Top GOP strategist says Steele is out as GOP chair if he keeps screwing up

Some people just don't know their place.

"What is amazing is that Steele was elected because of his communications skills, and it is those skills that are damaging the Republican Party. Before people begin to completely judge him as worthless, Steele needs to focus and knuckle down on building a strong foundation at RNC so we can begin rebuilding our majority," says a top GOP strategist who has worked for House and Senate Republican leaders. "If his implosion continues, RNC members are likely to call a special session to dump him for an effective chairman. There is not much patience for failure."

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Possibly the dumbest story ever

ABC wrote the story. The good folks at TNR spotted it, and explain the problem:

I've seen a lot of dumb news reports in my life, but I'm not sure anything can quite match this one from ABC News. The premise of the report is this: Barack Obama plans to raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000, so the reporter has gone and found people who earn a little more than that sum who plan to decrease their income so that they come in underneath the magic line.

Now, the obvious objection here is that the tax code doesn't work that way. A tax increase affects the marginal dollar that a person gains. That's means only every dollar over $250,000 is taxed at a higher rate. Obama is not proposing a tax system whereby somebody who goes from $249,999 to $250,000 suddenly becomes poorer. Nobody has ever enacted a tax hike like that in the history of the United States.

Look, it's fair for someone not to know how the tax system works. For the longest time, I honestly didn't know how it works (still don't get a lot of it). But reporters usually have editors. And in this story, you also had sources explaining how it actually works. You'd think the reporter would have said "uh oh" and canned the story.

In fact, ABC has now changed the story and made it acceptable. The story now points out that the sources have it all wrong. But that's not what the story said yesterday. And ABC's explanation of the edit is, while kind to the reporter in question, less than honest:

Editor's Note: Yesterday ABC News published a version of this story which some readers felt did not provide a comprehensive enough analysis of Obama's tax code for those families making $250k or more. ABCNews.com has heard those concerns and after review has decided to post an updated version of the story below.

It wasn't "some readers" who thought the story had a problem, ABC's own editors obviously agreed, and edited the story. Second, the concern wasn't that the story didn't provide a comprehensive enough analysis. The concern was that the story entirely misrepresented Obama's tax plan. And the editor's edit proves that those concerns were correct, and shared by the editors. Read the rest of this post...

A conservative's take on Rush Limbaugh

Rod Dreher is a funny bird. He's a former NY Post columnist, and a rather arch conservative who sometimes makes you want to pull your hair out (like when he's writing about the need to send Dan Savage to jail). But I remember having a back and forth by email with Dreher, probably 7 years ago, about some gay issue, and he was quite a decent fellow. No, that doesn't exonerate some of his meaner writings, but it means he's more nuanced that you might think.

To wit: His article this week on Rush Limbaugh at CPAC, entitled "White kids on dope." It's blistering. It's further evidence that the Republicans, and conservatives more generally, are not of one mind about their future. There are conservatives out there who find Rush Limbaugh, and the dogmatic conservatism he represents, every bit as loathsome as we find both of them. That's interesting. And it's useful. Here's an excerpt, but it's worth clicking through and reading the entire thing:

Anybody who challenges Limbavian orthodoxy is, ipso facto, the Enemy. If you suggest reform, even from the Right, you are a useful idiot for the Media, which are the Enemy, and can never be anything but the Enemy. Limbaughism sounds a lot like Leninism.

I loved it when the Soviet Union went down and the wall went down and the liberals in our country said you know they may not be ready for freedom over there. They've been oppressed -- yes, liberals will gladly tell you who can have freedom and who can't.

Um, what were the Nineties like in the former Soviet Union? That experiment proved that free markets and liberal democracy can't take hold without the cultural and social preconditions for same. Ditto Iraq. But the Limbavian ideologues, these Right-Wing Rousseauists, see human nature as essentially perfect, except for the corrupting hand of government.

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GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, who supported Bush's policies for eight years, is really mad at Obama because Obama is standing by his budget.

