Boehner, William Wallace? Um... Mel Gibson... Maybe

Gibson and Boehner are both drunken right-wing slobs. That's about as close to Braveheart as the congressional Republicans are going to manage to get. Unless David Dreier, Patrick McHenry and Aaron Schock decide to use their makeup kits to lather on some warpaint. No one can see how raising taxes on 160 million Americans a week before Christmas somehow conflates to Phil Gingrey's Braveheart moment-- with Boehner, no less, in the role of a kilt wearing William Wallace. Are these delusional handmaidens of the one-percent really that delusional?

Apparently not every single one of them. Tuesday, despairing and freaking out over Elizabeth Warren's polling numbers, Scott Brown (R-MA) called Boehner's inability to control the House Republicans "irresponsible and wrong," just a few minutes before McCain ran to CNN to whine that the House Republicans are "harming" the party. And this morning it was Tennessee Republican Bob Corker's turn, claiming his own party is "losing the public relations battle over a payroll tax cut extension and should find a way to extend the tax holiday and move on:"

"Are Republicans getting killed now in public opinion? There's no question," Corker said Wednesday on CNBC. 

"Both Republicans and Democrats have agreed that this is going to happen and probably the best thing to happen now is just to get it over with-- one more policy blunder-- but just get it over with and move on because now it's been framed as a tax increase which it's not," he said.

Gingrey needs to tell Aaron Schock to try a different kind of makeup for today's talking point

Corker was responding to a Wall Street Journal missive that basically said Boehner and his extremist House caucus are not only putting their majority in jeopardy, but handing Obama reelection and making it harder for the GOP to capture the Senate.

GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.

...House Republicans yesterday voted down the Senate's two-month extension of the two-percentage-point payroll tax holiday to 4.2% from 6.2%. They say the short extension makes no economic sense, but then neither does a one-year extension. No employer is going to hire a worker based on such a small and temporary decrease in employment costs, as this year's tax holiday has demonstrated. The entire exercise is political, but Republicans have thoroughly botched the politics.

Their first mistake was adopting the President's language that he is proposing a tax cut rather than calling it a temporary tax holiday. People will understand the difference-- and discount the benefit.

Republicans also failed to put together a unified House and Senate strategy. The House passed a one-year extension last week that included spending cuts to offset the $120 billion or so in lost revenue, such as a one-year freeze on raises for federal employees. Then Mr. McConnell agreed with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the two-month extension financed by higher fees on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (meaning on mortgage borrowers), among other things. It passed with 89 votes and all but seven Republicans.

...One reason for the revolt of House backbenchers is the accumulated frustration over a year of political disappointment. Their high point was the Paul Ryan budget in the spring that set the terms of debate and forced Mr. Obama to adopt at least the rhetoric of budget reform and spending cuts.

But then Messrs. Boehner and McConnell were gulled into going behind closed doors with the President, who dragged out negotiations and later emerged to sandbag them with his blame-the-GOP and soak-the-rich re-election strategy. Any difference between the parties on taxes and spending has been blurred in the interim.

After a year of the tea party House, Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats have had to make no major policy concessions beyond extending the Bush tax rates for two years. Mr. Obama is in a stronger re-election position today than he was a year ago, and the chances of Mr. McConnell becoming Majority Leader in 2013 are declining.

At this stage, Republicans would do best to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday quickly. Then go home and return in January with a united House-Senate strategy that forces Democrats to make specific policy choices that highlight the differences between the parties on spending, taxes and regulation. Wisconsin freshman Senator Ron Johnson has been floating a useful agenda for such a strategy. The alternative is more chaotic retreat and the return of all-Democratic rule.

Looks like the House Republicans hadn't read the Journal's suggestions before this morning's session, when Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) gaveled the session to a close as soon as the Democrats tried to get a vote on the Senate payroll tax bill. Hoyer, playing his role, feigned concern: "You're walking out, you're walking away, just as so many Republicans have walked away from middle class taxpayers, the unemployed, and… those who will be seeking medical assistance from their doctors... We regret, Mr. Speaker, that you have walked off the platform without addressing the issue of critical importance to this country." Boehner's office then turned off the CSPAN cameras as fast as they could find the controls.



