McCarthy makes his case...for being Cheeto's running mate

Certainly not as a decent human being, but that would utterly disqualify him from being one of Cheeto's hangers on.

However, he's got the "petty, vindictive, and cowardly" part of the job description down pat, to the point where the Rs who voted against him may be thinking that they'd change their votes if only he were like them all the time.

From CNN, dated 10/4 -

McCarthy behind move to kick Pelosi out of her office, sources say – so he can move into it

Kevin McCarthy was behind interim Speaker Patrick McHenry’s move to kick former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Majority Leader Steny Hoyer out of their office spaces, two Republican sources told CNN.

GOP Rep. Garret Graves told reporters on Wednesday that McCarthy is getting the office that McHenry has ordered her to vacate.

She didn't even vote to depose McCarthy; she didn't vote to keep him, either.  She was out of town, escorting the body of a friend, Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

From the vote to depose McCarthy -

Yes, McCarthy didn't even have the fortitude to face the target of his ire.  Nope, he did dirt to someone who did nothing to him but waited until she was a continent away to do it.

Basically, he exhibited the epitome of cowardice.

But it's not just him; it's the entire GOP caucus.

From The Hill, dated 10/4 -

House GOP takes revenge on Democrats after McCarthy ousting

Allies of toppled former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are fuming at Democrats for failing to back him amid his historic ejection — leaving Democrats arguing the GOP has no one to blame but themselves.

Republican ire hasn’t just been centered on the eight members of their own conference who ignited and backed the vote to oust McCarthy, but also the Democrats who voted in unison to remove him.

No has explained why members of the Democratic caucus should be thought of as responsible for fixing the Republicans' mess. 

The Rs (including McCarthy) *chose* to embrace and empower their most radical members; that's on them.  

They made this mess; they need to clean it up.

I'm not a Biblical person, but this reminds me of a saying taken from Hosea 8:7, emphasis added by them..

In other House Speaker news, Cheeto has endorsed one of the Rs who are declared candidates for the speakership.

From AP -

Donald Trump endorses Jim Jordan to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker

Former President Donald Trump is backing Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the pugnacious House Judiciary Committee chairman and longtime Trump defender, to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

“Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C., representing Ohio’s 4th Congressional District,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site early Friday. “He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”

Not surprising the someone deemed liable for raping someone thinks so highly of someone noted for using his position to protect sexual predators.

Get your popcorn out, and fasten your seatbelts - this is shaping up to be an entertaining but bumpy ride.

Politically-motivated violence *is* a laughing matter. Just ask Kari Lake.

She's a lot like her patron, the Cheeto Fuhrer, in one way (OK, *many* ways).  Just when you believe she can't sink any lower, just wait a minute.

She will.

From The Hill -

Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake jokes about Paul Pelosi attack

Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor of Arizona, made light Monday of the violent assault against Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband on Friday. 

“It is not impossible to protect our kids at school. They act like it is,” Lake said at a campaign stop along her “Ask Me Anything” tour.  

“Nancy Pelosi — well, she’s got protection when she’s in D.C. Apparently her house doesn’t have a lot of protection,” Lake said, prompting laughs and applause from the crowd and the event moderator beside her.

Paul Pelosi, the husband of the Speaker and the victim of the attack, is recovering slowly.

From The Independent (UK) -

Paul Pelosi’s son says his dad’s condition is improving: ‘They are rebuilding him slowly’

Paul Pelosi’s son says his father appears to be responding to treatment after he was brutally assaulted with a hammer during a home invasion.

“They are rebuilding him slowly,” Paul Pelosi Jr told reporters outside the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center on Sunday evening, according to the New York Post.

The person who thinks violence in an excuse to yuk it up may defeat Katie Hobbs for the governorship of Arizona.

God help us all if that happens.

Paul Pelosi, the husband of the U.S. Speaker of the House, attacked in his home by QAnon sympathizer

I wish I could say that I was shocked, but I'm not.

Those with violent tendencies, like Trumpkins, consider elected officials and their families to be fair game.

From AP -

Suspect in assault at Pelosi home had posted about QAnon

The man accused of breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 

California home and severely beating her husband with a hammer 

appears to have made racist and often rambling posts online, 

including some that questioned the results of the 2020 election, defended 

former President Donald Trump and echoed QAnon conspiracy theories.

David DePape, 42, grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, before 

leaving about 20 years ago to follow an older girlfriend to San Francisco. 

A street address listed for DePape in the Bay Area college town of Berkeley 

led to a post office box at a UPS Store.

