Fat Cats Are Purring This Morning

Merry Christmas, Wall Street!

You rolled the president again, got rid of a part of Dodd-Frank in the "cromnibus" so you can once again take huge risks on derivatives and get a guaranteed government bailout when everything goes south. Sweet!

You bet that Virginia Foxx voted for The Omnibus All-the-Crap-You-Can-Eat Budget Bill. She does not buck the establishment. The rest of the Republicans in the North Carolina delegation voted "yes" too, except for Walter Jones (who does buck the establishment, regularly) and Mark Meadows, the tea-bagger from the NC-11.

Also voting "yes"-- and it's a puzzlement -- was Democrat David Price. The other three Democrats from North Carolina -- Alma Adams, G.K. Butterfield, and even Mike McIntyre -- voted "no." Since the Omnibus Crap Fest needed 218 votes and barely got 219, we've decided to blame everything on David Price. Or Virginia Foxx. Yeah, Foxx is better! The wicked step-mother of woe.

Maybe Price got one of those calls from President Obama last night before the vote. The president was "whipping" Democrats to get them to vote yes, according to Rep. Maxine Waters, along with J.P. Morgan's chief executive Jamie Dimon, who was also whipping Democrats. When it comes to Wall Street, you can successfully whip some Democrats with wet noodles, let alone with CEO Jamie Dimon.

The Democrat who comes out of this colossal cluster-f**k with her integrity intact is Elizabeth Warren, who highlighted what was transpiring and tried to rally the troops. Of course, the Senate will pass this bilge later today over her objections, but as a voice for the people, Warren's standing is only enhanced.

How They Voted in the NC Delegation

On the Billionaire Coup Act of 2011, a.k.a., Debt Ceiling and Deficit Reduction Surrender:

Democrat Heath Shuler voted yes
Republican Howard Coble voted yes
Republican Renee Ellmers voted yes
Republican Virginia Foxx voted yes
Republican Patrick McHenry voted yes
Republican Sue Myrick voted yes

Republican Walter Jones voted no
Democrat G.K. Butterfield voted no
Democrat Larry Kissell voted no
"Democrat" Mike McIntyre voted no
Democrat Brad Miller voted no
Democrat David Price voted no
Democrat Mel Watt voted no

McIntyre One of Three Dems Voting with Repubs

Only three Congressional Democrats voted with the Republicans on the repeal of the Affordable Health Care Act, one of them Mike McIntyre of the NC-7.

He made a New Year's resolution that he was going to try to be more like the Republicans this year.

Not a herculean stretch, in his case.

Do Tell

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx voted against the repeal of Don't Ask/Don't Tell, which passed the House yesterday 250-175. Several Republicans voted for the repeal, including David Dreier, soon to be the Republican chair of the Rules Committee (on which Madam Foxx is ever so pleased to be addressed as "Dr. Foxx"), and hyper-conservative Jeff Flake of Arizona. And Ron Paul.

NC Dems Congressman Mike McIntyre voted against the repeal, while Heath Shuler voted for it.

It's all up to the Senate now, where Reason goes to die.

Congressional Pharisees Speak Out

Madam Virginia Foxx was among 41 mostly Republican members of Congress who wrote President Obama a letter on Monday complaining that he had not used the word "God" nearly enough when he recently visited Indonesia. During that trip the president referred to "E Pluribus Unum" (out of many, one) as the nation's motto. The 41 Congressional Church Ladies (a.k.a., pious frauds) objected strenuously, maintaining that "In God We Trust" is the motto of the U.S., just proving that the president is actually a foreign-born subversive who wants to stab Jesus through the eye with a Muslim dagger. Or something like that.

Because you can never be "Christian" enough for Madam Foxx, who can't even decide whether she's actually a Baptist or a Roman Catholic, or perhaps both.

Incidentally, the only non-Republican Congressman signing this obnoxious letter was Mike McIntyre of NC's 7th Dist.

Kissell, Shuler, and McIntyre Get a Warm Reception

The main action yesterday at the state Democratic convention in Fayetteville -- or at least the most interesting -- swirled around a resolution put forward on the convention floor "to condemn" U.S. Reps. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton, Larry Kissell of Biscoe, and Heath Shuler of Haywood County "for their votes against health care reform."

Ouch.

The leadership of the state party were apparently fit to be tied.

Following heated debate, the resolution got watered down to asking the three congressmen to please please please don't vote with the Republicans in the future to repeal the health care reform. Andrew Whalen, the executive director of the state party, put on his best game face: "I think the fact that the resolution was amended and then passed shows the party is to work together to get Democrats elected. It demonstrates we are the big-tent party...." Blah, blah, blah.

