And Now For Somethng Completely Different

The big loser today in the new House was Eleanor Holmes Norton, the representative from D.C. In the last Congress, she balked at the bill granting D.C. a vote in the House because the GOP had attached a number of restrictions on it having to do with gun rights. She should have taken it as I wrote then. Today, she as well as all representatives from D.C. and the American territories like the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Samoa,and Guam were stripped of their voting rights in committees by the Republican leadership.

The Heritage Foundation claims the new House is committed to cutting $100 billion from the budget this fiscal year. But the GOP is backing off that saying that half the fiscal year is already gone and that they will "aim" to bring down government spending to 2008 levels by 2012.

The House Republicans are planning on governing as if they have a mandate. The GOP did the same thing when they won in 2000 by one Supreme Court justice's vote. This is something Democrats have to learn--when you win, pretend it's a massive mandate. The House Republicans as well as the Senate Republicans are acting as if the 2010 mid-terms were a total repudiation of Barack Obama. This fits with their overall narrative that Obama was a mistake or ,as the base insists, the creature of ACORN.

But E.J. Dionne pointed out something in his column the other day that should make the GOP hesitate. He indicated that over 50 of the new GOP House members won in districts that Obama won in 2008. Not that Obama would win them again but the turnout of 41.5% in 2010 didn't match the 62% turnout in the presidential election. Even with redistricting, the GOP is very vulnerable if the Democrats come out in force.

Another columnist pointed out that the teabaggers didn't win any mandate--many of them didn't even receive a majority of votes. Instead, the tide was turned against the Democrats by massive amounts of money--particularly some $20 million from Hedge Fund managers--and a lack of turnout from key Democratic constituencies like the millenial voters.

The Chamber of Commerce should be delighted with the Congress they bought but they are uneasy because Republicans in the House are saying they are going to cut the funding for the highway fund and mass transportation. This was one area where the Chamber and President Obama agreed on and the Chamber thought they had Boehner on board. Infrastructure spending is key to some Chamber members and was seen as the next quiet economic stimulus.

The Republicans will be using the next 20 days to register symbolic votes to repeal everything President Obama has done. The object of this is to create the framework for the debate for the next two years. The White House would be stupid to fall for this. Republicans are emphasizing the need for austerity when the American people are not registering this in polls. If you take the GOP's two hobbyhorses--the deficit and terrorism, those are the last two concerns of the American people.

I would bet on President Obama coming up with a more realistic approach to budget cuts and reform of the entitlement programs. Unlike progressives, I feel that he will preserve Social Security and not undermine it as some have suggested. Meanwhile, Lindsey Graham and his sidekick John McCain are salivating to cut government spending and in particular social security--since both men are wealthy and have life-long pensions from the government while you don't.

The debate for the new RNC chair was disturbing to me because why would any grown person allow Grover Norquist and Tucker Carlson to moderate any debate for a major political position. What was particularly disturbing was that the RNC allowed Grover's outfit plus Maggie Gallagher's anti-gay marriage organization NOM to host the debate. With the RNC $20 million in debt, it doesn't look good for Michael Steele. Today, the money people weighed in with their objections to him. The debate demonstrated that all candidates loved Ronald Reagan, want a litmus test for the party,are against gay rights and same-sex marriage,some own many guns, and are for tax cuts. The debate was embarrassing. They should go back to smoke-filled rooms.

Meanwhile Jeb Bush says he is thinking about running for President in 2016, which should be enough time for the American people to forget his brother. PPP polling has shown that the most viable GOP candidate against Barack Obama is Mike Huckabee because he has the religious base and has high favorabilities. Mitt Romney does well and has a better organization but he faces problems with the base, which are evaneglicals, and the fact he is the father of Obamacare. GOP pundits are now weighing in with criticism of Sarah Palin, trying to head disaster off at the pass.

Frank Gaffney of the Center for Strategic Policies alerts us to the problem posed by the infiltration of CPAC by the Muslim Brotherhood. He blames Grover Norquist, the foremost apologist for Wahabhism in the United States as being the culprit. He claims that CPAC now supports Sharia Law--as opposed to Elena Kagan and Harold Koh. Frank has finally located the enemy on the Right.

It looks like Carl Hiaasen of "Strip Tease" fame has a new political target in Florida. But it looks like his bosses at the Miami Herald may want a monopoly of their own covering Governor Rick Scott, who unlike other newly elected Governors, hired former Bush event managers to throw a gala affair at his inaugural, which was considered by the Floridians as grotesque. People shouted "criminal" at him during what was seen as a failure of a speech. As Hiassen wrote previously, the highlight of Scott's resume was that he didn't go to jail. Scott vowed to cut 19% off property taxes, which will devastate local communities, but he says "It will be fun."

The Guardian (U.K.) covered the festivities today on the Hill and noted that the new Republicans were far-right, dullards, and corporate tools. The writer felt nostalgic for Newt Gingrich ,who at his swearing in spoke longingly of FDR. I personally recall talking to Newt about his love of dinosaurs. In those days, he didn't believe children played with them. The writer said that at least Newt enterained thinking out of the box. That was before the sex scandals and his mismanagement of the House.

We have to give Gentleman John Boehner credit for some savvy internal politics. Michelle Bachman wanted a leadership position but was denied, then she wanted a post on Ways and Means and was denied. Instead, Boehner put her on the Intelligence Committee, which is ironic and humorous. But his point was that she takes up the space in the room and makes all Republicans look crazier than they really are. At intelligence, she just can not talk about the subject. Boehner was hoping Bachmann's media exposure would be diminished. Good move.

The constitutional stunt wasn't a great success as the new members were on television ineptly trying to explain how Obama's policies were unconstitutional. They simply couldn't.

James Fallows at the Atlantic commented on the Jon Huntsman for president trial balloon. He preceptively said that Huntsman could not become a viable nominee because of being part of the Obama Administration. He thinks this was all a clever move to enhance Huntsman's cache as the United States enters a period of intense negotiations with China about a host of issues. The Chinese Premier will be meeting President Obama in about a month. Fallows quite cleverly says that rumors about a Huntsman's presidential drive makes him more serious in the eyes of the Chinese. He thinks Obama and Huntsman dreamt this up together.

Look for President Obama to sideswipe the Republicans with a number of dramatic budget cuts. Already Bob Gates is preparing for proposals to cut the Pentagon budget this year by $200 million.

Republicans are in a budget box of their own. Yes, the ideologues would love to completely dismantle the federal government. But they have vowed not to cut defense spending and all the entitlement programs--Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid--this year. So without additional government revenues, they are down to a budget of less than $400 billion for everything else the federal government does. A 25% cut of all this would be crippling and more so because it would have an immediate negative impact on the public. That's why you are only hearing vague noises about specific cuts. The two I have heard--cutting spending for Public Broadcasting in retaliation for their firing of Juan Williams and cutting Planned Parenthood. Now they are trying to sell their repeal of the healthcare bill as a cut in spending--when it means a rise in the deficit.

One Democratic congressman summed up the new Republican approach as "Enron-style economics." This puts the Hoodoo in the Voodoo Economics. You can't get more bizarre in economic thinking than the current House Republicans. They make George W's policies seem plausible.