March 2010

Andy McCarthy: CIA says Gitmo Bar endangered its agents.

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Via NRO, the New York Daily News editorial page responds to this column by Maureen Dowd:

The Florida governor finds the news "terribly disturbing."

John Boehner's response to Obama's decision to allow some drilling off the Atlantic coast:

Color me surprised. Letterman invited a Tea Party activist onto his show, treated her kindly, did not seek to delegitimize her concerns at every turn, but nonetheless asked some tough questions. The result was a friendly, interesting interview:

From today's Jordan Times:

Lots of great submissions to the haiku contest. The judges inform me that they're also willing to accept haikus about politics in general, not just the EU or its haiku-loving president. So email wws [at] weeklystandard.com with your best haiku on Obama, the Democrats, or anything else and you may…

Last November, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison promised to step down after the March 2 gubernatorial GOP:

ABC and CBS nightly news do not report on death threat to Republican Eric Cantor.

The AP reports:

Bud Day is an American hero. He is a Medal of Honor winner, and shared a cell in the Hanoi Hilton with John McCain. He is now 85 years old. Following his endorsement of Charlie Crist, he had some unfortunate, racially-tinged remarks about Obama and Rubio.

The internals of this Gallup poll on health care aren't pretty for Democrats. Now 45 percent of adults believe the health care bill will make the health care system worse, compared to 40 percent who believed so in November.

Sarah Palin will host her first episode of "Real American Stories" Thursday April 1 at 10 p.m., with a line-up of celebrity guests and the story of a Medal of Honor recipient.

It does make me all warm and fuzzy:

Greg Sargent has Eric Cantor's response to news that an insane Obama donor threatened in a YouTube video to shoot Cantor and his family:

Obamacare will make it more difficult for young adults to buy their own insurance because restrictions on age-based pricing will shift the costs of insuring the old and infirm to the young and healthy:

California GOP Senate candidate Tom Campbell's support has begun to wane, as the onetime-frontrunner for the Republican nomination spends time explaining his record, including ties to Sami Al-Arian, convicted of providing support to the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and a series…

The former mayor of New York City, Democrat Ed Koch, has strong words for President Obama and senators from New York:

Sean Trende has an important piece at RealClearPolitics, which I won't excerpt because you really should read the whole thing.

Sarah Palin put out a statement last night marking the beginning of Passover:

Just before Barack Obama's inauguration, CNN asked Americans: "do you think the U.S. should continue to operate this [detention] facility [at Guantanamo Bay] or do you think the U.S. should close this facility and transfer the prisoners to other facilities?"

Charlie Savage's byline is familiar to those of us who closely follow coverage of legal issues governing and arising from the global war on terror.  His latest New York Times report nominally focuses on the Obama administration's deliberations regarding tough issues of law and war, but its most…

Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney for the ACLU's National Security Project, tells Fox News:

An FPI event featuring Bill Kristol, Reuel Gerecht, Elliott Abrams, Danielle Pletka, Bob Kagan and others:

Andy McCarthy's latest on the Gitmo Bar:

The good news:

Even though Iraqis turned out in droves to vote in parliamentary elections, and even though the Obama administration prepares to withdraw the last combat forces from Iraq this summer, opponents of the Iraq war amazingly continue to propagate the myth that the Bush administration led the country to…

The Times of London has a comprehensive rundown of the problems facing Human Rights Watch:

From the White House:

Last week in Washington, the Organization of American States (OAS) held an election for secretary general. As expected, incumbent José Miguel Insulza won reelection to a second five-year term.

Bill Roggio reports:

Over the weekend, which kicked off Congress's Easter recess, President Obama appointed Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, bypassing the Senate. This appointment happened immediately after all 41 Senate Republicans sent a letter to the president that asked specifically for Becker…

You’ve read Elliott Abrams in the new issue on the myths of the peace process. You’re alarmed by the Obama administration’s turn against Israel. But, with Passover and Easter upon us, you might want to reflect a little more about the meaning of Jewish history, Israel, and Judaism.

A few years ago, reading along in Katherine Graham’s soppy autobiography, I came across a sentence that mentioned that the author’s father, Eugene Meyer, had accumulated a fortune of 30—or was it 40?—million dollars while still a young man. I smacked my palm against my forehead. “Damn,” I…

In recent weeks, controversy has erupted over demands that the Obama administration release the names of lawyers working in the Justice Department who once represented or advocated for captured al Qaeda terrorists. But amid the debate, one name has thus far mostly escaped mention: Michael Ratner.…

After his 1851 coup d’état, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of the real Napoleon, pronounced himself Napoleon III. It was the rise to power of this great-man-wannabe that prompted the famous opening of Karl Marx’s Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis-Bonaparte: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great…

Not for several years has there been a reason even to spend a minute discussing new fiction programs on network television. CBS has turned over most of its time to forensic crime shows cast as sequels or spinoffs to its existing forensic crime shows. NBC was so incapable of following up its…

"Six months after the revelation of a secret nuclear enrichment site in Iran, international inspectors and Western intelligence agencies say they suspect that Tehran is preparing to build more sites in defiance of United Nations demands," the New York Times reports today.

The fiscal train wreck is happening sooner than we thought, a leading bond market trader says. Which is why investors are now telling the U.S. government it will have to pay more to borrow money. Not as much more as Greece, but enough to constitute a shot across the Obama bow by what we call the…

Here's Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU:

Passover is my favorite Jewish holiday, and I find the Haggadah an endlessly interesting text.

Good question from the Republican Study Committee: Why have President Obama's last two meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House been closed to the press?

In response to accusations from Democrats like Congressman Jim Clyburn and friends that the GOP is guilty of inciting violence, Republicans have pointed out that they've received threats too. It's a stupid game, but one Republicans have been forced to play. It's worth pointing out that Republicans,…

Over at the Washington Post, Jackson Diehl dives into an unnecessarily tense meeting between Israeli prime minister Netanyahu and President Obama.

In case you haven't seen it elsewhere, what could be the most important story in a long, long time:

Michelle Malkin tells the real story behind each of the recent accusations of supposed right-wing violence and vandalism:

From Ben Smith: 

Newsweek follows up on Tom Joscelyn and Bill Roggio's story on the Gitmo detainee who's returned to the battlefield after being released by the Obama administration:

The Democratic National Committee emails reporters a lot of stories everyday in an attempt to spin a narrative. The narrative of the week, of course, is the supposedly hateful and violent rhetoric espoused by Obamacare opponents. Paul Krugman's column today, like most days, can be stitched together…

This really isn’t a big surprise, as Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis hinted it was coming. But President Obama has given Craig Becker, a former top attorney for the SEIU and AFL-CIO, a recess appointment to the National Labor Relations Board.

Last week, Max Boot noted that Media Matters misquoted Gen. David Petraeus on Israel.

In Iowa City today, President Obama mocked Republicans' efforts to repeal his new health care law. He dared them to "Go for it," and asserted, "I welcome that fight. Because I don't believe the American people are going to put the insurance industry back in the driver's seat."

The Obama administration was never much bothered by the fact that a NATO ally, France, is selling offensive weapons to a NATO adversary, Russia. Never mind that Russia remains in clear violation of the French-brokered cease-fire to the 2008 war in Georgia – after all, if that doesn’t bother the…

You'll be glad to know that, as with the Obama presidency before it, we have now moved from the "everything will miraculously change" portion of the Obama health-care pitch to the "I never said everything would miraculously change" portion. This comes from his speech selling health-care reform in…

The AP reports:

Today marks the 85th birthday of the novelist and peafowl-enthusiast Flannery O’Connor. To properly celebrate the occasion, the mayor of Milledgeville, Georgia, along with others of the town’s dignitaries just proclaimed March 25th “Flannery O’Connor Day.” (A few decades ago, however, when O'Connor…

House GOP leadership No. 2 Rep. Eric Cantor's home office in Richmond was shot at Wednesday night. It was his campaign office, not his congressional office:

With the heightening crisis in the Catholic Church, THE WEEKLY STANDARD readers might recall a relevant article published in this magazine in July 2002 by Mary Eberstadt:

I read an account from the Politico last night of Tea Party protesters allegedly placing a coffin outside the St. Louis home of Rep. Russ Carnahan.

President Obama's narrow and partisan victory on health care reform caused a time warp. Suddenly, it is early 2009 all over again, with liberals trumpeting Obama as the herald of a new liberal era, with the media and some conservatives cautioning Republicans against opposing the president, and…

If Verizon weren't in the mix, I'd be tempted to say this was a rural dudes with heavy machinery tax.

