Barack Obama by 67.5%. That's a mere 8 million of the 12 million whom voted, or just about one third of the entire Hispanic vote available.

Two thirds of the current Hispanic vote is either Republican or up for grabs.

That's what all the verbiage and punditry is about....a grand total of less than 3.5% of the entire electorate, much of it already living in Blue States like California, New York and New Jersey. And that doesn't even account for voter fraud in places like California where there are no voter ID laws.

A number of those legal Hispanics are smart enough to have already figured out that amnesty for over 11 million people means that a construction worker, a truck driver, a housekeeper or a hospital worker now earning $20 per hour or so is now going to face competition from someone willing to work for half that amount in worse conditions. They understand that it will be their children who will be coping with dysfunctional public schools with fifty students per classroom, that it will be their rents that go up as they compete for affordable housing and their taxes that will skyrocket to pay for social welfare benefits for the new migrants.

They won't be voting for the politicians behind amnesty. Nor will the recipients of amnesty.Along with the Hispanics already here who haven't figured out what amnesty means to them or simply don't care for other reasons. they'll be voting Democrat for more gimmees.

Don't count on the House as a firewall either. Not if Speaker John Boehner has anything to say about it.

The Republicans continue to be worthy of Pat Caddel's label of being the Stupid Party.

It's vital at this point that the American people contact their representatives, especially in the House and make their voices heard to stave this off.

Harry Reid Uses Marine Deaths To Play Politics

Some people are beneath contempt. And one of them is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Today there was a training accident at the Hawthorne Army Depot in western Nevada that took the lives of 7 Marines. It involved a misfire of a 60-millimeter mortar round that exploded prematurely inside its tube during a nighttime live fire exercise.

As anyone who has handled mortars knows, like any other artillery or artillery rounds, malfunctions sometimes happen.

Senator Reid's reaction to this tragedy is characteristic of the man. He clearly implied that the deaths were caused by the Sequester and by those Evil Republicans.Here's what he had to say on the Senate floor today:

As I indicated, it was quite a big explosion. We’ll follow this news very closely. I will do whatever I can going forward to support the United States military and the families of the fallen Marines.

Mr. President, it’s very important we continue training our military, so important. But one of the things in sequester is we cut back in training and maintenance. That’s the way sequester was written. Now, the bill that’s on the floor, we hope to pass today helps that a little bit. At least in the next six months, it allows the military some degree of ability to move things around a little bit. Flexibility, we call it, and that’s good. But we have to be very vigilant. This sequester should go away. We have cut already huge amounts of money in deficit reduction. It’s just not appropriate, Mr. President, that our military can’t train and do the maintenance necessary.

These men and women, our Marines were training there in Hawthorne. And with this sequester, it’s going to cut back this stuff. I just hope everyone understands the sacrifices made by our military. They are significant, being away from home, away from families, away from their country.

Notice how the crafty Mr. Reid phrased this. It's quite clear what he's implying, but it's stated in such a way that he can try to claim plausible deniability if anyone calls him out on it.

The Marines, of course, were not fooled at all.

Per NBC Reporter Jim Miklaszewski:

Now I can tell you, Marine Corps officials this afternoon are taking a strong exception to what Harry Reid implied. Saying that this this exercise, for example, was planned well in advance, had nothing to do with the budget cuts. There were no corners cut, and if they couldn’t afford to have all the safety precautions into place, they wouldn’t do the exercise.

And in fact, one Marine Corps official told us a short time ago that he considers this nothing but pure political posturing on the backs of these dead Marines.

That's exactly what it is. To imply that the Marine Corps would risk their lives of their men because of 'budget cuts' takes a very special kind of politician.

Let's parse, briefly what this cockroach had to say.

In the first place, the sequestration - and the fact that it primarily affects the defense budget - was President Obama's idea and no one else's. it was a lousy deal agreed to by GOP leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell as a stopgap measure after the president went back on an agreement he had already made with Boehner and tried to shove an additional $450 billion in tax increases into the deal. If, as Senator Reid clearly implies the sequestration is the cause of anything, it can be laid at the feet of President Obama.

