The House violated the Hastert Rule again last night to pass Sandy relief, 241-180, with 49 Republicans joining all the Democrats but one. The last time this happened, on the fiscal cliff vote, 85 Republicans voted with Democrats. So, the number of sane Republicans is slowly slipping. Still, we’re seeing a hint of coming attractions. Boehner will instruct his caucus to allow “must pass” bills to come to the floor, then those who read the signs in their latest well-formed bowel movement, saw a fleeting will-o-the-wisp, heard a whisper from Baby Jesus or had an especially good time on the downlow the night before will vote “Yea”.
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PeakVT
The “Hastert Rule” should be called the Hastert Doctrine or Hastert Principle, because it isn’t a formal House rule.
red dog
When the tornadoes and hurricanes hit those red states whose gopers voted nay on Sandy relief I hope they have to come, hat in hand, and beg forgiveness for their funds and make promises to behave like humans. Nah, red states always get more than they give.
Bulworth
This is kind of a BFD.
redshirt
@red dog: That’s the problem with being the “Good Guys”. We all know when the inevitable storm rips up some Wingnut’s district, they’ll get the aid they need. Because it’s the right thing to do.
They probably know that too, which makes their opposition to Sandy relief so “principled”.
Or, that’s why they’re the “Bad Guys”.
General Stuck
I don’t think the House wingnut old bulls, including Boehner are going to the wire with not raising the debt ceiling, and will find a way to swerve away at the last second from that kind of murder/suicide politicking. But will make their last stand at the end of March with the continuing resolution to fund the US government, and to a lessor degree, the sequester. McConnell and Boehner, largely out of frustrated anger that Obama keeps owning their stupid asses, and also a sprinkling of red meat for the savages to keep them from devouring all the wingnut babies has been the order to present.
The money guys in the GOP just won’t stand for killing the profit machine. They probably wouldn’t recommend it, but if they must, letting the crazies shut down the government for a while, is somewhat more palatable, Though likely still a degree of pol suicide. A few euthanized seniors coming from holding off the SS checks, is par for the cause and an acceptable casualty rate if yer a fighting gooper. But not bringing on the econ Armageddon, and the possibility of too many lanterns and pitchforks looking for plutocrats to adorn their lampposts.
Cole says he can’t stand any more debt ceiling stuff. I disagree, this is genuine blue on red action that is core stuff for the world views of both pol parties in this country. I don’t care about any other news right now. A political reckoning is what we are living through right now. And I don’t want to miss a minute of it.
RaflW
It is. It may well be the roadmap to the debt limit swerve.
But it also signals how utterly contemptuous of shared responsibility the modern GOP has become. Embedded in this vote I can hear the Tea Party congresstrolls saying “Drown, you fuckers!”
Rathskeller
I wonder how many of the GOP reps voting for these very reasonable bills will be primaried in 1.5 years.
redshirt
Also too: Not the image I wanted in me head this morning. I’m picturing Dennis Hastert bent under my kitchen sink. Ewww.
Jerzy Russian
Damn you mistermix! The first image that came to my mind when I saw the title of your post was Mr. Hastert’s “plumber’s smile”. Where can I send the therapy bill?
Stooleo
Fucking Jim Cooper (D). Especially after the flood here in Nashville, 3 years ago. I will be writing.
Ash Can
@redshirt:
@Jerzy Russian:
Me three. Thanks a whole fucking lot for that image, mr.m.
Raven
It’s all bullshit. They dick around and figure out the minimum number of votes needed to pass and the rest get “cover”. They don’t ask how, they ask how many.
c u n d gulag
I did not need to think about Hastert’s crack this early in the day, thank you very much…
TooManyJens
@Stooleo: He’s the guy who voted for Colin Powell for Speaker, too.
I foresee a lot of talk show appearances in his future. “Even the Democrat Jim Cooper thinks the Democrats are too extreme!”