DePape was arrested at the Pelosi home early Friday. San Francisco 

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said she expected to file 

multiple felony charges, including attempted murder, assault with 

a deadly weapon, burglary and elder abuse.

And with Mark Finchem, Kari Lake, and others being the Republican nominees for various office, we should expect more politically-motivated violence.

As if his support for the armed insurrection of 1/6 wasn't convincing enough, Kevin McCarthy announces his violent tendencies to the world

The fact that violence is something McCarthy thinks is so funny that it should be joked about proves two things:

1. There's a reason that Gosar, Biggs, et. al. refer to him as "Leader".

2. Keeping the House controlled by Democrats is imperative.

From CNN -

McCarthy jokes 'it will be hard not to hit' Pelosi with gavel if he becomes House speaker

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy joked at a Saturday night event that it "will be hard not to hit" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the speaker's gavel if Republicans take control of the chamber in the 2022 midterms and he becomes speaker.

"I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel. It will be hard not to hit her with it," McCarthy said in audio posted to Twitter by a Main Street Nashville reporter.

Of course, McCarthy was only promising to do what the insurrectionists wanted to do anyway.

From the Atlantic -

It Was Supposed to Be So Much Worse

On the West Lawn of the Capitol Wednesday, a man in a pom-pom beanie clamored for blood. “Execute the traitors!” he shouted into a megaphone. “I wanna see executions!”

The man got the deaths he wanted, if not the executions. Four rioters died as a result of Wednesday’s insurrection at the Capitol.* Some of them had bigger plans too: Before the protest, pro-Trump radicals had posted online about their intentions to kill Vice President Mike Pence. They brought zip ties and wore Kevlar vests. Rioters erected a wooden gallows next to the Capitol Reflecting Pool, and police discovered two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill.

Arizona earns another low rating when it comes to protecting children

This time, it's the state's Congressional delegation that has let children down.

The Children's Defense Fund Action Council has released its 2007 Congressional scorecard. The scoring was based on 10 key votes each in the House and Senate (the list of votes was slightly different for each chamber.)

Arizona's delegation ended up tied for 44th with Louisiana's.

Hey - at least we beat Nebraska, South Carolina, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

On the other hand, Georgia, Texas and Mississippi beat us, and that's not exactly something to brag about.

By comparison, my old home state of Massachusetts ranked 3rd, with an average score of 97%; the only negative marks were due to absences, not bad votes.


As could be expected, the Arizona delegation split along party lines -

In the House, Democrats Ed Pastor and Raul Grijalva each scored 100%, Gabrielle Giffords 80%, and Harry Mitchell 60%.

On the Republican side, Rick Renzi scored 60%, Trent Franks and John Shadegg scored 10%, and the ever-reliable Jeff Flake earned a big ol' goose egg (he's like Mikey from the Life cereal commercial - he hates *everything.*)

It seems that John Shadegg's 'expertise' on health care doesn't extend to healthy children, only healthy corporate bottom lines. As for Trent Franks, apparently his concern for children stops once they are born.

As for Renzi's 60%, well, you knew that there had to be a real reason that a Republican U.S. Attorney pursued an indictment of a Republican Congressman - I mean, there was no way a Bush appointee would go after a Republican for simple extortion and fraud, right?

:))

And as for Harry Mitchell's 60%, I supposed he can take heart in the high-wattage company he's keeping - Nancy Pelosi was also at 60%, Joe Biden was at 50%, Barack Obama 60%, Hillary Clinton 70%.

Over in the Senate, Jon Kyl scored at 30% and John McCain earned a 10%.

Of course, given that McCain missed 8 of the 10 key votes, maybe his grade should be 'Incomplete.' However, according to the 2006 Scorecard, he made all of the 10 key votes that year, and scored a resounding

10%.

Come November, that's something that parents all over the state might want to think about before they cast a 'favorite son' vote in the general election.

Later!

Here and there...

A quick roundup of stuff...

Yesterday, the House spent a significant chunk of its day debating one or another aspect of H.R. 2764, the Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008 (aka the omnibus appropriations bill), a 3500-page, $516 billion behemoth that funds pretty much all domestic spending for the fiscal year that started October 1.


During most of the debate, the Republicans spent their debate time wagging their fingers and spouting phrases like "pork-laden". "fiscally irresponsible", "where's the Iraq war funding?", "under cover of darkness" (the completed bill was posted on a House website on late Sunday evening/early Monday morning), etc.

What they (the Republicans) seemed to be doing was criticizing Democrats for things that the Republicans had done for years when they controlled Congress and ignoring the fact that it has taken a Democratic majority to actually pass a budget, since the Republicans didn't pass one at all last year.

