Opinion
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By: David Freddoso
In response to the attention we gave him for his old column on how Washington has "anemic winters" because of global warming, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tells NRO's Robert Costa: “Idiots on the right like Rush [Limbaugh] like to point to any cold-weather anomalies as proof that global warming doesn’t exist,” Kennedy says. And that's just the point. As I wrote in my original post on the subject: [P]erhaps RFK, Jr. should leave weather analysis to the meteorologists instead of trying to attribute every global phenomenon to anthropogenic climate change....By: Mark Hemingway
By a vote of 52 to 33, the Obama administration nominee to the National Labor Relations Board, Craig Becker, just failed to get the 60 votes needed for his nomination to proceed in the Senate. Yesterday, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., came out against Becker's nomination. Senate Republicans and grassroots conservatives had been opposing Becker's nomination from the get-go. As a law professor, Becker had written a law review article about how the NLRB could be used to remake labor regulations in favor of unions without congressional approval. More recently, Becker had acted as counsel for the SEIU and AFL-CIO. Becker was perceived by opponents as marching in lockstep with a Big Labor agenda and unlikely to give businesses a fair shake on the NLRB. Labor leaders were pushing Becker's...By: Julie Mason
The highest form of flattery! Robert, declare yourself! (ap photo) Beltway Confidential knows a crush when she sees one. How else to explain the relentless mocking and teasing we get from Freddoso, Hemingway and Freire? So it goes with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and the former governor of Alaska. Gibbs showed up at the podium today with a bunch of words written on his palm. Adorable! "I wrote a few things down. I wrote eggs milk and bread, but I crossed out bread just so I can make pancakes for Ethan if it snows," Gibbs said, revealing his handiwork. "Then I wrote down hope and change just in case I forgot that." The object of Gibbs' barely concealed fascination is Sarah Palin, who recently addressed the Tea Party convention with notes on her hand that said...By: Julie Mason
You're beautiful, Chuck Todd. I mean that. (ap photo) On a day when many White House reporters (ahem) stayed away from the White House for snow or early-deadline reasons, the President of America decided to have an unscheduled drop-by in the briefing room, ending his six month press conference drought. Where is the love? OBAMA: Hello. Hello. Hello. Well, hello. QUESTION: You're a lot earlier than Gibbs. OBAMA: You know, we're trying to, you know, bring -- bring some change that you can believe in. Hello, everybody. I am glad to see that all of you braved the weather to be here. A little while ago I had a meeting with the Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, and it went very well. In fact, I understand that McConnell and Reid are out doing snow angels on the...By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Two James Madison University students are facing felony charges for throwing snowballs at a Harrisonburg city snow plow and an unmarked police car called to investigate during last Saturday’s blizzard. http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/83897772.html Charles Gill and Ryan Knight, a guard on the university’s basketball team, were arrested and taken into custody. The two 21-year-olds are accused of “throwing missiles at occupied vehicles,” a felony that could send them both to prison for up to five years. Unless they were jack-hammering up 100-pound chucks of ice and hurling them off an overpass in a clearly malicious attempt to kill or injure the snowplow driver, this appears to be a case of high-spirited college kids out playing in the snow. It’s also a...By: David Freddoso
Upstart Texas gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina is gaining in the polls and now sits 4 points behind Kay Bailey Hutchison. From PPP: Medina is coming on strong and polls now at 24%, just four points behind Kay Bailey Hutchison's 28%. Perry continues to hold a double digit advantage at 39%. Medina is clearly riding the wave of discontent with the Republican establishment. Among primary voters who disapprove of the job the GOP in Congress is doing she actually leads with 37% to 32% for Perry and 22% for Hutchison. Early voting for the Texas primary begins on Feb. 16. If Medina gains more support, its possible that she might make in the runoff election against Perry....By: Mark Hemingway
A cursory reading of this Las Vegas Sun report, "Prospects For Organized Labor's Legislative Agenda Rapidly Fading," suggests -- and not without evidence -- that Big Labor isn't seeing any payoff for their huge investment in the Obama campaign and Democrats generally in the last election. Specifically, unions had hoped for Democrats to pass "card check" legislation, which would effectively end secret ballots in union elections and encourage unions to pressure, intimidate and even bully workers who don't want to unionize. But buried in the Sun article is this bombshell -- Democrats may try and slip card check legislation into an impending jobs bill: On labor law, Bill Samuel, the AFL-CIO’s legislative director, said the union would try to enlist moderate Republicans but...By: Mark Hemingway
