John Boehner: between a tea bag and a hard place

John Boehner has been negotiating all week with President Obama and his staff to resolve the “fiscal speedbump” issue. President Obama took a step toward Speaker Boehner in the negotiations by allowing the Bush tax cuts to remain in place for incomes over $400,000/year (up from $250,000), making some cuts to entitlements to be named later and agreeing to a different way to calculate Social Security cost of living increases that would lower how much our seniors get in their monthly allocation by a smidgen — the so-called “chained CPI”.

In return, Boehner offered to extend the debt ceiling for two years and allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for income over $400,000.

This was, however, a bridge to far for his tea party leadership team, according to Ezra Klein at the Washington Post. So, he offered what he’s calling “Plan B” and the response from the White House was a resounding “screw you”.

Check it all out after the jump.

At least we know who they work for now — they’ve made that clear

House Republicans have released a counter-proposal to President Obama’s budget plan to avoid plunging us off the fiscal cliff speed bump. Unsurprisingly, it raises tax revenue but doesn’t allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. In fact, according to analysis by the Washington Post, it appears to lower taxes for the top tax bracket.

Details and more GOPocrisy and insanity after the jump.

A clown car with a new paint job and faster internet is still a clown car

I’m hoping that LOLGOP will forgive me for stealing his User Picture but it just seems so apropos to this piece. I say that because, considering how much money political consultants make giving bad advice to Republican candidates and their leadership, the GOP elephant pleasuring itself sums up their party to a tee right now.

My take on the current state of the Grand Old Party after the jump.

You can thank Rush Limbaugh and Fox News for that There’s plenty of recrimination going on about why President Obama cleaned Mitt Romney’s clock in last week’s election. At the end of the day, however, the reason for the drubbing is simple: America is not a far-right, super-conservative nation. We are, largely, a centrist country that probably leans a tad […]

Seizing the moment

“Tuesday night, we found out that the majority of Americans agree with my approach”

That was President Obama yesterday wasting no time in claiming the mandate handed to him by a plurality of Americans: It’s time for an end to Republican obstructionism and, absolutely without question, it’s time to quit pretending that it’s acceptable to balance our budget and reduce our deficit by raising taxes on seniors and the middle class while letting our wealthiest Americans continue to avoid paying additional taxes. It was his first public appearance since the election and it was powerful.

Video, transcript and commentary after the jump.

Shameless and crass

Mitt Romney claimed to be suspending his campaign during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy which devastated the East Coast last night and continues to impose its wrath. However, that’s pretty much NOT what he did. Instead, an Ohio campaign event was hurriedly renamed a “relief charity event”. As the event began, the standard Romney bio video was shown on a huge screen. The press was invited, too. As John Aravosis at AMERICAblog points out, why invite the press if this is for charity???

More details with pictures and tweets after the jump.

Yes, that’s right. Just like Peter Jackson’s production of The Hobbit, I’ve found so much raw material to work with that I decided to break what was originally a single story into two, and now three sections. As I reported yesterday, in addition to being front-paged here at Eclectablog and at dKos, the first chart went utterly viral, hitting everything […]

“[Tonight’s] debate is about foreign policy. Spoiler alert: we got bin Laden” – Barack Obama

Don’t you get the feeling that, as a child, Mitt Romney was playing with priceless antique World War I army statues while the rest of the kids were playing with little plastic army men? What he knows and understands — or rather DOESN’T understand — about foreign policy is betrayed every time he says something or does something related to it.

His bluster while our embassy staff members were being murdered served no purpose other than to make him look stupid and the country look weak. Typically, when our country is under attack, everyone pulls together and presents a united front. Not Mitt Romney. He couldn’t wait to get in front of journalists and cameras to show the world how weak we are.

Atta boy, Mitt. You’re a real team player there, pal.

Much more after the jump.

Down in the polls by 16 points against Senator Debbie Stabenow and rapidly running out of both time and money, Pete Hoekstra took his failed campaign overseas last weekend. To Israel.

I don’t get it either.

Details after the jump.

Let’s review, shall we?

Republicans are starting to drift away at the edges of Presidential campaign. Vulnerable Republicans, in particular, are avoiding “The Stench”. They don’t need that boat anchor around their ankles.

It actually started early in the primary season when people like Ann Coulter and Newt Gingrich warned Republicans that, if they chose Romney, they’d lose to Obama.

Let’s just remember what the Republicans alternatives were (after the jump.)

Oops, I accidentally ran for president

Mitt Romney is desperately — DESPERATELY! — trying to be liked. With his unfavorables at tragically low levels, he’s now pitching himself as “a warm, friendly … who just happens to be running for president.”

Seriously. Details on his latest fail attempt to be liked after the jump.