Rasmussen:

The Gallup poll that suddenly found a 49 percent favorability rating for the heretofore disliked Obamacare plan made a well-timed talking point for Democrats, but today we get two more polls that point in the opposite direction, emphatically.

President Obama missed a host of opportunities to remedy Washington’s fever of polarization during the health care debate. Instead of forging a bipartisan coalition and ratcheting back the campaign-style rhetoric, he agreed to a one-party strategy and consistently demonized his opponents with over…

 America is evolving in a conservative direction. It’s now time for conservatives to catch up.  That is the conclusion one might draw from a series of data points most recently highlighted in a chapter tucked away in Joel Kotkin’s new book, The Next Hundred Million. (Full disclosure: Kotkin is an…

The messaging mavens are working overtime once again on behalf of Democrats, who decided the best way to commemorate their passing of a bill 62 percent of the American public objects to was to order in lobster in honor of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

A young Marine officer writes in response to Tom Joscelyn and Bill Roggio's story:

Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio is up with two 15-second ads responding to an attack ad released this afternoon by Florida Governor Charlie Crist.

CBS reports:

The model for lowballing the cost of a health care program to get it through Congress was none other than LBJ.  He did it to pass Medicare. It's a tactic that President Obama learned well. Without it, no ObamaCare. NPR recalled the LBJ story last year as the health care fight heated up.

This month's "Mad" magazine cover, below the fold:

I’ve read Mr. Wright’s article a half dozen times, and I’m struggling to understand his strange definition of what it means to be pro-Israel. It seems that to Mr. Wright the more loudly you criticize Israel, the more pro-Israel you can claim to be. By that standard, the United Nations is a bastion…

This is Obama selling another element of his health-care plan that will go into effect this year, yesterday at the signing ceremony:

Those unfriendly to Israel are taking full advantage of the current diplomatic strain in Israel-U.S. relations. Haaretz reports: 

Tom Joscelyn and Bill Roggio have the scoop: 

From the American Principles Project:

Do you want to know what our new health care system means? All you need to know is that the price of Tenet Healthcare Corporation’s stock, one of the largest for-profit hospital systems, was up 9 percent two days ago. So much for bending the cost curve.

One of the most dangerous aspects of today's nuclear debate is the deeply skewed ratio of fact versus opinion. Disarmament advocates, many with a poor understanding of nuclear game theory, operational concepts, even basic weapon capabilities, too often posture themselves as experts in a debate…

Yes, as Jeffrey Anderson acerbically points out at NRO, “Repeal Means Repeal.” Not partial repeal or repeal of pieces of Obamacare or some repeal and some acceptance and some tinkering with the legislation Obama just signed. Repeal. Of course, coincident with repeal Republicans will pass health…

In his classic Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt writes:

It's been fascinating to watch the debate between Michael Kinsley and Paul Krugman over inflation. Kinsley, like a lot of people, worries that all this government expansion will result in inflation somewhere down the line. Krugman dismissed Kinsley with his typical combination of arrogance and ill…

The latest attempt at self-parody from New York Times columnist Tom Friedman:

Obama, yesterday, touted the centerpiece of the health-care reforms that will go into effect this year. This is what he and Democrats are to run on for November. These are the advantages of the bill that are to bring about public opinion's swift and total 180:

Pressing for a world without nuclear weapons, the State Department has been flacking the president’s upcoming Nuclear Security Summit, scheduled for April 12–13: "President Obama has invited over 40 nations to participate, representing a diverse set of regions and various levels of nuclear…

Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson is preparing to run for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Russ Feingold, according to several sources familiar with Thompson's thinking. Thompson has spent the past several weeks taking the steps any candidate must take in order to run for office -- he's…

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is the leading Islamic extremist organization in North America. CAIR pretends to be a civil liberties group but has a long record of promoting radical ideology and of flimsy complaints of discrimination against Muslims. On March 17, CAIR unveiled a…

Now that President Obama has signed his health care bill into law, people are saying that the overhaul will do this or will do that. But given the pains to which the Democrats went to structuring the legislation so as to avoid presenting its true ($2 trillion-plus) ten-year costs to the American…

Stimulus watchdog Earl Devaney has taken to his blog to clear up some "misconceptions" about the stimulus bill— "misconceptions" that came to light, oh, about a year ago. No word on why he's using a Pony Express time table to respond to criticism or how that might reflect on his ability to…

Some additional context for today's bill signing. (See Fred Barnes's excellent post on Medicare, here.) Today, Barack Obama signed into law a new entitlement that, he says, will not only provide much-needed benefits to the American people but will put the country on a path to long-term fiscal…

The president has signed the health care reform bill. But does it apply to all Americans, as the rhetoric from the White House has suggested? In a statement to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Senator Tom Coburn says: "The American people will be appalled to learn the health care bill exempts leadership and…

This puff piece in the Washington Post sure makes the president look good. The article by Ceci Connolly suggests that while almost everyone ruled out a Democratic health care victory (including Pelosi and Reid), Obama's perseverance and sheer will saved America. Yet the article, clearly sourced by…

Well, it is done. Obama has signed the Senate bill into law. Americans now have a statutory right to health insurance, and in most if not all cases a right to have someone else pay for that insurance. I believe we have only the dimmest understanding of the full consequences of this legislation. It…

Poor Barack Obama can't catch a break with this guy around. All the historical import of this moment, all the lofty promises, and beautiful exhortations offered by the president.

Is it possible to garner a bad review for the opening of something so innocuous-sounding as the German-American Heritage Museum? If the reviewer is the Washington Post's Marc Fisher, anything is possible. (Fisher was the former German correspondent for the Post, before foreign correspondents became…

Dana Milbank takes the AIPAC crowd to task for the tepid response it gave Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech at this year’s policy conference. It is true, as Milbank states, that Clinton is a longtime friend of the state of Israel, and it is also true that compared with the many protesters…

Now, don't click before you guess!

Democrats claim the postponement happened because they don't want to miss the health-care bill signing or the White House party celebrating its passage.

Behold, the mindset of government officials who would perpetuate social ills to perpetuate their own funding. This is why government programs never die.

The White House has a slideshow up of Obama's furrowed brow in various positions along the path to health care.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a district judge has ordered Mohamedou Slahi – a known al Qaeda recruiter who worked for Osama bin Laden – freed from Guantanamo. The Journal’s account does not explain the judge’s reasoning and the decision was not immediately available online. But the…

One neglected issue in the controversy over the revelation that there are at least nine (or ten, if you count Attorney General Eric Holder) Justice Department lawyers who represented, or filed briefs in support of, Guantanamo detainees is whether those lawyers are complying with applicable ethics…

A lot of folks (particularly those on the left) figure that now that health-care reform has been passed, the public will get its government health-care entitlements and like them and stop bothering to strain at the government bit. Democrats hope that'll happen before November.

It took more than a year, but this ought to be interesting:

Everyone, and I mean everyone, agrees that the executive order on abortion Bart Stupak got President Obama to sign is a sham--a fig leaf not worth the paper it's printed on.

Forthcoming: "While the subsidies don't start until 2014, many of the new taxes and insurance mandates will take effect within six months. The first result will be turmoil in the insurance industry, as small insurers in particular find it impossible to make money under the new rules. A wave of…

New York governor David Paterson, beset by charges of witness tampering in the case of a close aide accused of assaulting an ex-girlfriend, has spoken of legalizing ultimate fighting as a revenue raiser to help close the state’s $8 billion plus budget gap. But New Yorkers looking for brawling…

Last Thursday, Athens was paralyzed by rioters protesting the government’s austerity program, which is needed to keep the Greek nation solvent. The protesters chanted “No sacrifice” and “Higher pay.”That same day, near Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority honored Dalal Mughrabi on what would have…

A stranger moment in politics has seldom been seen. A vast expansion of government that affects every one of the country’s 300-plus million inhabitants may be passed by a hair against fierce and fiercely repeated public opposition by a Congress that no longer speaks for its voters—most of whose…

Contact!

For anyone who feared that the Obama administration would abandon efforts to control illegal drugs, the president’s first year in office has been on balance reassuring.

