Divided We Fail

Paul Krugman never minces words, and today's column is no exception to his rule.

Barring a huge upset, Republicans will take control of at least one house of Congress next week. How worried should we be by that prospect?

Very, he opines. And he clears the historical record: the era of partial cooperation in the 1990s came only after Republicans had tried all-out confrontation, actually shutting down the federal government in an effort to force President Bill Clinton to give in to their demands for big cuts in Medicare.

People forget that, and Republicans do nothing to remind them. They harp on big government and cutting taxes, but never explain just how they plan to do so. Mitch McConnell did say that “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

But what does that mean? If they have power, they can't keep blaming the Democrats and just saying no. They will be part of government and won't be able to just blame government for everything. Will that make them responsible and coöperative?


should any Republicans in Congress find themselves considering the possibility of acting in a statesmanlike, bipartisan manner, they’ll surely reconsider after looking over their shoulder at the Tea Party-types, who will jump on them if they show any signs of being reasonable. The role of the Tea Party is one reason smart observers expect another government shutdown, probably as early as next spring.

President Obama and his team will have to get real, get ready, and get tough. Because if the Republicans get power and get their way we’ll get the worst of both worlds: They’ll refuse to do anything to boost the economy now, claiming to be worried about the deficit, while simultaneously increasing long-run deficits with irresponsible tax cuts — cuts they have already announced won’t have to be offset with spending cuts. So if the elections go as expected next week, here’s my advice: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Something to look forward to?

Not our fault, theirs

Hallibuton, Replying to Report, Says BP Is to Blame in Gulf

Free, or just bad, speech?

The right wing was handed a new topic to rant about; it seems dumb. Juan Williams, who appeared on NPR, and also on Fox (where his moderate voice occupied the left), spoke freely, and got into trouble.

the public radio organization has come under severe criticism — largely from people who are not listeners, it believes — for having fired Mr. Williams, an analyst who was employed by both NPR and Fox News when he said on Fox that he felt fearful when he saw people in “Muslim garb” on an airplane. Some have said his comment was bigoted, but others have rallied to Mr. Williams’s defense, and many conservatives have seized on his firing to resurrect their war against public broadcasting.

Of course, the right wing nuts rant about free speech, and use NPR as a piñata, when it suits them.

Nix that idea

Raminder Pal Singh/European Pressphoto Agency - The Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, is a popular stop for famous visitors. Sikh scriptures require that men tie a piece of cloth on their heads to enter.

On President Obama's visit to India, the Golden temple had been considered a possible stop.

But the United States has ruled out a Golden Temple visit, according to an American official involved in planning. Temple officials said that American advance teams had gone to Amritsar, the holy city that is the site of the temple, to discuss a possible visit. But the plan appears to have foundered on the thorny question of how Mr. Obama would cover his head, as Sikh tradition requires, while visiting the temple.

Help, you want help?

The alliance between the Republican Carl P. Paladino and an Orthodox rabbi from Brooklyn has fallen apart, with the rabbi denouncing Mr. Paladino on Wednesday for his apology over remarks he had made about homosexuality on Sunday. The rabbi, Yehuda Levin, who helped write those remarks, said Mr. Paladino “folded like a cheap camera” because of the uproar they had set off. And the rabbi said he could no longer support Mr. Paladino’s candidacy for governor of New York. “Which part of the speech that you gave in Brooklyn to the Orthodox Jewish community are you apologizing for?” Rabbi Levin asked at a news conference in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, on Fifth Avenue. “Will we see you next year with your daughter at that gay pride march?”

The rabbi betrays his age in his choice of metaphors: fold like a camera? Cameras haven't folded in years.


Rabbi Levin said he was especially upset that Mr. Paladino gave him no notice that he planned to back away from the comments. “I was in the middle of eating a kosher pastrami sandwich,” Rabbi Levin said. "While I was eating it, they come running and they say, ‘Paladino became gay!’ I said, ‘What?’ And then they showed me the statement. I almost choked on the kosher salami."

He went from eating pastrami to eating salami; while rhyming, those are not components of a j\healthy meal, even if kosher.

Civilian Replaces General as Nat'l Security Adviser

General Jones’s exit had been expected at the end of the year, but it came earlier, administration officials said, after the White House became annoyed by the appearance of quotations attributed to General Jones in Bob Woodward’s book “Obama’s Wars.” [973.932 W]

 General Jones brought military experience to the White House team, but the president never let him into his inner circle, said David Rothkopf, the author of Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power. “Aloof himself, he served an aloof president, so there was zero chemistry or connection,” Mr. Rothkopf added.[355.033 R]

Justice's wife lobbyist

As one of the keynote speakers here Friday at a state convention billed as the largest Tea Party event ever, Virginia Thomas gave the throng of more than 2,000 activists a full-throated call to arms for conservative principles. For three decades, Mrs. Thomas has been a familiar figure among conservative activists in Washington — since before she met her husband of 23 years, Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court. But this year she has emerged in her most politically prominent role yet: Mrs. Thomas is the founder and head of a new nonprofit group, Liberty Central, dedicated to opposing what she characterizes as the leftist “tyranny” of President Obama and Democrats in Congress and to “protecting the core founding principles” of the nation.

 Tyranny? They have no idea what in hell they are talking about, and purposefully obfuscate the issues.


“It’s shocking that you would have a Supreme Court justice sitting on a case that might implicate in a very fundamental way the interests of someone who might have contributed to his wife’s organization,” said Deborah L. Rhode, a law professor and director of the Stanford University Center on the Legal Profession. Steven Lubet, who teaches legal ethics at Northwestern Law School, said Mrs. Thomas’s solicitation of big contributions raised potential recusal issues for her husband. But he added, “There’s no reason to think that Justice Thomas would be anything other than extremely careful about it.”