Another of those rising Republican wanna-be stars has been doing his best to audition for the role. It's like the GOP version of "American Idol," although at least some of those singers have talent.

Rep. Paul Ryan, who has been in Congress since 2001, had his GOP hissy fit at the Budget Committee today, in front of Peter Orszag, who heads the President's Office of Management and Budget. First, according to The Hill, Ryan attacked Obama because Obama defended his own budget. Huh? Because Obama shouldn't fight for his budget? More like the Republicans are used to being bullies and Obama isn't taking their crap on the budget. He doesn't have to.

Ryan is a typical GOP knucklehead and he's totally oblivious to the current crisis in our economy, which he and his party created. Keep in mind, Ryan arrived in DC with George W. Bush. They did this to America together. Yet, Ryan wants to stick with the Bush way:

Ryan also said that the president's budget proposal would only increase the size of government and will slow down an economic recovery.

"It takes a decidedly ideological turn away from the principles that built this country and built this economy," Ryan said during a House Budget Committee hearing.

(NOTE FROM JOHN: Uh, have you seen this economy?) Does Paul Ryan have any idea 1) that we're in an economic crisis and 2) he helped George Bush get us into this mess? It was the Bush/Ryan ideological policies that destroyed the American economy. Obama was elected to fix it. You really get the sense that House Republicans really don't seem to get the extent of the economic crisis. They can't see beyond their political desire to wanting Obama to fail. That keeps their new leader, Rush, happy.

Ryan had the misfortune of taking on Peter Orszag. This guy is smart. We were on a conference call he did with progressive bloggers the other day. Check out Orszag's blog when you have a second. He really knows his stuff, which is something Hill Republicans aren't accustomed to after eight years of Bush:

Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, defended the administration's budget plan from Ryan's attacks during the hearing. He said that it seeks to tackle big issues such as the nation's dependence on foreign oil, the growing deficit and the rising cost of healthcare.

"This simply is not a big spending bill," Orszag said.

Orszag quoted country music artist Toby Keith to make his point that the healthcare system needed to be fixed.

"There ain't no right way to do the wrong thing," Orszag said.

We've been doing the wrong thing for too long, not that Paul Ryan and his GOP colleagues understand that. Read the rest of this post...

Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias launches exploratory bid to take on Blago crony Roland Burris

Nice Greek boy.

Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, 32, opens his exploratory bid for Senator today hoping his close association with President Obama, generational appeal, record and early start locks him in as a front-runner in what today is a very undefined field.

Giannoulias, I am told, is running no matter the election scenario or the other contenders. Last week, William Daley, the former Commerce Secretary and mayoral brother, floated his name in order to head off Giannoulias securing early endorsements. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) is also mulling a run, with her chances of getting in more likely in a special election....

Burris, tapped by ousted Gov. Blagojevich faces inquiries from the Sangamon Cty. state's attorney and the Senate Ethics Committee over conflicting statements he made about the events leading up to his appointment. Close associates to Burris have told me Burris has come to realize he will have a very difficult time hanging on to the seat in an election after a slew of Democratic leaders--and both Chicago papers--have called for him to resign.

Rest assured that Burris and his fellow cronies will again play the race card to guarantee that he keeps his seat. Corruption has a way of continuing until you oust it, forcibly. Read the rest of this post...

Durbin blames Cong. Bobby Rush for seating Burris

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin now says that Illinois congressman Bobby Rush race-baited him into supporting Blagojevich crony Roland Burris being seated in the Senate. I don't even know what to say. I would have hoped the senior Senator from my home state would have had the backbone to stand up to the congressman-who-cried-race. Having said that, I could imagine Durbin making the calculus that it wasn't worth losing black support for the Democratic party, especially after Obama undercut Reid and Durbin by indicating he'd support Burris even if they wouldn't. There were weak knees all around. It only makes it all the more sad that someone had to play the race card too. I hope Bobby Rush is proud of his man Burris. Not exactly the ambassador I'd want representing my people. Read the rest of this post...

