Markos Moulitsas ("Kos") founder of Daily Kos recently observed that his two year old daughter had reached a Republican stage in her development because the majority her vocabulary consisted of two words: "NO!" and "MINE!"
Indeed. At least Markos understands that his two year old will grow out of her stubborn and selfish phase.
But those of us who live in Republican run states do not have the luxury of believing in or hoping for the evolution of maturity where our childlike NO! and MINE! lawmakers are concerned.
According to a source cited over at Daily Kos Kay Bailey Hutchison will not give up her U.S. Senate seat while running for governor.
Republican sources in Washington, D.C., on Monday predicted that the Texas Republican will continue to serve in the Senate, resigning only if she wins the Lone Star State governor's mansion in November 2010. Hutchison had been expected to resign her Senate seat in the coming months to focus on her campaign full time.
Should Hutchison still decide to step down, she would likely do so at the end of this calendar year, setting up a May 2010 special election to fill out the remainder of her current term, which expires in 2012. Gov. Rick Perry (R) would presumably appoint someone to replace Hutchison in the interim, as state law empowers him to do.
"I think she won't resign before the end of the year, if at all," one Republican operative based in Washington said Monday afternoon.
I guess Senator Hutchison will become an absentee Senator during the Texas gubernatorial 2010 campaign season. For Texans it will likely be a return to the 2000-2006 days of the Tuesday/Thursday Club in Congress. During that time lawmakers would show up to do the work of the people on Tuesday afternoon and head back to their home states on Thursday afternoon. We the taxpayers paid full-time salaries for half time representation and services.
Hutchison stood on the floor of the Senate and spoke out against the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. She advertised her opposition in a press release that bemoaned the long-term consequences of America's irresponsible spending and soaring debt obligations.
Then, she dutifully voted against it.
But it passed anyway. And as soon as it did, Hutchison began taking credit for nearly $54 million in Houston-area pork she helped secure within the $410 billion, pork-filled bill she'd condemned.
One after another, eight press releases were issued announcing Hutchison's victories. To name a few: $34.4 million for the Houston Ship Channel and Houston-Galveston navigation channels; $15 million for Houston Metro; $300,000 for Houston's Julia Ideson library; $500,000 for something called a "Virtual Space Community."
What else is new? Kay Bailey Hutchison has been talking out of both sides of her mouth since she took office, whether it is about the war in Iraq or extended benefits for veterans. She will say one thing in Texas but vote the opposite in Washington.
Tonight in an interview on MSNBC's Hardball, Senator Hutchison stood side-by-side with one of her Democratic colleagues in Washington. Both stood firm in self-righteous outrage against the bonus payouts to AIG executives. Both lawmakers agreed that taxing the bonuses at a 60-80% rate is a really fine idea.
Hutchison's stand tonight is rather odd given that she and most, if not all, of her Republican colleagues failed to utter a peep of protest when we learned that billions of dollars of U.S. dollars had mysteriously disappeared in Iraq. Thanks to mind-boggling fraud, appalling waste, despicable overcharges by U.S. contractors, outright theft by corrupted Iraqis and beyond-the-pale incompetence on both the U.S. and Iraqi sides, our tax payer money was squandered, burned and stolen.
The sound of silence from the Republicans and their water carriers in the media was rather deafening at the time.
Ironically where AIG is concerned, both the Republicans and their enablers in the right wing media have evolved into fiscal hawks.
Fiscal hawks? Bush Republicans? The Texas Republicans are obviously cut from the same cloth as the fake economic gurus such as Jim Cramer, Rick Santelli and other screaming heads on CNBC. As Jon Stewart revealed last week, these folks will pitch one thing, "BUY THIS!" "SELL THAT!" but later, when the lights and cameras are off, they will slyly slink into scheming back rooms where they do the exact opposite of what they said.
This week we hear a deafening level of political screaming, grandstanding and outrage about the fat cats on Wall St. and at AIG who, surprise, surprise, had been robbing us blind all along, thanks to Phil Gramm and his deregulate, baby de-regulate. By not providing oversight measures and a modicum of restraint, the Bush Administration gave the green light to every thief and crook in the financial sector. A monumental sized sewer of insatiable greed mongers quickly emerged.
None of the Bush Administration's perks and attempts to placate their loyalists in business could satisfy them. Their fat cats demanded more.
The generous tax cuts to the oil companies that are already awash in profits, the abundance of corporate tax loopholes that enable companies and anyone else, for that matter, to hide their money in off shore tax havens were not enough to satisfy the fat cats. Nor were the generous tax cuts given to 1% of income earners while 98-99% of the rest of us shouldered the nation's tax burden.
The tax cuts given to the top 1% of income earners was supposed to have trickled down to lower 98%, at least that is according to St. Ronald Reagan's Republican trickle down black magic. But nothing, not even a dime, trickled down anywhere. It was all stuffed into pockets or shipped to a tax haven. And so today we find ourselves stuck with an increasing homeless population from California to Louisiana, where tent cities known as Reaganvilles, Bushvilles and Trickle Downistans rapidly grow.
Despite all of the wealth the financial sector's fat cats accumulated, they were not satisfied with what they had. And so they stole the bailout money (i.e. our tax dollars) to give themselves bonuses for destroying their companies
And guess what else? Some of the AIG executives took our money and ran. They are no longer with AIG.
In order to distract us from the reality of the last two and a half decades of Republican failures and horror shows, the right wing water carriers for the Party of Rush work 24/7/365 to change the subject. Their ultimate goal is to bring down President Obama's agenda.
If the President fails in his mission to correct the failed policies and mistakes of the past, we as a nation and people will collectively fail.
Unfortunately, the right is too narrow minded, rigid and mean-spirited to get it.
Speaking of the right wing looney tunes recent polls show Rush's approval ratings are right down there in the gutter with W. Rush is at 29%. G.W. Bush is 27%.
Yes, indeed, I am sick and tired of the lot of double-talking and lying hypocrites in both Washington and Austin. Perry is no better than the lot of Republicans in Washington. Sure, he can criticize Hutchison all he wants to about her being a Washington insider. As far as I am concerned Mr. Perry is a Texas Republican insider who has a heart made of stone. He'll take the stimulus money to line the pockets of his fat cat donors but he won't give a cent to those who cannot find work. So much for the Guv's fine hypocritical Christian values.
It sure is a boatload of fun living in one of the few states where The Party of Rush has a shred of credibility.
Are we ready for transformational campaign finance reform yet?