In 2008, John McCain and Sarah Palin not only had to run against Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and the Democrats’ usual allies in the news media, they faced an onslaught from entertainment media as well. Everyone remembers Saturday Night Live’s skewering portrayals of Palin and McCain and President…

I met Michael Cromartie in 1985 at Windy Gap, a Christian retreat in North Carolina. As a recent convert, I was there to talk about the only religious subject about which I knew anything: how I happened to become a Christian in my 30s after having been blasé about religion for years. Mike was way…

You’re a California Republican and, this being an election year, anxiety is mounting. Your state endures unspeakable economic crises, mostly caused by the union-Democratic axis of Sacramento. Unemployment numbers are higher than the national average, and you’re hearing financial experts declare…

Bart Stupak said at his press conference this afternoon that an executive order signed by President Obama will accomplish what his amendment would have accomplished:

The GOP is now offering its motion to recommit: the Stupak-Pitts amendment which passed the House 240 to 194 in November to ban abortion-funding. If it passes, the bill will have to go back to the Senate for approval, which means at least 25 Democrats will flip-flop on their previous vote on Stupak.

Sometime in the next hour, the House of Representatives of the United States of America will pass into law a health care reform that the people they represent oppose. In so doing, they will complete the decades-long project of American liberals to create an American welfare state along the lines…

Bart Stupak, pro-life Democrat who was the leader of a bloc of hold-outs, just held a press conference announcing a deal he made with the White House to address his abortion concerns in an Executive Order. He announced that "8 or 9" pro-life Democrats will vote for health-care reform now, which…

In 2005, Syria's Ba'athist dictatorship was accused of supporting the assainination of Rafik Hariri, who was then the prime minister of Lebanon. Hariri's death sparked an internal anti-Syrian uprising in Lebanon--the Cedar revolution--which was both supported vocally by the Bush administration and…

Last year President Barack Obama filled out his NCAA tournament bracket and predicted (as many did) that North Carolina would take the whole thing. He was right. And he was very popular at the time, too, I might add. This year the president's approval numbers have tanked—he's somewhere around 46…

Coming, as it does, after Obama's pep rally today, this announcement from an important swing Democrat is very interesting. Zack Space is afraid of taxes squeezing the middle class in the Senate versions of the bill:

Obama arrived in the visitors' center under the U.S. Capitol for a meeting with the House Democratic Caucus this afternoon that had the definite feel of a pep rally before a big game.

I just got back from a Tea Party protest and an anti-war protest (And, they think the righties are the unreasonable ones???), so I'm catching up on healthcare news.

From the office of Senator Mitch McConnell: 

There are reports that Bart Stupak and other pro-life Democrats are meeting with Nancy Pelosi. Speaker Pelosi has said that they are discussing a compromise that would use an executive order to allay the concerns of pro-life Democrats. The National Right to Life Committee just put out a release…

During today's House Rules Committee meeting on the health care, Chairwoman Louise Slaughter diverted discussion of the health care bill into an attack on Paul Ryan's roadmap.

The boss has a new post up at Washington Post's Post Partisan blog.

By all accounts Bart Stupak has been pushing for an ironclad guarantee that the bill would only pass on the condition that his amendment is included. Kathryn Lopez hears what I hear:

The Hill reports that Nancy Pelosi is working on a deal with pro-life Democrats to add Bart Stupak's amendment to the health care bill with an "enrollment corrections bill." That means she doesn't have the votes without Stupak and his band of brothers (and sisters).

Small groups, gathered in meeting rooms scattered around the world and focused on a single issue, can affect the way we live, at least now and perhaps for a long time. Consider only this week’s conclaves.

If the first day's output is any indication, Kausfiles fans can look forward to much more prolific blogging thanks to Mickey Kaus's decision to challenge Barbara Boxer in California's Democratic primary.

Democrats waste time -- don't want to talk health care -- on the House floor: 

From Greg Sargent:

Allen Boyd of Florida, a Blue Dog facing a primary challenge from an Obamacare supporter, will flip his vote from "no" to "yes." He is the fifth representative to flip in Pelosi's favor. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania will remain a "no."

The health care debate is beginning to resemble trench warfare. You have two camps -- the Yeses and the Nos. They spend most of their time launching artillery attacks on the opposing position. Every so often, though, a soldier traverses No Man's Land as he rushes to join the other side.

A friend of TWS writes:

Everything is going according to plan.  Well, almost everything.

No matter how this weekend's vote turns out, we're going to need to take a break from health care reform. Like government spending, health care has crowded out the market for political discussion. Glance at the news, and you would have no way of knowing that other things are happening.

The whole House Democratic Caucus is headed to the White House for a face-to-face with the man himself this weekend:

Update: Here is the Democrat denial on this memo, and the Politico withdrawal notice. Let's hope someone wasn't freelancing fake memos around the Hill. Or worse, had some direction to do so. It would be ever so unhelpful if, in highlighting Dems' budget tricks, Republicans get caught in a…

John Boccieri becomes the fourth Democrat who voted against the health care bill in November to flip his vote to "yes". He joins Betsy Markey, Bart Gordon, and Dennis Kucinich. I expect Scott Murphy of New York to become the fifth soon. Other potential flippers from "no" to "yes" include Suzanne…

Today President Obama traveled to George Mason University in northern Virginia for a pre-vote health care reform rally. You can read his remarks here. If you're too busy to click on the link, don't worry. You've heard them before.

Sen. Tom Coburn, whose cranky floor speeches and Democrats-may-care attitude have charmed conservatives for years, laid down the gauntlet yesterday, telling Democrats that their special deals for health-care votes would be revealed and publicized when he found them.

Rep. John Boccieri announced he's flipping to Yes today. Let's hope he's enjoyed his time in Washington -- it's probably going to end pretty soon! Boccieri, a freshman, is the first Democratic representative his district has elected since the 1950s. The district voted for McCain. Better visit all…

Nancy Pelosi and Louise Slaughter have come up with a parliamentary maneuver -- "deem and pass" -- reeking of evasiveness and trickery that Democratic members are going to have to embrace. But it gets better! The point of "deem and pass" is to allow representatives to vote directly only on the…

Thank you, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter.

“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday about the state of the U.S.-Israeli relationship, demanding that Israel take immediate steps to show it is interested in renewing efforts to achieve a Middle East peace agreement.

So, let’s get this straight: On a visit to Israel by Vice President Biden, a lower-level, Israeli government agency announces its intent to build more housing units in East Jerusalem and the Obama administration goes nuclear, condemning the announcement as though it was a violation of some sacred…

If there are any wavering pro-life Democrats in this late hour who need to be persuaded about how awful the Senate health care bill is, they should read two memos that make it clear how the Senate bill would allow community health care centers to directly fund abortions with federal money. The…

Alexi Giannoulias is no stranger to controversial business relationships: As chief loan officer at his family’s Broadway Bank, the Illinois Democrat running for President Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat authorized loans to convicted organized crime leaders like Michael “Jaws” Giorango (a pimp and…

If there are any wavering pro-life Democrats in this late hour that need to be persuaded about how bad the Senate bill is from a pro-life perspective, they should read two devastating memos that explain how the Senate bill would allow community health care centers to directly fund abortions. The…

Fred Barnes: The Health-Care Wars Are Only Beginning. 

The CBO’s most recent analysis is out, and it’s not likely to convince wavering House Democrats to jump to the Obamacare side of the fence.  Even the Democrats are granting that the latest version of their proposed health care overhaul would cost $69 billion more than the previous version. …

E.J. Dionne is pretty excited that NETWORK, an organization of Catholic nuns, supports the Senate health care bill and says it doesn't use federal dollars to pay for abortions. That claim isn't true (more on that soon), but the endorsement is supposed to give Democrats cover to vote for the bill.…

The Fort Collins Coloradoan:

A perspicacious reader writes:

Let's set the table. You can read the reconciliation text here. The preliminary CBO analysis is here.

Rep. Stephen Lynch has just released the following statement:

As MKH notes below, Obama has postponed his Asia trip until June. Liberals are excited; surely Obama wouldn't have canceled the trip unless he was assured the bill would pass. I mean, it's not like he's been embarrassed by a last-minute travel decision before ... 

Sen. Kent Conrad, speaking to Roll Call and Fox, says the Senate will likely be unable to pass unchanged the reconciliation bill the House passes, even if the House can pass it:

In order to obtain a friendly CBO score, the Democrats lowered the threshold at which health insurance plans will be subject to the excise tax. That threshold is now pegged at inflation, which means more and more plans will be subject to bracket creep over time.

In his press conference today, the first held in the Rose Garden, Robert Gibbs announced that Obama will push off his trip to Indonesia and Australia to June so that he can be around for the health-care reform vote, expected to happen Sunday.

From Hotline:

House majority leader Steny Hoyer has informed his colleagues of the CBO health bill score. Politico reports: 

The link to the full, new CBO score is, here (PDF).

