Oof, it’s been a bad 24 hours for Casino Jack’s cronies in the House. With the public in an increasingly unforgiving mood towards congressional incumbents, GOP fave and Abramoff flunky Bob Ney drops out of his Ohio House race. And, one day after losing a bid to get his name off the ballot in Sugar Land, Boss DeLay announces he’ll step aside for a write-in candidate. Update: It appears Ney’s leaving will cause some ballot trouble as well for the GOP.
Category: The Boehner House
Morally Bankrupt, pt. II.
Even as the fundies rattle the leash, the House moves to placate the GOP’s real masters by approving the corporate-friendly bankruptcy bill 302-126. “Its passage by Congress is a victory for executives in the credit card, retail and auto financing industries who have pushed it for nearly a decade.” But, not to worry, y’all — the base is protected: The bill “preserve[s] loopholes that enable wealthy individuals who file for bankruptcy to shield unlimited amounts of money in complex trusts and in multimillion-dollar homes in states including Texas and Florida.”
Chairman Cheney Pads his Pocket.
Typical. Despite being oversight-crazy during the Clinton era, the Congressional GOP refuses to hold hearings about the “smoking gun” e-mail connecting Cheney’s office to a sweetheart Halliburton deal in Iraq. (And, as with the energy probe, Cheney’s office is stonewalling.) Good lord, what shadiness…is there no level below which these guys won’t stoop? Once again, the Bush administration and its Congressional cronies have proved themselves a national embarrassment of historic proportions.
Patriotic Defectors.
A handful of GOP libertarians join Dems in blocking reauthorization of the Patriot Act.
State of Fear.
In case you missed the State of the Union address last night, this cartoon anticipated the upshot: terror, terror, terror, 9/11, 9/11, fear, fear, fear, steroids, thank you, good night, and God bless the USA. It’s wonder they didn’t pass out little bloody shirts for the Congressional GOP to wave in unison. Well, while this New York Times news analysis of the speech sounds like it was written by the Bush campaign (he “quickly turned” to domestic issues? What is Todd Purdum talking about? Dubya was blathering on about scary, scary terrorists for at least 40 minutes), I gotta think that this speech might’ve played badly to any voters out there concerned about the economy, and this year as always, it’s still the economy, stupid.
War on the Floor.
“Many Democrats figured they had hit bottom last year when Republicans captured control of the Senate, completing their federal government takeover. Then the bottom dropped out, too.” The Post surveys the dismal days for Dems in Congress.
The Freefall continues.
“The president’s approval rating fell to 59%, its lowest level since March…Democrats had a 17-point advantage, 53%-36%, when poll respondents were asked which party would do a better job handling the economy. In January, the GOP had a 43%-42% edge.“