Lawmaker News

When the full truth is told about the secret deals that will define the fiscal future of America and the fate of programs at the heart of the Democratic Party heritage, it will be clear that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is the most important leader in Washington carrying the torch, against great odds, for what true Democrats stand for.

Dear readers, it is my job as a columnist to try to tell you the truth, as I see it and as I know it.

Here is the truth as I see it, and as I know it, that you will not see on the cable news or read in the morning papers, and it begins with this:

The fact that congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann gets migraine headaches should have no bearing on her candidacy. There's something else going on, however, just under the surface. The "concern" from both the left and the right over Bachmann's health seems more like a dog whistle on the whole gender issue. What's next? Investigating whether she can lead when suffering from PMS?

The Hill reporters Erik Wasson and Alex Bolton each had a unique perspective on the debt talks coming out of the weekend with regard to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) “plan B.” This, of course, is the fallback plan that would give President Obama the power to raise the debt ceiling on his own, with a few caveats and demands along the way.

The more I study this, the more I agree with those Wasson interviewed regarding the outcome. Nothing good, neither politically nor policy-wise, can come of this effort.

Yes, the plan would raise the debt ceiling, but at what cost?

First of all, I fear McConnell’s motivations for granting this authority to the White House are less than noble. If pressed, I think McConnell himself would agree he’s trying to score political points on this and help his Republican counterparts in the House.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) tried to make a bipartisan budget deal with President Obama. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) stabbed Boehner in the back in an act of leadership disloyalty that I literally cannot remember happening with congressional leaders of either party in my lifetime.

I have worked for the House leadership under several Democratic Speakers and have never seen anything like this. Harry Reid took Cantor to the woodshed today, and was right. I would go even further than Reid:

Eric Cantor is the Republican leadership Brutus. Cantor is willing to risk, and Republicans would be blamed for, a global economic crash because Cantor is a poodle for millionaires and conglomerates that pay no taxes and will risk the economic future of the nation to pursue his ambition as he plunges the knife into the back of John Boehner.

I gotta give Mitch McConnell credit for a very good piece of work. His strategy, for those who have not figured it out yet, is to make President Obama the debt-ceiling dictator. Give Obama all the power. Surrender to him totally. Make Democrats cast all the votes. Let Republicans vote no. Repeat this every few months. Let Democrats take responsibility for everything!

For pure political artistry, I tip my hat. It is a brilliant partisan ploy. Last night a major Democrat called me and said: We won! I said, no, pal, it is a death trap. Oops.

McConnell's ploy is enticing. For Obama, the vanity play of a great victory must be tempting. For Democrats looking for what looks like an easy way to avoid a crisis, this must have appeal. Good thing the Tea Party members of the House aren't as smart as McConnell. They would rather walk into their own trap. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!

I’ll probably get some angry mail for this, but I’m a little disappointed in the Senate Republican leader lately. By any sober assessment, he’s really been sitting on the sidelines of the current debt-ceiling negotiations. Rumor was, a few weeks ago, House and Senate GOP staff were swapping mixed signals between the two leaders’ offices over what deals would be acceptable to the other chamber.

It’s hard enough to negotiate with Democrats. I can’t imagine first figuring out what Sen. McConnell needs to have in order to move forward with his support.

She doesn’t know it yet, but the week following the July Fourth congressional recess, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has an opportunity to step up on behalf of her party and lead the House, at least, out of its current gridlock over the debt-limit debate.

What prompts me to say such a thing is that all eyes are now focused on the president, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). That combo alone should cause someone of her great pride and sense of leadership to want to get in the mix.

It was one year ago today that Texas Rep. Joe Barton (R) embarrassed himself and the Congress when he apologized to BP executives testifying before a House committee for how he thought they were being treated in the wake of the worst and deadliest oil spill in U.S. history, which devastated local economies along the Gulf Coast.
 
“I am ashamed of what happened at the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation would be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown — in this case a $20 billion dollar shakedown … So I’m only speaking for myself, I’m not speaking for anybody else. But I apologize.”

The good news for Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is that more than any other Republican, he has defined the debate from the Republican side. Give him credit. The bad news about Dr. Paul is that for practical purposes he is the Ayn Rand champion for the most greedy big banks, job destroyers and job exporters. The worst news for American consumers, American workers and American jobs is that Dr. Paul's Ayn Rand philosophy is an epic financial and human tragedy for them.

Ron Paul is an Ayn Rand libertarian, but not a populist. In fact, Paul is the anti-populist apologist for the worst abuses of Gilded Age greed. He wants these abuses to continue in the name of a fictional "free market" that no longer exists. He cheers while these abuses flourish in what Paul calls "liberty" but in fact is the liberty of the greed of the few to cheat and abuse the rights and hopes of the many.

One of the more curious aspects of the Weiner situation — it might be called the Weiner phenomenon — is that it went on for so long and the messages got stranger and stranger. This morning’s Drudge headline: “New pictures show teen Weiner cross dressing and ‘oiled up’ … ”

He seemed to want to get caught. There is desperation to his behavior, like that of the Soviets at the end of empire or Kim Jong-il threatening the entire outside world with wilder and crazier schemes when he is virtually alone and crated in isolation.