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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Argument for a Free Congress ...

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 4:57 PM

JERRY: Hey, do you know what the Whip does?

KRAMER: What whip?

JERRY: The Whip. In the Senate, in the House.

KRAMER: Well, you know in the old days, when the senators didn't vote the way that the party leaders wanted 'em to... they whipped them.

... A lot is being written and talked about today regarding the failure of Bush, Pelosi, and Boehner to lead.

This is ironic, inasmuch as many of the same people who are criticizing the lack of party discipline today have in the past excoriated Republican leaders for heavy-handed internecine tactics -- and for genuflecting to Bush.

So here are a few a questions to consider...

When it comes to how Congress is to behave, do we want to go back to the days when Republicans were "good soldiers" who took marching orders from House Leadership and the president? Or do we want a free Congress who exercises their Constitutional independence from the Executive Branch? Lastly, do we want to go back to having arm-twisting party leaders tell Members that if they vote wrong on a bill, they are "off the Appropriations Committee!" -- or whatever?

Lastly, should we put a premium on simply getting bills passed? If so, Lyndon Johnson was pretty darn effective at that, too ...

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Where Do We Go From Here?

Posted by: Michele Bachmann at 4:36 PM

Yesterday, Congress voted on what is arguably the single most important issue facing our country today. A $700 billion, taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout package was presented for a vote with absolutely no opportunity for debate or consideration of alternatives. Every Member of Congress who spoke on the floor, every Administration official involved in the negotiations on the package, and every commentator has said that this is a bad package. Many of them, however, have said that Congress had no alternative but to pass it.

I disagree, and so did a solid bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives who voted against this package. Congress must sit back down and demand that the Bush Administration take into consideration some of the very valid alternatives being discussed. There is no reason that Congress needs to rush into passing a bad bill that would saddle generations with debt. The American people deserve a more thoughtful response.

Check out an alternative proposal to which I'm a co-sponsor of here.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

NBC Universal Head Not Involved in Obama Kid Vid

Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 4:20 PM

"Head of NBC UNIVERSAL Jeff Zucker among Hollywood bigwigs behind video...

That's what the Drudge Report says, but NBC Universal gave a statement to Fox News saying their Jeff Zucker was not involved in the creation of the video.

Allison Gollust of NBC told Fox News producer Ron Mitchell in an email "It is a different Jeff Zucker."

The video in question features 22 school-age children wearing identical Obama shirts singing a 3-minute ode to the Democratic presidential candidate.

The performance is part of a "Sing for Change" campaign inspired by an Obama fundraiser and music teacher Kathy Sawada. It was filmed on a Sunday afternoon in Venice, California and late uploaded to the Internet by video editing professionals.

The song was featured on Obama's presidential website in a August 20 post HERE.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The "Salutary Effects" of Depression

Posted by: Carol Platt Liebau at 2:43 PM

NRO's Jim Geraghty points us to a press release from the liberal Campaign for America's Future that praises the "salutary effects" of a depression:

"[D]epressions have some salutary effects - the scoundrels go belly up, the weakest get purged. And, in the wake of the disaster, people demand strict regulation of the money lenders to keep their greed in check, and government spends money on the real economy to put people back to work.” (emphasis added).

That's exactly what I've been arguing here, here and even back on Friday here. What the lefties at Campaign for America's Future understand is that free markets, capitalism and small government do not thrive in the aftermath of economic catastrophe. Anyone who doesn't believe me should check out the history of FDR's tenure in The White House, when the Great Depression offered, for better or worse, a rationale for the intrusion of the federal government into areas previously off-limits to it.

It's a judgment call about how far the market can be pushed before that catastrophe happens (it's performing ok today because of the sense on Wall Street that a deal will indeed be forthcoming). And, of course, the more conservative the legislation is, the better I will like it. But what can't be minimized or ignored is the enormous downside ramifications of a failure to act.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Rush Limbaugh vs. Politico ...

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 2:38 PM

On his radio show this afternoon, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh accused Politico of mischaracterizing his position on House Republicans' bailout vote.

The homepage of Politico today includes a headline reading "Rush mocks House GOP". Here is a partial screen shot:

The homepage headline appears to be the most inaccurate and offensive part of the story. The story goes on to say:

House GOP leadership mocked by Rush

"Rush Limbaugh opened his show today by piling on top of House Republican leadership for claiming that a crucial number of their members voted against the bailout package because of a partisan speech that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave before the roll call.

“C’mon guys. Can ya grow up?” he said. “There were a whole lot of reasons for House Republicans to vote against this thing yesterday.”

He said Democrats never intended to pass it and GOPers likely realized that as they saw Democratic ‘no’ votes piling up during the vote. “It was a set-up from the get-go,” analyzed Limbaugh.

Count Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) as similarly skeptical of the explanation. When asked whether he voted ‘no’ because of the partisan nature of the debate, he told NPR this morning, “No, I was a no vote on the basic package from day one. I couldn’t tell you who those twelve were on either side of the aisle.”

Limbaugh accused The Politico of mischaracterizing his comments -- which were actually directed at conservative media who were criticizing House Republicans.

On his show today, Limbaugh noted that when he said things like, "grow up" -- Rush was criticizing conservative media, such as NRO -- and defending House Republicans.

"I have been the one supporting them without wavering here ... and the Politico comes out and says I've mocked them," Limbaugh angrily said on his show today.

He described this mischaracterization of him as part of,
"... an ongoing effort to dispirit Republicans in the House for hanging tough. I assure you ... do you realize where we'd be if these guys had caved," Limbaugh said.