Second, this was a training exercise that went wrong because a shell fired prematurely. Unless the shell's manufacturer or the mortar's manufacturer was somehow magically affected by the Federal budget, the sequestration had nothing to do with what happened.

And third, let's consider the source. This is the senator who endangered U.S. troops under fire in Iraq by saying 'the war is lost', and by doing his best to sabotage the surge strategy and th egeneral in charge of it. This is the Senator threw a tantrum over a bill introduced by Senate Republicans to cut all funding off for Iraq and Afghanistan that challenged the seditious behavior being practiced by people like Senators Reid, Biden, Durbin, Obama and Clinton and essentially invited them to put up or shut up.

Needless to say, the Democrats felt forced by political considerations to vote with Republicans to keep funding our men and women under fire, and Reid's spiteful revenge was to see to it that a separate bill was tabled that would have provided a badly needed pay raise to our military and provided for the funding of needed equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yes, this is the man who now claims to be concerned about our military and their well-being.

Tomorrow, of course, he'll deny that he was referencing the sequester. Better yet, the Obama Administration will have someone from the Pentagon or one of the Joint chiefs of Staff do it.

I leave it to you to look at what Reid said.

This is the Majority leader of the U.S. Senate, someone who's actually in line for presidential succession playing these obscene games.

As I said, some people are simply beneath contempt.

Democrats Lack Votes To Confirm Hagel..For Now

Chuck Hagel's conformation, which seemed to be a sure thing a few days ago is in limbo - at least for now.

The Democrats, led by majority Leader Harry Reid attempted to shove his confirmation through by were three votes shy of the sixty votes needed to override Senator Lindsay Graham's hold. Essentially, this is now a filibuster situation.

Senator Reid had the gall to accuse Republicans of disloyalty. Reis qangrily made a huge point about Leon Panetta was leaving his post at noon that day, saying the country would be without a defense secretary.

“In less than two hours, our country will be without a secretary of defense at a time when we have a war going on in Afghanistan, there are about 70,000 troops there, we have a nuclear weapon that was detonated in North Korea a few days ago,” Mr. Reid said.

Yes, Senator Harry Reid..Senator 'The war is lost', the man who did his best to sabotage the surge strategy. This was the senator who hearted MoveOn, the man who petulantly blocked an appropriation bill that included a pay raise and badly needed supplies for our military because he was angry after he introduced a bill to cut all funding for the Iraq War while our troops were under fire and even some of his fellow Democrats shied away from voting for it.

Would someone like Senator Reid even remotely understand what loyalty to country means?

And for that matter, as usual he lied. As the White House confirmed, SecDef Leon Panetta had already agreed to stay at his post until a successor was confirmed.

What tripped Hagel up was not his obvious unfitness for the position, but his refusal to answer senate questions about his financial dealings and the Obama White House's continuing stonewall of Republican efforts to find the truth about the Benghazi disaster. This deviousness even convinced Senator John McCain to vote against cloture.

Today, some other information surfaced about Hagel that ought to preclude his becoming Secretary of Defense to any sensible person.

As a product of his public fondness for Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran, Hagel's made a few dollars over the years speaking to rabidly anti-Israel, pro-Arab groups such as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and anti-semite James Zogby’s Arab American Institute.

Hagel failed to disclose these speeches to the senate.That alone ought to deep six him.

The one to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee must have really been something, because they're outright refusing to release the tape of Hagel's remarks.

But unfortunately for Hagel, a partial account of his speech to Zogby's Arab American Institute has surfaced, from a journalist and Hagel supporter who was there:

 
Hagel said the U.S. Department of State was an adjunct of the Israeli foreign minister’s office, according to a contemporaneous report of the event.
Republican political consultant and Hagel supporter George Ajjan wrote about the March 2, 2007, speech on his website the following day, writing a description “point by point through some of the more important elements of his speech.”
“Point six“:

The State Department has become adjunct to the Israeli Foreign Minister’s office…
Wow. A very bold statement by Hagel bound to further raise the ire of the “Jewish Lobby” (yawn…), but it does express his strong belief in a comprehensive solution to problems in the Middle East. Hagel mentioned this theme several times – comprehensive, he said, in the sense that all tools should be used to achieve American foreign policy objectives (diplomatic, political, economic, and military), but also comprehensive in the James Baker sense of addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict holistically as both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have proved too lazy and too incompetent to do.