The headline on Bloomberg's obituary for the recently deceased Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., is "Lawmaker Murtha, Supporter of Troops, Dies at Age 77." That's a bizarre headline for someone notorious for not supporting the troops. Nowhere in the obituary is the word "Haditha" mentioned. In November of 2005, the Marine Corps launched an investigation into whether a group of Marines had killed innocent civilians in Haditha, Iraq. While the investigation was barely underway, Murtha took to the floor of congress and pronounced the Marines guilty. "It's much worse than reported in Time magazine. There was no fire fight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. And that's what the...By: Mark Hemingway
Republicans and business interests were already deeply suspect of Craig Becker, Obama's nominee to the National Labor Relations Board. Becker was formerly counsel to the AFL-CIO and the SEIU, and his acdemic writings suggested that he intended to use his post on the NLRB to radically remake labor laws in favor of unions. Labor leaders were "fuming" over the fact that Democrats were unable to vote Becker in before Senator Scott Brown was seated, a move which allowed Republicans to threaten to filibuster Becker's nomination. Well, before Democrats scream at Republicans for being obstructionist again -- Democrats are now going to have to contend with the fact that one of their own, Senator Ben Nelson, D-Neb., is going to filibuster Becker's nomination: “Mr....By: David Freddoso
Just a few years after scandal nearly destroyed the Buckeye State's GOP, Rasmussen has the Ohio Republican candidates for governor and Senate leading their Democratic counterparts. Republican former Rep. John Kasich leads Gov. Tom Strickland, D, 47% to 41%. Former Bush budget director Rob Portman leads his two Democratic opponents by smaller margins in the race to succeed Republican Sen. George Voinovich....By: Byron York
I've just been in touch with Sen. Christopher Bond, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner. I asked all to comment on the new White House accusation that critics who question the Obama administration's decision to grant Miranda rights to accused Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are "serv[ing] the goals of al Qaeda." "The only one making this political is the White House," says Bond in a statement. "The administration must do better, because trying to pass the buck for their dangerous decisions and divulging sensitive information to al Qaeda is not an effective terror-fighting strategy." Hoekstra, too, sees a White House trying to...By: David Freddoso
The Audi ad mocking overzealous environmentalism "hits home," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom tweeted during the Super Bowl. The locally conceived advertisement was enough to get Newsom, who has pushed for the type of recycling and composting mandates that give the spot its believably authoritarian edge...to tweet, "Ok .. That "green police" Audi commercial hits...By: Byron York
In a brief op-ed in USA Today, White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan charges that critics who question the Obama administration's decision to grant Miranda rights to accused Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are "serv[ing] the goals of al Qaeda." "Too many in Washington are now misrepresenting the facts to score political points," Brennan writes. "Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda." Now, however, those critics are questioning whether Brennan is trying to score a few political points of his own. First, Brennan supports the administration's position, which most critics find absurd, that the initial 50-minute interrogation of Abdulmutallab -- all the Justice Department would allow before he was read his Miranda...By: Chris Stirewalt
Wall Street Journal -- Leverage Sought In Health Summit Republicans are asking President Obama to make a show of good faith before his proposed health care summit by publicly scrapping the existing Democratic legislation, crafted at great pains over the past year. The president cannot explain that the only reasons for the summit are to show that he went down fighting for the great liberal cause, to demonstrate that Republicans are unworthy partners for bipartisan outreach, and, of course, to prove that he was right. The White House is attempting a controlled demolition while Republicans are proposing a new construction project. But as Examiner colleague Julie Mason points out, the White House is keenly aware that the president’s pivot to issues of concern for voters has resulted...By: David Freddoso
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., sends word by e-mail of a Marco Rubio moneybomb tomorrow, to celebrate the anniversary of President Obama's hug with Rubio's opponent for the GOP Senate nod, Gov. Charlie Crist. Last Feb. 10, Crist was promoting President Obama's stimulus package throughout Florida, and President Obama visited. The two men shared the stage and hugged briefly. Now the hug may come back to haunt. Writes DeMint, promoting his Senate Conservatives' Fund: On February 10, 2009, Governor Crist cleared his schedule to stand on a stage with President Obama in Ft. Meyers, Florida. Governor Crist used the opportunity to embrace the President and campaign for the $787 billion stimulus bill. One year later, we have a mountain of new debt and millions of lost jobs. This is not the kind of...By: David Freddoso
In a television interview this afternoon, Democratic Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen pronounced judgment on the doctors who were operating on Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., when he died. Cohen, a government attorney before he began his political career, was asked about tort reform in health care when he brought up Murtha's death: "As we speak today, Rep. John Murtha died. And he was my friend, and he served this country for many years...He died because, when he went in for gall bladder surgery, his intestine was perforated. And that shouldn't have happened. It was, from what I understand, malpractice." Cohen might even be right, but it would be a coincidence: he all but admits his lack of full information, and not every surgical complication is the result of medical negligence. Murtha's body is...By: Susan Ferrechio
