And so it begins:

“It’s certainly true that we in Congress will have input,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer , D-N.Y., said in a Jan. 9 conference call. But, he added, “The urgency of this economic crisis . . . is going to limit any haggling over competing approaches.” Schumer predicted that Congress would complete its work by a self-imposed Feb. 13 deadline and would enact a package greater than the $775 billion suggested by the Obama administration but still less than $1 trillion.

Nancy Pelosi wants tax increases. Barney Frank (and some other Democrats) want fewer tax cuts. Many Democrats want more infrastructure spending. And Charlie Schumer is already predicting that Democrats will do what comes naturally: spend more to try to accommodate everyone.

The signs are there that Congress is going to take Obama’s proposal and run with it, and send something to his desk that may not bear a great resemblance to what he suggested. This will be the moment that defines his economic legacy. Is he fully engaged to make sure that his crack team of experts and his whip man Rahm Emanuel knock some heads together to keep Congress in line?

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It’s perversely impressive when they actually, literally steal from the poor. Very 19th Century, only with better sanitation.

Baltimore mayor indicted on theft, perjury charges

BALTIMORE — Mayor Sheila Dixon was indicted Friday on charges that she accepted illegal gifts during her time as mayor and City Council president, including travel, fur coats and gift cards intended for the poor that she allegedly used instead for a holiday shopping spree.

A grand jury indicted Dixon on 12 counts, including four counts of perjury and two counts of theft over $500. She was also charged with theft under $500, fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary and misconduct in office.

The State Prosecutor’s Office, which has been investigating corruption at City Hall for nearly three years, said Dixon received holiday gift cards for four years from several people. Prosecutors said the gift cards were to be distributed to needy families, but were instead used by Dixon to buy electronics _ including an Xbox, a PlayStation 2 and a camcorder _ clothes and other merchandise and also handed out to members of her staff.

Contra Ed Morrissey, I count the Name! That! Party! number at eleven paragraphs. Maybe it looks different in print. [UPDATE: Our own Dan Spencer agrees with my count.]

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House Republican Whip Eric Cantor wants you to have a seat at the table as Congress debates the best way to promote economic growth. The Virginia Republican opened his website to public comments and encouraged citizens to send video submissions via YouTube.

Cantor has made transparency an important factor in the stimulus debate. Earlier in the week, he challenged Obama to create a real-time online ledger of the stimulus spending.

For conservatives to successfully fight the bad ideas in Obama’s plan, they will need alternative ideas of their own. My colleagues at The Heritage Foundation have identified tax relief and budget reform as two places to start. Now Cantor wants to know what you have to say. Send him a comment or record your own video.

[W]e’ve been guided by a Republican administration who believes in the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it, and they have an antipathy towards the means of redistributing wealth.

-Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA)

Couple that with Barack Obama’s statement yesterday that “Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy,” and you get a pretty clear picture of what we’re dealing with here — a mindset and philosophy which, if you agree that personal freedoms like the right to keep your own property and the right to the fruits of your own toils and labors are a moral good, can only be called morally repugnant.

h/t CfG

I never like being mean to guys on our side. So I’m glad I can now, this afternoon, write in praise of MItch McConnell.

Senate sources tell me McConnell is paying attention and is now running a back channel action to disrupt Reid on Sunday.

Basically, McConnell has gone from not being in the Senate on Sunday to encouraging other Republicans to skip out too, which will actually disrupt Reid’s efforts to get to sixty votes.

I’m told this turn by McConnell as well as outside groups on the left and right coming out, just might be able to throw a serious monkey wrench in Harry Reid’s plans.

So let’s say thank you now to Mitch McConnell for listening. His number is 202-224-2541. So often times we call and complain, we really should encourage each other to also call and say thank you for listening and helping.

This increases in importance because it has been 121 days since Harry Reid allowed a Republican amendment on the floor of the Senate. We are going to need the Republican leadership to engage in parliamentary warfare if this keeps up. Not since September 10, 2008, has Reid let a GOP amendment be considered on the floor.

While we’re thanking Mitch McConnell, we need to encourage him, Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint, John Kyl, Richard Burr, and others to start a fight for the rights of the GOP on the floor of the Senate.

I’ve said earlier that I think a president, any president, is entitled to his own team. The exception to that would be cases where the individual has taken actions which conclusively demonstrates that he so lacks in character, judgment, or temperament that he should be disqualified.

