Wolf Howling: Jim DeMint

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Quick Hits

Things I've wanted to blog about but haven't yet gotten to:

The Hill - "House Democrats kicked off their annual retreat here with a vow to improve the flawed messaging that contributed to the loss of their majority last fall." It they think "messaging" rather than their "message" cost them 63 seats, they are have successfully crossed denial and territory known in psychiatric circles as "certifiable." But then, I've been saying for years, in all sincerity, that their leader, Crazy Nancy, really is certifiable.

Village Voice - Tony Bagels, Meatball, Junior Lollipops and Fats heading for the slammer along with more than a hundred other wiseguys.

George Will - "The idea that America's problem of governance is one of inadequate resources misses this lesson of the last half-century: No amount of resources can prevent government from performing poorly when it tries to perform too many tasks, or particular tasks for which it is inherently unsuited."

Volokh Conspiracy - Affirmative action again before the Court. Its expiration date is long past.

NRO - Jim DeMint promises legislation to prevent Congress or the Fed from bailing out profligate states.

Detroit News - Half of the city schools to close without more aid. But tenure and public union salarys remain intact. Just burn down the city, salt the earth and start anew somewhere else.

Jerusalem Post - How does Hamas stay in power. In large measure by skimming off the foreign aid.

Newsweek - The daughter of the Pakistani Governor of Punjab Province, slain for speaking out in defense of a Christian sentenced to die for blasphemy, discusses the dysfunctional stranglehold Islamists have on her nation.

WSJ - Palinoia. James Taranto attempts plumbs the dark, fetid depths of the leftie soul to diagnose what it is about Palin that drives them bat-shit crazy.

PJM - Norway wakes up to find their nation in mortal peril from the Islamicists within. At some point, this Europe-wide problem will reach critical mass and a lot of blood will be spilled.

AIFD - Military's Muslim chaplain vetting system poses significant risk to national security

AIFD - "If 2010 was the year America finally woke up to political Islam's ne farious reach on US soil, with luck 2011 will be the year we launch an offensive against it."

The American - How Fannie, Freddie and government failure caused the great recession.

Sen. Jim DeMint's Christmas Gift To America

The procedural rules of Congress are nothing if not byzantine - and thus are the they a double edged sword to be exploited by both sides. And it may just be that Sen. Jim "Santa" DeMint, exploiting the rules, has put a present under the tree of every American. He has put a huge monkey wrench into Harry Reid's bum's rush of our country towards national ~~suicide~~ health care. This from Red State:

When Senator DeMint engineered, and Republican Leader McConnell actually objected to the appointment of the conferees, he was really handing the ball off to the left wingers — progressives if you will — and now they have their shot to either hold their own clan members who are against the Senate compromises and force them to vote No, or have their policy demands be ignored and take the crumbs from Senator Nelson’s and Senator Lieberman’s table.

Now, because of the Senator DeMint’s objection, unless the House votes for the Senate bill unchanged — which is highly unlikely (see below) — then the Senate ObamaCare bill must be amended on the House floor to gain the votes they need to pass it on the House floor. And because of Senator DeMint’s objection to the appointment of the conferees, there will be no conference, or conference report.

If the House amends the Senate bill, they then have to send the amended bill back to the Senate — where all the 60 vote margin cloture votes still apply — cloture on the motion to proceed, and cloture to end the filibuster and cloture on any amendment.

Do I believe that this objection to the appointment of the conferees will kill ObamaCare? Yes, if the progressives or those 64 House Democrats who voted for the Stupak amendment do not roll over and play dead.

This monkey wrench may explain why the White House is putting out the word that it wants the health care bill to pass the House after the State of the Union, in February.

You all can decide whether the DeMint objection could be the kiss of death to ObamaCare, but I offer the following to convince you that it is . . .

Do read the rest of the post. This ought to make for a brighter Christmas Day.