Reached by phone, Ajjan confirmed his 2007 account of the event, saying he was “taking notes as [Hagel] was speaking.”

“If I wrote it, then that’s what happened at the time,” Ajjan told the Free Beacon.
He added that the event, which was cosponsored by the Rutgers University Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the American Iranian Council, was closed to the press.

“When [Hagel] said the State Department was becoming an adjunct of the Israeli ministry, I think that was during the Q&A,” said Ajjan. “Even in the blog, I was surprised that he said that. It was a very bold statement.”

Rutgers is a hotbed of vociferous anti-Israel activity, and its Middle East Studies Depart has enjoyed significant funding from the Saudis and others who, shall we say, are not exactly friendly to Israel. Hagel was obviously in his element and felt he could open up.

Ajjan, by the way, is vehemently anti Israel, going back a long way.

No wonder Hagel didn't disclose this.

The Senate should insist that Hagel disclose full information about these and any other speeches he made, as well as the financial disclosures demanded by the senate.

I have to wonder at the Democrats still backing Hagel. His views on Iran directly contradict what President Obama has said publicly. What message do they think his appointment would send to the Ayatollahs? And what kind of message would it send to Israel?

And that's particularly true of Democrats like Chuck Schumer, whom claim to be pro-Israel. It's time they stood up and sent this remarkably unqualified and unfit candidate back to his career shilling for Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas and performing for the other demented purveyors of the myth of the 'Jewish Lobby'.

Reid Threatens GOP Senators "Filibuster Deal In 36 Hours Or Face Nuclear Option"

Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has threatened Republican Senators that if they don't agree to a deal on severely curtailing filibusters, he will activate what's known as the Nuclear Option - changing the Senate's rules by a simple majority vote:

Reid’s trump card in negotiations with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is the threat he will change Senate rules with a simple majority vote, a tactic known as the nuclear option. This maneuver would allow Reid to change the Senate rules with a simple majority vote, something that has never been done, according to parliamentary experts.

Critics call it the nuclear option but proponents, such as Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) say it is more accurate to describe it as the “Constitutional option” because the Constitution empowers each chamber to set its own rules.

Reid predicted the Democratic caucus would support him in reforming the Senate’s filibuster rule unilaterally.

You may remember that term Nuclear Option...when the GOP controlled the Senate during the Bush Administration in 2005 and faced obstruction from Democrats on confirming judges, former Senate Majority leader Bill Frist thought about using this, but was talked out of it by the Gang of Fourteen,a bi-partisan group of senators that pledged not to use the Nuclear option and change the rules, but to compromise and not filibuster except 'under extraordinary circumstances'.

The leader of that group? Senator John McCain, flanked by Republicans Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, Lindsay Graham, Lincoln Chaffey, Mike DeWine, and John Warner.

The rationale given by McCain then was -wait for it - that someday they would be in the minority and would want their rights similarly respected!

Harry Reid,the Minority leader at that time welcomed the compromise and touted it publicly as a true example of bipartisan cooperation.

As we can see now, behind everyone's back he and his pals were laughing uproariously at the Republican members of the Gang of 14's naïveté and stupidity in trusting him and his fellow Democrats to make that same quid pro quo once they got their hands on power.

I hope every one of the three Republican on the list above still in the Senate realizes how badly they were played and what idiots they were to trust Harry Reid and his minions. And I hope they appreciate how it has led to the marginalization of themselves and every other Republican senator, as the Democrats now pass whatever rules they want to govern the Senate:

Meltdown - Boehner's 'Plan B' Implodes As Conservatives Say No

In spite of Majority Leader Reid essentially flipping him the middle digit yesterday, Republican Speaker John Boehner still didn't get the message.

He insisted on getting his 'Plan B' passed by the House, a rehash of former Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan from last May - tax increases on gross incomes of $1 million and up, no mention of spending or the debt ceiling.

His idea was that this was somehow going to force President Obama and the Democrats to deal.

