Streams Of Consciousness

I like to sit in the steamroom for 10 minutes. So I used to sit shvitzing and counting to 60 ten times... or counting to 120 five times. Sometimes it felt very zen. Other times it felt like I was killing brain cells. So I got a big wall clock out of storage and hung it in the bathroom. Now I can sit shvitzing while I think of tweets... or watch the second hand go around the clock... or avert my eyes from the second hand until I count to 30.

Heath Shuler (D-The Family) To Challenge Pelosi

It's almost cosmic that on the same day Rahm officially declares he's running for mayor of Chicago, his Frankenstein creation, Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC), threatens Nancy Pelosi that if she doesn't step aside for a conservative, he'll run against her as Democratic leader. Since Shuler-- a bigoted religious fanatic and member of The Family (yes, he once roomed with DeMint in their C Street cult frat house)-- isn't especially respected or admired by most of his Democratic colleagues, this little tantrum isn't really about him expecting to be elected Minority Leader.

When Shuler appeared on State of the Union this morning he was playing for the hometown audience, especially in Clay, Cherokee, Rutherford and Henderson counties, where he lost-- and really badly in Henderson, the second biggest county in the district-- out to dry cleaner Jeff Miller. In 2008 Shuler was reelected with 62%; this year he only managed 54%. Instead of looking to disaffected Democrats in Asheville, who are bitter about his largely Republican voting record, he thinks it makes more political sense for him to continue to demonize Nancy Pelosi and his own party and to be able to go home in 2012 and tell the voters that he ran against her. He's also offering the few remaining Blue Dogs an opportunity to do the same. Can anyone doubt that the reflexive aisle crossers who weren't obliterated, like Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN), Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR), Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA) and Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), will be voting for Shuler? Will anyone else? Remember, of the 40 Democrats who voted more frequently with the Republicans on contentious, substantive matters than with their own party, 30 won't be coming back to the House in January. That's Shuler's constituency.

“If it comes down to this coming week, and she doesn’t step aside, then I will challenge her," Shuler said.

...Shuler said that Clyburn should remain in a leadership post, but Pelosi needs to go.

“Let’s be realistic about it, there’s very few numbers of (moderates) left, the entire House is being pushed further and further apart in their different viewpoints and the moderates have to bring our country together to move our country forward. I would really hope that [Pelosi] would step aside to allow Steny Hoyer, James Clyburn-- those gentlemen-to step forward in the leadership positions that they held in the majority, to be the leader and to be whip,” Shuler said.

Shuler believes that his party didn't get the message on Election Day when voters kicked Democrats out of majority control of the House if his caucus keeps Pelosi at the top of their leadership team.

"I hope that with so many members that we need to go in a different direction, that we have to be able to recruit or get back those members of Congress that lost, and I just don’t see that path happening if she’s at the top of the Democrats,” Shuler said.

Shuler was hoping for that Chief Deputy Whip position reserved for a Blue Dog, the one retiring John Tanner held and was thought to be going to Allen Boyd before he wound up with a mere 41% of the votes on election day. But why should the Democrats reward the shriveled up Blue Dog Caucus with anything. Xavier Becerra seems like a far more logical choice, which would be ironic given Shuler's virulently anti-immigrant hysteria.

And Tonight's Random John Wayne Quote

Is the Republican fetish for destroying public education tied up in the virulent racism the party of Lincoln fell into in the 1970s? In an interview he gave Playboy in 1971, right-wing icon John Wayne may have given a little something away. "I believe in white supremacy until Blacks are educated to a point of responsibility."