Wish we had us a few Anthony Weiners in North Carolina ... instead of what we have.

GOP ... Prisoners of Queer Fear

The most recent poll we've seen shows that an overwhelming majority (78%) of Americans believe that gays and lesbians have as much right to volunteer to die in defense of their country as straight men and women do. Which is to say, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe it is time to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

But that 22% homophobic minority is the Republican base, so when the issue came up for a vote in the U.S. House Thursday night, most of the Republicans voted "no" (including Madam Virginia Foxx), and most of the Democrats voted "yes." Except, of course, for three predictable North Carolina Democratic blue dogs, U.S. Reps. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton, Bob Etheridge of Lillington and Heath Shuler of Waynesville. Nothing gay about them!

Just for the record, Bob Etheridge was the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's first pick to run against Richard Burr this year. When Etheridge, bless his heart, backed off, the DSCC started blowing in Cal Cunningham's ear, and we're still dealing with that particular seduction.

Rep. McIntyre Crossed the Line

This is Congressman Mike McIntyre of the NC 7th District. He's one of the bluer blue dogs in the U.S. House.

He's a strong opponent of abortion rights, a strong supporter of teacher-led prayer in public schools, an opponent of more progressive taxing policies, and he voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the recently passed health-insurance reform bill. (A complete run-down of his legislative voting history can be reviewed here.)

Yesterday, Mr. McIntyre said that, if given the opportunity, he would vote to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Repeal.

That puts Mr. McIntyre slightly to the right of Virginia Foxx, who now sez she only wants to repeal "the most egregious parts of this bill" (Foxx was quoted in a W-S Journal editorial).

What do you say about a supposed Democrat who is more radical than Virginia Foxx? A supposed Democrat who would willingly knee-cap his own party and president?

Hee

So Mike McIntyre, one of North Carolina's most notorious blue dogs, votes with the Republicans Sunday night and casts a 'no' vote against H.R.3590, perhaps thinking the vote would make him popular, or less unpopular with Republicans in his neck of the woods, but today one of his Republican challengers, Will Breazeale, says that McIntyre's vote was "part of political gamesmanship in Washington, not an expression of his genuine disagreements with the bill."

That's the way one of the 40 dozen John Locke machine sites characterize Breazeale's complaint. Here are Breazeale's actual words (or some of them):

Casting a vote just to boost your re-election chances, while being unable to influence other members of your party to join you, shows a total lack of leadership.

Blue dogs just don't get any respect, in or out of their party.

UPDATE
Fellow blue dog Heath Shuler in the NC-11 gets some of that same Republican medicine.

North Carolina's Blue Dogs

On passage of H.R.3590 (219-212), North Carolina Democrats Mike McIntyre, Heath Shuler, and Larry Kissell all voted with the Republicans. Those no votes won't earn them any support from Republicans come November, while driving away their own base.

Kissell, particularly, can ill afford losing his base ... unless, of course, the Republicans actually nominate Machine Gun Tim D'Annunzio to run against him.

Shuler ... who knows? Haven't seen any Republican challenger among those running in the primary who looks like a winner.

McIntyre ... he's been voting with the Republicans so long he's barely indistinguishable from ... Howard Coble.

Blue for Money

It should come as absolutely no surprise whatsoever that the so-called Blue Dog Democrats are currently raking in money from the health care industry by the bushel.

But, please, let's call Heath Shuler (NC-11) and Mike McIntyre (NC-7) and the rest of that illustrious crew what they in fact have become ... obstructionists to reform. Their new motto: "First we count the money, and then we cast our votes."

McClatchy Newspapers is reporting, "On average, Blue Dog Democrats net $62,650 more from the health sector than other Democrats, while hospitals and nursing homes also favor them, giving, respectively, $5,680 and $5,550 more, according to the Center for Responsive Politics...."

However, for all their current whoring for the health-care industry, even the Blue Dogs can't hold a candle to the Republicans: "House Republicans, however, tend to collect more than Democrats-- including Blue Dogs -- from insurers, health professionals and the broader health sector, the Center for Responsive Politics found."

Just ask Madam Foxx, who knows a thing or two about whoredom.