Breakfast with the Speaker and the progressive media

As I mentioned earlier today, I was attending the first Maria Leavey Breakfast of 2009 today with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It was held in the Speaker's Office at the Capitol. There were approximately 15 new media types sitting around the table. Pelosi gave an overview of where things stand and then took questions. I didn't get a question, but with that crowd, all of the questions were pertinent and progressive. The meeting was on-the-record and the transcript and audio will be available here.

The last two people to get questions were particularly interesting to me.

Jane Hamsher asked the Speaker about a report in Newsweek claiming that Pelosi fast-tracked the stimulus bill over the objections of the Obama administration. The article cites a "senior Obama official." It's always an anonymous source, isn't it? Pelosi was having NONE of it:

I asked Speaker Pelosi about the assertion that the administration objected to her use of fast track this morning at an on-the-record meeting with new media representatives. "It couldn't be further from the truth," she said. Pelosi indicated that she could have moved it through much faster, but didn't. "We did it in one week and one day," she said. "We didn't start on inauguration day." She indicated that there had been committee hearings where Republicans had input, and it was silly to think that their objections would have been overcome by a longer process which would have resulted in delays that the White House expressly did not want.

The Speaker also responded to the anonymous "administration official" who said Pelosi made it clear she wanted to be informed any time the White House spoke to a House member. "I never said you can only talk to members before you talk to me -- I don't have that kind of time," she said. Pelosi encouraged them to be in free communication with members of the House and the Caucus. "They have a lot of ideas you should talk to them on," she indicated.

Pelosi also denied that she had an "enemies list," as the Politico indicated yesterday. I asked her how she would respond to the assertion in the Newsweek article by a Senior Obama Official who said that "dealing with Democrats has been tougher than dealing with Republicans." She said that we would continue to see a lot of these kinds of articles, and that it was serving someone's interest to float these stories.

That person is clearly serving their own interest, not Obama's, not the Democrat's and not the country's. Washington can be such a petty town.

Kerry Eleveld from The Advocate asked about the prospects for legislation to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" this year. The Speaker was pretty clear that there's work to do. She said, "We want to win on this one" and we need to "create an environment in which we can win." She needs to "make sure we have the votes" and will bring the bill to the floor "when we can win." She said we have to "work to create that atmosphere." The first two priorities are Hate Crimes and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), of which Pelosi said both will be "fully inclusive." She said people often say to her, you can be tolerant because you're from San Francisco. Her response is that "tolerant is almost an insulting word." She thinks it's being respectful. (Pelosi is right, of course. Christ, even Sarah Palin claimed she tolerated us. I think we can do better than that.)

All in all, I thought this was a productive way to start a very, very cold Tuesday morning. Pelosi is very good in this setting and she really knows of what she speaks.

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Your thoughts on Gordon Brown and the UK-American relationship?

Gang, as you may know, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in town today to talk to President Obama and Congress, in the hopes of restoring Britain's "best friend" status with the United States, now that Tony Blair's bff King George has finally been dethroned. They're curious about the American impression of the British-American relationship. Is the relationship damaged, can it be put back on track, do Americans even care? Your thoughts? Read the rest of this post...

The Employee Free Choice Act: It's worse than the gays!

Can we call for a moratorium on gratuitously comparing things we don't like to Islamic terrorists?

A few weeks ago, we had a Mormon GOP state Senator in Utah saying that gays were the biggest threat facing America, akin to Muslim terrorists. And now we have one of the top billionaire hotel magnates in Vegas claiming at that the Employee Free Choice Act is actually tied with Radical Islam for the biggest threat to the world.

It's just so hard to keep your number one status nowadays. I really need to talk to the cabal.

