Democrats (2005): Proposal to do away with filibuster in Senate is "Arrogant" power grab against the founders' intent

Life is full of irony:

Robert Reich in the Christian Science Monitor: It's time to enact Obama's healthcare plan with 51 Senate votes".

Obama & Dems in ‘05: 51 Vote ‘Nuclear Option’ Is ‘Arrogant’ Power Grab Against the Founders’ Intent:

One-year anniversary: Rick Santelli starts the Tea Party

19 February 2009, Rick Santelli, CNBC commentator, live on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, goes off on Washington "stimulus" economics and says he's going to start a "Tea Party" in Chicago and throw derivative securities in Lake Michigan. The spark that started it all:

One year ago I saved the economy

Not Obama, William A. Jacobson. Read all about it here.

Inconvenient truth: global warming was a fraud?

The sky is falling. Except it's not.

The anti-CO2 crusade led by Al Gore, Phil Jones, et al. was apparently just so much hot air.

"Hide the decline."

Phil Jones lost his data. Oops.

The debate is over?

Read my lips...

Business Week headline: Obama "Agnostic" on Deficit Cuts, Won't Prejudge Tax Increases

First paragraph: "President Barack Obama said he is 'agnostic' about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit."

Further down in the story: "Obama repeatedly vowed during the 2008 presidential election campaign that he would not raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 and households earning less than $250,000 a year. When senior White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner suggested in August that the administration might be open to going back on that pledge, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs quickly reiterated the president’s promise.

"In the interview, Obama said that putting preconditions on the agenda of a bipartisan advisory commission, which he said he would soon establish, would just undermine its purpose."

"Bipartisanship" means political cover if he goes back on his pledge?

Sounded good during the campaign:



And -- hmm -- where'd that pesky deficit come from?

One year in: epic fail

Michael Barone: "The same people who directed the campaign that defeated Hillary Clinton and routed John McCain, a campaign that raised far more money and attracted far more volunteers than any before it, have within a year come up with a legislative program that is crashing in ruins and that, to judge from recent polls, has left the Democratic party weaker than I have seen it in almost 50 years of closely following politics." Read the whole thing.

Mainstream narrative, per Newsweak columnist: "America ungovernable"

Not really. Her president (with majorities in both houses of Congress) just isn't up to the job.

On the flip side, the president has been very effective in creating a "great peasant revolt" and a "3rd Great Awakening."