For the Today show, Democratic Representative Patrick Kennedy's departure from Congress was something to mourn because it represented, as NBC's Matt Lauer lamented, “The end of an era. There's been a Kennedy in Congress since John F. Kennedy entered the House back in 1947.” The nephew of the late President was invited on Monday's Today show to commemorate the occasion with he and co-host Meredith Vieira fondly looking over newly-released photos of JFK from Life.com and reminiscing about his father, the “great” Ted Kennedy. For the record the Today show got their facts wrong, as the MRC's Rich Noyes pointed out, there was no Kennedy in Congress from January 1961 to November of 1962 as Representative Ben Smith held that seat long enough until Ted Kennedy was old enough to take over. The following
Continue reading …An Annoyed George Stephanopoulos Harangues GOP Rep to Recant Criticism of ‘Corrupt’ Obama
November 8, 2010 No Comment
Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Monday devoted almost an entire interview with Republican Darrell Issa to attacking a criticism the Congressman made of Barack Obama as “corrupt.” Stephanopoulos attempted four times to get Issa to recant his accusation. The GMA host demanded of Issa, who next
Continue reading …How can you look at a 60+ seat House and 6 Senate seat gain and find problems?
Continue reading …Maybe the Gods are trying to tell him something about visiting Indonesia : ABC News: Ann Compton reports: ABC News has learned that because of the dangerous clouds of ash spewing from an Indonesian volcano, 48 hours before Air Force One is due to touch down in the capital Jakarta White House officials are concerned President Obama may not be able to make the trip. Some commercial flights into Jakarta have been cancelled. Flights of government equipment and personnel to preposition in Indonesia are no longer flying during nighttime hours as a safety precaution, sources tell ABC News. That equipment and personnel are necessary for the president to be able to make his visit. This would be the first time in memory a President could be forced to cancel a stop while he is overseas, and it remains unclear when a White House decision will come and how it will affect the remainder of his Asian trip. President Obama has already twice cancelled announced plans to go to Indonesia where he lived as a boy. In March he was to take daughters during their spring vacation from school, but he scrapped the overseas trip to work on passage of his health care reforms in Congress. The second cancellation came in June during the BP oil spill crisis. I’m not sure where his trip was taking him after Indonesia. Maybe he can make a run down to Kenya and visit the home folks for a few days.
Continue reading …How many of you remember what happened 10 years ago today?
Continue reading …But will there be enough opposition to stop her?
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MUMBAI: In the spirit of give and take, US President Barack Obama on Saturday signalled the easing of export controls on dual use technology even as he announced signing of deals worth $10 billion with US companies, something he said would create 50,000 jobs back home. Hammered by plummeting approval rating and the loss of the House of Representatives to the Republicans, and under pressure to offer his Indian hosts something more tangible to chew on rather than soaring rhetoric, Obama used his meeting with the high priests and priestesses of India Inc to placate both constituencies — it was a dual use speech, as one person present at the gathering quipped to TOI. His 20-minute special…
Continue reading …San Fran Nan Extends the Middle Finger of Friendship to the American Voters
November 5, 2010 No CommentIf Democrats are looking for the best possible way to tell the American voters they plan to ignore the message the voters sent when they stripped them of at least 63 House seats and 6 Senate seats, I can think of no better way than voting Nancy Pelosi as Minority Leader : Bucking speculation that she would step down after her Democratic Party suffered a “shellacking” in Tuesday’s election, outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday that she will run for minority leader in the next Congress. In a letter sent to Democratic House members Friday, Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, said she made the decision to run based on recommendations from her colleagues and her desire to continue the legislative work started during her tenure. “Driven by the urgency of protecting health care reform, Wall Street reform, and Social Security and Medicare, I have decided to run,” the letter reads. Despite her party’s loss of more than 60 congressional seats to Republicans, Pelosi was adamant that the legislative accomplishments of the House under her leadership would remain intact. “We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back. It is my hope that we can work in a bipartisan way to create jobs and strengthen the middle class,” her letter continued. If she’s counted the votes and thinks she can win I can only assume she must have a drawer full of pictures of fellow Democrats doing unspeakable things with small animals. Why else would they keep the woman in leadership who became the Botoxed face of liberalism run amok? She and Harry Reid will be a great set-up for 2012.
Continue reading …It wasn’t a failure of policies, it was a failure of you the voters to understand his policies : After a suffering a “shellacking” in the midterm elections, President Obama acknowledges what many have seen as his chief weakness – failing to sell the importance of several legislative milestones to the American people. “I think that’s a fair argument. I think that, over the course of two years we were so busy and so focused on getting a bunch of stuff done that, we stopped paying attention to the fact that leadership isn’t just legislation. That it’s a matter of persuading people. And giving them confidence and bringing them together. And setting a tone,” Mr. Obama told 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft in an exclusive interview set to air Sunday. “Making an argument that people can understand,” Mr. Obama continued, “I think that we haven’t always been successful at that. And I take personal responsibility for that. And it’s something that I’ve got to examine carefully … as I go forward.” Me dumb. Me no understand Obamacare. Me vote against Democrats.
Continue reading …And thousands of Republicans will replace them : The Great Shellacking of 2010 will throw more than 2,000 Democratic congressional staffers out of their jobs. And it will send thousands of gleeful Republican staffer wannabes into overdrive to get those resumes up to the Hill to fill those vacancies. Here’s a back-of-the-envelope look at the numbers: On the House side, 60 victorious GOP candidates are expected to hire more than 1,000 new aides in their personal offices. The staff allocations on the House committees have yet to be worked out, but they often run 2 to 1 for the majority party, so that could add up to a shift of maybe 800 or so jobs. Then there are the new House leadership staffs and so on. On the Senate side, the six new GOP senators are likely to hire around 150 personal office aides, and more Republican committee staff members will be sitting behind the senators at hearings. Democrats, with a sagging local economy – K Street isn’t hiring the way it used to, foundations and think tanks are pressed, colleges are hurting, corporations are frozen – may well be pounding the pavement for quite a while. Sadly for the newly unemployed MoveOn, ACORN, Media Matters for America, and MSNBC won’t have enough openings to absorb them. GOP aides went through the same routine in 2006 and 2008. That’s the way of Washington. If you hitch yourself to a politician you run that risk.
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