Forum Transmitted Disease
@General Stuck: There isn’t going to be a government shutdown either, Stuck, not even for a day. Not only will Money not stand for it, neither will Defense (really the same thing). Money has gone and dumped all their money into the markets as there’s really no other profitable place to put it at the moment, and Money will be damned if some podunk shitheel first-termer from Kentucky or Georgia is going to lose them even one dollar for the sake of their so-called “principles”.
dmsilev
@c u n d gulag: I’m not sure there’s ever a right time of the day to think about Hastert’s crack.
MattF
@Bulworth: I agree. I’m thinking of the old rule– once is happenstance… twice is coincidence… three times is enemy action.
aimai
@PeakVT:
I always thought calling it a “rule” was part of the generalized Washington narcissistic desire to self applaud perfectly ordinary observations–like the “Powell Doctrine” which was “don’t have too few soldiers.” Jeebus christ people just because you think something would be nice to have, or to do, doesn’t make it worth naming it after yourself like a sandwich at a deli. I could call it the “aimai rule” that dinner should always include a glass of wine or the “aimai doctrine” that people should hug my comments on a thread with a hug button but its not like anything happens if these rules and doctrines are violated. IF you don’t have a penalty attached these things are observations, desires, wishes, or day dreams.
aimai
handsmile
To add to mistermix’s excellent primer on GOP decision-making: those who receive horses’ heads from their corporate patrons. (many deliveries may be expected as collision with the debt ceiling nears)
Hoodie
@General Stuck: Agree completely. Obama (with assists from Reid and others) has slowly cut off the ring on the Republicans on health care, national defense and, recently, tax cuts. He’s been lucky, too, with the way Sandy played out. Guns are a winning issue at this point, too, because, like Sandy relief, it brings out the nuttiness and fractures the Republican ranks, just when they don’t need it. They are down to one game now: deficit hysteria. If Obama can pull off withdrawal from AfPak without getting into another war in Syria, for example (hence Hegel), it will clear the way for defense cuts and could set the deficit grifters back on their heels with relatively small bore concessions. Things are far from perfect, but I can’t recall the last time Republicans were in such a vulnerable state. A lot of important battles coming, sooner than later.
aimai
@General Stuck:
I don’t agree: I think the money guys see crashing the world system by destroying our credit as a country as more serious than late SS checks.
Zifnab25
@Raven: I don’t even care. At this point, I’m just going to openly praise Nancy Pelosi. She just turned John Boehner into her Majority Whip.
If Dems can’t control both Houses of Congress, this is the next best thing.
General Stuck
@aimai:
Pretty sure that is what I said.@General Stuck:
Elizabelle
Mistermix:
WordPress ate two comments I put up on morning open thread. Had two links in each attempt. Backgrounder on Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, whom “liberal” taught.
Cheers.
Elizabelle
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: A very good point.
General Stuck
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
Hope you are correct, as we don’t need that kind of stupid shit right now, with a still floundering economy. But as Boehner just said, the firebrands in his House caucus need to get it out of their systems, and shutting down the government for a few days would be better than default.
But who knows. The republicans are in danger of becoming a pariah with a distinct majority of voters. They almost seem to be shoving this shit in the faces of the electorate in general for spite, for reelecting Obama, and just can’t help themselves.
redshirt
@Hoodie: Well said. I see many fractures in the Republican party, and Obama is exploiting every one of them. I am reluctant to get excited about this, yet, given the Zombie like nature of the Repukes, but the tea leaves are looking good for a continued diminution of the Rethugs.
Maude
@General Stuck:
I heard on Bloomberg radio that March SS money will go out. It is the first month of Direct Deposit. Either the money will be in bank accounts or on an electronic card.
I am so sick of the Republicans.
SFAW
@General Stuck:
Perhaps, but until the salamanders get turned into something having a more-regular shape – precipitated by Dems taking over various Leges – they’ll still hold on to power.
jayjaybear
@redshirt: It’s still better than picturing Hastert bent OVER your kitchen sink.
You’re welcome…
redshirt
Thanks Juicers! I learned a new phrase today: “Plumber’s Smile”.
Witty, yet gross.
SFAW
@jayjaybear:
Did Denny drop a bunch of pounds? Because unless that has happened, the likelihood of him being able to bend is bordering on Null-Set.
aimai
Sorry, general, I read this line
and kind of misread the rest. We are in agreement.
