The new Democratic leadership has officially taken control of Congress and the big headlines, other than whether Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Hussein Obama will top the Democratic presidential ticket in ’08, is that the first 100 hours of Congress will change the course of American history.
By 100 hours, they really only mean 100 hours when they are actually in chambers during their newly extended four day work week. And by first, they really mean starting next week. So really, instead of saying first 100 hours, they should say, “first month in office including the week we don’t really do anything except talk.”
According to Steny Hoyer’s office (as a side note, I have always really liked Congressman Hoyer in a non-Mark Foley sort of way) there is a calendar of historic congressional actions events happening between the 9th and the 26th of January.
The rundown is like this:
January 9th: Enact 9/11 Commission Recommendations
January 10th: Increase Minimum Wage
January 11th: Allow Stem Cell Research
January 12th: Negotiate for Lower Prescription Drug Prices
January 13th: Saturday
January 14th: Sunday
January 15th: Monday (Doesn’t everybody have Mondays off?)
January 16th: Votes postponed until 6:30pm (to recover from Monday hangovers)
January 17th: Cut Interest Rates on Student Loans
January 18th: Cut Subsidies for Big Oil and Invest in Renewable Energy
January 19th: Votes
January 20th: Saturday
January 21st: Sunday
January 22nd: Monday (You mean to say, You work on Mondays?!)
January 23rd: State of the Union Address (Maybe President Bush will solve this silly problem of working on Mondays)
January 24th: Votes
January 25th and 26th: Republicans Vacation after an exhausting “100 hours”
What is not on the calendar is that immediately afterward, the Pelosi Congress will solve world hunger (food instability), earthquake-proof California, find Osama bin Laden, pay off the national debt, make peace with Iran and North Korea, and still find time to keep declare Mondays a national day of rest for those of us that are not Members of Congress.
Seriously, why do we have to work on Mondays?
Showing posts with label Mark Foley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Foley. Show all posts
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
A Bad Year for the Roses
No, I am not talking about the Rose Bowl. My hopes are still high that Cal can pull a victory against the University of South Central this weekend. In fact, I will be blogging about that that at some point this week.
Today I am predicting another bad year for the Republicans. As everybody in politics knows, the campaign starts the day after the previous election, if not sooner. Why then are the Republicans already failing?
When the voters very clearly tell you that things need to change, it would be logical to change in the direction the voters intend. Not so, according to the choices currently being made in Sacramento and DC.
Republican members of the California Assembly look like they will soon replace George Plescia with even-more-conservative Mike Villines from the Fresno-Clovis area to be the new Assembly Minority Leader. True, Plescia was no strong leader for the GOP. Susan Kennedy referred to him looking like a deer stuck in the headlights and Governor Schwarzenegger expressed his concern that Plescia couldn’t control the “wild-bunch” of Republicans in the Assembly. Still it makes little sense to find a more conservative member to lead our party out of the current quagmire. At this rate, expect the California GOP to be even more irrelevant than it already is.
But it doesn’t seem the national party is any smarter. In the Senate, it looks like the minority leader will be Senator Mitch McConell, an anti-gay “Christianist” that votes a straight Republican ticket. That doesn’t sound like change to me, folks. Why don’t we see if we can find somebody closer to the status quo? Is Dick Cheney eligible for the post?
We can’t expect the foolhardy crowd in the House to provide our party with any good leadership, can we? The three favorite candidates to move into Pelosi’s old office when she becomes Speaker are John Boehner, Joe Barton, and Mike Pence. Boehner we can all remember from his role in the Foley scandal and cover-up where he may or may not have told Speaker Hastert what he knew about Foley’s indiscretions. Pence is an extreme conservative hoping to bring change to the GOP by being even more rightwing. Barton long spouted the necessity of traditional family values before his divorce in 2003 and marriage to another woman soon after. He has received extremely large contributions from energy companies while consistently denying the existence of global warming. When he seems to be the more moderate of the candidates for the job, the GOP is in trouble.