Historian Robert Darnton on early modern blogs:

More bad news for Democrats in the latest Pew survey. Forty-eight percent oppose the health bill, 38 percent approve. Obama's job approval is down to 46 percent, with 43 percent disapproval. A majority says health care costs will increase despite passage of health care reform. Ask voters what they…

The Democrats' race to pass health care reform is getting exhausting. It's not only the constant rush of developments to the story. The poor undecided congressmen are also tuckered out:

A new Resurgent Republic poll released today finds a host of opportunities for Republicans among this fast growing group of Americans.

If the Democrats’ health care bill were a chemical, the Environmental Protection Agency might label it as a toxic substance lethal to incumbents.  More wavering House lawmakers are realizing this chilling electoral reality as the showdown vote approaches in the next several days.

Obamacare supporters like E.J. Dionne and Matthew Yglesias are pointing to the assertions made by the head of the Catholic Health Association and NETWORK, an organization of Catholic nuns, as evidence that the Senate bill does not provide federal funds for abortions. "NETWORK" is a self-described…

Lee Smith: A Middle East Without American Influence? That's the logical outcome of the Obama administration's current policies.

Fox News Channel's Bret Baier interviewed President Obama today. It wasn't what you'd call a friendly encounter. Baier, concerned that the president was filibustering, repeatedly interrupted the chief executive. Obama quickly grew frustrated. Before long, the look on his face suggested he was…

Yossi Klein Halevi comments from Jerusalem on "The Crisis" in the liberal New Republic. He ends with a serious charge: "[W]hat is clear today in Jerusalem is that Obama's recklessness is endangering Israeli--and Palestinian--lives. As I listen to police sirens outside my window, Obama's political…

Via Matthew Milliner's terrific post yesterday, I came across a seven-part series about the relationship between beauty and conservatism, Art and Beauty Against the Politicized Aesthetic, by the young scholar and poet James Matthew Wilson. He studied under the late Thomist scholar Ralph McInerny,…

I have no idea what Firedoglake means, but I do know it's an influential left-wing website that hosts one of the better health care reform whip counts. As Byron York reports:

According to Thomas Peters, Nancy Pelosi's emergency meeting this morning with the female Democratic House members was called after she met with Bart Stupak yesterday, and Stupak "didn't cave to her demands." There's been chatter on Capitol Hill today that Pelosi excluded pro-life women from a…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained a copy of the text of a letter written by conservative leader Gary Bauer to President Obama, challenging the Obama administration’s recent rhetorical assault on Israel. Bauer is circulating the letter to other conservative leaders as signatories, and apparently is…

A friend of TWS passes along this letter that Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt wrote to his congressman, Steny Hoyer:

Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the GOP deputy whip, just held a conference call with bloggers. Here's what he said. The Republicans estimate that Pelosi has 205 Yes votes, while there are 205 No votes. That leaves about 21 votes up for grabs. Pelosi can lose 37 Democrats and still pass…

Unlike Attorney General Eric Holder, Stanley McChrystal is no fool. He knows that there is a more-than-”infinitesimal” chance Osama bin Laden could be captured alive, and he knows how valuable it would be if one could get him to talk (or even how valuable it would be if his subordinates thought he…

As expected, Dennis "Paragon of Principle" Kucinich became the first No vote to say he'll vote Yes on the Senate health care bill. Kucinich previously called the legislation an "insurance industry giveaway." But then it's never too late to change your mind.

This comes from the New England Journal of Medicine* (Correction/clarification below), writing about the Medicus Firm Physician Survey. Here are a few highlights:

Defying all odds, former Detroit City Councilwoman and wife of Rep. John Conyers became even more loathsome this week when it was announced she would be using a taxpayer-funded lawyer to overturn a guilty plea she herself made to cut a deal with the FBI.

A couple of notable excerpts from General Petraeus's testimony yesterday.

The House Democratic leadership's flirtation with the Slaughter Rule, under which the House would "deem" the Senate bill passed while voting on the reconciliation package, has Republicans on the attack. Roll Call says Pelosi, Hoyer, and Clyburn are "tied in knots" as they search for vote number 216.

Must reading this morning in the Washington Post:

The New York Times writes, “For weeks, Democrats...were taking a pounding in their districts.” But now “pharmaceutical companies [have] made a $12 million investment for a final advertising push.” The Times elaborates: “The new money from Pharma, the association of drug makers, as well as…

From the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll:

Democratic leaders in the House are apparently moving towards the "Slaughter Solution" of avoiding a direct vote on the health care legislation and instead passing the Senate health care bill by voting to "deem" it passed. As they do so, they keep reassuring the media--and each other--that the…

Today on Capitol Hill, Attorney General Eric Holder essentially said that Osama bin Laden should have the same rights afforded to Charles Manson:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio is holding a press conference at 10 a.m. tomorrow to announce his vote on the health care bill. Kucinich voted "no" on the House bill in November. So it seems very likely that he's going to flip his vote to "yes"--Kucinich wouldn't rebuke Obama so publicly, would he?

Rep. Michael Burgess couldn't believe his ears. He'd just been read President Obama's words in Strongville, Ohio, yesterday. At a campaign-style rally, the president had said that "We’ve ended up with a proposal that incorporates the best ideas from Democrats and Republicans."

Let's say you're a Democratic congressman from a swing district. Your constituency actually went for McCain in 2008 while sending you back to Washington on a split ticket. You had some rowdy town hall meetings during the 2009 August recess and decided to vote No on the House health care bill last…

Barack Obama went to Ohio yesterday "because of Natoma," he said. That would be Natoma Canfield, who was diagnosed with leukemia on Saturday and faces terribly high health care costs. The president told the Strongsville crowd: "She is racked with worry not only about her illness but about the costs…

From Republican Leader John Boehner's blog:

Earlier this week Nate Silver expressed "cautious optimism" that the House would "narrowly" pass the Senate bill. Silver based his prediction on the assumption that Stupak will only lead five Democrats (including himself) and Republican Joe Cao to switch their votes from "yes" to "no" because the…

The Tea Party has come to Washington to protest the Democratic health care bill.

Now this is what you call bipartisanship. Hopefully all of those Democrats criticizing the Obama administration's hostility toward Israel don't instinctually flip once they see Palin echoing their words:

From James Clyburn himself, whose job it is to count the votes Pelosi says she has:

The Hill reports that a number of Democrats think Hillary Clinton's tongue-lashing of Netanyahu is irresponsible:

As a lifelong Duke fan, I sympathize with Paul's position, but I also understand the importance of a basketball rivalry, especially during March.

Though he did not win a single state, Ross Perot garnered almost 20 percent of the national presidential vote in 1992, dooming President George H.W. Bush's reelection campaign. Two years later, Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, Frank Luntz, and other architects of the Republican Revolution found a way to…

"We need courage," President Obama said in Ohio yesterday, imploring Congressional Democrats to pass his health care bill.

The resolution being considered for introduction today reads, in part:

Rep. Dan Maffei of Syracuse voted for the House health-care bill, but was none too fond of the Senate bill as recently as March 8:

In a new Rasmussen poll, California senator Barbara Boxer narrowly leads GOP challengers Carly Fiorina and Chuck Devore 46% to 40%. Boxer leads Republican Tom Campbell, who has better name recognition but has come under fire for his association with Sami al-Arian, just 43% to 41%. The fact that…

The car’s braking system, which cuts power to the engine when the brake pedal is moderately depressed, “was working as designed and would have easily stopped the vehicle,” Mr. Michels said.

Last night, the first debate was held in the special election to fill Hawaii Democratic Congressman Neil Abercrombie's vacant seat. Republican Charles Djou, a Honolulu councilman, has a real shot to win. Bush garnered 47% of the votes in this district, and there are two Democrats who may split the…

The Foreign Policy Initiative has released "Foreign Policy 2010," a compilation of analysis and commentary on critical foreign policy and national security issues for use by members of Congress and congressional candidates. Readers of THE WEEKLY STANDARD will recognize many of the authors…

Paul Ryan: This entire process has been a disgrace.

President Obama said at his speech today in Ohio:

John McCain and Joe Lieberman took to the Senate floor to respond to the Obama administration's recent outrage toward Israel. (Jen Rubin provides analysis here.) Here's the video exchange: 

Politico reports:

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is losing to former congressman Tom Campbell in the race to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer of California. What she isn't losing is the ad war. Fiorina enlisted consultant Fred Davis, creator of John McCain's famous 2008 "Celebrity" ad, to zing her opponents…

Actor Peter Graves, aka Jim Phelps of Mission Impossible, died yesterday of natural causes at the age of 83.

