1.) Romney joins growing chorus of anti-something-something conservatives — The number of conservatives who are opposed to the tax cut deal is growing. On Monday, Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney joined radio host Hugh Hewitt, the Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer, and Senators Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint in opposing the bill on the grounds that “the temporary nature of the taxrate extension would limit the positive economic impact and correspondingly make the deficit worse,” writes The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward. Romney, like the others mentioned above, has also raised red flags about unfunded spending contained in the bill. Coincidentally, you could say the same thing about Romneycare.
2.) White House chides Olbermann for frothy hyperbole — “White House press secretary Robert Gibbs advised the liberal commenter Keith Olbermann on Monday to refrain from using comparisons to Nazi Germany after the MSNBC host likened President Obama’s deal on tax cuts to Nazi appeasement,” reports Beltway gossip rag Politico. “Whenever you compare anything to what the Nazis did, if you ever get to that point in your speech, stop, because nothing does, and hopefully, God willing, nothing ever will,” said Gibbs, who went on to suggest that Pres. Obama probably didn’t see Olbermann’s special comment. According to the diary of Ruth Graham, the president has been missing some really good stuff on Olbermann lately. Here is a snippet of Graham’s “Countdown” report from earlier this month: “By my count, the word ‘unicorn’ was uttered 6 times across three interviews. Keith read aloud the full text of a Nigerian scam e-mail. He gave the Vulcan salute. He made fun of Donald Trump’s hair, and played two random video clips of people falling down. He ended the show with a segment on the new discovery of bacteria that doesn’t need phosphorous to live.”
3.) Michael Steele is not done running in circles around the living room — Participants in last night’s RNC conference call were treated to a horrible surprise: RNC Chairman Michael Steele is running for a second term. “Steele laid out his case for his reelection, noting the GOP recaptured the House majority and eroded Democratic control of the Senate during his time at the helm,” reports The Hill. “We fired [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi, so let’s increase our resources and strength to take back the Senate, elect new governors and a principled Republican leader to serve as president of the United States,” Steele said during the call. “We achieved that in part because we adhered to two important principles: consistency and inclusion,” Steele added, apparently under the impression–perhaps due to the recent confusion over the tax deal–that Pres. Obama is in fact a Republican. Or maybe he was talking about Pelosi? Michael Steele: Consistently confusing!
4.) Obamacare haters get a little pick-me-up — “President Barack Obama’s health care reform law was dealt a serious blow Monday when the part of the law that requires Americans to purchase health insurance was deemed unconstitutional by a federal court in Virginia,” writes TheDC’s Matt Boyle. Several mediums/legal scholars weighed in on the decision: Conservatives from the Heritage Foundation and CATO argued that the tide is turning against Obamacare, and liberals from Harvard and Brookings deemed the Virginia ruling a fluke. in short, the only body that can make the yelling stop is SCOTUS, which means we’re in for another two years of yammering over whether the government has the power to make people buy crap they do not want.
5.) State budgetacolypse continues apace — “Since 2000 the total outstanding state and municipal bond debt, adjusted for inflation, has soared from $1.5 trillion to $2.8 trillion,” reports Reason’s Veronique de Rugy. For an explanation of why investors continue to turn to basically bankrupt local governments, one need look no further than the mantra that saved Wall Street from having to wipe its own behind after the mortgage meltdown. “Investors believe cities and states—especially states, which can’t legally declare bankruptcy to escape debts—will resort to anything to avoid reneging on their obligations. And if they default anyway, investors assume the feds will bail them out. Washington already has bailed out the banks, the automobile industry, homeowners, and local school budgets; it isn’t unreasonable to assume that it will decide the states and cities are also too big to fail.”
6.) No Labels has one good (stolen) idea — “Brooklyn-based artist Thomas Porostocky’s designed star-spangled giraffes, butterflies and jellyfish for the disillusionment group More Party Animals in 2005,” reports the New York Observer. The artist was absolutely shocked to see his designs used color for color, line for line, and without permission, by the post-partisan group No Labels. “I hadn’t been aware of No Labels prior to a couple of hours ago,” Porostocky told the Observer. “So needless to say they have definitely not reached out in any way. Considering the names they have on their speaker list (Bloomberg, Gillibrand et al), this clearly isn’t just a simple mom and pop operation, so there really is no excuse for this.” No Label’s Dave Warren, when asked by the NYT why he stole his design, told the Gray Lady, “I do my own thinking, man. Feel free to come to one of my classes at Parsons.” He then added, “Tell the other guy to Google my name.” No Labels? More like No Scruples!
