The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

REPORT: Deal Struck, Averts Shutdown (Insert ’30 Pieces of Silver’ Joke Here)

I’d been planning to go to bed early but stayed awake long enough to catch this: President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said tonight that lawmakers have agreed on a temporary extension of government funding, averting a government shutdown while Congress considers a longer-term budget agreement. Boehner made the same announcement during a […]

Never Take Advice from Your Enemies

For example, Harry Reid: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Monday urged Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to ditch members of the Tea Party and cut a deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown. Reid insisted it is those GOP internal divisions that are threatening to shut down the government after April 8, in […]

Media Decides to Be the Decider

So, after a couple hours offline, I return to the computer, check Memorandum, and see headlines like these: Palin trails Sheen with independents  Trump torches GOP presidential field  Pence: Boehner will ‘denounce’ Tea Party critics in GOP  What’s going on here is that (a) the liberal media are once again trying to tell the Republican […]

Dreams of a Government Shutdown?

Republicans in the House have been pulling long hours to enact a continuing resolution that would extend funding for the rest of the fiscal year. And if they fail to get it passed before the current continuing resolution runs out, they plan to pass a stopgap short-term measure to prevent a government shutdown. Meanwhile, it […]

If John Boehner’s Lost Nick Gillespie …

. . . well, he’s lost libertarians in leather jackets: Memo to Speaker Boehner: If You Won a Congessional Majority Because You Pledged to Cut Spending and You Can’t Think of a Single Program to Cut Now, Please Go Home That’s the headline on a Gillespie post at Reason magazine’s Hit & Run blog after […]

How Much Spending Will GOP Cut?

Evidently not the $100 billion they promised: Many people knowledgeable about the federal budget said House Republicans could not keep their campaign promise to cut $100 billion from domestic spending in a single year. Now it appears that Republicans agree. As they prepare to take power on Wednesday, Republican leaders are scaling back that number […]

Speaker John Boehner’s Swearing-In: Less Glamorous, More Choked Up and Crying

The Washington Post: Austerity is the theme of Republican John A. Boehner’s installation as House speaker this week, placing the start of this new Congress in stark contrast to the more lavish festivities that marked Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s swearing-in four years ago. On Wednesday, following a bipartisan prayer service at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Boehner […]

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