Washington Post

Boehner has no idea of what his proposed cuts, to the extent the Republicans have posted just vague round numbers and not real programs. Here is a cynical exchange which puts some cold truth on the subject. OBTW, Polifact has said that the "200,000" Obama supposedly has hired is a simple lie--but what do you expect.

"So be it."

That was House Speaker John Boehner's cold answer when asked Tuesday about job losses that would come from his new Republican majority's plans to cut tens of billions of dollars in government spending this year.

"Do you have any sort of estimate on how many jobs will be lost through this?" Pacifica Radio's Leigh Ann Caldwell inquired at a news conference just before the House began its debate on the cuts.

Boehner stood firm in his polished tassel loafers. "Since President Obama has taken office the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs, and if some of those jobs are lost in this, so be it," he said.

I just ran across this great article from the Washington Post's Colbert King on Slavery in America. He is not talking about something 200 years ago. He is not talking about "might as well be slavery". No. He is talking about real, honest-to-god slavery in our nation's capital. Go over and give it a read.

Chris Godzilla at the Washington Post writes with a level of confidence that occasionally exceeds his level of knowledge. Today's report on the US Senate in 2008 includes this strange paragraph:

North Carolina:
Following her disastrous performance as the chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the 2006 cycle, rumors of a retirement by Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) continue to circulate in the D.C. Dole will be 72 years old on election day 2008 and had hip replacement surgery earlier this week. It's also not immediately clear that Dole would have a path back into leadership even if she won re-election to a second term. If Dole retired, Democrats would likely turn to Gov. Mike Easley (D) who will be term limited out of office in 2008. Rep. Bobby Etheridge (D) has also toyed with the idea of running for the Senate in recent years and might find an open seat irresistible.

Democrats would likely turn to Easley? Hmmmm. That's news to me, given the fact that Governor Easley has said: “I would find the legislative process frustrating. I just don’t think the Senate would be the highest and best use of my skills.”

Dear Mr. Godzilla: What's with the "Bobby" thing? Seems kind of familiar, don't you think? And by the way, it's okay to ask around before you put your reputation on the line with uninformed pundo-babble.

Recently I offered a piece about the Southern GOP as the leading element of the Republican Party and how that limits the party's popularity outside the South. In today's Washington Post Harold Meyerson's column describes his take on that same issue. It's well argued and I won't condense it here. However, this quote gives you some sense of his point of view...

For four decades, it's been the Democrats who've had a Southern problem... couldn't elect any senators, then any House members, then any dogcatchers. They still can't, but the Southern problem, it turns out, is really the Republicans'. They've become too Southern...

We yelled, screamed, commented on their posts, emailed, wrote our own blog posts, called, flailed our arms about, then yelled and screamed some more. We still failed to get their attention until the very last minute.

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post gives his first look at the top ten most vulnerable House races for 2008. We might need to go leave comments on his blog post at WaPo, but it won't be to yell or scream.

According to Cillizza in his typical Friday "The Line" post:

North Carolina's 8th District (R): For several cycles, Democrats spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to unseat Rep. Robin Hayes (R). Who would have thought that Larry Kissell (D), who was almost entirely ignored by national Democrats, would come within 329 votes of ousting the incumbent? Kissell conceded the race to Hayes earlier this week but immediately announced that he will run again in 2008. While Kissell will surely have more money this time around (he raised $450,000 for the 2006 race), Hayes will also be paying much closer attention. The central North Carolina district has a Republican lean; Bush won here by nine points in 2004.

While I've posted his entire commentary on the race we will all be working to win, he has 9 others listed. Please go visit, read and leave him some love in the comments. I don't always agree with Cillizza, but he needs to know when he gets it right.

Turns out that we (and by "we", I mean the rest of the ScruHoo gang, as well as the rest of the 54% of the people in the 11th Congressional District who voted on Election Day, not to mention pretty much everyone who reads BlueNC) aren't the only ones happy to see Rep. Charles "Lumpy" Taylor go back to the tree farm. Below the jump there's a tidbit from today's op-ed piece by the Washington Post's Colbert I. King