House Republican Leaders have sent a letter to the White House, imploring them to scrap their health care proposal and start from scratch at the upcoming health care summit that President Barack Obama proposed Sunday on 60 Minutes. In a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., asked for more details about the summit, warning that Republicans would "rightly be reluctant to participate," if the whole affair was merely intended to tweak the current Democratic proposals. "Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward on health care in a bipartisan way, does that mean he will agree to start over so that we can develop a bill that is truly worthy of the support and...By: Susan Ferrechio
House Republican Leaders have sent a letter to the White House, imploring them to scrap their health care proposal and start from scratch at the upcoming health care summit that President Barack Obama proposed Sunday on 60 Minutes. In a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., asked for more details about the summit, warning that Republicans would "rightly be reluctant to participate," if the whole affair was merely intended to tweak the current Democratic proposals. "Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward on health care in a bipartisan way, does that mean he will agree to start over so that we can develop a bill that is truly worthy of the support and confidence of the...By: David Freddoso
During our last big snowstorm, in December, I unearthed an old column by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in which he claimed that the winters in D.C. have become anemic, that global warming is to blame, and that his anecdotal memories prove the perfidy of oil companies that try to explain global warming away. His anecdotal evidence seems to be falling flat this year. The winter of 2009-2010 is already the snowiest in D.C. history, with more than five feet measured already at Dulles Airport. Not only that, but we're expecting 10 to 20 inches of snow tomorrow. None of this disproves the idea of anthropogenic global warming. But neither does Kennedy's vague memory of colder times prove anything....By: Michael Barone
Congressman John Murtha has died at age 77. He first came to Congress after winning a special election in 1974, to fill the seat vacated by the death of his predecessor, Republican John Saylor. This was one of five Democratic victories in 1974 special House elections in the first half of 1974 which demonstrated the political toxicity of the Watergate scandal. The other Democratic victors were Richard VanderVeen in Michigan 5, Gerald Ford’s old district, two weeks later in February, Thomas Luken in Ohio 1 in March, Bob Traxler in Michigan 8 in April, and John Burton in California 6 in June. Presumably there will be a special election in Pennsylvania 12 to replace Murtha on May 18, which is primary day. This is the only district in the nation that voted for John Kerry in...By: Mark Tapscott
Dubbed CTSunlight.org, the purpose of the site is to enable Connecticut residents to "look at every line item of state government spending and discover how our tax dollars are being spent by the people in Hartford. The goal of the CT Sunlight Project is to empower regular people to hold state government accountable for their spending. Bloggers, journalists, students, academics, and average citizens can use this website to see how the state spends our tax dollars, identify corruption, and suggest ways to effectively reduce spending in Hartford." Yankee Institute officials say they obtained the data for the site through a massive Freedom of Information Act request for data covering calendar 2007 and 2008. "We believe transparency and disclosure of how government...By: Michael Barone
One of my favorite pundits is Walter Russell Mead, and I say this even though I often find myself disagreeing with him. Disagreeing, and thinking hard about whether I was really right after all. He’s got a great blogpost up at The American Interest about health care, which I think hits the target square in the middle on the main problem with the Democrats’ health care bills: "The current bill is a classic example of steady state, blue social model thinking: it is more interested in keeping the status quo going by pumping more money into it than it is in the basic restructuring needed to build a system that will work in the future." He follows up with his vision of health care in the future, in which computers will provide easy access to consumers of all the latest...By: Susan Ferrechio
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., died this afternoon, media outlets are reporting. Murtha died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., after suffering complications that followed gallbladder surgery. He was 77. Murtha chaired the powerful defense appropriations subcommittee and was known for bringing millions of dollars in earmarks back to his district over the years. Murtha was one of the most powerful opponents of the war in Iraq and he once ran for House Majority Leader, losing to Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., despite an endorsement from longtime political ally, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Watchdog groups have criticized Murtha's use of earmarks as well as his ties to a now-defunct lobbying company under investigation by federal officials....By: David Freddoso