Unless the Republican Party wakes up and realizes it needs to change, it will continue to fall by the wayside. I expected the recent election to be a sufficient wakeup call, but apparently was wrong. What will it take to make the GOP move a little left?
Today I am predicting another bad year for the Republicans. As everybody in politics knows, the campaign starts the day after the previous election, if not sooner. Why then are the Republicans already failing?
When the voters very clearly tell you that things need to change, it would be logical to change in the direction the voters intend. Not so, according to the choices currently being made in Sacramento and DC.
Republican members of the California Assembly look like they will soon replace George Plescia with even-more-conservative Mike Villines from the Fresno-Clovis area to be the new Assembly Minority Leader. True, Plescia was no strong leader for the GOP. Susan Kennedy referred to him looking like a deer stuck in the headlights and Governor Schwarzenegger expressed his concern that Plescia couldn’t control the “wild-bunch” of Republicans in the Assembly. Still it makes little sense to find a more conservative member to lead our party out of the current quagmire. At this rate, expect the California GOP to be even more irrelevant than it already is.
But it doesn’t seem the national party is any smarter. In the Senate, it looks like the minority leader will be Senator Mitch McConell, an anti-gay “Christianist” that votes a straight Republican ticket. That doesn’t sound like change to me, folks. Why don’t we see if we can find somebody closer to the status quo? Is Dick Cheney eligible for the post?
We can’t expect the foolhardy crowd in the House to provide our party with any good leadership, can we? The three favorite candidates to move into Pelosi’s old office when she becomes Speaker are John Boehner, Joe Barton, and Mike Pence. Boehner we can all remember from his role in the Foley scandal and cover-up where he may or may not have told Speaker Hastert what he knew about Foley’s indiscretions. Pence is an extreme conservative hoping to bring change to the GOP by being even more rightwing. Barton long spouted the necessity of traditional family values before his divorce in 2003 and marriage to another woman soon after. He has received extremely large contributions from energy companies while consistently denying the existence of global warming. When he seems to be the more moderate of the candidates for the job, the GOP is in trouble.
Unless the Republican Party wakes up and realizes it needs to change, it will continue to fall by the wayside. I expected the recent election to be a sufficient wakeup call, but apparently was wrong. What will it take to make the GOP move a little left?
Monday, October 16, 2006
And The Beat Goes On...
What is this? The year of the GOP congressional scandal?
If you are trying to keep track, let's see if we can recap the year to date (I am sure I will miss something):
Now, it seems, Curt Weldon is under investigation for an alleged incident in which he may have used his congressional ties to secure cushy lobbying and consulting jobs for his daughter and a close friend. Though the alleged incident occured more than 2 years ago, investigators raided his daughter's home this weekend...just in time for some big media before this 10-term congressman faces a tough opponent in the November midterms. What luck!
Now it doesn't take any fancy degrees to tell you that public figures should avoid anything that even appears like impropriety. Ney, Cunningham, DeLay, Foley, and Weldon each have knowingly engaged in activities that regardless of actual illegalities are absolutely questionable. Because of this, the Dems, media, and general public have already found them to be guilty. And this sentiment has tainted the rest of our party.
Rightly so! Our party gained control of congress twelve years ago when we were able to successfully show that we had a clear plan to serve the nation. The Class of '94 was so popular because they had shown that Democrats couldn't be trusted and the Republicans had defined a plan to increase the quality of life while improving the budget and lowering taxes, simultaneously.
Lately, the grand elephants of the GOP have come to bear a striking resemblance to the asses of the Democratic Party. We have mastered pork barrel spending, overspending, and now the congressional scandal. What we have forgotten is how to maintain a healthy cynicism of big government and how to portray Democrat policies as too big brotherish.
I hate to say that we no longer deserve control of Congress. When I looked at the Drudge Report this morning and saw Nancy Pelosi's portrait with the caption "21 Days," I shivered with fear that this particular liberal could potentially be the next Speaker of the House.