But to his surprise, the Republican caucus refused to go along:

At a quarter to 8 p.m. on Thursday night, House Republicans gathered in the Capitol basement for an urgent, closed-door conference meeting. The scene was hushed and confused. Instead of huddling in a windowless room, members thought they’d spend the evening on the House floor, voting on “Plan B,” Speaker John Boehner’s fiscal-cliff proposal. But as they took their seats and looked at Boehner’s face, the reason for the gathering became clear: The speaker didn’t have the votes. The whipping was over. “Plan B” was dead.

Boehner’s speech to the group was short and curt: He said his plan didn’t have enough support, and that the House would adjourn until after Christmas, perhaps even later. But it was Boehner’s tone and body language that caught most Republicans off guard. The speaker looked defeated, unhappy, and exhausted after hours of wrangling. He didn’t want to fight. There was no name-calling. As a devout Roman Catholic, Boehner wanted to pray. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,” he told the crowd, according to attendees.

The Serenity Prayer is about all Boehner has left.

He and his friends in the GOP establishment have spent the last few weeks dissing the Tea party and conservatives in general, kicking members associated with those movements off committee seats, and threatening suspected dissidents with similar retaliation.

Did Boehner think that would go unnoticed? Is he really that clueless?

Plan B was a stunningly futile and bad idea anyway. Most of the GOP caucus obviously didn't like the idea of going home and explaining it to the constituents who elected them.

Harry Reid has said he's not going to consider any plan that comes out of the House and already sent the Senate home for Christmas, and the president is already preparing for his $4 million Hawaiian vacay at the taxpayer's expense, so even if it had passed it would have been meaningless.

And the Plan itself was ridiculous.

Boehner and anyone else that thinks like him need to get a clue - President Obama and the Democrats have no intention of negotiating anything. Why should they?

Taxes are going to go up, there will be no meaningful spending cuts and our defense budget is going to be scaled back to pre WWI levels. That's what this president and the Democrats wanted all along, and they'll get it, either by doing nothing and letting sequestration take effect or by making Boehner and the House cave on everything they want. And the men who put them in this comfortable position were none other than Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

He champions them now, but President Obama has constantly demonized the Bush tax cuts since 2008, something no Republican of any stature has had the stones to remark on publicly. They were supposed to sunset on January 1st, 2012, but they were extended for an additional year because of the ridiculous deal Boehner and McConnell made with the president last year in exchange for raising the debt ceiling and giving the president a higher credit card limit.They could have refused to increase the debt limit and forced the president to live within a 2.3 trillion dollar budget. Instead, they expected the president to negotiate with them in good faith a year down the road to pass meaningful spending cuts.

Now, how bad a deal that was is finally starting to become readily apparent to them.I use the word 'starting' advisedly, based on Boehner's recent antics.Having been screwed once, he's apparently anxious for a repeat performance.

Again some simple truth. This president and his minions were always going to raise taxes and strangle the defense budget. The Bush Era Tax Cuts are going up on people making more than $250K, and that number will be go south fairly quickly, using the AMT calculation, bogus stimulus programs, and more 'reforms' in Congress to $100,000 and lower. It's open season on the Kulaks, because elections do matter. And as the American people are going to discover, who is labelled as 'the rich is going to be a lot more elastic and inclusive then they imagined.

What Boehner could do, providing he gets someone to help him find his lost testicles is to use the power of the House to prevent the worst of the excesses. Congress holds the purse strings.There's nothing stopping them from simply refusing to raise the debt ceiling past its already obscene limits.If that involves shutting the government down, fine.

There's nothing stopping them from refusing to fund President Obama's agenda and making it clear that any spending he does will come with a price tag of spending cuts attached.There's nothing stopping them from addressing the country and explaining clearly and eloquently that this poresident has no intention of negotiasting anything in good faith, exactly why President Obama's fiscal policies are leading us to ruin, and why they oppose them. And there's nothing stopping them from attacking this president and his policies forcefully.

They're going to be demonized either way by the president and his media lackeys, but at least they're providing an honest, principled alternative, and one more and more people will understand as the Obama economy unravels.