From the "salacious-details-we-didn't-really-want-to-know" department: A North Carolina judge wants security officers to accompany a former John Edwards aide as he goes to retrieve a sex tape of his former boss. The FBI has already received a copy of the tape, according to the AP. Just imagine the blackmail possibilities if Edwards had become president, or even vice president?...By: Mark Hemingway
Or so Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post is reporting: Over the past week, President Obama and his senior aides have repeatedly cited Republicans' filibuster threats as the primary reason for the lack of progress on big ticket legislative items, an early sign that Democrats will seek to use this bit of legislative arcana against the GOP in the coming midterm election. At a meeting -- televised, natch -- with Senate Democrats last week, Obama harped on the GOP's willingness to invoke the filibuster, noting that Democrats had taken more cloture votes to end debate and force votes in 2009 than they did in the 1950s and 1960s combined. Added Obama: "We've had scores of pieces of legislation in which there was a filibuster, cloture had to be invoked, and then ended up passing 90 to...By: Susan Ferrechio
Washington D.C. is still digging out of snowmageddon and another storm is expected to hit town tomorrow, but the Senate is planning critical votes nonetheless. Senate Democratic leaders announced Monday afternoon that they plan to convene at 2 p.m. and then vote at 5 p.m. on the nomination of Joseph Greenaway to be a United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit. After that vote, Senate Democrats will move to invoke cloture on the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board. Democrats need 60 votes to prevent Republicans from blocking Becker, but it may be difficult now that Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., has been sworn in. Brown has not indicated how he will vote on Becker but took office early in order to be able to vote on his nomination, which suggests he wants...By: Susan Ferrechio
The Democratic National Committee is out with a new ad today, this one linking the Republican party with an effort to shake down Wall Street in exchange for political favors. The ad springs off of a New York Times story that claims Republicans are promising Wall Street to help curb financial reform in exchange for campaign cash. "They are at it again," a voice in the ad says, "promising Wall Street we'll have your back and will block reforms to hold banks accountable and get our money back all in pursuit of campaign cash." Republicans are responding to the ad. "Democrats built and protected their majority by threatening and shaking down the same Wall Street institutions they now condemn with mock outrage," said Paul Lindsay, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional...By: Susan Ferrechio
The Democratic National Committee is out with a new ad today, this one linking the Republican party with an effort to shake down Wall Street in exchange for political favors. The ad springs from a New York Times story that claims Republicans are promising Wall Street to help curb financial reform in exchange for campaign cash. "They are at it again," a voice in the ad says, "promising Wall Street we'll have your back and will block reforms to hold banks accountable and get our money back all in pursuit of campaign cash.” Republicans are responding to the ad. "Democrats built and protected their majority by threatening and shaking down the same Wall Street institutions they now condemn with mock outrage," said Paul Lindsay, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional...By: David Freddoso
From AmSpec's Prowler: A Senate Intelligence Committee staffer says that in recent updates to the committee, and in briefing individual Senators, national security and national intelligence officials have indicated that they have gained "no actionable intelligence" from interviews with the so-called "Christmas Day" or "underwear bomber," Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab..."The information they may have drawn out of him after his family arrived was probably more than a month old and there just wasn't very much of it to begin...By: Mark Hemingway
One of the big events surrounding last night's Super Bowl was Pam and Tim Tebow's "pro-life" ad for Focus on the Family. You can watch it...
In response to the attention we gave him for his old column on how Washington has "anemic winters" because of global warming, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tells NRO's Robert...
By a vote of 52 to 33, the Obama administration nominee to the National Labor Relations Board, Craig Becker, just failed to get the 60 votes needed for his nomination to proceed...
The highest form of flattery! Robert, declare yourself! (ap photo)
Beltway Confidential knows a crush when she sees one. How else to explain the relentless mocking and...
You're beautiful, Chuck Todd. I mean that. (ap photo)
On a day when many White House reporters (ahem) stayed away from the White House for snow or early-deadline...
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Local
Another snowball fight planned for Dupont Circle
The Official Dupont Circle Snowball Fight facebook fanpage has over 6,000 fans now, and it looks as if snowed in DC'ers will return for another battle. Full story
Politics
GOP winning war over Miranda rights for terrorists
Even as the administration defends its decision to grant accused Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, the president himself is hinting that things might be done differently in the future. Full story
Local
D.C. region braces for up to 20 more inches of snow
The National Weather Service has the entire D.C. metro area, from Prince William County north, under a winter storm warning for 10 to 20 inches of snow. Forecasters have had their eyes on this storm for days, but the projected snow totals were bumped up late Monday. Full story