Now, I have no problem making a valid comparison to anything. I've written before about my annoyance with some Jewish groups who freak out every time anything is compared to the Holocaust. And while, yes, it's a bit ridiculous to compare a tax bill in the Senate to the Holocaust, not every comparison is invalid - and in any case, as the old saying go, it's better to be talked about than to be forgotten. And the same goes for "Islamic terrorists." I've called the religious right "America's Taliban." And I would again. I didn't sloppily choose the allusion simply because the Taliban is bad and the religious right is bad. I did it because both are uber-conservative religious zealots who oppose modernity, and who wish to force the majority in their own country, and the world, to live under their own draconian, backward, discriminatory rules. It's a real comparison based on multiple, actual details.

Anyway, back to the Employee Free Choice Act. SEIU has done a cute video poking fun at the "End of the World" crowd. (Oh, and for those who are curious, the Employee Free Choice Act simply makes it easier for employees to unionize if they so choose.)

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"First serious challenge" filed against DOMA by Mass. couples and surviving spouses

We've all waiting for the legal challenges to begin against the Defense of Marriage Act, which Bill Clinton signed into law back in 1996. For years, candidates, at least the Democrats, have said they support granting rights to same-sex couples, even if they don't support full marriage equality. We have a President who believes it. Yet, that can't happen as long as DOMA is the law of the land. Today, the legal assault on DOMA begins:

Fifteen gay and lesbian residents from Massachusetts who wed after this state legalized same-sex marriages plan to file a discrimination suit today, challenging a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Six same-sex couples and three men whose husbands have died - one of the deceased was retired congressman Gerry E. Studds - said in the suit that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act treats them like second-class citizens and is unconstitutional. The complaint is being filed in US District Court in Boston.

The suit, which legal specialists described as the first serious challenge to the federal law signed by President Bill Clinton, contends that the statute has deprived the plaintiffs of benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.

Those benefits include health insurance for spouses of federal employees, tax deductions for couples who jointly file federal income tax returns, and the ability to use a spouse's last name on a passport.

There has to be a political strategy to back this up. Read the rest of this post...

News Flash: John McCain is an angry man. (Oh wait, we all knew that.)

Angry McCain is back, but it's not like angry McCain really ever left. He's mad at Obama. Some reporters and pundits probably thought McCain would return to the Senate as a statesman. As if. McCain doesn't have that capacity. The only way McCain gets news these days is to have a tantrum. And, he had one yesterday on the Senate floor:

The rollercoaster-like relationship between President Obama and John McCain has taken a dive in recent weeks, culminated by the Arizona Republican’s scathing Monday speech on the Senate floor.

McCain’s diatribe on the Obama administration’s decision to look the other way as lawmakers secured thousands of earmarks in the pending $410 billion omnibus budget measure contrasts with the pleasantries the presidential candidates exchanged soon after the election.

The anti-earmark legislator didn’t mince words on Monday, delivering a harsher speech than the prepared text that was posted on his Senate website.

Mocking the White House for failing to speak out against earmarks such as a $1.7 million fund for pig odor research in Iowa, McCain said, “So much for the promise of change, Mr. President. So much for the promise of change.”

Best line from his "diatribe" was:

“If it sounds like I’m angry, it’s because I am.”

We know. We've always known. It's predictable and is just so easy to mock.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's a balmy 14 degrees in Washington today, but it feels like -2. It's March, isn't it?

So, Rush really is the great and powerful Oz of the GOP. All Republicans must kneel -- and cower -- before him. He has shown the nation that yes, in fact, he does control the GOP. And, the Republican Party's operating principle is Rush's mantra: "I want Obama to fail," which really means "I want the U.S. to fail." At least we all know now.

I'm heading to the Capitol shortly for the first Maria Leavey Breakfast of the year. Today's meeting is with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It will be a question and answer session between the Speaker and progressive reporters and bloggers. The series is named for the beloved Maria Leavey, who died way too young at the end of 2006. The transcript and audio will be posted here after the session.

But, now, I'm doing my most important work of the day: walking Petey. He's nonplussed by the cold.

Let's get it started... Read the rest of this post...

