The recent GOP efforts have been Shakespearean: …It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing. Actually, that’s harsher than my own opinion of what’s been going on—although it seems to be a good … Continue reading →
Republican senators Lindsay Graham and Bill Cassidy have rolled out their proposal: Graham and Cassidy, who have been working closely with former Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, argue that one of the main reasons that Republicans are having such a … Continue reading →
The current New York production of “Julius Caesar” in which Caesar is portrayed as a Trump-like figure is no ordinary propaganda. Caesar is a particular figure with particular characteristics. Why was he assassinated? Because the assassins thought he had become … Continue reading →
It’s getting real: Obamacare boosters, who have counted on the disarray of the GOP to continue indefinitely (not ordinarily a bad bet), are running scared because the repeal/replace effort may actually succeed. In what form, isn’t exactly clear. The article … Continue reading →
The report is that there’s encouraging news on that front: “Now I say promising, but I don’t know what it looks like legislatively ”¦ the key word is promising,” Graham said. “There better be [a vote this month], because this … Continue reading →
I’m going to start with a bunch of questions. Have you noticed how hard it is to figure out what to call the Republican efforts to replace (or shall we say modify) Obamacare? The natural solution is “Trumpcare,” but you … Continue reading →
Here’s a bit of nuclear option history: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was smugly looking ahead to the presidency of Hillary Clinton last October and the possibility that Senate Republicans might dare to filibuster the new president’s Supreme Court … Continue reading →
I feel his pain. No, truly, I do. RINO extraordinaire John McCain has indicated (if these reports are correct) that he will be voting to end the filibuster for the Gorsuch nomination. He says he’s not happy about it: “It … Continue reading →
Remember him? One of these days the Senate is going to vote on his nomination, and it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that they’ll approve him. But not just yet. And the mechanism by which it will happen—in particular, whether … Continue reading →
Most of us old enough to remember can recall a time when the Senate involved a fair amount of compromise, at least on presidential appointments. It pretty much boiled down to the idea that what goes around comes around. Unless … Continue reading →
Here’s a comment from “SteveH” in August of 2015, about the future political prospects of the GOP. I noted it down at the time and planned to discuss it in a post, a post that I drafted but never got … Continue reading →
When President Obama nominated Merrick Garland as SCOTUS Justice Scalia’s replacement last March, it was eight months from the 2016 election. Republicans controlled the Senate, and they decided to punt and wait for the next president. This was somewhat of … Continue reading →