Beltway Madness

++Last night the GOP in the senate decided to slow down confirmations of Obama nominations by holding the Senate in session until the wee hours of the morning. Nina Pillard managed to be confirmed by a 51 to 44 vote. The GOP plans to do the same until Saturday.

++Today the House plan to vote on the Ryan-Murray budget. Tan Man Boehner has denounced conservative groups for coming out against it even though they never read it. Fireworks went off yesterday as the Republican Study Committee fired Paul Teller, their executive director for the last two years. For students of the RSC, remember that they thought Reagan was too soft and took up more right-wing positions than the Gipper did.

++The budget agreement would normally be a BFD if it had included long-term unemployment insurance. If passed, it would represent the first bipartisan budget agreement since 1986. It would represent a two-year deal that puts total annual expenditures slightly more than $1 trillion. It reduces the deficit about $25 billion per year. The agreement would mean that there could be no government shutdowns in the next two years. 

++Basically, the GOP wanted this agreement to go into the 2014 elections without having the hangover from the government shutdown. Weirdly, Paul Ryan says this will allow them to concentrate on Obamacare as the issue. Democratic pollster Dan Greenberg says that ,by all means, make Obamacare an issue since it is polling better than nationally at the local level. New Gingrich said the GOP agreed to this so they can concentrate on winning back the Senate.

++Ryan Loskani , the chief of staff for Lamar Alexander, was arrested for the possession and distribution of child porn. He was pegged as one of "The Fabulous 50", a top GOP strategist.

++Ted Cruz allegedly walked out of Raul Castro's speech at the Mandela celebration, although no one has seen any pictures of this. But we are assured this happened because his press secretary sent out a press release saying it was so. Everyone dutifully reported it while not asking about how did he get back through security or whether he went to the men's room instead.

++The Sign language interpreter of the Mandela ceremony didn't make any sense to those who follow South African sign language. First, he was accused of being a fraud. Then he said he suffered from hallucinations.

++Rep. Sesenbrenner doesn't believe we should have the flag at half-mast for nelson Mandela. Other conservatives accused President Obama of not attending Margaret Thatcher's funeral. Magyn Kelly on FOX news said that Santa was white--if you get my drift.

++We have to subtract a Friedman Unit from Thomas Friedman, who bumbled his way into truth,saying that the Iran deal was worth the risk and he couldn't understand Congress types siding with Bibi Netanyahu over the President of the United States. It was a well-written column in the New York Times.

++Foreclosures are down at the lowest rate in 7 years.

++Harry Reid promises to bring up the extension of unemployment benefits in January. Even with a budget deal that would provide some stability to the economy,ending unemployment insurance for the long-term out of work basically costs the economy about 200,000 jobs.

++GOP strategists say that next year House Republicans will pass immigration reform once the deadline for primary challenges is passed.