GregB
TPM is reporting that the NH Union Leader has an editorial chastising the GOP for attempting to use the debt debate as leverage.
If you’ve lost the Union Leader, you’re finished.
They are starting to kick dirt on this idiotic battle.
It’s over. We won.
Tone in DC
@General Stuck:
No doubt. Batshit is as batshit does. And Stockman and the rest of the teabaggers are definitely gonzo.
Linda Featheringill
Hastert probably worked with Republicans who would vote for disaster relief.
SFAW
@GregB:
Just like it was over after we won in 2008, no doubt.
As noted philosopher, Han Solo, said: “Don’t get cocky!”
It won’t be over until “Tea Party”, “Republicans”, and “Whigs” occupy the same level of noteworthiness/importance in the country.
Todd
This increasing polarization is a direct result (hoocoodanode) of Turdblossom’s 50%+1 strategy. Basically, it empowers the weirdest ideologues in the coalition to threaten to withhold support in the next election.
What is happening is that the teatard threats of contested primaries are escalating. Boehner, a guy who would have probably been a decent enough sort of guy to work with 20 years ago, is now forced to an unequal bipartisanship to get routine stuff passed.
More interestingly, the gerrymandering has made the Democrats safer in their districts than the goopers.
General Stuck
@Maude:
The current continuing resolution to fund the government doesn’t run out till the end of March, and even if the nutters don’t renew it, I believe there are things Obama can do to keep SS flowing, at least for awhile. But any stoppage of government functions is going to have a bad effect on a fragile economy, though not as severe as default. And yes, we all are this.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@SFAW:
This many times over.
We haven’t “won” shit. This is a classic example of how the debate has moved so far to the right that we’re celebrating something that used to be pro-forma.
GregB
@SFAW:
I should say, this particular battle is over and won.
chopper
welp, this kind of throws a wrench into the whole gooper response to the debt ceiling.
is congress really going to write a rubber check to help people fucked by a hurricane? yeah, the optics of that are not in the GOPs favor.
jeffreyw
The jeffreyw rule: Thread needs moar kittehs!
Maude
@General Stuck:
Thx. Am still groggy.
Tesco in UK the burgers are at the starting gate and people are not happy with Man of War for dinner.
mistermix
@Elizabelle: I fished your comments out of the spam pile – don’t know how they ended up there.
Maude
@jeffreyw:
Troublemakers. You can see it in their eyes.
Those were Goldfinches you posted a week ago, weren’t they?
Either that or they were faking it.
General Stuck
@jeffreyw:
Excellent quality photo. And we does need more cute these whacky days.
R-Jud
@Maude:
I’ve got strep throat at the moment. My husband would eat those burgers on the regular. “Isn’t it funny,” he said to me this morning, “That I’ve been eating those burgers, and yet you’re the one feeling a little hoarse?”
japa21
OK, this is getting ridiculous. Here is that number again.
WereBear
@jeffreyw: I WANT!
However, four is our limit. At the moment.
May I use this lovely photo to illustrate a concept on my blog? I’ll link back to yours, of course.
scav
@Maude: funny what finally breaks through to the public on the ground meat subject over and over again. Now I’m visualizing pink slime races.
jibeaux
@chopper: You know, there is a lot of potential to that particular example. “Congress voted in January to appropriate X to victims of Hurricane Sandy. Now they want to put a stop payment order on the check before the roof is even patched?”
SFAW
@jeffreyw:
Aaaiiieeee! ! Teh Cuteness! It BURNS!
Todd
@Elizabelle:
Whattaya got? That asshole is the congressman for my pulsing red pustule of a county of residence, and a high school friend (who is now a teabagger) is in with him in an unbelievable tight way.
I’m just happy to be working in the district held by John Yarmuth, a rational progressive in every sense of the word.
