Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[Geowhizzer]

All politics are partisan, rjs.  You know that.  Pelosi has a hammer and she's using it now.  At some point there may be a time for bipartisan cooperation, but right now, at this juncture, she has to wield the gavel like a sledgehammer.   And I'm glad she's doing it too.

As for Shuler, if he's so upset about the leadership of the Democratic Party then he can always line up his coalition of Blue Dogs and run for it himself.

If she tries to overuse the hammer, she may well find her party in the minority come the midterm elections.  Many are going to be quite short of patience for the "business as usual."

We'll see what happens...

[rjs246]

There are degrees, Rome. And this crossed the line for what was appropriate and what people wanted.

[Rome]

If you're referring to Shuler openly crossing party lines and voting with Republicans against his own party's stimulus package, then yes, I agree with you.   If you're referring to Shuler criticizing his party's leadership at a time when party unity is critical, then again, I agree with you.  If you're suggesting that the Democrats lined the package with pork for their own selfish reasons, and you're upset about it, then I also agree with you and I share your disgust.

My point remains, though, that unless Shuler is planning on ending any chance he has at furthering himself in the Party or furthering his "centrist" ideals, then he better come up with a more constructive way of doing it than ripping the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader publicly.

[ice grillin you]

get that neck out of the party

[Rome]

Barry's ginned up!

[Phanatic]

Is that true there aren't any earmarks in this bailout? When was the last time that has happened?

[rjs246]

CNN seems to be indicating that some people were frustrated by Obama's long answers to questions tonight. Are you kidding me? A president who actually has a grasp of the issues and has something to say about them? God forbid.

Excellent press conference. He did a fantastic job of selling his position. I still dislike the fact that there were certain stupid projects included in the House bill, but Barry did a great job of communicating his perspective and chastising Congress for making this a partisan issue.

[rjs246]

By the way, if Roland Martin isn't the weirdest looking dude on Earth I don't know who is. Also, he's intolerable. Every time he opens his mouth I want to punch him in the neck.

[SD_Eagle5]

That he kept emphasizing his biggest critics are the same people who watched the economy plummet over the past 8 years was spot on.

[ice grillin you]

Is that true there aren't any earmarks in this bailout? When was the last time that has happened?

this is what i was saying the other day....there isnt many earmarks and/or pork in this bill...i wont pretend to know every last line of it so i wont say none but basically there is a lot of stuff that the right doesnt like in it...so they are calling it pork when really they just have fundemental ideological differences with where the money is going...which is fair and absolutely their right but its totally wrong to paint the package as pork filled...its nothing more than a talking point and that word is so dirty sounding in politcs over the last ten years that its now thrown out for people to use who have no idea what is in a bill but wanna be able to complian about it without having to actually back up their complaints so you just drop the magic pork word and it makes the bill sound awful...or in this case its also for people who just wanna bitch about barry

[ATV]

[stalker]

Why is pork such a dirty word anyway. i love pork. Porkroll, pulled pork, pork chops, roast pork......I could go on and on. And I will not tolerate anybody bad mouthing porkroll.

[ATV]

Destroying Repubelican talking points with ease...

http://crooksandliars.com/media/play/wmv/7308/25882

And from earlier today...

http://crooksandliars.com/media/play/wmv/7304/25870

farging Awesome.

Some of you aren't aware how fortunate all of us are to have Obama as President.

[Diomedes]

RNC Chair Michael Steele is having some of his attention siphoned off by the FBI and the Press following allegations by his former campaign finance director, a convicted felon who in trying to get his own sentence reduced apparently spilled the beans on anyone he could, that Steele paid his sister for doing nothing. 

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.steele10feb10,0,396739.story

The FBI confirmed yesterday that it is investigating claims of campaign finance fraud during Michael S. Steele's 2006 Senate bid, amid fresh questions about the propriety of campaign payments to his sister's defunct company.

Steele's sister, Monica Turner, founded Brown Sugar Unlimited LLC in late 2003 as an investment company, according to State Department of Assessments and Taxation documents. She closed the business in March 2006.

Federal election records show Steele's Senate campaign paid Brown Sugar more than $37,000 in 2007 for Web and catering services that were performed after the company had shut down. Maryland law prohibits defunct companies from performing services.

The FBI has not disclosed the scope of its inquiry, but the questions come at a sensitive time for Steele as he begins his tenure as Republican National Committee chairman.

Steele has previously denied any impropriety in payments to his sister's company.

Lawyers not involved in the case questioned yesterday whether Turner was authorized to perform the "catering/web" work that campaign finance records indicate she was compensated for.

"You can't act outside" of what a company's articles of organization claim its purpose is, said Michael Crowson, who practices commercial law in Salisbury.

The transaction was highlighted in a series of campaign finance abuse allegations provided to federal authorities last year by Steele's former campaign finance chairman, Alan B. Fabian, who unsuccessfully sought a more lenient sentence in an unrelated fraud case.

Baltimore financial attorney Joel I. Sher called the campaign payment "highly unusual."

"A corporation is only authorized to act as a corporation or an LLC as long as it's properly formed," said Sher, who represents the trustee and creditors in a bankruptcy filing by Fabian.

Under Maryland law, continuing to transact business for a company "whose right to do business in Maryland has been forfeited" is a misdemeanor.

Brown Sugar, operated from Turner's Bethesda home, was dissolved March 14, 2006, according to the state tax department.

Either Turner or an agent acting on her behalf filed the necessary paperwork, paid a $100 fee and bought certified copies of the "Articles of Cancellation," which typically take six to eight weeks to process.

That means Brown Sugar would have been defunct by late spring 2006.

But Steele spokesman Curt Anderson said in an interview yesterday that Turner hosted two fundraising events, for which she hired caterers, and designed advertisements through the company in July and October 2006.

more at link

So Steele pays his sister's company 37 grand in campaign funds after her company has been dissolved for providing services which her company was not legally allowed to provide, and those services just happen to be difficult to trace out and pin down.

Odds that receipts for food and invoices for web development never appear?

I still don't understand why Steele didn't have a warning bell going off in his head "don't pay your family campaign money, it smells bad even if it's not bad, the stink will attract unwanted attention, and might never wear off even if you're cleared of wrongdoing."

[rjs246]

Brown Sugar? Ha.