If only we’d sent the Marines in . . .

I honestly will never understand these people:

One of the problems I have with “leading from behind” is that when a day like this comes, we don’t have the infrastructure in place that we could have. I’m glad it ended the way it did. It took longer than it should have. If we could have kept American air power in the fight it would have been over quicker. Sixty-thousand Libyans have been wounded, 3,000 maimed, 25,000 killed. Let’s get in on the ground. There is a lot of money to be made in the future in Libya.  Lot of oil to be produced. Let’s get on the ground and help the Libyan people establish a democracy and a functioning economy based on free market principles.

Iraq was the model you know. And that worked so well.

Congressional leadership: not a clue

The 'gang' of four

David Frum was George W. Bush’s speechwriter mostly on economic issues. (He probably should have stayed in his comfort zone because he also authored the phrase ‘axis of evil’ about which enough said.)

Lately, he’s become a frequent critic of the rhetoric of not only the Tea Party but of Republicans in Congress. To wit: John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor and John Kyl, the Republican leadership in Congress, wrote a letter yesterday to Ben Bernanke.

Frum:

I’m not shocked by much any more, but I am shocked by this: the leaders of one of the great parties in Congress calling on the Federal Reserve to tighten money in the throes of the most prolonged downturn since the Great Depression.

One line in the letter caught my eye as summing up the unreality of the Republican leaders’ position:

“We have serious concerns that further intervention by the Federal Reserve could exacerbate current problems or further harm the U.S. economy. Such steps may erode the already weakened U.S. dollar or promote more borrowing by overleveraged consumers.”

Are they serious? We are living through the most rapid deleveraging of the American consumer since the 1930s.

. . . if you’ve convinced yourself that Obama is the Second Coming of Malcolm X, Trotsky, and the all-conquering Caliph Omar all in one, then perhaps capsizing the US economy and plunging your fellow-citizens deeper into misery will seem a price worth paying to rid the country of him.

But on any realistic assessment of the problems faced by Americans – and not just would-be Republican office-holders – [the problem] is the recession, not the presidency.

I hope his mother never sees these

I went there. Slideshow of the newest photos Anthony Weiner took of himself. In the House gym.

Here.

8 hours, 35 minutes

Sen. Bernie Sanders just wrapped up his filibuster. Good for him. I listened from 4:30 till now and could have gone on for hours. He was riveting.

Hey Republicans, that’s a real filibuster.

They’re so bad at this

Politicians seem to have frequent failures following marital rules. There’s an abundance of examples but my favorites are always the preachy types who exemplify “do as I say, not as I do”. Think Haggard.

Today’s ‘fallen one’ is a beaut: a serious proponent of Christian values and abstinence education.

From an update added to the post at Daily Kos by the Great Orange Satan himself! Right on.

Update II by kos: Anyone know which gay marriage destroyed Souder’s traditional straight marriage?

And the almost unbearable deliciousness?

(Update, 7:55AM: Tracy Jackson, the female staffer who interviewed Souder in this video, was his mistress.)

EVEN MORE UPDATE: From the Congressman’s website: “I believe that Congress must fight to uphold the traditional values that undergird the strength of our nation,” Souder says on his official website. “The family plays a fundamental role in our society… I am committed to preserving traditional marriage, the union of one man and one woman.”

Too bad he won’t be there any more to keep up that good fight to hold up the strength of our nation.

A legend in his own mind

Our old friend, Newt Gingrich, was, remember?, forced out of the House leadership by his own caucus in the 90’s after his strategic move to ‘shut down’ the Federal Goverment ended up exploding in the Republicans faces. Probably one of the most bizaarre and unsucessful of all Newt’s odd endeavors. (Let us neither forget his unique public itterations = remember ‘women having thier periods in foxholes will be how we’d lose wars’? Tell it to Joan of Arc!)

Well, Steve Benen at Washington Monthy, who does real reporting (unlike what I do here which is selective cutting and pasting) notes that Newt is back at it. He seems to have a short memory, Newt does. I think most people do remember their personal humiliations, but I guess that norm can’t stop a disgraced one. Even so, this one is hard to fathom.

“”When we win control of the House and Senate this fall, stage one of the end of Obamaism will be a new Republican Congress in January that simply refuses to fund anymore,” he said. “The Congress doesn’t have to pass the money. If EPA gets no money, it can’t enforce cap and trade.”

Benen goes on: That’s been the new line since the healthcare reform bill passed and Republicans realized they probably wouldn’t be able to repeal it. Gingrich, and some lawmakers, have instead been talking about simply not paying for it. But what Gingrich proposed Thursday went beyond just that — to refusing to pay for anything the (hypothetical) GOP Congress didn’t want to let President Obama do.”

So – let’s do it again. Because it’s bound to work out differently this time. Apparently this line got the biggest applause of the speech. So Newt does not forget alone.

Moving right along

It seems Rep Bart Stupak has announced his retirement. (For the sake of my party, I hope to god he doesn’t go to work for an insurance company!) From the Atlantic Online just now:

“Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) plans to announce his retirement today, Democrats briefed on his decision said. Stupak, the leader of a pro-life faction within his party, had received death threats and was under intense political pressure after he agreed to support the Democratic health care reform legislation even though pro-life groups insisted that it would allow federal funds to be used for abortion.

Stupak negotiated a compromise with the White House, which resulted in President Obama’s issuing of an executive order clarifying the executive branch’s view of the subject. For that, Stupak was called a traitor to the pro-life cause. Stupak has represented Michigan’s first congressional district for 18 years. He will make public his decision at a press conference later today.”

I guess 18 years of stalwart adherence to a cause is not enough for these people. Do they understand that without political compromise we’d be in a permanent state of war? Can they not get around the fact that compromise is the only thing that keeps us functioning as a republic?  No. They do not.