Eric Holder, former Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton, will begin confirmation hearings on or about January 15 to be Attorney General in the Obama adminstration. Eric Holder should be rejected by the Senate because he has demonstrated repeatedly that he is the epitome of the “yes man” and has no problem in using the full weight of the federal government to push whatever agenda he is told to push.

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When you get tired of crying, the only thing left to do is laugh. Congress is fertile ground for humor of course, but you gotta hand it to big porn, they certainly have stimulated the funny bone regarding stimulus packages. The pun environment is target-rich indeed, and if you want to see some of the funniest, check out this slogan contest over at #dontgo.

For me, I can’t stop laughing at the idea of Larry Flynt and that Girls Gone Wild dirtbag writing a gimme letter to congress. What would that sound like? “Dear Congress, You know, I never believed these bailout request letters were real until it happened to me. I never thought I’d be writing a letter like this …”

But look, don’t lets limit ourselves to Porn bailout jokes. The entire bailout fiasco from start to finish is begging for a bit of satire and mockery. Please feel free. Puns, slogans, and graphics (as long as they’re not graphic) .. even youtube vids. Let’s see what you’ve got … err, so to speak. I have to say it: I’ve shown you mine, now show me yours.

OPEN THREAD

I don’t mean to call USNJIMRET on the spot, but his comment is of a typical variety of cynicism that I’ve come to expect. To paraphrase: there’s nothing we can do except complain.

True, there are times when we’re going to lose. There are times we can bitch and moan. Sometimes venting is cathartic. But there is no reason to just vent. It’s time we blow shituff up.

In Kentucky we have only 75 members of the RedState Army of Activists. We need a surge in Kentucky — we need an army of activists who are willing to pick up the phone and metaphorically kick Mitch McConnell in the nuts as situations warrant.

McConnell either works for our side or he works for the Democrats. But the only people he’ll really listen to are in Kentucky. Same with other Senators.

So if you haven’t signed up and aren’t willing to help, stop the bitching. It’s time to deploy the troops and fight.

Sign up now.

“Cry “Havoc!” - and let slip the dogs of war.”

The vote by the House was 114-1 and marks the first time in the state’s 190-year history that a governor has been impeached, despite Illinois’ longstanding reputation for political corruption.

[snip]

A Blagojevich spokesman said the governor will not resign. A 2 p.m. news conference with the governor is scheduled for the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago.

Allahpundit can’t wait for the press conference (remember, that’s 2 PM CST), and neither can I. Although at this point the fact that the meme has been well and truly set that Illinois politics is a wretched hive of scum and villainy has seriously upped the ante on how this story could get any better. As I’ve noted privately, we’re at the point where we’d need flaming chainsaws to increase the Awesomeness of it all…

What? Burris lied in an affidavit about contacting a Blagojevich representative about his interest in the seat?

Let me go get a match, then.

Nancy Pelosi is advising Barack Obama that he ought to immediately make good on his campaign promise to raise taxes on the wealthy:

Pelosi told reporters today that she “couldn’t be more clear” in opposing some Obama advisers’ wish to wait for the tax cuts on the highest income earners to expire in two years, as they are set to do under current law. “Put me down as clearly as you possibly can as one who wants to have those tax cuts for the wealthiest in America repealed,” she said.

Pelosi said the income tax cuts to the highest earning Americans — which were decreased from 39.6 to 35 percent as part of the 2001 Bush tax plan — have been “the biggest contributor to the budget deficit,” which now stands at $1.2 trillion for fiscal year 2009. That deficit figure does not include the impact of the pending stimulus measure, which will cost around $800 billion, nor does it include estimates for supplemental spending bills that will come later this year to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…

Pelosi said the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy “have not grown the economy, have not contributed to the our economic security.”

“I couldn’t be more clear: Put me down as one in favor for repeal as soon as possible,” she said.

This raises an important point: Barack Obama cannot control what Congress sends him. While Congressional leaders might want to cooperate with him and make him look good, they don’t regard themselves as bound by his promises. Nor do committee chairmen like Charlie Rangel and Max Baucus.

So while Barack Obama may oppose these tax increases, it doesn’t mean they won’t happen. We will see whether Congressional Democrats are willing to defy him and perhaps, whether he is willing to threaten a veto if they reject his requests.

Update: Pethokoukis has related thoughts.

“Why, Mr. Holder, as Deputy Attorney General for President Bill Clinton did you pressure Justice Department employees to remove objections to clemency requests for 16 members of a domestic terrorist organization?”