From ABC:

Robert Gibbs and Karl Rove ran into each other in the Fox News greenroom yesterday (yes, that's Bill Kristol in the background):

While many debate the work that current Justice Department attorneys previously did for Guantánamo Bay detainees, the detainees’ current lawyers continue to fight for their release—including, in one case, their release into the United States in violation of federal immigration law. The Supreme…

Can President Obama flip Dennis Kucinich's vote on the health care bill from "no" to "yes"? Today Kucinich is flying with the president aboard Air Force One en route to the liberal Ohio congressman's district, where Obama will deliver his stump speech for the Democratic health care overhaul. 

If you're like me, you've been waiting months to read Michael Lewis's The Big Short, which comes out tomorrow. To whet the appetite, 60 Minutes had a two-part preview of the book on last night's show.

President Obama travels to Ohio today to hold another campaign-style rally for health care reform.

Tom Joscelyn and Debra Burlingame have a must-read piece in today's Wall Street Journal on Gitmo lawyers who provided propaganda to detainees:

There weren’t any before Mr. Biden’s visit to Israel and Mrs. Clinton's rolling-pin harangue, and there aren’t going to be any when George Mitchell shows up this week to start his “proximity talks,” because the talking Palestinians—that is, as opposed to the doing Palestinians, either of the…

There was a hubbub recently when Tilikum, a resident of Orlando’s SeaWorld theme park, attacked and killed one of his trainers, 40-year-old Dawn Brancheau. People were surprised that a killer whale would kill. But then, killer whales have been misunderstood for a long time. 

The Irish bard translates a Scots epic.

At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee last fall, Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to produce a list of Department of Justice employees who had been involved in representing detainees. Holder said he’d consider the request.

From Saturday's Washington Post: "Spotted: ... Stevie Wonder at Blues Alley on Thursday night. He stopped in to see saxophonist Najee and jumped onstage for two songs."

Boucher voted "no" in November, but had been listed as undecided. This report makes his position seem pretty clear:

The Hill reports:

Remember him? The guy who won Ted Kennedy's Senate seat by running explicitly against Obamacare?

Now we know. Two million of the “good jobs” America needs to create in the next five years are to come from doubling American exports. So President Obama promised Thursday. We are to have a “National Export Initiative,” an “export promotion cabinet” consisting of representatives of several federal…

Pelosi to break transparency pledge to put health care bill online for 72 hours -- again.

Politico reports:

Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the USCCB is sounding the alarm to vote against the health care bill. "It looks like the House leadership's just going to try to jam this bill through the House without fixing…

If you're wondering which members of Congress are the most important to contact about Obamacare, Andy Wickersham and I have put together our list -- along with indicating how red or blue their districts are, and whether or not they voted for the Stupak Amendment (to preserve longstanding…

The odds were always against President Obama's deficit commission. The 18-member panel, co-chaired by former Republican senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming and former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles of North Carolina, is due to release a report in December that will "put forward proposals to…

Bart Stupak tells National Review's Robert Costa that the House Democratic leadership is "ignoring" him. The good news: Stupak affirms he won't cave in and is a "definite 'no' vote" because Democratic leaders have made it clear the abortion language won't be fixed.

From Rachel Maddow's show last night, here's a jaw-dropper from the woman who brought you, "We have to pass the bill, so you can find out what's in it." As I keep saying, the Democratic message mavens are working overtime, apparently to woo the all-important swing vote in Williamsburg to health…

From Rachel Maddow's show last night, here's a jaw-dropper from the woman who brought you, "We have to pass the bill, so you can find out what's in it." As I keep saying, the Democratic message mavens are working overtime, apparently to woo the all-important swing vote in Williamsburg to health…

The AP had a great story this week about the growing number of self-identified "tea" activists in China. The article describes how activists, dissidents and even ordinary Chinese citizens often have their first encounter with state security when they are invited to "have a cup of tea" with the…

If you listen beyond the media hysteria and Congressional flagellation of Toyota, you might just hear an intriguing buzz from folks involved in "sudden acceleration" cases of the past, many of which turned out to be bogus.

Ed Morrissey has the video of Bart Stupak on Fox News last night. "We're not going to accept this 'trust me, we'll fix it later,'" Stupak says. "There has to be something more." Stupak says that Democrats have been told they'll be given seven days to look at final legislative text, which would seem…

The fight for the GOP nomination to replace retiring U.S. senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky is one of the most interesting campaigns in the land. The establishment candidate, Kentucky secretary of state Trey Grayson, finds himself trailing insurgent eye doctor Rand Paul, son of libertarian gadfly…

NYT: "The [Indonesia] trip is unusual, experts say, in that there is no economic summit or other multinational gathering for the president to attend."

President Obama has delayed his upcoming trip to the Pacific in order to pressure wavering House Democrats to back his health care reform. Obama was originally supposed to depart next Thursday, March 18. Now he'll leave Sunday the 21st. But that is still five days earlier than the Democrats'…

From a USA Today editorial: "The fact is that many of those whom Liz Cheney is quick to brand as terrorists have been released from Guantanamo — including about 530 by the Bush administration, which admitted many posed no long-term threat."

Washington, D.C.'s Metro remains a great manifestation of liberalism today. Although it was created at the zenith of the Great Society, and although its union workforce gains overly generous pensions and maintains ridiculous job security, it is Metro's management of its passengers—its attempt to…

Obamacare supporters thought they may have caught a break when Rep. Dale Kildee of Michigan indicated he would vote for the Senate bill and thinks it adequately bans abortion funding. "Kildee Breaks From Stupak Over Senate Abortion Language," is how Roll Call put it. Kildee was on GOP whip Eric…

Obama hits all time low in Gallup poll.

Ed Whelan flags a report that trial lawyer John J. McConnell, who was nominated by the president to a district judgeship in Rhode Island, donated nearly $700,000 in the past 20 years to various Democrats. Whelan writes that McConnell's "poor rating" by the ABA "ought to set off alarm bells."

Nancy Pelosi does not have the 216 votes necessary to pass the Senate health care bill. She's planning to go ahead without the votes of the Stupak 12. Today the Senate parliamentarian ruled the Senate bill must become law before "fixes" can be made via the parliamentary tactic known as…

The AP reports:

This is big, big news (if true):

It may have been his hardest vote yet. When he walked onto the House floor on March 10, John Campbell, Republican of California, wasn't sure how he'd vote on Dennis Kucinich's resolution to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. He had agonized over the decision all week. In his view, the…

The Virginia House of Delegates passed a law banning a federal mandate for health insurance in the state, should Congress pass a law containing such a requirement.The House of Delegates was the second, and easier, obstacle for the bill after the Democrat-controlled Virginia Senate passed the bill…

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, once the largest exporter of arms in the world, there's been a growing international choir of peace-minded activists determined to halt the import/export of weapons. Now that America has taken center stage as the new chief arms dealer, that chorus has…

Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz), tells the New York Times that Holder's explanation that he inadvertently failed to disclose the brief in support of Jose Padilla “strained credulity.”

The House just passed a resolution (see full text below the fold) on a 360 to 2 vote to conduct an investigation into Eric Massa's alleged physical sexual harassment of congressional staffers and an intern. The Washington Post reported a Pelosi aide was informed of Massa's misconduct back in…

As Iraqi election officials tally the votes from Sunday’s parliamentary elections, the Obama administration faces some difficult choices in the weeks and months ahead.  Despite the apparent success of the election and the limited violence associated with it, there is the potential for uncertainty…

New York State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz introduced a bill on Friday that would prohibit the use of salt in making foods at restaurants. Says the bill:

In a scenario with shades of '06, Democrats and Republicans alike are trying to show their mettle on ethics reform after a House Ethics Committee revealed connections between contributions made by defense firms to a group of  seven Congressmen (5 Dems, 2 GOP) on a Pentagon subcommittee and the…

In health care speech number 37, President Obama told his audience in St. Louis, Missouri, yesterday that "the time for talk is over." He's said this before, of course, and it wasn't any truer then than it is now. The talking won't stop until the bill is passed -- and even then, the talking won't…

In response to the news that AG Eric Holder failed to disclose a brief he signed in support of detainee Jose Padilla, Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, released this statement:

Pew Research released a new analysis showing increasing concern among Americans about the federal budget deficit in the past six months. Those citing red ink as the “most important problem” reached the highest level in twenty years and nearly doubled, (from 6% in August of 2009 to 11% in January of…

In his second health-care rally of the week, at a high school gymnasium on the outskirts of St. Louis, President Obama drew 500 people, not all of them supporters.  Far from providing evidence of a great and sudden wellspring of public support for the president's proposed health-care overhaul, this…

Michael Kinsley on inflation in the new Atlantic:

When legislative leaders count votes before a bill comes to the floor they call it a “whip check.”  It’s an old English phrase referring to those who kept the dogs in line during a foxhunt.