Still, if the GOP were to narrowly maintain control of the House, it would only be nominally. Whichever party takes control would be unable to pass significant legislation without some help from the moderates of the other party but would bear liability for the wrongs that occur in the government over the next two years. Basically, all of the responsibility of congressional leadership without the benefits. It could benefit the Republican party to narrowly lose control of the House this year and let the Democrats take some blame for a while.
If you are trying to keep track, let's see if we can recap the year to date (I am sure I will miss something):
- First there was the Abramoff lobbying scandal starring Bob Ney.
- Never to be outdone, Cunningham lived more like a Machiavellian Prince than a Duke.
- DeLay may or may not have broken any campaign finance laws, but he sure did his best to make it look like he did.
- I have already discussed Mark Foley and his follies on this blog.
Now, it seems, Curt Weldon is under investigation for an alleged incident in which he may have used his congressional ties to secure cushy lobbying and consulting jobs for his daughter and a close friend. Though the alleged incident occured more than 2 years ago, investigators raided his daughter's home this weekend...just in time for some big media before this 10-term congressman faces a tough opponent in the November midterms. What luck!
Now it doesn't take any fancy degrees to tell you that public figures should avoid anything that even appears like impropriety. Ney, Cunningham, DeLay, Foley, and Weldon each have knowingly engaged in activities that regardless of actual illegalities are absolutely questionable. Because of this, the Dems, media, and general public have already found them to be guilty. And this sentiment has tainted the rest of our party.
Rightly so! Our party gained control of congress twelve years ago when we were able to successfully show that we had a clear plan to serve the nation. The Class of '94 was so popular because they had shown that Democrats couldn't be trusted and the Republicans had defined a plan to increase the quality of life while improving the budget and lowering taxes, simultaneously.
Lately, the grand elephants of the GOP have come to bear a striking resemblance to the asses of the Democratic Party. We have mastered pork barrel spending, overspending, and now the congressional scandal. What we have forgotten is how to maintain a healthy cynicism of big government and how to portray Democrat policies as too big brotherish.
I hate to say that we no longer deserve control of Congress. When I looked at the Drudge Report this morning and saw Nancy Pelosi's portrait with the caption "21 Days," I shivered with fear that this particular liberal could potentially be the next Speaker of the House.
Still, if the GOP were to narrowly maintain control of the House, it would only be nominally. Whichever party takes control would be unable to pass significant legislation without some help from the moderates of the other party but would bear liability for the wrongs that occur in the government over the next two years. Basically, all of the responsibility of congressional leadership without the benefits. It could benefit the Republican party to narrowly lose control of the House this year and let the Democrats take some blame for a while.
Monday, October 02, 2006
The NEW Political Drinking Game
What most concerns me is that too many people are focusing on the fact that Foley is Gay. In fact, the general feeling among many politicos is that he was targetted because of his sexuality. This, in no way, excuses the fact that the did wrong. His wrongdoing, however, is not found in his homosexuality.
Foley attempted to seduce underage boys that were Capitol Pages. Not only were his actions disgusting, unethical, and immoral, but his attempt to hide his resignation from Congress under the guise of his alcoholism is insulting. Further, he singlehandedly set back the Gay-Rights movement in this country by purpetuating the stereotype that all of us Gay men are pedophilic, sexual deviants attempting to seduce and prey on little boys.
The Republican leadership should never have attempted to hide Foley's guilt. Upon learning about the emails sent by Foley to the pages, an investigation should have been opened to determine the extent to which the Congressman may have acted wrongly. Perhaps in that scenario, the IM conversations would have surfaced earlier and our party would be less damaged by this scandal.
Given that Foley has now resigned (blaming alcoholism) and many are calling for Hastert's resignation, just how many resignations should we expect between now and the end of the year?
If you are keeping track, it is 2 shots for any member of Congress that is forced into resignation between now and the November election and 1 shot for every member resigning from November 7 through New Year's Eve. A bonus shot if the member is up for reelection this year!
UPDATE: That same dear old friend of mine pointed me to a hilarious little video calling for the resignation of ol' Denny Hastert.
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