Long reviled by Democrats, John Boehner is now getting some hate from his own party. Yes, the tearful and fearless leader of the Republicans in the House is learning the hard way that having a complete disregard for economic principles isn't beneficial to your popularity.
The Boston Globe has interviewed Barney Frank, along with some of his friends and fellow representatives, as he prepares to leave office and take up private life, where he will hopefully find a way to capitalize on his increasing resemblance to the late Buddy Hackett. There are a lot of wonderful takeaways in this article, assuming you choose not to focus on the recent redistricting or the current state of the House of Representatives but instead on the fun stuff.
The void in Congress left by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who resigned last month after spending the second half of 2012 bouncing in and out of mental institutions and bars, is vast. And the bar is high for a candidate to meet the expectations of Chicago voters, who resoundingly re-elected Jackson less than four weeks ago even though he had disappeared without a word for five months and was under federal investigation for campaign finance violations. Luckily for Chicagoans, convicted sex offender and former congressman Mel Reynolds is bravely stepping into the breach.
Arlen Specter, a five-term senator from Pennsylvania, has just died, the AP reports. A Republican since 1965, he switched party affiliations in 2009 and ran as a Democrat, losing in the primary to Joe Sestak. After his defeat, Specter continued to teach law at the University of Pennsylvania, where last year he was named by the National Jurist one of the "23 professors to take before you die." He was 82.
Seriously, do you know? He's been missing since June. We mentioned last week that he's probably in rehab (also that he's a callow scion who owes everything to the circumstances of his birth, something a lot of you disagreed with!), but that his staff and family are still resolutely refusing to tell his constituents what's going on. His father vigorously denied a report that he'd attempted suicide, insisting that he's just "regaining his strength." An anonymous friend told a Chicago radio station that "he doesn't get a lot of sleep and he has sleep disorders." What do you think? Drugs? Suicide? Chronic illness he wants to keep secret?
By most accounts, Maria Gunnoe is a pretty swell lady. She's a coal activist who's won prizes for her efforts to stop mountaintop removal coal mining, and just last week she went to Washington, D.C. to talk to the House Committee on Natural Resources. Gunnoe was in our nation's capital to plead her case on behalf of her West Virginia neighbors suffering through coal-related water pollution.
In more news that will take the wind out of my father's sails—Congress appears to be getting collectively dumber.
On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart examined the little problem that Congress has with indulging in insider trading. You know how it goes, you learn some confidential information in a Senate hearing or something and then use that knowledge for your personal financial gain. Hey, it happens all the time. The only problem is that when the regular non-Congress types try do that it is called insider trading and people go to jail. Oh well.
Barack Obama's State of the Union speech scored at an eight-grade readability level, according to the University of Minnesota's Smart Politics blog. His three SOTUs all rank among the six lowest scoring ones ever, and are on average "more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses written by his 12 predecessors." [via Politico]
Tonight we witnessed President Obama outline all the proposals that will be blocked by Congress in the election year 2012. Drill for everything. Create jobs for the humans who want jobs. End more wars, try not to have new ones... but maybe have some new ones? 2012 is shaping up to be a banner year for America's government. Let's check out some reactions from the pundits and various clowns on Twitter.
Joe the Plumber, whom our senior citizen readers might remember as the guy who asked presidential candidate Barack Obama a tax question on YouTube and briefly became a conservative celebrity, has this new fundraising ad out for his congressional run in Ohio. By "fundraising ad," however, we mean "Facebook photo," and in this photo he appears to be doing plumbing work, something he hasn't had much time for in recent years between all the conservative conference guest gigs and wet t-shirt contest refereeing at radon-filled clubs.
If you've taken your frustrations with the Stop Online Piracy Act to your congressman's online contact form and tried to type that famous protest cry "DELETE THE BILL! DELETE THE BILL!", then you've already discovered a dark truth: You get censored, thanks to oxymoronic "congressional rules." But don't worry, you can always curse out your congressman instead.
Last year members of Congress, at the urging of some centrist pressure groups and coming in the wake of Rep. Gabby Giffords' shooting, decided it would be cute to sit next to their colleagues in the opposite party to promote civility. So: How did they civility thing work out last year? Let's not answer that just yet, because the important news here is that they're going to try it again at this year's State of the Union.
Tonight's Daily Show featured content tailor made for Jon Stewart to tee off on: Republican claims of the President's abuse of his executive power over something extremely petty and the manipulation of Senate procedures to help make their case. All they needed to do was hold a 30 second session to render Obama's recess appointment moot. It's all more fuel for what we are sure to hear from Obama in the upcoming general election, that it is all Congress' fault.
No surprise here. Top Republicans are ripping President Obama's decision to recess appoint his top consumer watchdog, Richard Cordray.
Everyone who is not a savvy financial professional would be well-advised to pursue a single investing strategy: buy and hold. That means, whatever you do, do not try to "trade" stock and mutual funds, as if you know what you're doing. Because you don't. Millions of Americans grasp this concept. At least two of their elected representatives do not.
Look, people, we appear to have figured out what it takes to get House Republicans to agree on something: Having every other person on the planet scream at them for several days! The official announcement will come at 5:00, but everyone's now reporting that House Republicans will agree to the Senate's bipartisan compromise to extend the payroll tax cut and assorted other things for two months, before resuming work on the full extension in 2012.