Will they do it? I doubt it. Especially with John Boehner in charge.

But it needs to be done, and if the Republicans can't or won't, someone else will. Depend on it.

Reid Doubles Down: 'Romney Needs To Prove He Paid Taxes'

I see where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to double down on his totally unproven allegations that Mitt Romney hasn't paid taxes for the last decade:

“I am not basing this on some figment of my imagination,” Reid said in a telephone call with Nevada reporters. “I have had a number of people tell me that.”

Asked to elaborate on his sources, Reid declined. “No, that’s the best you’re going to get from me.”

“I don’t think the burden should be on me,” Reid said. “The burden should be on him. He’s the one I’ve alleged has not paid any taxes. Why didn’t he release his tax returns?”

OK, Senator. Fine by me.

As I reported earlier, my numerous sources( who of course are confidential) tell me you regularly purchase dogs for the purpose of having sex with them, and that you like to set your own farts on fire.

I have that direct from a long time owner of a kennel who's known Reid for years, and told me explicitly that not only did Senator Reid admit it to him, but that he's been supplying the dogs in question and actually saw Reid set one of his farts on fire with a bic lighter.

Not only that, but the photographic evidence above from my sources shows you allegedly testing one of the dogs for 'suitability'.

You prove to me they're lying, Senator Reid. So far, I haven't even gotten an official denial from your office.

Plus, another of my sources - and again, I've heard this from lots of people- tells me you like toi pick and eat your own boogers when you think no one's looking, and again, there's photographic evidence.



The burden of proof should be on you to prove it isn't true, Senator Reid. I'm waiting...

Rack 'em smack'em, rack 'em jack 'em, as one of my acquaintances used to say in these circumstances .

( G-d bless you Choo Choo m'man, wherever you are)

Harry Reid Has Affairs With Pet Dogs, Lights Own Farts On Fire

I have that direct from a long time owner of a kennel who's known Reid for years, and told me explicitly that not only did Senator Reid admit it to him, but that he's been supplying the dogs in question and actually saw Reid set one of his farts on fire with a bic lighter.

The above photo shows him allegedly testing out one  dog's 'suitability'.

Of course, my source must remain confidential.

Nevertheless, I can prove what I say as much as Reid can 'prove' his statements to a Huffington Post reporter about an unnamed 'Bain Investor' telling him that Governor Romney hasn't paid taxes in ten years.

I mean, if you were Mitt Romney,would you be telling some unnamed investor in Bain ( or anyone else for that matter) how much you pay in taxes? Senator Reid might be damned good at crafting special legislation to enrich himself on land deals, but as for crafting a credible slam? You literally would have to go to HuffPo, Newsweak, or Daily Kos to find someone stupid enough to echo chamber that one.

Oh, it gets better. Reid also claims he's somehow channeling Mitt Romney's dead father:

"His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son," Reid said, in reference to George Romney's standard-setting decision to turn over 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in the late 1960s.

Which leads me to wonder...just how low can someone like Harry Reid go? And is his mother ashamed of him, slandering someone like this just because he found someone equally despicable willing to print this?

Actually, both John Kerry and John McCain never released more than two years' taxes, and they weren't running against Obama, and the dinosaur media.

By the way, I have another hot item on Senator Reid. Did you know he likes to pick his nose and eat his own boogers when he thinks no one's looking? Confidential source, but absolutely accurate, I tell you.



Trust me, we're going to see a lot worse as this goes on.

I never want to hear a single lefty tell me again about 'poisonous discourse' or the evils of Republican 'partisan politics'.

How The White House And Senator Harry Reid Are Working To Weaken Iran Sanctions

As I mentioned previously, the media touting of the Obama Administration's foreign policy record is supremely unwarranted.

One of the president's worst foreign policy failures has been on Iran's illegal nuclear program.

The administration has repeatedly tried to 'engage' the Iranians, and the only thing it's resulted in is more time for the centrifuges to spin as Iran marches toward acquiring nuclear weapons.

The recent plethora of 'sanctions' are a joke.

If you'll remember, the same president who is now touting them as part of his foreign policy achievements fought against them tooth and nail when they were proposed, and they have done nothing to impede the Iranian nuclear weapons project.