Maude
@R-Jud:
LOL. They could be served at Ascot.
cmorenc
@General Stuck:
This will only be a “political reckoning” if it translates into a major loss for the GOP in 2014 Congressional and State House elections, despite their best efforts to gerrymander themselves into as many safe seats as possible. There’s also the truly disturbing movement underway to selectively gerrymander the 2016 Presidential election by taking advantage of momentary GOP simultaneousl control of Governorships and state houses in at least four key blue states to change the allocation of Presidential electors in those states to by-congressional district or proportionally without any similar changes in comparable key “red” states.
The GOP realizes it’s on the wrong side of the tide on both demographics and public opinion, and is reacting by a strategy of erecting structural barricades to permanently entrench itself in control of the country. They fundamentally disrespect the right of non-conservatives to have enough voting power to control the country. They realize they have a window of between two and four years to accomplish it before their chance will likely slip away permanently. Unfortunately, there’s enough of the residue of 2010 left despite the 2012 electoral results that they do have a plausible shot at it. Look how powerfully just being in position at key times to appoint five sitting Supreme Court justices has paid off for them so far…the next Republican President will make George Bush look like a marxist progressive by comparison, and will be a toxic blend of Scott Walker/Rick Perry on a national level.
Villago Delenda Est
@Todd:
We’re suffering from some of the same electoral idiocy that plagues Israel, where wackaloon tiny religious parties can impose their fucked up dogma on the entire country as the price for their support of Bibi or whatever other fucktard is heading the Likud this week.
SFAW
@cmorenc:
You forgot
PolandRick Scott !Maude
@scav:
Like a slide into home plate.
just Eeeewwww
aimai
@cmorenc:
On the bright side the Republican politician’s tendency to shoot their own workers/eat their own children first is paying off, big time, for Michelle Bachmann. She’s being turned in for campaign violations by her own staff who she stiffed and insulted. The first problem that Republicans are having is that they are nuts who don’t care about the public welfare and the second problem they are having is that they are assholes who ultimately can’t control their behavior long enough to even pose as reasonable people. The average conservative voter has shown they will put up with any amount of violence and stupidity as long as its directed at “outsiders” and “them” and “those people” but they have as much of an instinct for self preservation as anyone else and eventually even Bachmann’s true believers will have enough of her shit and toss her out. Whether they are offered the chance to vote for a better representative is another question.
jeffreyw
@Maude: Yes, they were goldfinches working at a sunflower that still had a few seeds.
Maude
@jeffreyw:
Thx.
SFAW
@jeffreyw:
What is it with you and the cute photos and the great food? Do you enjoy torturing those of us who don’t have that stuff near at hand?
“At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
PS – Well, we gots cats, but they aren’t as cute. Goldfinches, we’ll need to wait another month or two.
jeffreyw
@General Stuck: Most all of the photos of cats and dogs were taken by Mrs J with her Canon S95. I can recommend that model if anyone is looking for a nice pocket camera. It’s been out for a couple of years. I do some post processing work on them, crops and levels and such.
jeffreyw
@WereBear: Oh sure, everything I post here is free for the taking. Flickr stream is CC licensed.
General Stuck
@cmorenc:
This only exemplifies what I am talking about a political reckoning. The desperation of the GOP to remain a viable party, as is ideologically, is leading them down some insane paths, like gerrymandering the electoral college. That even the densest voter can recognize as blatant corrupt cheating.
And I wouldn’t put a date on it for the 2014 election, though it come by then, buy maybe later. It is driven by cold demographics, intersecting with a political party full of people with so called conservative deeply held beliefs that specializes in maintaining the traditional or status quo. And demographics is just out of their control to manipulate without doing some really outrageous shit, such as playing chicken with the debt ceiling, and fully expected rigging the electoral college.
It is very hard for people to change the way they have been thinking their entire lives, and that is what is facing the repubs and making them ever more crazy to keep shit as it has been. They have only one choice, build a party with a platform that will first bring back the NE so called Rockefeller republicans, as fiscally conservative and more respectful and attentive toward the needs of minorities in the social and economic arenas. And continue from there to moderate to the needed degree for getting themselves elected to national office.
