Congressional Republicans have become quite talented at taking legislative "hostages" at crucial junctures, making extreme demands, unifying behind them, and ultimately rolling Democrats into embracing horrible pieces of legislation. Maybe it's time for Democrats to come up with a plan for this sort of thing. So are they? Sorta.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords returned to the House of Representatives on Monday, receiving a standing ovation and enthusiastically greeting her colleagues after casting her vote (her first since being shot in January) for the debt ceiling bill, which passed 269-161.
My personal favorite way to remember how far to the right the Republican party has move in only a few years is this 2008 Al Gore-funded commercial in which Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi urge the country to address climate change.
President Obama, who deservedly hates his life right now, extended congressional leaders an invitation to his swanky mountain retreat at Camp David as a way to finish debt ceiling negotiations in private. But maybe also as a way to get drunk and party in the mountains? We're just trying to figure out a compelling reason to allow so many assholes into your vacation home. But no one wants to go, anyway. Ouch!
Multiple senior House Democratic aides tell TPM that caucus members were caught off guard by news stories about President Obama's push for deeper deficit and spending reductions — and particularly about the White House's willingness to cut Social Security as part of a grand bargain to raise the debt limit.
Amidst new revelations that he contacted a teenager online, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D - N.Y.) is apparently headed to a "treatment center," leading Democratic leaders to openly call for the congressman to resign.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wants to make sure Anthony Weiner didn't use any of your tax dollars to send pics of his dick to a half-dozen women over the years. She's calling for an Ethics Committee investigation into "whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred." What, you didn't think we were done with Weinergate, did you?