That was pretty fiscally irresponsible then, and rather hypocritical of them to now criticize the Democrats for performing their duty.

It has been said that "operating without a budget is like steering without a wheel."

So what does newly-converted fiscal conservative George W. Bush have to say on the topic?

From The Hill -

“If the Congress can’t get the job done … then I’ve got a suggestion for them, and just pass a one-year continuing resolution,” he said. “That’s all they’ve got to do. If they can’t get the job done, like I’m hopeful they will, then all they’ve got to do is just take what’s called a continuing resolution, get the people’s business done that way and go on home."

The thing about a lack of a budget is that it brings with it a lack of fiscal control. This may sound cynical of me, but in the sphere of government, that is the kind of environment that allows fraud and misuse of public monies to go undetected or unpunished.

Why am I not surprised that Bush and the Republicans favor continuation of that environment?

I won't be shocked if Bush finds a way to rationalize a veto of the bill.


...In the resolution of her DUI case from earlier this year, State Rep. Trish Groe (R-LD3) pled guilty to a misdemeanor DUI count and was sentenced to 10 days in jail (to be served in Maricopa County) and a nearly $3000 fine.

While I am (happily) ignorant of the sentencing nuances of AZ's DUI laws, that sentence doesn't actually seem to be unreasonable - she didn't hurt anybody, and that *does* make a difference to me.

What I have a problem with, however, is the fact that the special prosecutor in the case, Dennis Wilenchik, is the same one who, while doing contract work for Andrew Thomas' office (Maricopa County Attorney), ordered the arrest of two New Times' publishers/journalists for writing uncomplimentary stories about Thomas and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Why is this clown still allowed to dip into the public trough? More than $220,000 just since the New Times case was dropped? Even if he was just following the orders of Thomas and/or Arpaio, what he did was inexcusable.

At the very least, he and any firm that he is associated with should be permanently barred from ever working for a public entity.

Ever.


...Hmmm. Somebody from the U.S. Department of Justice has been reading my posts (here, here, and here) on the EPA announcement of "incomplete remediation" of contaminated groundwater that was later added to the drinking water supply in Scottsdale. The user's Google search was for the terms "epa superfund nibw arizona press releases".

It's interesting, but what's the motivation for the DOJ's interest? This one has me stumped. Anyone have an idea?


...On Friday, Randy Pullen, chair of the Arizona Republican Party, demanded that Harry Mitchell (D-AZ5) apologize for a comment by the Speaker of the U.S. House, Nancy Pelosi.

Apparently, at her morning news conference, she was quoted as saying that the Republicans "like" the war in Iraq.

This begs two questions -

1. Why is Pullen upset with a true statement?

2. I thought the Republicans billed themselves as the party of 'personal responsibility.' Why should Harry Mitchell apologize for Speaker Pelosi's comments? Hell, not only did he not make the comments himself, he wasn't even present when they were said.

Note: Later that same day, during an interview on PBS' Newshour, Pelosi clarified her earlier comment. From the transcript -

GWEN IFILL: You said this morning at your news conference that Republicans like this war, that this is the Republicans' war.

REP. NANCY PELOSI: Well, when I said "like," I used a poor choice of words. The fact is: They support this war. They support the president's execution of it, even though any objective observer of it would say that a war that we've been in much longer -- more than a year longer -- than we were in World War II, going in on a false pretense without a strategy for success, without a reason to stay, against the wishes of the American people does not deserve the support of the Congress of the United States.

She was fine until she softened it; the war in Iraq really is the Republicans' war.

If anything, her original comment was soft to begin with (courtesy The Moderate Voice) -

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out at Republicans on Thursday, saying they want the Iraq war to drag on and are ignoring the public’s priorities.

“They like this war. They want this war to continue,” Pelosi, D- Calif., told reporters.

"Like" is a gentler way of putting it than I would have chosen.

"Revel in" is a far more accurate way to phrase it.

Anyway, back to the point, Le Templar of the East Valley Trib puts Pullen in his place in Templar's own blog entry when he suggested (writing as Harry Mitchell could have) that if Pullen believes that Mitchell should apologize for Pelosi, then "Pullen can live up to his own standards and apologize for George Bush" for Bush's various crimes and misdeeds.

Later!

Nancy Pelosi's visit to ASU

In the overflowing Arizona Ballroom in ASU's Memorial Union, protected from the drizzle and wind outside, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, along with U.S. Reps Barbara Lee (D-CA9), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ7), Ed Pastor (D-AZ4), and Harry Mitchell (D-you know where :) ) spoke to over 700 people of all ages about efforts in Congress to make a college education more affordable for America's working and middle classes.

