The Week That Will Not Be

The Senate remains out of session but present so that Elizabeth Warren can't get an appointment. The newspapers in North Carolina lit into Rep. McHenry's rudeness in the Warren hearing and reminded its readers that Warren had warned about the financial crisis ten years before it occurred and that she was the most able spokesperson for all those with mortgage problems. Editorials also reminded McHenry's constituents that she was not the "liberal" the congressman portrays and is working with Mrs. Petraeus to alleviate the financial problems affecting military families. Nice try but it's not going to work. In the Beltway, the punditry is already saying that Elizabeth Warren is polarizing. Since her persona is anything but,I guess they mean that powerful financial interests don't like her.

The House will be in session this week. They will be introducing a "clean bill" on raising the debt ceiling. This whole exercise is purposely futile since you need by House rules a 2/3rd vote to pass. The whole point is to show the Administration that the public just demands massive cuts in government spending to accomodate such a vote.

Paul Krugman writes today that our policy makers have a learned helplessness about job creation and have moved on to ranting about the deficit and national debt. He cites the OECD report that concludes that all industrialized countries have exhausted all the tools at their disposal for creating jobs. Krugman comes up with three of his own--a WPA style program, serious mortgage remodification programs and getting inflation up to 4% to reduce the personal debt issue. But he writes that all of these would just run into a brick wall with House Republicans. But, he urges everyone who is still concerned about unemployment to keep talking about it.

Yesterday's New York Times published an article on the findings of an international think tank about how the debt of all industrialized countries will eventually dwarf the largest economies. But the operative elements of the piece are the suggestions that the large economies should wait until 2013 to pass austerity programs so as to allow for the recovery to stabilize. In addition, elements of debt reduction programs should not really begin until 2019. The point is that this problem is actually manageable and should not be dealt with by panicking. Unfortunately, our wealthy punditry is sounding the alarms before there is an economic recovery.

The media has gained Rapture with Sarah Palin's black leather routine here in D.C. It's Sister Sarah 24/7. The word is that if she bails out before New Hampshire, it's because she is not feeling the positive vibes. If she takes her bus down towards South Carolina, she will pull the trigger.

Lawrence O'Donnell bummed out people like me by plainly explaining why she isn't running. Otherwise, Roger Ailes would have pulled her from Fox by now and they reiterated her status has now changed.

The Right has cut another one of its RHINO ads. This time they are going after Tim Pawlenty. The first ad went after Jon Huntsman. Will the third go after Romney? Stay tuned.

Mitt announces this week. I will be in the hinterlands so I will not be able to miss this historic event.

Tim Pawlenty now is attacking President Obama of being a "doofus", who wants to maintain the status quo. I guess he wants to contrast himself with Newt who claims that Obama is creating a socialist, secular state controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. Should be an interesting debate. But speaking of "doofus" maybe Pawenty should have chosen a better word, not a self-description.

This week's commentator of the week is Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly. Benen has been in a groove all week, explaining the various modes by which the GOP ignore the practical answers to the problems facing this country. His writings this week deserve our attention. He's almost hit the same groove Krugman was in when he became a prolific blogger on the Ryan Plan.

Speaking of which, Mitch McConnell says he has put the Ryan Medicare Plan on the table. Whatever that means. It's not even a place to start. Since we are now at an ideological stalemate, let's just do nothing. The Bush tax credits expire by themselves in 2012. Let's keep the withdrawal dates for Iraq and hasn't the date for Afghanistan. You eliminate three biggest drivers of our deficits by attrition. Then we can debate whether you want to dismantle the social safety nets in 2012.

A curious thing happened on the way to the Wisconsin budget bill, the state now finds it will have $600 million more in revenues than anticipated. Not only was all that upheaval for nothing other than the ideological dreams of the GOP but it had no economic rationale. We will find the same is true once the three drivers of the national deficits are done and there is a modicum of a recovery.

Have a Happy Memorial Day. It is in the mid-90s in D.C. And the human race managed to emit more carbon emissions this year than at any time in history. But Sister Sarah says, "She just loves the smell of emissions". She better not tell Frothy Mix Santorum. He might get strange ideas.

Mooseferatu*

*Paul Krugman's suggestion for the title of the new Sarah Palin film "The Undefeated".

You can hear the noise of the motorcycles here tonight as Rolling Thunder is in town to focus attention on the issue of MIAs and POWs as well as other veterans' issues. Andrea Mitchell tracked down Ted Shpak, the legislative director for Rolling Thunder, and asked him how Sarah Palin got involved. "We didn't ask her. We don't endorse her." Apparently First Dude Todd is trying to procure a motocycle for Sarah to ride tomorrow. "We can't prevent anyone from riding,"said a distinctly troubled looking Shpak. He thought she was a distraction away from the Rolling Thunder message.