"Politico has become Media Matters here," said Limbaugh.

Update: A source tells me this may be a misunderstanding. Rush led off his show by mocking House GOP leadership spin that members changed votes because of Pelosi's speech. He praised GOP rank and file. As such, the headline on the actual story page was accurate ("House GOP leadership mocked by Rush"). However, Rush took offense at the abbreviated headline prominently featured on the homepage, which read: "Rush mocks House GOP". The Politico has since unpdated the homepage headline to more accurately read: "Rush mocks GOP leadership spin."

Update: Politico posted the following update:

In response to the dozens of e-mails coming in, I changed the headline to make it clear that Limbaugh was mocking GOP House leadership for the Pelosi explanation, not the House Republican rank and file. To the many people who have asked: No, I have no intention of moving back to Russia.
Read More...

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Nancy Pelosi Should Be Honored

Posted by: Tom DeLay at 2:22 PM

If some folks out there are going to compare Pelosi’s incompetent tactics to my previous leadership in the House, let’s get a few facts straight:

1.   If I were a rank and file member, I would have voted against it.
2.   If I were in leadership, that would not have been the bill.
3.   And we would have won.

UPDATE: Thanks, Rich!

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I'll See Your Creepy ...

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 2:05 PM

... and throw in a disturbing (could this Hillary supporter be for real?)

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

CREEPY, CREEPY, CREEPY

Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 1:53 PM

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Don't Worry About the Bureaucrats....

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 1:52 PM

No matter what happens with the economy, rest assured that -- if the Senate has its way -- federal employees will receive a 3.9 percent raise.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Jack Kemp on the Bailout

Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 1:48 PM

On a conference call for the McCain campaign this afternoon supply-sider Jack Kemp said he'd been talking with some conservatives on the Hill who voted against the bailout on what could be done to get them on board in the days ahead.

Kemp, who specified he was not speaking for the McCain campaign on this matter, suggested a "carry-forward" provision be added to the legislation to help banks amortize their debt.

KEMP: When a bank declares a loss and sells the paper to Treasury and declares a loss, I’d like to see them have a carry-back provision, or carry it forward, to amortize the loss because they have to declare this loss in the very quarter in which the paper is sold to the Treasury. So if they could amortize their loss over three to five years or carry it forward against gains in the past over three years that would give them an amortization schedule that would not impact their balance sheets.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Biden/Clinton Distinction

Posted by: Carol Platt Liebau at 1:31 PM

Bill Sammon notices that, in contrast to Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden is getting a pass from the press for wrongly stating that he was "shot at" during a trip abroad.

Doesn't take a genius to recognize what the difference is. Joe Biden is running with the press' Obamessiah -- Hillary Clinton was running against him.

End of story.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Preparing for Thursday's Debate

Posted by: Carol Platt Liebau at 12:15 PM

As the markets hang in there on the strength of the politicians' promises that credit won't be allowed to dry up (thereby eliminating jobs and loans for cars, schools and homes for the middle class all over this country), Sarah Palin is completing her debate prep.

Given the merciless and ugly poundng she's taken over the past weeks, her performance Thursday night will be another make-or-break opportunity. No doubt Gwen Ifill is as aware of that as anyone -- and given how the media elite women have treated Governor Palin, there's no particular reason to be optimistic that she'll be treated fairly at the debate.

There are, however, a few things that those preparing her ought to keep in mind.

First, she needs to be ready for some "out of left field" questions she doesn't know the answers to. As I noted in the aftermath of the McCain/Obama debate, with a guy as glib as Barack, the only way there would be a gaffe is if he were forced to rely on his (uniformly bad) instincts to respond for a question for which he couldn't prepare. Ifill will no doubt try to elicit such a gaffe from Governor Palin.

What the governor needs to remind Americans is that this isn't some kind of "pop quiz" -- and that the question exemplifies the kind of "gotcha" politics that make people despise Washington. She needs to explain that, should a crisis arise on her watch, she doesn't need to be able to win a jeopardy contest about a hypothetical. Rather, she will be guided by the facts at the time, and the following principles (and then enumerate). What's more, it doesn't hurt to explain that Barack's first instinct on every major foreign policy issue that's arisen has been absolutely wrong.

Finally, when it comes to the economy, she needs to hammer home that Barack Obama is completely unqualified to shepherd the markets through tough times. Not only did he refuse to stop campaigning to solve the crisis, he's shown no leadership throughout the entire course of it. And while John McCain's efforts resulted in scores more of Republicans supporting the rescue plan, his core constituency -- the far left -- in the House went AWOL, including many of those in the Hispanic and black congressional caucuses.. Some leadership.

And his economic policies are radical. Example one? What he told Charles Gibson back in April: He's willing to stifle economic growth and hurt stock-holders by raising the capital gains tax rates -- even if it results in less money -- in the interests of promoting "equality." That isn't the mark of someone who's willing to do what works to keep America's economy strong. It the sign of someone who's willing to punish Americans in order to enforce some collectivist, left-wing idea of equality.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

New McCain Ad: 'Rein'

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 12:12 PM

Script For "Rein" (TV 1:00)

ANNCR: John McCain fought to rein in Fannie and Freddie.

The Post says: McCain "pushed for stronger regulation"..."while Mr. Obama was notably silent."

But, Democrats blocked the reforms.

Loans soared.

Then, the bubble burst.

And, taxpayers are on the hook for billions.

Bill Clinton knows who is responsible.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: "I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

ANNCR: You're right, Mr. President. It didn't have to happen.

JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.