After being introduced by Elizabeth Simonhoff, Vice-President of the ASU Undergraduate Student Government, Speaker Pelosi started off by letting the assemblage know that it was a great personal and political pleasure for her first non-district trip as speaker to be to Arizona. The personal part is that her daughter and her family live here; in fact, her son-in-law teaches in Tempe and her grandchild attends school in Scottsdale. [Note: she'll be visiting that school tomorrow.]

She also gave a plug for the AZ Congressfolk present, as well as Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ8), for their work to make higher education more affordable.

Pelosi spoke for a while on the importance of education, and educational opportunity, to achieving the American dream, and to the greatness of America throughout our history.

She moved on too talking about the Democrats' 1st 100 Hours agenda, and how the passage of that agenda signalled a change in Washington. She also noted the bipartisan support in the House for reducing education's financial burden on America's families.

Pelosi promised that what has been done so far (lower student loan interest rates from 6.8% to 3.4%) is "only a start" and that there's more to come.

When Harry Mitchell rose to cheers and a chant of "Harry! Harry! Harry!", he talked about how the average ASU grad started with a debt of $15,000 and that number is rising, and that expanding access to education is a prime goal of this Congress.

Ed Pastor drew the biggest laugh of the day when he mentioned "compassionate conservatives," noting that most of their compassion is for the very rich. He noted that under this administration, Pell Grant funding has been reduced, student loan interest rates were increased, and the wealthiest got a tax cut.

He compared Congress' passage of the continuing resolution to fund the government (after the "do-nothing" 109th Congress failed to do so), a CR that contained an increase in Pell Grant funding with the President's latest budget proposal, which includes an increase in Pell Grants, but takes the money from other financial aid programs.

Pastor drew a loud round of cheers when he told the audience that Congress would tackle immigration in March, and that their immigration reform act would include the DREAM Act (link to 2004 bill; I'll post a link to the new one when I can find it.)

Raul Grijalva got a chuckle at the beginning of his speech when he admitted that "maybe everything has been said already, but *I* haven't said it. He spoke about some of the goals of this Congress, which include increasing funding for loans, lower interest rates, a goal of a $5100 Pell Grant and a loan forgiveness program for people who go to work in areas of need.

He said that it was time to "stop the raid on higher education" and talked about how 400,000 students per year delay or forgo their education due to the cost, and the need to change that.

Barbara Lee bonded with the crowd by letting us know, that like Speaker Pelosi, she has family living in Arizona, including her mom, dad, and an aunt.

She advised us that her career in Congress can be credited to student financial aid - the education that placed her on the path to public service and elected office that she received at Mills College and UC-Berkeley was only available to her because of financial aid.

She also called for America in general, and Congress in particular, to "reorder our priorities so that education stays at the top of the national agenda."

After the guests of honor finished their speeches, they took some questions from the audience before adjourning, letting the crowd out into the pounding sprinkles.

Notes from the day:

...A broad cross-section of Democratic Party notables was present today - before the session, Attorney General Terry Goddard, Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, and former Senator Dennis DeConcini were introduced. Others in the crowd, and I'm pretty sure I didn't everybody who attended, included new Kyrene Constable Jon Levenson, MCDP Chair Mark Manoil, State Representative Ed Ableser, and State Representative David Schapira. Governor Napolitano had a scheduling conflict with the afternoon event, but was supposed to meet with the Speaker in the evening, and Congresswoman Giffords is in Iraq.

The notices about the event advised attendees to arrive an hour early to ensure a seat; I arrived over 90 minutes before the start of the forum, and there were already hundreds in a line that snaked around that level of the Memorial Union.

Highlight of the day, pre-event: walking by the ASU Republicans' table outside the MU, with four Republicans seated at it, talking to each other. They *had* to talk to each other - no one else was at the table. :))

Highlight of the day, post-event: meeting the Speaker and talking to her for a moment. I made a crack about how I would have introduced her as "The First Italian-American Speaker." She laughed, saying that she was also "The First Californian...," and "The First Marylander..." among other firsts.

It was seriously cool. :))

Geo at Geo's Precinct 134 has his coverage here.

Overall, it was a great day, but the right-wing media is already starting its spin:

The Phoenix Business Journal's story about the event focused on the appointment of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) (of the $90K cash in the freezer fame) to the House Homeland Security Committee, not on the event itself.

Later!