There is no where else to run, but doing goofy and offensive stuff like we are seeing, not to mention dangerous. And they will fail at those efforts, and the longer they continue these tactics, the greater the likely damage to their brand , unless somebody, or group of somebodies comes along and leads them to a place of semi sanity. The tea tards must be firmly thrown under the bus, those that won’t go along.
WereBear
@jeffreyw: Cool, for future reference. :)
SFAW
@General Stuck:
People/groups who realize they’re losing power, and are trying to maintain their grip on it, often do crazy/evil shit. The only questions regarding this (in my mind) is whether they will break before, or after, they destroy America.
weaselone
@General Stuck:
Except many seem not to realize that. They see a few islands of blue in a see of red and feel it’s unfair that those tiny blue areas carried their states.
ericblair
@cmorenc:
I think we need a district-by-district analysis of this. If you gerrymander a state to get the maximum number of reps for your side, what you’re doing ideally is fiddling with the borders until you’ve got the maximum amount of seats winning by 50%+1 and the other guy has a couple districts winning 90% of the vote in each. You can’t take the same electorate and maximize both the number and safety of your districts: they’re opposites. Remember, the number of voters in each district is almost exactly the same (with at-large seats as exceptions) and you can’t fiddle with that number.
Which means, depending on how fine they cut it, there could be an electoral disaster for the majority next election if the numbers shift a couple of percent across the board. I remember that Sam Wang did some analysis and the most gerrymandered state is PA. Flip a whole bunch of PA districts and the congressional math changes in a hurry.
cmorenc
@General Stuck:
Let’s see how this “fail” prediction works out in 2016 when the democratic nominee wins five to ten million more votes nationwide than the GOP nominee and 100 to 500k more votes in several key states, and yet loses the electoral vote in those states (this could happen in Pa by 13-7 GOP instead of 20-0 dem under the longstanding rules). Do you think the nominal GOP “winner” of the electoral vote under these manipulated circumstances will shy away from insisting on taking office and once in, behaving as if they’d won a decisive landslide and mandate?
Again, the prevailing view within GOP partisans is that the only reason the dems can win elections outside a few prohibitively blue states like California is because: a) far too many people are being allowed to vote who aren’t entitled to vote because they’re moocher-takers (ok, moocher-takers of the wrong kind, as opposed to deserving red-state takers) and b) even so, the dems frequently have to resort to fraudulent cheating (ACORN! BLACK PANTHERS!) to win, and therefore their wins are illegitimate. The firmly believe that a majority of the sort of people who are properly entitled to vote happen to be the sort who strongly tend to vote GOP, and don’t think it at all improper to disenfranchise huge blocks of democractic-leaning voters.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@cmorenc:
I will be using this many, many times over the next 3+ years.
General Stuck
@cmorenc:
First of all, though I think the republicans are likely going to attempt to rig the electoral college of blue states they now control at the state level, But I think they will fail at it. The obvious rigging and cheating will cause the mother of all backlashes in the country. And this is really their only hope, without changing their platforms, to beat the demographic train headed straight for them at the ballot box.
General Stuck
And I think this recent election was in part, maybe a large part, the first wave of increasing minority voting power that will trump the status quo.
Though we don’t know how much having a minority president and candidate brought that vote out. But whatever, it was enough to beat a 60 percent white vote for the republicans. In a lackluster economy in it’s fourth year of recovery.
weaselone
@ericblair:
That’s not what happened with most of these gerrymanders. For the most part they create safe Republican districts and ultra-safe Democrat districts. They maximized the number of safe Republican seats, not the total number of Republican seats.
For example, lets say you have a state with voters who break 50% D and 50% R in elections and has 10 congressional districts. You can create 8 districts that split 60:40 R:D and 2 which split 90:10 D:R. The Republicans will never win an election in a Democrat district, but with a 20 point advantage they’ll only occasionally lose one of the 8 districts where they have the advantage. So in a state whose population is evenly divided between Dems and Reps, Republicans would consistently win 80% of the House seats and the odds the Democrats would achieve a majority of house seats would be negligible.
SiubhanDuinne
@GregB:
I’m going to have this tattooed backwards on my forehead so I will see it every morning for the rest of my life.