Balloon Juice - The other day, while criticizing

The other day, while criticizing the President and the war on terror, Tom Daschle stated:

“Congress has a constitutional responsibility to ask questions. We are not a rubber stamp to the president or to anybody else. We must do what the Constitution and what our best judgment requires,” he added.

The question is, however, whose constitution? The United States Constitution, or Tom Daschle’s? Put aside what Daschle and his ilk intend to do to the Bill of Rights with their various gun control measures and campaign finance reform. Remember this story?

In mid-December, Tom Daschle said that Eugene Scalia, President Bush’s nominee to be solicitor general of the Labor Department, didn’t have the votes to be confirmed. “I don’t think he has the 60 votes that would be required for as controversial a nominee as he is,” he said on This Week. Daschle isn’t trying to sink the nomination, you understand; the votes just aren’t there. But Daschle can’t wipe off his fingerprints so easily. His claim is true as far as it goes, but it ignores the fact that 60 votes are “required” only by Daschle’s say-so. Scalia would need 60 votes to break a filibuster, true, but having 40-odd “no” votes is not the same as having enough senators willing to mount a successful filibuster. Besides, a filibuster would proceed only if Daschle wanted it to.

Or this story?

Last week, Daschle was blasting Lott for running a “dictatorship” (i.e., not letting him grandstand on guns as much as he wants). He brought the Senate to a halt in order to air his bogus procedural arguments. (For example: Daschle seems to be under the impression that appropriations bills have to move through the House before the Senate. The constitutional requirement he has in mind concerns tax bills.) Daschle has threatened to shut down the Senate before if he doesn’t get his way.

The next time you hear that Tom Daschle is ‘protecting the constitution’ or acting within his ‘constitutional authority,’ remember, the constitution means whatever he wants it to mean.

I have said it before. Tom Daschle, Mainstream Media’s Mild-Mannered Moron.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Fight them, without becoming them!

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

The lights are all blinking red.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Books are my comfort food!

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The other day, while criticizing