Former chief of staff to a House Democrat was informed of Massa's history of sexual assault in 2006.

The Washington Post reports that the House Ethics committee will close its ethics investigation into Eric Massa:

Paul Ryan's Roadmap for America's Future would drastically overhaul the American welfare state in a free-market direction. The Congressional Budget Office says it would solve the entitlements crisis through a series of changes to Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. The Roadmap also includes…

Bill Burck and Dana Perino break news today: Eric Holder failed to disclose that he signed onto a brief in support of Jose Padilla in a 2004 Supreme Court case:

House Democrats are defending huge amounts of territory in this year's midterm election. The latest Cook report says Democrats have 53 seats that rate as "Lean" or "Tossup," while Republicans only have six. Nevertheless, today the DCCC announced its "Red to Blue" program targeting 13 Republican…

If this doesn't reassure Democrats in the House, I guess Van Hollen can just pass along Obama's heartening message: "The difference is me."

The Daily Caller's Mike Colapietro has written a head-to-toe profile (with various stops along the way) of "Manhattan Madam" Kristin Davis, made famous by the Eliot Spitzer scandal. She is now running for governor of New York. A few highlights:

Congress Daily reports today that the Senate may try to find a way to pass the Senate bill without a final House vote. Sounds improbable, but Rube Goldberg would be proud.

In the above 2008 video of a Human Rights Watch panel, lawyer Jennifer Daskal says that the U.S. interrogators had done "things the United States has called war crimes when carried out against Americans."

Over at The Cable, Josh Rogin reports that the Obama administration's strategic engagement with China seems to have less to do with broad foreign policy objectives than the more narrow issue of arms sales to Taiwan.

You may have enjoyed the New York Times headline "Ex-Congressman Describes Tickle Fights With Aides" too much to observe that a word that begins with D is never used to describe Massa. He is referred to as

With everyone from the New York Times to Republican establishment lawyers and Lindsey Graham suggesting the Gitmo lawyers are proud heirs to the tradition of John Adams, it's worth recalling that three lawyers allegedly showed photos of CIA officers to 9/11 plotters -- and may have broken the law…

My native Virginia does extremely well in the latest Forbes rankings of the nation's wealthiest counties. As the Washington Examiner points out, 12 of Forbes's 25 most prosperous counties are in the Washington Metro area. Who says public service doesn't pay?

Howard Dean has resurrected his "Hit the Bat" gimmick in an effort to raise money to "fight for a public option" in the healthcare bill.It looks hokey now, but it's worth remembering that "Hit the Bat" was the first serious political fund-raising success on the internet. By September of 2003, Dean…

Rep. Joe Donnelly, in an interview with his home paper, says he'd rather take the health-care bill piece by piece, and confirms he is a Stupak Democrat:

With everyone from the New York Times to Republican establishment lawyers and Lindsey Graham saying that the Gitmo lawyers are proud heirs to the tradition of John Adams, it's worth recalling that three lawyers allegedly showed photos of CIA officers to 9/11 plotters--and may have broken the law.…

Last week, the Albanian Muslims of Kosovo, who have demonstrated their aversion to radical Islam in a series of recent clashes with extremist infiltrators, took another  significant step toward ridding their new republic of Muslim fanatics.  A self-proclaimed imam, Xhemajl Duka, who had come to…

For those of you familiar with The Two Coreys, didn't you think Corey Feldman would have been the one to die of an overdose? Of course if you followed the eponymous reality series on AE, it soon became clear Corey Haim was the one with the problems.

Wow, the message mavens have been working overtime in Democratic leadership this week.

The Florida Republican, now leading primary challenger and current governor Charlie Crist by 32 in one poll, released his first TV ad today. He sounded a common theme, saying "Washington is broken." Unlike Obama, he believes it's broken because it can't stop spending money, not because it can't…

Scott Brown to write his memoirs.

The election of Barack Obama was supposed to usher in a New New Deal. James Carville gushed that Democrats would rule for 40 years. But Obama has had great difficulty enacting his agenda, mainly because the public is opposed to it. Health care reform is in trouble and cap and trade is dead. The…

John Schwartz of the New York Times has published a piece on the reaction of some conservatives to an ad by Keep America Safe asking for the DOJ to identify government lawyers who previously represented or advocated on behalf of terrorists. The Times, of course, was eager to highlight dissent…

President Obama takes his insurance-company-bashing road show to St. Louis today. He will hold a campaign-style event at St. Charles High School, where he'll urge the public to rally behind him and his team of bounty hunters.

For your eyes and ears:

In a great post at NRO, Andy McCarthy corrects Lindsey Graham.

Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak said yesterday at a townhall in his home state, "I'm more optimistic than I was a week ago" that a deal could be reached to pass a health care bill that bans public funding of abortion. Some speculated that this meant Stupak was ready to cave. "Obviously they don’t…

Some of the most exciting races of the 2010 election cycle are taking place in the states. California, Texas, New York, and Ohio all feature important statewide races that will have repercussions in 2012 and beyond. A Republican victory in any one of these states is certain to launch a new GOP…

In response to Bill Kristol's latest post, lawyer Dan Gentges of Milwaukee writes an email with the subject line "Lawyers in Love (with themselves)":

Andy McCarthy explains "Why the al Qaeda 7 Matter."

Reliable sources on Capitol Hill say the House ethics report on Eric Massa will be damning. Obamacare opponents, like Glenn Beck, might want to think twice before indulging Massa and letting this Democratic creep become the posterboy of Obamacare opposition.

The Guardian's Jon Ronson profiles Paul Davies, the Arizona State Univerity scientist who chairs the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Post-Detection Task Force. SETI, the brainchild of Frank Drake and Carl Sagan, has been active for almost 50 years. So far, nothing.

The Guardian's Jon Ronson profiles Paul Davies, the Arizona State Univerity scientist who chairs the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Post-Detection Task Force. SETI, the brainchild of Frank Drake and Carl Sagan, has been active for almost 50 years. So far, nothing.

Yesterday, it was naked shower confrontations between Congressmen.

I'm not a lawyer (though a few of my best friends are). But I gather there's an old legal dictum that goes: If you can't argue the facts, argue the law. If you can't argue the law, argue the facts. If you can't argue the law or the facts, blow smoke.

In the umpteenth liberal column urging the president to "get tough" and "fight back" and "pass the damn bill," Richard Cohen writes: "What's wrong with the old belief -- a virtual childhood mantra -- that 'majority rules'?"

With all eyes on pro-life Democrat Bart Stupak of Michigan and the 12 so-called Stupak Dems who he says will vote 'no' on health-care reform without language that would ban federal funding of abortion, Stupak seemed to strike a sunnier note late yesterday:

The Sewall-Belmont house is one of the hottest places in the city for rich D.C. insiders to canoodle and raise cash at $1000-a-plate dinners, and — good news!—it's funded with your tax dollars. The funds can be funneled to Sewall-Belmont because it's also a museum of women's history and rights, and…

Politics is always a mixture of partisanship and principle. Politicians need to organize in parties and get more votes than the opposition to realize their principles. Given this reality, it is hardly surprising that parties will use whatever legal tactics work in order to gain electoral advantage.…

Don't miss contributing editor David Gelernter's thoughts on the future of the Internet. A lot is going on in his 35-paragraph essay, but I was struck by this observation in particular:

Alabama Democrat Artur Davis will come back from the campaign trail to vote against health care.

It wasn't until mid-December that Scott Brown's campaign team knew for certain they had a chance. An internal poll showed intense interest in the race to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. And the more interested a voter was, the more likely he was to support Scott Brown. The campaign then made the…

I can't be the only person in America who read the headline "Funkhouser has Harsh Words for Kansas City Park Board" and immediately thought they were talking about Marty Funkhouser from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Played by Bob Einstein, Funkhouser, Susie Essman's Susie Greene, and J.B. Smoove's Leon…

Check out Bryan Curtis's interesting profile of Christopher Michel, the 28-year-old former speechwriter who is collaborating with President Bush on the latter's forthcoming Decision Points. One false note:

Why the hysterical reaction to the Keep America Safe Internet ad asking why Eric Holder wouldn't release the names of lawyers now at the Justice Department who had done pro bono legal work for al Qaeda terrorists? Why the desperate effort to find establishment Republican lawyers to legitimize the…

Choice words: Obama official calls Obamacare vote "the last helicopter out of Saigon."