The L.A. Times Reports today — “Attorney general nominee Eric H. Holder Jr. repeatedly pushed some of his subordinates at the Clinton Justice Department to drop their opposition to a controversial 1999 grant of clemency to 16 members of two violent Puerto Rican nationalist organizations, according to interviews and documents.  Details of the role played by Holder, who was deputy attorney general at the time, had not been publicly known until now.  The new details are of particular interest because Republican senators have vowed to revisit Holder’s role during his confirmation hearings next week.”  Wow.

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In 1992, Bill Clinton campaigned for the presidency on a platform that focused on tax cuts (to get the economy moving again), welfare reform, and getting tough on crime. By the time he vetted his agenda with Congressional leaders, the early focus of his administration had shifted to enacting a public works package, lifting the ban on gays serving in the military, and raising taxes. That shift pushed his presidency off course, and he never really recovered. In many ways, the outcome of the 1994 elections was determined by Clinton’s early shift to the Left. It’s clear that avoiding such mistakes is one of the early priorities of the Obama team.

But if Obama is trying to avoid the same mistake, he’s going to have to stare down a critical mass of Capitol Hill Democrats. It seems that everywhere you turn, liberals in Congress are criticizing Obama’s ‘tax cut’ plans:

Congress Daily:

Members of the Senate Finance Committee today expressed concern about several of President-elect Obama’s proposed tax breaks for businesses and individuals, arguing they may need to be reworked or scrapped. The panel met behind closed doors this morning, and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus said he has “very, very tentatively” set the markup for Jan. 22. “This is an early part of this whole process, and a lot of preliminary questions are going to be asked,” Baucus said. “We’re working our way through the search for the truth.” Senators raised concerns about Obama’s proposed $3,000 tax credit for companies that hire workers and a $500 to $1,000 credit for individuals and working families.

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I’m beginning to think that New York Governor David Paterson really doesn’t intend to name Caroline Kennedy to succeed Hillary Clinton in the Senate:

Caroline Kennedy’s lack of elected office experience “does not help her” in her quest to represent New York in the U. S. Senate, Gov. David A. Paterson told The Buffalo News on Thursday.

“The notion that I have to take Caroline is not coming from me,” Paterson said in an interview in his Capitol office. He said “gossip” has become a “greater force right now than my decision” and suggested the media have become too consumed with just one big-named candidate.

“What I would say is that, to the media it’s Caroline and the others. To me, there are 10 to 15 good candidates,” said the governor, who will appoint the successor to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton after she is confirmed later this month as U. S. secretary of state…

“So I would ask the question back: Why do you all pay so much attention to her? She’s just another person. So what? Her name is Kennedy. Why do you pay so much attention to her? I’m not reacting to what I think, I’m reacting to what I see,” he said.

Elsewhere, the New York Times reports that Kennedy has submitted the ‘questionnaire’ required by Paterson to be considered for the opening, as have four New York representatives and two other officials. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo — widely expected to challenge Paterson in the Democratic primary in 2010 — refuses to say if he has submitted the questionnaire.

Paterson is complaining loudly and often about the apparent assumption on the part of many that he will eventually name Caroline Kennedy. He has criticized her qualifications for the position. In a way, it would be very surprising if he ultimately chooses her, after having discouraged speculation about her at each turn.

The Anchorage Daily News finally admits that Dan Fagan told a couple of whoppers:

Dan Fagan’s column on Page B-4 Sunday mischaracterized federal regulations regarding apprenticeship programs. Those regulations do not require all apprentice candidates to have a high school diploma; an apprenticeship program may decide for itself whether its admission criteria mandate a diploma. There are more than 90 electrical apprenticeship sponsors in Alaska, not three as stated in Fagan’s column.

First of all, Fagan did not “mischaracterize” - he lied. The lies appeared in last Sunday’s edition of the ADN. This is Friday. It took five whole days for the newspaper to publish a correction. 

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That’s how fast Ronald Reagan was spinning in his grave yesterday as The One delivered his speech on the economy. When President Reagan entered office in 1981, he was faced with an economic problem brought on by four years of Carter ineptitude. Did he call for massive government intervention? No. Let me refresh your memory, in case you need it:

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.

Compare and contrast with yesterday’s message from on high:

It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth. But at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the cycle that is crippling our economy, where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs, which leads to even less spending, where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.

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So. For the second election cycle in a row, the Democratic Party has whaled upon the Republican Party in Congress. While not quite as bad this year as the last time - we were actually able to knock down a couple of the Democrats’ absolute worst, most corrupt representatives - it was still a shellacking, and it was coupled with our losing the White House. And probably the largest chunk of that credit on the Congressional level goes to former DNC chairman Howard Dean, who pushed a 50-state strategy in the face of widespread skepticism - including, famously, that of former DCCC chairman Rahm Emanuel.

