Bookworm Room

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We can expect tomorrow night’s State of the Union address to be an action-packed hour (or so) of vitriol and self-pity.  Obama will cherry-pick a few numbers about the 1% and then whine about how he’s been trying really hard to destroy that same 1%, but that a vast array of insurmountable obstacles — Congress, [...]

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Yay, there’s another Sarah Palin in American politics. Mia B. Love – mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah. Those of you that have read my posts and comments (whether you agree or disagree) know that I am a huge Sarah Palin fan. Frankly, there is a certain breed of all-American women that I hugely admire in [...]

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Some of us thought, “Yay, Barney Fwank is leaving.”  Sure, we know that his constituents will elect someone equally liberal to fill his old seat, but that person will lack Barney Fwank’s seniority. Sadly, others with Fwank’s seniority remain behind in the House of Representatives.  So it very much looks as if, to fill the [...]

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Over the years, I helped win at least two major cases because I re-framed the debate.  In one case, a will contest case, the opposing party claimed that our client, a housekeeper, had committed fraud and elder abuse in order to inveigle a little old lady into leaving the housekeeper a substantial chunk of the [...]

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Oh, how I wish I could vote in Alabama.  First Dale Peterson, and now Rick Barber, whose campaign video you must watch.  And then watch again.  And then send to your friends: It will not surprise you, I think, to learn that Barber is a Marine Corps veteran. Hat tip:  American Thinker

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In a time of economic uncertainty, which is not helped by runaway government spending, you might be surprised (happily or otherwise) to learn where your Senator or House member stands when it comes to pro-growth policies.  I was not at all surprised to learn that my representatives — Woolsey, Boxer and Feinstein — are busy [...]

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A brief history:  Obama promised that the health care debate was so important, it would be carried on C-SPAN.  That did not happen.  Obama promised that any proposed bill on health care would be placed on a website for public comment far in advance of the vote.  That did not happen.  Obama promised that he [...]

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Yes, you’ve already seen this video of Rep. Hank Johnson from Georgia (Cynthia McKinney’s old district), but I’m going to show it again, if for no other reason than to appreciate the Admiral’s incredible polite restraint.  An officer and a gentleman, that’s for sure: Many have noted that Rep. Johnson is ill, which may account, [...]

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As part of a longer rumination about the stability that the Cold War provided for our political system, James Taranto makes the following observations about yesterday’s House vote: Why did it happen? Last November voters sent what seemed to us a pretty clear message by rejecting Democratic candidates for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, [...]

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Victor Davis Hanson sums everything up in one paragraph: The president is pushing legislation that a clear majority of the people dislike, and whose details neither he nor his supporters can explain in simple language. Its ends-justify-the-means passage will require legislative gymnastics that border on the unconstitutional, and in Orwellian fashion are designed to reassure [...]

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You’ve all heard by now about the 2300 “reconciliation” bill that the House won’t vote on but will simply deem passed, thereby, in a completely unconstitutional way, making the bill a law.  (Ahem.) But did you know that Pelosi has been busy sticking in more than just student loan relief so that we can have [...]

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Pride can make us do very stupid things.  Once we’ve committed to something (a job, a marriage, a principle, whatever), and once we’ve touted that commitment to the world as the most wonderful thing evah, it is extremely difficult to stand up to that same world and admit “I made a mistake.” I’ve been thinking [...]

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Perhaps it really is true that Pelosi doesn’t have the votes for Obama Care.  After all, if she did, why would the Democrats be considering the “Slaughter Option” something that involves bypassing votes altogether: The Slaughter Solution is a plan by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the Democratic chair of the powerful House Rules Committee and [...]

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The American Thinker spells it out: Richard Baehr, ace political watcher, thinks the odds are that Nancy Pelosi, through brute force, will get Obama Care through.  Once that happens, of course, it’s the law, and “reconciliation,” which is ostensibly meant to smooth away any lingering roughness, will die a’bornin’ Christopher Chantrill explains what government will [...]

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I believe more and more strongly that reconciliation is a red herring, meant to induce the House to pass the Senate bill.  Once that’s done, this so called “reconciliation,” an alleged second bill that will smooth away the differences between the two chambers (especially the House’s demand that abortion, which is part of the Senate [...]

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Hear me out. Sure, the public is indignant about our current state of affairs, especially the mushrooming deficits that have pretty much sealed our national bankruptcy (in my humble opinion). What worries me, though, is what needs to be done to fix the problem. I personally don’t see any solution except to administer massive haircuts [...]

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As part of a longer post about the Democrats’ anti-democratic tendencies, Peter Wehner has this to say: If you wanted a sound bite that embodied much of what is wrong with contemporary liberalism, you could do worse than listen to the words of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on health care: We’ll go through the gate. [...]

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Compare and contrast: No wonder our government functions like a bad comedy.  At least Foster Brooks was talented.  Baucus is just a hack — with your life in his hands.

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In the wake of the 2008 election, Republicans and conservatives were paralyzed.  They’d been trounced, not so much by sweeper percentages (that is, the elections were all just over the slightly 50% mark), but by huge numbers of elections in which Democrats edged out Republicans by those few percentage marks.  If there are 100 races, [...]

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That Nancy Pelosi is a pistol.  Here she is, a terrible public speaker, but still arguing strongly that it’s absolutely unconscionable for Congress to sneak bills through committee, to vote on things they haven’t read and don’t know, to vote on bills that the American public hasn’t had to read, to have bills in the [...]

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It’s Sunday and there’s nothing I can do to change yesterday’s vote at this moment.  I need to relax. Jennifer Rubin is also sanguine, bless her heart. UPDATE:  The Anchoress urges us to be not afraid, even in the shadow of the jackboot.

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Maybe she got those Dems to vote yes because she assured them that, at the end of the day, the Senate will vote no.  Or, maybe, we’re screwed: The US House of Representatives has approved the broadest US health care overhaul in a half-century, handing President Barack Obama a major victory on his top domestic [...]

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I like how clearly Karl Rove sums up the economic pain the Democrats’ proposed health care plan will impose on the economy as a whole and on individual Americans: For starters, the bill is a lot more expensive than advertised. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) pegs its cost at $1.055 trillion over 10 years, not [...]

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The way this attack ad against rising star Doug Hoffman (in NY’s 23rd district) is framed, it’s clear that Hoffman’s sin is being wealthy: I think that’s a marvelous standard by which to disqualify people from political office, at least this year.  (And we know from what happens in Massachusetts that you can change the [...]

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