Palin's slick ad for her Bus Tour signals to almost everyone that she is running. It's too much like a well-produced political ad complete with her voice over. I guess we will be hearing more Sarah Palin voice-overs. They come from the audio version of her magnum opus Going Rogue.

The Bus itself looks like the Rapture Bus from Harry Campings recent adventure for the end of the world. Maybe she got it from him. It clearly has the same paint job.

The tour will mark the first time Sarah Palin has been back to New Hampshire since 2008. Mitt Romney immediately moved there after the 2008 election for his moment of glory. Let's see what kind of splash she makes on Mitt's home turf.

The Rushbo thinks Palin should run because he loves how she scares the Beltway elites and the Republican establishment. He believes Democrats are so scared of Palin because they know she can beat Barack Obama. If Rushbo is coming out so in front of this, it will influence a decision.

Meanwhile Ron Paul has zoomed into second place in New Hampshire.

Her female rival Michelle Bachmann said today that she "heard the calling." So even though her money bomb failed, she heard God tell her to run. Now when Sister Sarah gets in the race that makes three people, including Frothy Mix, whom God told to run. Maybe God is like Chairman Mao "Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom" and then he mows everyone down. Or maybe God's just confused. Will know soon enough.

Mitt Romney was saved by a fire alarm at his Iowa town hall meeting. He had just been asked how a moderate Republican from a Democratic state could win a caucus of social conservatives. Then the bell rang and he said he believed in safety and asked everyone to evacuate.

Even though God has told Michelle Bachmann to run, he obviously didn't teach her about winning hearts and minds. She was the main speaker scheduled for the Polk dinner in Iowa and belatedly cancelled so the organizers couldn't find another speaker so the dinner was cancelled. The more well-known Lincoln dinner in Iowa had to be cancelled but that was because Republicans no longer recognize Abraham Lincoln.

"Google Me" Santorum has a slight problem in his home state of Pennsylvania. The city fathers of his hometown have put a tax lien on his house because Frothy Mix doesn't believe in paying his taxes.

Peggy Noonan thinks that younger voters might be attracted to Newt and they don't remember his past. Since Newt is now for Coupon Care,it's hard to see the appeal. But worse for Newt is today endorsement of Coupon Care by Pat Boone, who now is the spokesperson for the new astroturf counter organization to AARP. I don't think it's a great idea to win the youth vote when you're seen with Pat Boone.

Tim Pawlenty seems to have a Huckabee problem. Remember Huckabee released some hardened felons by pardon because they said they had become Christians. Of course, on release they started up with their old mayhem. Pawlenty pardoned a sex offender because his wife, the person he sexually abused, wanted to open a child care center. Pawlenty erased the man's entire record as a sex offender. He's been arrested for sexually abusing his young daughter hundreds of time. No one knows whether he touched the children, who had been in the child care center next door to their home.

I really can't believe this but conservatives really do want Rick Perry to run for President because of his economic record. This is a man who hid the amazing $20+ billion budget deficit from the public and demanded from the Obama Administration waivers to use the stimulus money to cover his massive budget shortfall. This is also the guy sitting over the whole Texas Textbook Scandal and the man who is in the middle of wiping out Medicaid in the state. And that's just the start of the list.

Conservatives have already cut pre-emptive ads against Jon Huntsman about his various positions on cap and trade, health care reform and gay rights.

The GOP field is freaky-deaky. I think Palin would be the best person to sell Coupon Care. She could sell it as a commonsense solution to America's problem and say that the real American makes do with clipping coupons to go grocery shopping.

Mitch McConnell is having another one of his Get Off My Lawn Days. He is holding the debt ceiling vote ransom to significant cuts in Medicare. What's truly worrisome about this is that reporters asked him if the Biden group comes up with significant cuts but none of Medicare would you support the debt ceiling vote. He said:" No."

The position of the Obama Administration should be "We don't negotiate with terrorists." Put the revolver in Mitch's hand and he call his bluff. Let him pull the trigger. The reason is that the grand patrons of Mitch's side of the GOP are the Chamber of Commerce, who are already on the record saying not lifting the debt ceiling would plunge us back into a recession at minimum. Let these guys pound on the Republicans for awhile.

In the last budget fiasco,Obama played the cool reasonable guy.The Left thought he sold out when in fact the budget deal actually increased government spending by $400 million. But this time, the GOP is emboldened by Congress' rejection of Obama's Israel policy and still think they can muscle him. It's important for him to draw the line on Medicare and let the others do the work on the GOP.