UPDATE: Reid Tosses Boehner A Lifeline

A couple of hours ago Harry Reid sent Boehner a letter that could help him save face and get himself out of the predicament his insane caucus got him into:

Dear Speaker Boehner,

Our respective chambers have been seeking for weeks to negotiate a year-long extension of the payroll tax cut for middle-class families, as well as unemployment benefits and Medicare payments for physicians.

You and I agree that this should be our goal. But as these weeks have made clear, there remain differences between our parties over how to fund and implement these programs that will take longer then a few days to reconcile.

Recognizing this reality, eighty-nine Republican and Democratic senators came together to agree to a short-term extension of these programs. As you requested when we met last Wednesday, Senator McConnell and I worked together to find this common ground. Once the House of Representatives acts on this immediate extension, we will be able to sit down and complete negotiations on a longer extension. But because we have a responsibility to assure middle-class families that their taxes will not go up while we work out our differences, we must pass this immediate extension first.

As the Senate vote made clear, there is no reason for this to be a partisan issue. I am fully confident that we can work out our differences and find common ground on a year-long extension. But in the meantime, families should not have to worry that they will wake up to a tax increase on January 1, 2012.

To provide middle-class families the certainty they deserve, I urge you to reconvene the House to act on the Senate’s bipartisan compromise as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Senator Harry Reid

ANOTHER UPDATE: How's This Playing Out In The Congressional Districts With Hot Elecions?

You're not going to find House race anywhere with a clearer difference than in northwest Arkansas where one-percenter Steve Womack is desperately fighting off a challenge from blue collar progressive Democrat Ken Aden. Womack, as always, rubberstamped the House leadership's decision to torpedo the unemployment extension and the payroll tax cut for middle-class workers. As Ken showed us last night, that means the average Arkansas working family will have $900 a year left in their pockets to spend every month. Boehner, who lives in a gated golfing community, dismissed that as "chickenshit." Womack should know better; Ken Aden sure does.

Congressman Steve Womack’s vote yesterday against bi-partisan legislation extending tax cuts to middle class families is the equivalent of a giant lump of coal in the stockings of thousands of Northwest Arkansas families and seniors, the campaign of Ken Aden, Democratic candidate for Congress from Arkansas’ Third Congressional District said early Wednesday.

Aden notes that not only does Womack’s vote against the tax cut harm middle class families now facing a tax hike, but it hurts the district’s long-term unemployed because an extension of unemployment benefits were included as part of the legislation. In addition, Womack’s “no” vote on the bi-partisan legislation places many Medicare recipients in jeopardy of loosing access to affordable healthcare, as the bill included a two-year fix preventing drastic cuts to physicians serving Medicare patients.

"Congressman Steve Womack gave the voters of the 3rd Congressional District an early Christmas present yesterday when he joined with Speaker Boehner and radical elements in the House in rejecting a bipartisan plan to extend tax cuts to the middle class, give a hand-up to the long-term unemployed, and protect our seniors on Medicare from loosing access to their doctors,” Aden said. “Womack’s holiday gift to his constituents, is a tax hike for middle class families, seniors on Medicare getting shut out of their doctor’s offices, and the long-term unemployed being sent into poverty,” he continued.

Aden said it is time for Womack to stop doing the bidding of House Speaker John Boehner and the radical Tea Party elements in Congress and do what is right for middle class families.

"Speaker Boehner has devised a perfectly evil plan for the citizens of this country. His plan raises taxes for middle class families and adds in massive amounts of red tape to the heart wrenching process of filing for unemployment insurance-- and Steve Womack is sticking with Boehner like a wrapper on a candy cain,” Aden said. “It is unconscionable,” he noted.

Finally, Speaker Boehner and his ally Womack, have added in a proposal to use American tax payer funds as part of a scheme to build out the KeystoneXL pipeline, the primary purpose of which is to aid Canadians in selling oil extracted from tar sands to China.

“Why on earth Rep. Womack would rather help China than his own constituents should be perfectly understandable. He's not there to represent the people of Arkansas, he's in Congress to help out Speaker Boehner. It's offensive and positively anti-American."

By contrast, while Womack was voting in Congress to kill unemployment benefits, raise taxes, and block seniors on Medicare from their doctors, Ken Aden and his campaign staff were collecting and distributing toys to children’s homes across Northwest Arkansas.

“The citizens of the Third District should look carefully at these two men and observe this contrast. While Womack is in Washington voting with Speaker Boehner to hurt thousands of people in our district, Ken is out helping he less fortunate,” said Jacob Burris, campaign director for Aden’s campaign.

