November 11, 2008
With 69 days left in Still-President Bush's career, do we need a Sha-Na-Na-Na-Hey-Hey-Hey-Goodbye keys-ajanglin' laugh-so-that-we-may-not-cry group therapy uber-thread? Of course we do.
The Telegraph kicks things off with this Bush Facial Expression Photogallery, reminding us that Bush is adorable (<- skip to 4:20).
Also, I just noticed the triple-meaning of 'Still-President Bush'.
It's looking like Ted Stevens might not get reelected after all. Also, it's looking like Franken has a very good shot at winning in the recount (or even before the recount), considering that provisional ballots tend to skew heavily toward Democrats. It's not clear to me how many provisional (or other) ballots remain in the MN Senate race. But Coleman has pledged to step down rather than seek a recount should Franken take the lead on the original tally. Otherwise, expect a bunch of hanging chad lawyering as every ballot becomes disputed.
Thankfully, Scalia's Bush v. Gore decision has a rider saying that it cannot be used as case law for any future cases.
I really like the idea, BTW, of asking Olympia Snowe to be Secretary of Commerce -- if she accepts, Obama shows a commitment to bipartisanship and a possible 60th senate seat. Snowe is opposed to NAFTA but on the whole palatable.
Also sign me up for the Lieberman compromise I'm hearing -- you keep your chairmanship as long as you join no GOP filibuster attempts. Party treason aside, he actually votes the slate pretty uniformly. Booting him when 60 is within reach is hubristic.
If they want to reassign him to the vacated small business (Joe Biden headed Foreign Relations, John Kerry is filling Biden's chiarmanship, vacating Kerry's old one) committee, where he can't bloviate about foreign policy and start accusing Obama of treason or of endangering the country, fine.
But it's madness to give foreign policy influence (and subpoena power!) to a war hawk who has shown zero interest in strengthening the Democrats (and who ignored the wishes of Democratic voters) and accused the President-elect of endangering the country.
I'm not concerned about Lieberman's vote. I'm concerned with the mischief that he can cause with a critical committee chair, whose topic (Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs) relates to one of the two issues where he is actually really, really horrible. An immigration bill is going to have to go through his committee. Antiterror stuff is going to go through his committee.
Also, I really believe that the 60 vote margin is really overblown. There was maybe one close vote (the first FISA cloture vote, I believe. So, even that one got cancelled later) last time where the Dems managed to hold onto Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and co, and when the current Majority leader has almost no interest in whipping his caucus on anything important. I'm sick of hearing, over and over, how everything is going to be different when the Dem margin gets to some new magic number. When they can't hold the caucus against a fillibuster with 60 votes, I'm sure we'll start hearing about how we need to get up to 67 in 2010 before anything meaningful will happen. How about we start whipping our votes, and start pressuring Collins, Snowe and Specter?
Isn't it time that the Democrats point out that elections matter, and that they fucking won? Twice in a row now?
Also, fool me 15 times, shame on you, Joe. Fool me 16, shame on us. What evidence is there that he will actually stay in line? And wht if he obeys the letter of the law, and votes party line on the slate, but then acts like a jackass from his committe? We get to have this debate again, is what.
But I could live with a Republican appointment to something like Commerce, Transportation or Veterans affairs.
And might I remind that he was happy to undermine previous Democratic administrations.
You guys have me mostly convinced.
Vanity Fair has leaked copies of the White House formal dinner menus for the remaining portion of Bush's tenure. Brilliant.
The white house sets the record straight on the Bush legacy
A report on the Bush legacy from NPR, with such highlights as "Bring them on.", "Heck of a job.", and "I'm the decider."
Awesome: via Lessig, word that Rick Boucher will be head of the House Telecommunications subcommittee.
Boucher wrote the Digital Media Consumer's Rights Act (DMCRA) and is a good guy when it comes to digital rights issues and internet policy.
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I know I sure am looking forward to all the new guns out on the streets!
posted by natedogg at 08:07PM CST on November 11