Aside from the fact Russia and Turkey are openly flouting them, waivers and exceptions have been given out by the Obama Administration to foreign countries by the truck load.

The obvious conclusion, and one the Iranians have almost certainly come to as well is that this president is too weak to issue the only real sanctions that would work - stopping American Banks from dealing with anyone processing oil payments via Iran's Central bank. Either that, or he simply doesn't have a problem with Iran going nuclear, campaign rhetoric to the contrary.

The latest example of this kind of behavior involves legislation currently making its way through the Senate that would also be quite effective if enforced, a bill that would penalize any company that underwrites Iranian affiliates and any insurance company that underwrites activities that bolster the Iranian oil industry.

As you can imagine, this could cut into the mullah's cash flow quite effectively. Shipping companies, cargo carriers, oil exploration, even foreign employees working the oil fields for Iran all require insurance in order to do business.

So of course, it's being watered down to nothingness on instructions from the White House, with the able assistance of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Tim Johnston (D-SD):

The insurance industry and prominent Democratic lawmakers are attempting to water down a new Iran sanctions bill that would penalize any company that underwrites Iranian affiliates, according to insiders on Capitol Hill.

Sens. Harry Reid (D., Nev.), Tim Johnson (D., S.D.), and others have quietly lobbied to weaken the revamped sanctions language, which has been circulating on Capitol Hill for several months.{...}

Johnson and Reid have each received nearly half-a-million dollars from individuals and political action committees affiliated with the insurance industry, leading some to wonder whether these lawmakers are doing their corporate donors’ bidding.

Neither lawmaker responded to a request for comment.

“There is significant pressure being brought to bear by the Obama Administration in coordination with the insurance lobby to stop any far-reaching insurance sanctions against Iran,” said a congressional source. “Whether money plays a role, who knows, but the pressure is intense and Democrats—and even some House Republicans—appear to be carrying the water.”

The Senate in March considered language targeting the insurance sector, but Reid and the Obama administration lobbied at the time to thwart the amendment aimed at targeting those insurance companies dealing with Iran.

The language is missing from Johnson’s Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Human Rights Act of 2012, which still awaits final passage in the Senate.{...}

The Obama administration remains on the side of the insurance industry, insiders said.

“It’s more about the administration’s reluctance to go along with” the sanctions, one of the insiders explained. “The administration’s perspective as they explained it to me … is that [it doesn’t want to tell] our allies, ‘You have to stop doing business with Iran tomorrow.’

”Team Obama has repeatedly urged its Congressional allies to weaken multiple Iran sanctions despite widespread support for the measures.

The Iranian experience with America since the Islamic Revolution in 1978 has primarily been one of weakness and vacillation.

The Iranian regime has performed actions that would have resulted in a declaration of war from a previous generation of Americans, yet they continue doing so with impunity and without suffering any major retaliation whatsoever.

The cost for this kind of craven appeasement never goes away...it merely accrues and gathers interest. If this continues, the cost when the bill comes due to us in the future is going to make us wish we'd dealt with it far sooner.

Democrats: Overturning ObamaCare Helps Them In The Election

Some of you thought I was reaching a little bit when I suggested yesterday that the Obama Administration may have decided to throw the fight and let the Supreme Court overturn ObamaCare to help win the election. Well, look what crawled out of the woodwork...two very well connected and informed Democrats that feel exactly the same way:






Neither of them is saying that President Obama is deliberately letting ObamaCare go down in flames - just pointing out the benefits.

I'll repeat the scenario I mentioned yesterday... ObamaCare's repealed,and President Obama is able to jettison a markedly unpopular issue that's been a major rallying point for Republicans while giving him the issue of saying how he'll fix healthcare during his next term.

Employers start hiring, especially small businesses now that they don't have ObamaCare staring them in the face. Unemployment drops, the Dow goes up,the president can say his 'policies' are working. The American people get gulled into thinking things are headed in the right direction, Obama gets re-elected..and then is free to proceed in destroying America and its economy without fear of any electoral consequences. Even better,he gets a chance at nominating at least two more Supreme Court justices with the radical viewpoints and ideology similar to those he's already nominated, so that the changes he makes stay that way.