You can help Ken Aden get Womack out of government by contributing to his campaign here. And just west of Arkansas, is great big Texas, where all the Republicans voted against the payroll tax break for the middle class and against an unemployment extension. Dan Grant recently declared he'd be taking on reprehensible reactionary plutocrat Michale McCaul, a multimillionaire who married into the Clear Channel family. Dan sent a summary of what happened yesterday to Austin area voters:

Yesterday, millionaire Michael McCaul, the single richest member of Congress, voted to do nothing to stop a tax increase on working families that will take effect on January 1st. He rejected a bipartisan measure backed by nearly 90% of the Senate, and supported across America. This forces Congress into another dangerous game of political chicken that threatens to add $1000 annually-- or $40 per paycheck-- to the tax burdens of millions of families while the country is still struggling out of the worst recession in decades. This complete refusal to act and rejection of the most basic Congressional responsibility-- to govern-- hurts all Americans and threatens our economy. It’s a shameful failure of both priorities and leadership in Washington.

This is infuriating. But sadly it's not surprising.

Michael McCaul and this out-of-touch Congress have spent more time playing politics than doing their jobs: supporting political theater, showdowns, and standoffs, rather than working to address the issues that truly matter.

We need more people in Congress who understand that their job is to look out for hardworking families, not to play games with their lives and livelihoods. We need people in Congress who understand what $1000 dollars means to a family at Christmas, to a family saving for college, or struggling to stay afloat in these tough times.

And, despairing, one of Miss McConnell's top aides told media sources that the House Republicans have put the party into an untenable position and that their stupidity and blundering is "inexcusable... This is a lose/lose situation for us. They've let the Democrats get the messaging advantage and more specifically we've turned one of our key issues on its head. The Republicans look like they are the ones blocking tax relief... The House Republicans pulled defeat from the jaws of victory."

WE NEED MORE CANDIDATES LIKE DAN GRANT (TX-10), WHO KNOW HOW TO STAND UP TO BUSH REGIME DECEPTION

Yesterday John Amato had a stunning question over at Crooks & Liars: "Who will raise our children if we're dead or seriously wounded?" This was from foreign service employees being ordered to go serve in the middle of the chaotic, explosive Iraqi Civil War. John's got some dramatic video (at the link above)-- not from Baghdad, but from Foggy Bottom. Do you think it may also be in the backs of the minds of some of the soldiers who are over in Iraq, particularly the National Guards units?

Today the right-wing propaganda sheet, Weekly Standard attacked Dan Grant, a former U.S.Aid worker (who they mistakenly label "a State Department official"), previously stationed in Baghdad, currently running for Congress against right-wing/corporate fave, the Congressman from Clear Channel, Michael McCaul (R-TX).

Dan has earned the ire of right-wing extremists by doing finding one of their Achilles Heels and slamming them in it. Weakly Standard is crying because Dan ran a TV spot that shows coffins of fallen American soldiers, coffins the Regime that the Weakly Standard shills for has assiduously attempted to hide from the American public. Last Wednesday DWT ran the ad. Take a look at it again in honor of Clear Channel and the Weakly Standard and Fox and all the other Republican Party propaganda outlets dedicated to deceiving the American people:



The Weakly Standard (Drivel) calls this powerful ad "a wretched thing." They've never called, nor would they under any circumstances call, George Bush or his Texas puppet McCaul, wretched things-- regardless of the fact that they both are. The Weakly accuses Grant of "moral trespass" for showing the coffin. It scares the bejesus out of the Bush Regime and their enablers that Americans get a visceral idea about what's happening, for real and on the ground, in Iraq. They spend millions of dollars monthly on p.r. specialists and propagandists to make Bush's agenda seem benign and bloodless and even noble. When real Democrats stand up and call them on it and throw it in their faces, they get hysterical. We need more Dan Grants and less collaborationist Democrats like Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer who play right into Bush's hands either unwittingly or, more likely, quite willingly.