Via Jay Cost, Pennsylvania Democrat Kathy Dahlkemper will switch her vote from "yes" to "no" on health care because of the Senate bill's provisions to spend taxpayer money on abortions:

Last week, President Obama opined that health care "easily lends itself to demagoguery and political gamesmanship, and misrepresentation and misunderstanding."  No one has done more to demonstrate the truth of this assertion than the president himself. In light of such concerns, the fairest thing…

On the one hand, Austrians are rightfully proud that one of their own is coming home with an Academy Award. Last night, Christoph Waltz took home the best supporting actor Oscar for his truly impressive performance in Quentin Tarentino's Inglourious Basterds. On the other hand, Waltz portrayed the…

On Friday, David Brooks wrote a column likening the Tea Partiers to the 1960s-era New Left. "Members of both movements believe in what you might call mass innocence," he wrote. "Both movements are built on the assumption that the people are pure and virtuous and that evil is introduced into society…

I haven't seen ABC's new show Modern Family, but the Business Insider has and noticed that the characters all drive Toyotas in the midst of the car-company's giant recall. The reason isn't that the characters are product loyalists. It's that the producers made a deal to promote Toyota products on…

Will he stay or will he go, now?

I mean literally, what does "hurt locker" mean? The BBC News explains.

While New York Democratic congressman Eric Massa slowly and publicly unravels, it's important to note that the Democrats do not seem to be any closer to passing health care reform. Phil Klein has a roundup of four Democratic No votes (including Massa) who still haven't flipped to Yes. And they…

Marc Thiessen writes at the Washington Post:

To be fair, I too was pretty upset when Democrats set up promising conservative Mark Sanford with that attractive Argentine anchorwoman, thereby ending his national political aspirations:

Last week, it was reported that Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, the State Department's point man on China, and his National Security Council counterpart Jeffrey Bader headed to China on a low profile mission to repair frayed ties.  Steinberg had planned to go to China in February, but…

The trouble with all those "public loves the public option polls": The trouble with these sort of polls is that they almost never ask the right followup questions: How much would you be willing to see your insurance premiums rise if "insurers [are banned] from excluding people because of…

Add Congressman Dan Lipinski of Illinois to the coalition of pro-life Democrats standing firmly with Bart Stupak in the fight over taxpayer-funding of abortion in the health care bill. Asked if the congressman is "open to voting for a health care bill that lacks the Stupak amendment," Lipinski's…

Reports from Pakistan indicate that Adam Gadahn, the U.S. traitor who serves as a spokesman for al Qaeda, has been captured in Karachi. The Pakistani government has not confirmed the arrest, but this does look promising. Gadahn has issued videos for years, and his latest released just today has…

The American Civil Liberties Union has an amusing full-page ad in the New York Times today (p. 8 of the Week in Review section). It morphs a photo of their onetime favorite, Barack Obama into...George W. Bush! What has President Obama done to deserve this comparison, the greatest insult the left…

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, recently detailed a new approach to warfare that's worth a look. In two speeches at Kansas State University and Fort Leavenworth, Mullen talked up a massive doctrinal shift in America's approach to warfighting.

A great Reason.TV video on eminent domain: Billionaires v. Brooklyn's Best Bar

Senator Lindsey Graham still has his heart set on closing Gitmo; Andy McCarthy has written a very well argued response.

She sometimes disappoints, and occasionally can miss the mark—but when she’s good, she’s very, very good.

At some point this weekend, you should settle into an easy chair, crank up the volume, and listen to Stephen Davies's entire talk about historical placement, Western civilization, and what distinguishes modernity from what has come before. The lecture runs about 45 minutes, then there are…

The Hotline reports that New York Democrat Eric Massa will resign on Monday. Massa faces allegations that he sexually harassed a male staffer.

Congressman Jim Matheson responded to the story about his brother's nomination to the federal court--just as President Obama is trying to persuade the congressman to switch his vote from No to Yes on health care--with this statement to Fox News:

The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs recently issued an astonishingly bumptious statement opposing the congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide, beginning with these words: "Like swallows returning to Capistrano, Congress's annual determination to debate the history of the…

With the arguments over detainees and their lawyers heating up, it's worth noting two past pieces by Keep America Safe's Debra Burlingame, both of which appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

Over at Military.com, Christian Lowe reports that there's some serious introspection from Army thinkers over the quality of long range combat gear. The battle, so to speak, is raging over a paper scribed by one of the Army's "Jedi Knights" -- a nickname for graduates of the prestigious  School for…

Terrific tale of courage and calm under pressure, courtesy of our friends from across the pond. Anything less than Lt. Fortune's superb handling of the situation would have cost the lives of 20 of Her Majesty's soldiers.

The Situation Room in the White House was reserved for national security meetings in previous administrations. Apparently in the Obama administration it's used not only to map out campaign strategy, but for celebrity photo-ops as well:

Back in December, CMA DataVision announced that Venezuela’s debt had become the riskiest in the world. In 2009 alone, the total outstanding debt of PDVSA, the country’s state-owned oil firm, grew by 42 percent, reaching $21.4 billion. At the start of 2010, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez…

On CNN, Victoria Toensing cuts through the nonsense in the debate over the Gitmo lawyers working at the Justice Department:

Mark Hemingway reports:

The big news was leaked to the Washington Post, and it wasn't even a Friday night. See Bill Burck and Dana Perino's take on the story here.

The closing meeting of a “Christian-Muslim Summit” at the National Cathedral in Washington on Wednesday evening was notable for who wasn't there. The public ceremony ended three days of talks between delegations from the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches and Sunni and Shia Muslim clerics. The…

Russian president Dmitri Medvedev's state visit to France on March 1-3 was built up to be an historic event. It was supposed to be a moment for Nicolas Sarkozy to cement his position as the man who has good relations both with Moscow and Washington. Which, in turn, would position himself in a place…

Thanks (or no thanks) to a colleague who sent me this link, I've been catching up all afternoon with the Jenkinses, Partridges, and Bradfords. Yes, NBC's Today show has managed to bring together in its studio the cast of such classics as 227, The Partridge Family, and Eight Is Enough. Or at least…

Two years ago, the Supreme Court heard the hotly controversial Heller case, in which it ultimately recognized a personal right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.  That case, which pertained only to federal (and District of Columbia) gun regulations, not state or other local gun…

A new jobs report comes out tomorrow morning. The White House is already trying to spin the numbers. Economic adviser Larry Summers says the employment situation may have worsened in February because of the weather. Hudson Institute economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth says that's baloney:

To date, President Obama's nominations to key defense postings have been mostly pragmatic, starting at the top with the retention of Secretary Gates. However, in the instance of Philip Coyle -- nominated to fill the associate director of national security and international affairs spot in the…

No, she doesn't say it directly, but Bart Stupak has said he and a dozen other Democrats who voted yes the first time will vote no on the Senate health care bill because it provides taxpayer-funding for abortion. Today, at a press conference, Pelosi contradicted the factual claims made by Stupak…

Michael Barone writes:

As reported here earlier, President Obama nominated Congressman Jim Matheson's brother Scott to the Appeals Court yesterday. No one has questioned Scott Matheson's qualifications to be on the bench, but Congressman Matheson is one of the Democrats who voted against the health care bill earlier that…

Ever wondered what happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object? When matter meets anti-matter? The wait is over. Rep. Alan Grayson, Democrat of Florida, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, went toe-to-toe on Larry King Live last night. It's a wonder the universe…

Bunning on Bunning: When I saw the Democrats in Congress were going to vote on the extensions bill without paying for it and not following their own Pay-Go rules, I said enough is enough. Many people asked me, "Why now?" My answer is, "Why not now?" Why can't a non-controversial measure in the…

From the New York Times:

The New York Times has a well-deserved (if belated) obituary for Arnold Beichman in today's paper.

This is Paul Ryan's moment. If national security or social policy were at the center of debate, the Wisconsin congressman wouldn't be nearly as prominent as he is today. But President Obama wants to reshape the American economy and welfare state so that it looks more like a Western European social…

Rarely does a headline describe a story so inaccurately. The Huffington Post headline reads: "Sarah Palin Reality Show?" Another on the same website blares, "Real World: Wasilla?" Not exactly. The report from Entertainment Weekly reveals that Palin and television producer Mark Burnett, creator of…

There are moments when the health care debate recalls George W. Bush's drive to reform Social Security. Granted, Obama's traveled a lot farther than Bush ever did: health care reform has passed both chambers of Congress, and is on the precipice of becoming law thanks to the Senate procedure known…

Six years ago, the nearly 3 million member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) became the first and only U.S. religious body to adopt a divestment policy against Israel. After a large uproar from Christians and Jews, including a personal appeal from Presbyterian former CIA Director James Woolsey at the…

Continetti tells the GOP not to get overconfident.

