The Calm Before the Storm--The Big Fade

The noise level has dropped dramatically. The Tea Baggers have one last go at it today by storming the Hill and button-holing members. Took me a long time to get an e-mail to our Congressman Jim Moran last night because the anti-health care folks are mass e-mailing Congress. Citizens United--those Citizens United--are robocalling against health care reform.

But I get a sense the air has gone from the fight. Bob Corker appearing on Charlie Rose looked like a defeated man when he admitted Health Care would pass. Jim DeMint, who thought this was Obama's Waterloo and vowed to break the President, says he's not sure it's going to end up that way. Teabagger-in-Chief, Dick Armey held a press conference yesterday, saying it would pass and that members of Congress are spineless and Nancy Pelosi isn't tough enough. I guess she's a girlie-girlie. 'Though I like Dick's Tony Lama boots. Americans for Prosperity will be driving around the District offices of congresscritters beeping their horns. Since it's the NCAA basketball tournament period, don't you think the message will be confused. You know it's over when World News Daily, the extreme right forum alerts everyone that healthcare reform will pass.

So the last burning question is whether Dennis "The Menace" is going to vote for it since his arm was twisted by the President while going and coming from Ohio yesterday.

What will be interesting to watch is whether Republican Senators have the stomach to submit amendments after amendments to prolong the fight. Democrats have already signed on to round-the-clock voting in the Senate. So, it might get interesting.

Lindsey Graham pouted that if health care passes , it will be much more difficult for the President to get any cooperation to pass anything else. Doug Brooks went off his meds today claiming the reconciliation process damages the "humanizing effect of the Senate". Doug, they are all dead there. The Senate reminds me of old Red Smith columns in the sporting section of the New York Times. The line was,"He only writes about famous dead people."

Our august Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia has distanced himself again from his hand-picked Attorney-General's embrace of the birther cause. And the mother of birthers, Orly Taitz, candidate for Secretary of State in California, received another blow--the court upheld her $20,000 fine for wasting their time. You will recall Orly petitioned the UN Human Rights Council to protect her from recriminations by the Obama Administration. Moldovan-born Orly is a Gsa-Gsa Gabor look-alike.

Arizona's own J.D. Hayworth is against same sex marriage because a man could marry a horse. John McCain is against same sex marriage because he doesn't believe marriage should be between two people who love each other. Great primary to watch. Cindy McCain has gone off to Africa for charity work while the two hombres shoot it out.

Sean Wilentz wrote a defense of my son's ancestor Ulysses S. Grant in the Sunday Times. He wanted to explain why Grant deserves to remain on the $50 bill and not be replaced by Ronald Reagan as proposed by southern congresscritter Patrick Henry. He said all the slanders against Grant and his Presidency were manufactured by " pro-South revisionists", who hated Grant's reconstructionist policies. Sounds similar to today.

The great state of Oklahoma has removed the picture of the President of the United States from the legislature. Apparently, it incensed to many representatives.

The FCC unveiled their internet plans today. It was a real snoozefest. All the attendees dozed off. I'm glad because it is as radical and meaningful as I said yesterday. This one will just pass through without anyone thinking about it. President Obama got the initiative off the ground through a downpayment hidden in the stimulus package. The FCC aims for 90% connectivity.

Progressives are complaining that President Obama is missing the opportunity to salt the courts with liberals. Not true--his nominees are now being quietly confirmed and they are from moderate-left to liberal. The problem will come when Justice Stevens needs to be replaced. he claims he will retire within three years. I think he will after the mid-terms if the Democrats maintain a decent majority in the Senate. But I bet President Obama will appoint a Sotomayor moderate on the bench so that the Court will tilt even more right than it is today. I would support Laurence Tribe and force the issue in the Senate about who knows the constitution and who doesn't.

My thanks to President Obama for the college tuition tax credit. This is the type of thing that he has been sprinkling around that really makes a difference. I am not sure people realize this. For an average American family, the enlargement of the credit allows you to send a son or daughter or even yourself to state universities for very little money. Here in Virginia, with the tax credit, the University of Virginia, an Ivy-League quality school, would cost you about $10K per year. And our knucklehead Governor will not be able to destroy the Virginia university system in the remaining three years of his term. For snobs like me, the tuition credit doesn't do as much good but it helps. This small act does alot for the future of education.

I am very ambivalent about President Obama's larger educational policy. I'll blog in later days some of the fall-out from this policy on our own local school system. And, having lived through the privatization of everything from prisons to our national seurity, I am very wary about Arne Duncan's plans to privatize charter schools.

The Israel flap will not go away. George Mitchell has cancelled his trip to the region. President Obama spent an hour on the phone to Bibi. The best thing that could happen now for Israel is Germany to release the Eichman files. Apparently, the files reveal that Germany smuggled Eichman to Argentina. These might remind everyone how we got Israel in the first place. Friends of Israel should call Tel Aviv and remind Bibi he isn't the mayor of Levittown. The actual background of this latest snafu is actually quite distressing and brings in some of the characters from our right whom I've been writing about.

Now when President Obama flies to Indonesia and all hell breaks out in the Senate, is the House bill he signed the law of the land? In other words, if the Senate can't get its act together, will the House bill remain as law? We know the minute he leaves the country, the Republicans will start some new nonsense. I have no idea.

(Note: I've consulted our in-house parliamentarian, Dr. Vinnie Boom-Bah, and he says it is the law of the land because the House passes the Senate version. So let the food fight begin.)

Other people are getting wise to Rep. Pat Ryan's Roadmap to Future Ruin. Several think-tanks have their analyses out and I'll share them with you as I digest them. In short--everyone earning up to $200,000 will have their taxes massively increased; the very wealthy will be earning upwards to $500,000 additional tax credits and the whole plan will basically run enormous deficits that can never be corrected. In policy language, all these think-tanks agree that the Ryan Plan is a conscious effort to de-develop the country and make us a third-world country. No wonder Tom Davis doesn't want Republicans to debate governance this year!