MAYBE DAN GRANT SHOULD BE GIVING ADVISE TO DEMOCRATS RUNNING FOR CONGRESS INSTEAD OF RAHM EMANUEL

Rahm Emanuel has been telling Democrats to play it safe and keep away from controversial issues. Last year some of the canddiates who listened to him-- especially on the Iraq issue-- did not capitalize on discontent with Bush's policies and with rubber stamp Republicans and today they are not members of Congress. Think particularly about Tammy Duckworth (IL), Lois Murphy (PA), Ken Lucas (KY), Diane Farrell (CT), David Mejias (NY), John Cranley (OH), Tessa Hafen (NV), Patty Madrid (NM), Phil Kellam (VA), Francine Busby (CA) and Christine Jennings (FL). This year Emanuel is selling the same play-it-safe snake oil. Dan Grant, a progressive and energetic young Democrat in a mostly suburban district stretching from Austin towards Houston, is ignoring Emanuel and keeping the focus on the Bush rubber stamp who represents his father-in-law's company, Clear Channel. Here's how he's doing it-- and here's how every Democrat who wants to win should do it:



That's right; kick them in the balls; don't dance around in a tutu.

DAN GRANT: WE HAVE TO GO TO THE SOURCE TO CHANGE THE COURSE

Dan Grant examines a rocket strike-- on his office roof in Baghdad

Whenever I've gone to Austin in the last few years I've been dismayed that such a lively, open, fun city has been violently gerrymandered to guarantee its citizens minimal impact on congressional elections. A far right kook with an extremist voting record like Michael McCaul could never win a seat from Austin any other way. No matter what issue you look at, he's out of step with Austin-- and out of step with more and more Americans and more and more Texans as they wake from the fog of the Bush-Cheney years of Darkness. Since getting into Congress, McCaul voted on 21 Iraq-related roll calls. You want to guess how many times this quintessential rubber stamp waste of a seat voted the Bush line? That's right-- he's 21 for 21. Even more disgracefully, he's been a pathetic rubber stamp fro the Bush-Cheney jihad against the well being of America's military personnel. Out of a dozen roll calls regarding out fighting men and women, McCaul has voted 12 times with Bush and 12 times against our military personnel. (But he says he supports the troops. That's GOP-speak for "Love the war/hate the damn soldiers.")

Last year the Democrat who took him on was Ted Ankrum, and with virtually no financing (he raised $72,000 while McCaul's corporate sponsors showered him with over $1,100,000), he held McCaul to a paltry 55%. Ankrum spent about a dollar a vote and McCaul spent almost $12.00 per vote. This time Texas Democrats are rallying around Dan Grant, who looks like he can give McCaul a run for his money his father-in-law's money. When I spoke with him the other day we discovered that I had a Jake Pickle for Congress badge that he had probably mailed me when he was an intern in Pickle's office. I asked him to send us an into to his campaign in Texas' 10th CD.

Everywhere I go, I hear the same thing-- our country’s on the wrong track. Every public poll, every private survey, every conversation, every shred of common sense tells us we need a fresh start in a new direction.

Two years ago, I went to Iraq to help conduct their historic elections. Prior to that, I was deputy director of their largest out-of-country voting program and oversaw an unprecedented effort to give democracy a chance in the Middle East by registering eligible voters in major U.S. cities for Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly election. And then I watched as the new government in Baghdad and the Bush-Cheney administration back in Washington dropped the ball.

That’s why I’m running for Congress in Texas’ 10th District-- because the last thing we can afford is more of the same.

Iraq, Katrina, SCHIP. We need a change in Washington. Now.

The incumbent was installed by Tom DeLay after his mid-decade redistricting scheme split Austin in thirds and saddled this most progressive city in Texas with a radical Republican whose father-in-law is the head of Clear Channel. He voted for the war in Iraq and against providing eligible children with the same health care he receives courtesy of the taxpayers in his district. He attacked MoveOn.org but applauded Rush Limbaugh. And he is ranked at the bottom of Texas’ congressional delegation for effectiveness-- a far cry from the days when this district was represented by the likes of Lyndon Johnson.

So I’ve come home. And now I’m asking voters to send me to the source so we can change the course.

In Iraq, I saw the possibilities of positive change. In Afghanistan, I helped coordinate security and policy planning for that nation’s post-Taliban constitutional convention. In Kosovo, I served as an elections supervisor for the 2001 elections, working for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to help organize more than 100 polling stations and conduct the historic vote. In Bosnia, I monitored and enforced polling place procedures for municipal elections.

Now it’s time to show our fellow Texans that positive change is possible-- a fresh start in a new direction.