Crazy, yes. But stranger things have happened since Barack Obama slithered into the Oval Office.

Obama's Latest - A $5 Billion Train to Las Vegas From Nowhere

DesertXpress, a privately held company linked to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a plan.

They want to build a bullet train that would take tourists from a desolate desert area in California to the gambling resorts of Las Vegas...and they're on the verge of scoring a $4.9 billion loan from the Obama administration to do it.

Here's DesertXPress's idea in a nutshell. Californians from Los Angeles will gas up, drive 100 miles in their cars, pull off I-15, drive to an area outside of Victorville and board a DesertXpress train at around $100 per ticket to go th erest of the way..not counting what DesertXpress will probably charge for parking.

Like Solyndra and the rest of Obama's 'green jobs' agenda, this is simply a nice Chicago-style reward for some well connected Democrats at the expense of the taxpayers, as well as a backscratcher for Senator Reid.

Let's look at the proposition. First of all, the California location they're talking about eliminates any reason to use the new depot. Anyone headed towards Vegas from the greater Los Angeles area who's made the trek before on a weekend or holidays absolutely dreads the heavy I-15 commute. What the brilliant planners of this bit of graft would expect you to believe is that people will endure three quarters of it, get out of their cars and then pay big to take the train the rest of the way.

Right now, there's already bus service run by AmTrack and several other companies from Los Angeles to Vegas. AmTrack claims the trip takes about 6 hours and the fare is $55. Another company offers a trip that takes 5 hours for $25 - $40 each way, with a $10 discount on round trips. Grey hound goes there too. Seniors. a big part of the Las Vegas clientele use these buses all the time, and the casinos frequently offer discount coupons as well to make it even cheaper. And remember...these fares are from Los Angeles, without the Vegas bound visitors having to pay for gas and drive in heavy traffic for three hours from the Los Angeles area to some place in the desert, pay additional money to park their cars and then pay $100 more to go the rest of the way instead of just driving for another hour.

For that matter, air fare from LAX, John Wayne or Burbank airports is usually under $100 round trip, and again, the casinos and hotels frequently offer discounts and packages to make it even less.

DesertXpress and its eager backers in the Obama Administration would have you believe that their potential customers are stupid enough toline up topay through the nose for this 'service.' Instead of flying in comfort for the same price less gas, stress, driver time and parking, or taking a bus for even less without fighting traffic and paying for gas and parking.

And to get it going, they only want the Obama Administration to give them $5 billion in the form of a low interest FRA loan to put this nonsense into operation.Such a deal! At least for them.

Not only that, but the projects official rationale, jobs, is an absolute joke. DesertXPress claims that building the project will generate 80,000 new jobs, but the FRA's own research in conjunction with the loan request shows that this is a wildly inflated number, that most of the jobs created would be temporary, and something like only 700 jobs would be permanent. Meanwhile, towns down the highway would shed jobs. Barstow's mayor calls this 'catastrophic' and estimates they would lose up to 2,300 jobs in his city alone.

The personalities involved are interesting as well.Casino developer and contractor Anthony Marnell II is the major shareholder in DesertXPress, while project consultant Sig Rogich, runs the most influential lobbying and advertising company in Nevada and is co-chair of Republicans for Reid, a Nevada group with ties to the gambling industry. Marnell, another member of Republicans for Reid has donated at least $15,000 to political committees connected to Reid since 2010, including a $5,000 donation in May to Senator Reid's Searchlight Leadership Fund.

Other investors include North Dakota businessman Gary Tharaldson, who donated $10,000 to a Reid committee in March.

And then there's the matter of a recent mysterious issuing of 25,000 shares of stock by DesertXpress HRS Corp.on Marnell's orders.DesertXpress isn't saying whom the shares were issued to, who holds them, and in what amounts.

Same old story. Oh, and as a parting note, there isn't one bullet train in the world operating without a government subsidy. So if this monstrosity ever does get built, the $5 billion is just a down payment.

(h/t, long time Joshua's Army member Louie Louie)