Bad Night in Mugstomp-on-the-Potomac

Both Virginia Foxx (R-5th District) and Brad Miller (D-13th District) voted against the Senate's "fiscal cliff" legislation last night. I agree with Foxx and Miller: that "fix" should not have passed.

House Republicans fractured, badly, and John Boehner's speakership appears to be on the line. Foxx didn't vote with Boehner and with her recent kissy-face partner, Paul Ryan, who amazingly supported the Senate deal. She voted against, following the path of that super ambitious snake Eric Cantor, and that other ambitious snake Kevin McCarthy, both of whom are clearly angling to push Boehner off his mountain. "Foxx and Cantor, sitting in a tree..."

Boehner reportedly told Sen. Harry Reid to "Go fuck yourself!" ... twice. No report yet on how many of Boehner's own Republican conference suggested he do something similar, after he informed them that the fiscal cliff legislation included no spending cuts. If Foxx didn't say it, she was certainly thinking it.

As for the Negotiator-in-Chief, we see no reason to retract our earlier estimation of his poker-playing abilities. President Obama gave away the farm, or at least a large portion of it, and the "victory" the White House is celebrating today is rotten at the core, setting up another confrontation with the Republican House in a couple of months where, once again, the president will negotiate.

Oy.

Mitt Romney Would Not Make the Olympic Fencing Team

Lords of the Universe: Mitt Romney & pals at Bain Capital, posing with 20-$-bills

So Sen. Harry Reid, who knows a shiv from a butter knife, sez that someone high up at Bain Capital told him that Mitt Romney paid zero taxes for ten years. Trying to parry that thrust, Romney pours into a friendly ear (Sean Hannity) the following: "Well, it’s time for Harry to put up or shut up."

In fencing terms, Mitt Romney, faced with an opponent with a sharp point, turns to face the curtains and punctures his own trial balloon.

With an opening like that, Harry Reid thrusts back:

There is a controversy because the Republican presidential nominee, Governor Mitt Romney, refuses to release his tax returns. As I said before, I was told by an extremely credible source that Romney has not paid taxes for ten years. People who make as much money as Mitt Romney have many tricks at their disposal to avoid paying taxes. We already know that Romney has exploited many of these loopholes, stashing his money in secret, overseas accounts in places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. 

Last weekend, Governor Romney promised that he would check his tax returns and let the American people know whether he ever paid a rate lower than 13.9 percent. One day later, his campaign raced to say he had no intention of putting out any further information. 

When it comes to answering the legitimate questions the American people have about whether he avoided paying his fair share in taxes or why he opened a Swiss bank account, Romney has shut up. But as a presidential candidate, it’s his obligation to put up, and release several years’ worth of tax returns just like nominees of both parties have done for decades. 

It’s clear Romney is hiding something, and the American people deserve to know what it is. Whatever Romney’s hiding probably speaks volumes about how he would approach issues that directly impact middle-class families, like tax reform and the economy. When you are running for president, you should be an open book. 

I understand Romney is concerned that many people, Democrats and Republicans, have been calling on him to release his tax returns. He has so far refused. There is only one thing he can do to clear this up, and that’s release his tax returns.

Oh, Mitt, you really are proving yourself the rich twit you've always seemed. We love the smell of frying baloney in the morning.

Is Harry Reid Educable?

Looks like the threat of making the Republicans in the U.S. Senate actually filibuster, rather than merely say they'll filibuster, plus their public tarring for being so solidly aligned with Wall Street bankers, has been enough to break Republican obstructionism on the financial reform bill.

Maybe -- though we ain't holding our breath -- the Majority Leader will learn a valuable lesson here: make 'em talk, make 'em flap their gums all night long, let the American people see the full extent of their obstruction.

Playing Chicken

What is it with the women the Republican party is finding these days to carry their banner? Sarah Palin, Carly Fiorina, Virginia Foxx, and now Sue Lowden of Nevada, the leading Republican candidate to take on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

She said, quite seriously, that perhaps the health-care crisis could be solved by patients' bartering with their doctors: "You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor; they would say 'I'll paint your house.' I mean, that's the old days of what people would do to get health care with your doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I'm not backing down from that system."

This was not a gaff. This was a policy statement.

The totally foreseeable TV ad followed at warp speed. I like a dancing chicken as much, or even more, than the next guy (having known hundreds of them in my West Texas childhood), but these dancing chickens are hard to beat!

Sue Lowden is a casino owner, which perhaps makes her even more sympatico to Virginia Foxx (aside from the bizarre political views about how poor people ought to comport themselves). Foxx happens to be taking a tidy pile of campaign cash from Las Vegas zip codes.

Hmmm.

Democrats Determined to Self-Destruct

Mr. Rahm Emanuel, representing the wishes of Mr. Barack Obama, ordered Sen. Harry Reid to kiss Sen. Joe Lieberman's ass yesterday, and Sen. Reid obediently got on his knees.

From all appearances, there will be no health insurance reform that means squat. Plus, from all appearances, Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Obama are intent on losing their majorities in both houses of Congress next year, because (hey!) the profits of Big Insurance Companies come first.

For his part, Sen. Lieberman is going to need more compass to strut:

Mr. Lieberman could not be happier. He is right where he wants to be -- at the center of the political aisle, the center of the Democrats' efforts to win 60 votes for their sweeping health care legislation. For the moment, he is at the center of everything -- and he loves it.

"My wife said to me, 'Why do you always end up being the point person here?' " he said, flashing a broad grin in an interview on Monday.

Sen. Lieberman is a post turtle who thinks God put him up there. We all know it was Rahm Emanuel.

This Just In

POLITICO Breaking News:

"The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations. Lieberman threw health care reform into doubt Sunday when he told Reid that he would filibuster the bill if it allowed Americans ages 55 to 64 to purchase coverage in Medicare."

Oh Jeez.

If We Have To Apologize to Harry Reid, We Will

Gladly.

On our knees, in the snow ... if he actually comes through.

Still don't think he's much of a leader for the 21st Century.

Wrong-Way Reid

Yep. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needs to go.

Into retirement. Into the dustbin of history. On a cruise of the Bahamas. To the nearest Target. We don't care. Just go.

The Dems have a technical "majority," but Reid is no "leader" of it.

Tom Daschle was a terrible leader of the Dems when they were in the minority. Harry Reid is much, much worse now that they have their so-called majority.

We're witnessing the squandering of seed corn.

Harry Reid Blows Hot

Noted frail reed Sen. Harry Reid, our least favorite Democratic Senate Majority Leader since the last Democratic Senate Majority Leader, put it on the record yesterday that there will be a public option in the final health insurance reform bill that goes to the president's desk.

Reid will be on the reconciliation committee, to meld House and Senate versions of reform. That much is a cinch. So he would be in a position to deliver on that promise. Not that we believe him in the first place, and not that we have any actual hope that the reconciled bill will contain any public option that isn't (a) "triggered" (something Congressional Democrats can later renege on, which they are so good at) or (b) so weak and watered down as to be meaningless (something else Congressional Democrats have shown past talents at accomplishing).

Jane Hamsher's take on the back-stage maneuvering is, once again, invaluable.

Harry Reid: Step Away From the Microphone

Really, Senate Democrats can do better in a Majority Leader.

The ineptitude of Harry Reid has become too monumental to ignore. He will continue to be destructive to Democratic clarity and unity and therefore to the Obama initiatives. Jane Hamsher succinctly identified the manifold problems with Reid yesterday: "I Want to Play Poker With Harry Reid."

It's time for him to step down. If he won't do it voluntarily, he needs to be booted.