As the controversy heats up over the DOJ lawyers who once represented, or advocated on behalf of, al Qaeda and Taliban members, it is worth taking a quick look at their body of work.

As the controversy over the DOJ lawyers who once represented, or advocated on behalf of, al Qaeda and Taliban members heats up, it is worth taking a quick look at their body of work.

Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he's obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today…

Phil Hare, the Democrat who represents Illinois's seventeenth congressional district, ran unopposed for a second term in 2008. A union man, he's an opponent of free trade who voted Yes for the stimulus, cap-and-trade, and health care bills. In 2008 he earned a 100 percent rating from Americans for…

This Newsweek article was touched on yesterday, but -- considering the source -- it's worth revisiting. A choice quote:

That was fast.

Salon's Mike Madden reports:

Politico reports:

Thirty-five. Including today's speech, that's the number of times Obama has delivered major remarks on health care reform, according to the Washington Post. What has happened between number one and number 35? Tea parties, town hall protests, and rising public opposition to the legislation before…

They look much friendlier than I had imagined.

The same thread runs through Governor Rick Perry’s smashing defeat of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary in Texas, the elections of Republican Governors Bob McDonnell of Virginia and Chris Christie of New Jersey last fall, and the Senate victory of Republican Scott…

Naked Emperor News has a great compilation of Obama's statements opposing simple majority votes in the Senate. You can pass a partisan agenda, but not an "American" agenda, with a majority vote, said Obama in 2004.

Here's a picture of a soldier from the 3rd Infantry standing guard over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the blizzard last month. It's a reminder that some jobs never stop.

Following an admonishment by the House Ethics Committee, Charlie Rangel has taken a (supposedly) temporary leave of absence as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Rangel's successor, Pete Stark, has been investigated for an ethics violation as well and also has a history of bizarre,…

The making of a Marine: “Ultimately ... [it] was a duty I could not, and should not, leave for others to assume.”

ObamaCare supporters are trying to take encouragement from a new Associated Press survey, which shows that nine of the 39 House Democrats who are in the enviable position of having voted "no" on ObamaCare the first time around have now either "declined to state their positions or [have] said they…

It's not everyday that two likely candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination appear simultaneously on the top late-night talk shows. But that is what happened last night, with Sarah Palin's appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show and Mitt Romney's on David Letterman's Late Show. I…

Over the past decade, since the U.S.-led NATO intervention to defend the Kosovar Albanians against the terrorism of the late Slobodan Milosevic, Artemije Radosavljevic, bishop of the Serbian Orthodox church in Kosovo, has gained considerable local and global publicity. Artemije’s media career began…

Watch Charles Krauthammer discuss the the Gitmo lawyers at the DOJ:

Jon Stewart v. Rick Sanchez

The Hill reports:

So says Newsweek:

"President Barack Obama extended a bipartisan olive branch to GOP leaders in the health care debate Tuesday, stating in a letter that he is willing to consider several of their ideas in a compromise plan," CNN declares in a piece titled "Obama embraces GOP health care proposals."

The Senate Finance Committee's website is optimized for Netscape 4 or Internet Explorer 4. (H/t Ellen Miller)

In yesterday's Financial Times, Gideon Rachman writes that Ronald Reagan "debased" traditional conservatism because

You can read President Obama's letter to Congress on health care reform here. In it, he urges that Congress strip the Cornhusker Kickback and the Gator Aid from the bill. He also recommends four GOP ideas: (1) Sen. Coburn's "undercover patients" proposal to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse in…

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is traveling through Latin America this week. Hopefully she will be discussing the systematic human rights abuses and extraterritorial aggression of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez. Just today, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Spanish National Court…

Over at Heritage, Ariel Cohen and Helle Dale dive into anti-Americanism in Russia. Apparently it's reaching Cold War levels, with no shortage of government encouragement.

Via Kathryn Lopez, Senator Kent Conrad said on MSNBC today: "I think changes to abortion would probably not be permitted under reconciliation and the Byrd Rule requirement."

As it turns out, Western Europe doesn't much care for the burka. In fact, many Europeans favor a ban. The numbers, based on a Harris poll for the Financial Times, are quite stunning: 70 percent of respondents in France, 65 percent in Spain, 63 percent in Italy, 57 percent in the U.K., and 50…

Finally, something we can all agree on: Roll Call's Heard on the Hill column reports that Rep. Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, honored the twentieth anniversary of The Simpsons in a one-minute floor speech last week.

Ben Smith reports on a new ad from Keep America Safe:

First Pelosi, and now Hoyer:

Will An Inconvenient Truth go down as one of the most ironically titled films in the history of American cinema? It just might, as the "consensus" that human activity is primarily responsible for global warming slowly falls apart under its own weight. Ed Morrissey has a fantastic post where he…

He's perhaps an unlikely plaintiff in a challenge to Chicago's hand gun ban before the Supreme Court this week, but the 76-year-old South Side Democrat says his right to defend himself isn't about party.

That Fox News Story about Obama introducing a smaller "new health care bill" turns out to be misleading. Pelosi's spokesman tells The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn:

Niall Ferguson had a fascinating op-ed in the February 28 Los Angeles Times:

Expect an announcement from President Obama tomorrow, March 3, that outlines the steps Democrats plan to take to enact health care reform via the parliamentary tactic called reconciliation. The linchpin is the House, where Nancy Pelosi needs 216 votes to pass the Senate bill. She says she'll have…

On March 1, NPR's Morning Edition had an excellent story on the Marines in Marjah, which you can listen to here.

Newsweek in 1995: "The Internet? Bah!"

One of the mysteries of President Obama's abrupt June 2009 firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin concerns the dispute at the bottom of it all: Walpin's aggressive investigation of the misuse of AmeriCorps dollars by Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, California and an Obama…

Now that fighting in Marja has boiled down to minor skirmishes, here are a few points worth noting:

Charles Pellegrino is the author of The Last Train From Hiroshima, published in January by Henry Holt. It tells tales about a hitherto unknown accident with the first atomic bomb that caused casualties and reduced the yield of the explosion. It is based in part upon the recollections of one Joseph…

It was nice that Canada was able to scratch out an overtime (or do they call it "stoppage time"?) win in hockey yesterday. Word is that they care an awful lot about hockey up there, and since the Vancouver Olympics had all those problems, it's nice for the home team to end on a high note. With any…

Supreme Court dismisses appeal by Gitmo Uighurs.

The Times of London reports that police in Dubai are in a tizzy, six weeks after the killing of Hamas's Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a hotel in downtown Dubai. A major security breach, an extrajudicial murder--it's being called all sorts of unsavory things. And police say they're certain that Mabhouh was…

This is great news, both in practice and symbolically. The new governor of Virginia aimed to save $40,000 from his transition budget, but managed to save the taxpayers $80,000 through a system of scrimping that taxpayers will no doubt appreciate during these tough times:

Nancy Pelosi said this morning that yet another health-care bill proposal will be ready "in days." It will come from the White House and will be smaller than either the House or Senate bills. Melody Barnes, a domestic policy adviser in the White House, said the new bill "borrows" from conversations…

Bill Sweetman, the veritable godfather of aviation reporting, has an interesting story up on efforts to push the Joint Strike Fighter out the door on time.

Midterm election forecasts by political scientists and economists are starting to roll out, and the picture is not pretty for the Democrats. This one by Emory University political scientist Alan I. Abramowitz writing for Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball predicts a net loss of 37 Democratic House seats…

A friend writes:

"We share some of the views of the Tea Partiers," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on ABC's This Week yesterday.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:

Well, maybe not the nation quite yet, but Mitch-mania has reached Ross Douthat's New York Times column:

Earlier this weekend, a Democratic source said Joe Kennedy III was considering running for Rep. William Delahunt's seat if he decided against a reelection run, but he says no:

The curse lives: "During his whirlwind visit to Las Vegas two weeks ago, President Barack Obama mentioned U.S. Sen. Harry Reid by name four dozen times, gave him a big hug and talked him up as if he was a long-lost brother...A larger percentage of voters surveyed (17 percent) said they would be…

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has demoted his environment minister, a former rockstar and Greenpeace board member, after the government bungled a multi-billion dollar home insulation program.   

In the barbaric cave for the dead