So where is Dean, now that his party is victorious and his method vindicated? You may not believe me, even after I tell you:

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On Sunday, the Senate will vote on the lands bill. There is no unanimous consent relating to the bill because Senator Tom Coburn objected. But without Mitch McConnell standing up for Coburn, Harry Reid will be able to blame Coburn for the Sunday vote, which is the whole strategy, to isolate him and make him the enemy of the Senate Club.

In fact, Mitch McConnell will not be in the Senate on Sunday. He’s bailing, leaving the conservatives to fend for themselves. Without McConnell declaring the lands bill a party vote, ther is no way to protect Senator Coburn’s rights as a Senator to objective and offer amendments.

The bill is over 1000 pages long and comprises 130 plus bills, and Reid said Coburn can offer exactly zero amendments. Republicans are going to say “yeah, that sounds fair, because Coburn is an –hole and therefore has no rights.” If it were a Republican member like Ted Stevens whose rights were being denied, McConnell would fly back to town on Sunday to deliver a Braveheart-esque speech about the importance of protecting Ted’s rights.

There seems to be a lot of happy talk surrounding Barack Obama’s recent trip to Capitol Hill, and his attempt to sell his stimulus bill to Republicans by adding a few ‘tax cuts.’  But bipartisan bonhomie notwithstanding, there’s no more reason to embrace Barack Obama’s stimulus plan today than there was a week ago. 

It is still a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars, will do nothing to help the economy, and will blow an even bigger hole in a deficit that has risen from $162 billion to $1.2 trillion annually since Democrats took control of Congress. What Obama is selling and what he’s offering are two different things.  While the economy needs a genuine stimulus, Obama is offering to ’spread the wealth.’  And in so doing, he’s brazenly disregarding his read-my-lips campaign pledge to offer a net spending cut at a time when everyone else is tightening their belts.

Under the proposal, as presently described, successful businesses would get no tax cuts.  Unsuccessful businesses would get taxpayer subsidies.  The government would be all in with respect to picking winners and losers in what used to be the free market.  Likewise, Obama’s “tax cuts” are actually an end run around welfare reform — giving the most money to people who pay little or no taxes, then taking that money away if they get a pay raise or a better job. Nothing proposed by Obama — not the infrastructure spending, not the aid to the states, and not the redistributive tax cuts — would help create jobs or wealth.  In fact, taxing the people of each state to give money back to their own state government isn’t just robbing Peter to pay Paul, it’s robbing Peter to pay Peter.  If states need to raise more revenue, let their governors make that case directly to their taxpayers.

The best plan we are aware of to create jobs and wealth starts with making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent.  These reductions in capital gains taxes and dividend taxes, as well as the elimination of the death tax, are far more likely to get the economy moving again than anything proposed by Barack Obama or his Congressional allies. Absent that, there is no reason for Congressional Republicans to lend support in the crafting of an ineffective and wasteful pork barrel bill. 

If the Democrats will not make the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, the GOP should not even hint at supporting the Democrats’ plan. Two Republican Senators, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, are already suggesting they can work with Barack Obama on his “tax cuts” as presented.  Just callling something a tax cut does not make it so, just as calling something a stimulus does not make it so. 

Mitch McConnell, Saxby Chambliss, and the rest of the Republican caucus could probably use some encouragement to avoid the siren song of tax cuts and stimulus before they lend their support to a bill that is neither.

The newly sworn-in Democratic Representative from New York’s 29th District, Eric Massa, has apparently made a fuel of himself… and of those that elected him. And the amusing thing is he did it on the way to his swearing in ceremony. No waiting to actually take office for Massa. No, this man thinks BIG!

With great fanfare from local and regional media, Massa announced that he would drive a GM Hydrogen fuel cell car to Washington to “highlight new industries” and green fuel technologies. It was supposed to be a feels good move to garner the new Congressman some face time on TV and the golly-gee-wows of the country.

Then reality came a’knockin.’

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Great post. There need to be more like it and they need to go viral in a major way. The incoming Administration ought to be put on the defensive swiftly concerning any attempt on its part to undermine the school choice movement–especially given the Obamas’ insistence on keeping their children in private school and away from the influence of the very teachers’ unions that backed the Obama campaign and other Democrats in this most recent election cycle and other election cycles before it.

Funny how politicians who extol the handiwork of the teachers’ unions in public stay as far away from them and their handiwork as possible in private, nyet?