A "Mafia" That's Holier Than Thou

The secret fundamentalist cabal, known as "The Family," which runs the secretive C Street townhouse where famous Republican serial adulterers have recently bunked, is discussed by the leading authority on the group, Jeff Sharlet, who wrote the book "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power." Sharlet sums up the secret group and the Washington men who have affiliated with it this way:

...Family men are more than hypocritical. They're followers of a political religion that embraces elitism, disdains democracy, and pursues power for its members the better to "advance the Kingdom." They say they're working for Jesus, but their Christ is a power-hungry, inside-the-Beltway savior not many churchgoers would recognize. Sexual peccadilloes aside, the Family acts today like the most powerful lobby in America that isn't registered as a lobby -- and is thus immune from the scrutiny attending the other powerful organizations like Big Pharma and Big Insurance that exert pressure on public policy.

The Family likes to call itself a "Christian Mafia," but it began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR's socialism. The Family's goal was the "consecration" of America to God, first through the repeal of New Deal reforms, then through the aggressive expansion of American power during the Cold War. They called this a "Worldwide Spiritual Offensive," but in Washington, it amounted to the nation's first fundamentalist lobby. Early participants included Southern Sens. Strom Thurmond, Herman Talmadge and Absalom Willis Robertson -- Pat Robertson's father. Membership lists stored in the Family's archive at the Billy Graham Center at evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois show active participation at any given time over the years by dozens of congressmen.

Heath Shuler has already been linked to the C Street cabal.

And now ... Mike McIntyre, that other N.C. blue dog, who votes with the Republicans even more than Heath.

Whose interests are they serving, and why do they hide the strings by which they dangle?

Cal Cunningham

We've been hearing his name come up RE a potential Democratic candidate to challenge Dick Burr's reelection.

Every time we see the name, we ask, "Cal who?"

Today, Cunningham gets a nod from former state Democratic Party Chair Jerry Meek, in Roll Call. "He's got an excellent profile in terms of his biography," Meek said. "He's perceived as being a little bit more liberal than, say, Mike McIntyre and Heath Shuler."

O-kaaay. You have our attention.

Thumbnail biography: Cunningham's a lawyer and former state senator who served in the Iraq War and is currently part of the Army Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps.

Longer take: "From 2007 to 2008, he was on active duty in Iraq, where he worked as a military prosecutor as part of a team that prosecuted U.S. Department of Defense contractors on such charges as assault and illegal gun shipments. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his work in Iraq and in 2009 received the Gen. Douglas MacArthur award for leadership. While still in law school, he campaigned for the state senate, winning an open seat in November of 2000. He served on all three Senate committees on education and as vice chairman of the Senate judiciary committee. After redistricting in 2002, Cunningham declined to run for re-election after he found himself in a mostly Republican district. In 2004, he joined the Winston-Salem office of 'white-shoe law firm' Kilpatrick Stockton, handling commercial litigation."

"White-shoe law firm"? ... Wikipedia sez it's "a phrase used to describe the leading professional services firms in America, particularly firms that have been in existence for more than a century and represent Fortune 500 companies."

Cal Cunningham ... a potential rising star in North Carolina, with a striking personal resume. We're all ears: "I'm having conversations with friends and fellow Democrats," Cunningham said on Wednesday. "We're taking a very close and very serious look at this race."

All of this above set off by "Under the Dome."

The Mummy Party

We were on the road to Raleigh (and beyond) when the House voted on the stimulus package and didn't get any state papers into our hands until this a.m. We were not at all surprised that NOT ONE SINGLE Republican voted with the president nor that 11 Blue Dogs jumped off the porch and went hunting with a strange pack of flea-eaten hound dogs.

Eventually, we figger, President Obama's gonna learn who he's dealing with.

Le'ssee here ... the American people rejected Republican economic policies in both 2006 and 2008, wrapped up that whole philosophy in surgical bandages and buried the whole shebang in a deep crypt, yet the Republican remnant in the U.S. House (along with those bright Blue Dogs) are stubborn in demanding that the president and the rest of us just lie back and accept more Bushian economics ... more tax cuts for the rich, more enabling of corporate robber barons, more deregulation, and unless we accept a continuation of what they've been doing since 2001, and accelerate it, they're not going to cooperate. Big freakin' surprise!

This a.m., Madam Virginia Foxx is quoted in the Raleigh N&O. Foxx is busily rewriting history and twisting logic out of all recognizable shape. She says that "President George Bush's signature tax cuts in 2001 had spawned years of growth, but the nation's problems started when Democrats regained majorities in Congress in the 2006 elections." With this abysmal representative, it's always the Democrats' fault, and the year is ALWAYS 1929.

We guessed (before we could confirm it) that Heath Shuler (NC 11) was one of those 11 Blue Dog Democrats, and he was. Even Mike McIntyre (NC 7), one of the most dependably Republican of "Democratic" representatives, voted with President Obama. Shuler, evidently, likes hanging with the Foxx.