Gordon Brown to bask in the glow of Obama

Inspiring leadership from the tumbling New Labour leader. The reincarnation of Churchill, really.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is looking for a boost to his political fortunes by meeting President Barack Obama to discuss the global economic crisis.

In hard political times at home, Brown scrambled to be the first European leader to visit Obama and hopes to benefit from Britons' high regard for the American president and to demonstrate British leadership at a time of economic uncertainty.

Brown, who was to meet Obama on Tuesday, was laying the groundwork for a G-20 economic summit of advanced and developing nations meeting in London next month. The summit, which Brown is chairing, is critical for improving global economic confidence as well as Brown's political prospects.

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Let's move on from the bailouts

Bailing out AIG or Citi or whoever else is in line is only continuing to drag out the problem. (See Japan if you are looking for a similar example.) Get it over with and nationalize them so they can be cleaned up and re-privatized. As Roubini says, the current bailouts are not really bailouts for AIG, but bailouts for the entire US and European financials including Merrill Lynch and Goldman. Their numbers would likely look much worse if AIG was not given a lifeline. Let's also keep that in mind as Wall Street continues to interfere with the US economy and ongoing bailout. CNNMoney:

On Monday, the Treasury Department unveiled yet another plan to support struggling insurer AIG (AIG, Fortune 500), which posted a 2008 loss of $99 billion.

Treasury said the latest restructuring in AIG's bailout -- the third since the company first received an $85 billion loan last September -- "will help stabilize the company, and in doing so help to stabilize the financial system."

There was no such stabilization on Wall Street though Monday. Financial stocks plunged for the second straight session.

Investors are worried that more pain lies ahead as the economy deteriorates and policymakers struggle to devise a workable solution to the financial meltdown.

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 17% since Feb. 10, when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner disappointed Wall Street with a vaguely worded financial stability package.

"The market wants to see the government get ahead of these problems, instead of receiving a drip feed of plans and possible plans," said Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. "The next few weeks we'll just keep hearing the same questions about what's next."

Exactly. Drip, drip, drip is not soothing the market or anyone else. Get the bad news out of the way once and start moving on. The Geithner-Summers bailout of the week is a recipe for failure for the market and will only delay the recovery that will happen. Read the rest of this post...

Madoff wants to keep NY penthouse, $62 million

Of course he does. If you watch what the government and companies are allowing Wall Street to keep despite all of the losses, why not? It's crazy and disgusting but completely fair compared to others. How much has Stanley O'Neal or Charles Prince had to pay back? John Thain? Madoff deserves nothing other than to live on the street but the same could be said all over in this economic collapse.

Bernard Madoff is seeking to keep a $7 million Manhattan penthouse and an additional $62 million in assets, saying they are unrelated to the fraud that authorities say cost victims more than $50 billion. In court papers filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Madoff and his lawyer claim the apartment, $45 million in municipal bonds and $17 million more in a separate account all belong to Madoff's wife, Ruth.

The bonds in an account held by Ruth Madoff at COHMAD Securities Corp. and about $17 million held by her in a Wachovia Bank account "are unrelated to the alleged Madoff fraud and only Ruth Madoff has a beneficial interest in these assets," Bernard Madoff and lawyer Ira Sorkin said, according to the papers.

Of course they're unrelated. That's what Wall Street says as well when questioned on bonuses or boondoggles. Read the rest of this post...

Red States Gobble Up Omnibus Earmarks

Huff Post informs us who won the earmark contest in the omnibus budget bill. Mississippi!

According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, Mississippi has won the earmark contest in the omnibus budget package....

Rural and small-state voters were the big winners on an absolute and on a per capita basis, even though it was big states and urban areas that have delivered Congress and the White House to Democrats. Of the top ten earmarking senators, only Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.; $77 million solo; $235 combined), represents a large state and only three of the top ten are blue states. In the top 20, only six blue states are represented.

I understand they don't like big guvument down in those there red states. Perhaps we should take their money back. Read the rest of this post...