1.) Establishment Republicans conflicted over whose back to pat for busted omnibus bill — Majority Leader Harry Reid folded during last night’s high-stakes po(r)ker game. Now Beltway types are racing to cement a narrative for exactly what made the GOP so bold. “The defeat of a pork-laden $1.1 trillion ‘omnibus’ spending bill in the Senate Thursday night was the first serious indication after the Nov. 2 election that the Tea Party movement has staying power and will be a force into 2011,” writes The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward. “Some Republicans on Capitol Hill said Thursday night that GOP leadership played a pivotal role as well. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was said to have pressured key GOP lawmakers to stand firm against the legislation, though some in leadership said the conference was fairly united against it from the beginning.” Less, uh, established folks, like Sen. Tom Coburn’s beard, were more willing to give all credit to the Tea Party: “It was 100 percent grassroots…The American people took it down,” said Coburn spokesman John Hart. Also, bitter Democrats, one of whom dejectedly chalked up the broke-down omnibus to Congressional Republicans being “a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tea Party.”
2.) Pres. Obama met with parasites all week — Obama met with a group of 20 business owners on Wednesday in an effort to assuage fears that he would not remain faithful to the union of big government and big business. By the end of that meeting, Honeywell International CEO David Cote is reported to have said, “Government is the enabler of business…Government and business need to work together.” This is actually completely true in Honeywell’s case! “Cote’s company has already been working closely with the Obama Administration, and was a major beneficiary of the Recovery Act — as were many of the other companies represented,” reports TheDC’s Amanda Carey. “According to Recovery.gov, Honeywell received over $44 million in grants from the Department of Energy (DOE) for renewable energy initiatives.” Today, Pres. Obama will meet with a group of union heads. Most likely, the same unions that recently received a series of jaw-dropping exemptions from mandates in obamacare.
3.) Keith Olbermann scoffs at alleged rape victims, refuses to apologize — “On Tuesday’s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann and guest Michael Moore sparked widespread outrage over their dismissive treatment of rape allegations against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange,” reports Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher. “While some of the segment is open to interpretation, Moore made a clear factual error when he said that Assange only stands accused of having his condom break during consensual sex.” (In reality, Assange stands accused of penetrating a woman while she was sleeping and also of continuing to have sex with a woman after she had begged him to stop.) When Christopher and others asked Olbermann to correct the record, Olbermann insulted the Mediaite reporter and blocked a large number of concerned feminist activists. When pressed further, Olbermann announced on the microblogging service that he was closing his account “until this frenzy is stopped.” In July, TheDC reported that members of the liberal listserve Journolist were concerned about Olbermann’s blatant misogyny.
4.) Maxine Waters investigation grinds to a halt due to stupid people bickering — “A lengthy House investigation of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has been derailed by infighting within the politically charged ethics committee over errors in building a case against her,” reports the Washington Post. Waters stands accused of securing an unnecessary bailout for a minority owned bank “in which her husband had a significant investment.” According to the Post, “the case – one of the most prominent ethics investigations undertaken by the committee – came apart as committee and staff members argued over whether documents should be subpoenaed and when the trial should be scheduled and for how long. They all expected Waters to agree to a negotiated settlement, which she ultimately declined.” In short: The same incompetence that allowed Waters to commit her alleged crime is now protecting her from suffering any consequences.
5.) Rahm Emanuel’s attic: proof that he was always going to run for mayor of Chicago — “Attorneys for Emanuel visited the house he owns in Ravenswood at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, located the much-discussed ‘crawl space,’ looked inside and found the valuable items Emanuel had maintained he had stored there,” reports the Chicago Sun-times. “They have argued the fact they left the items there while Emanuel went to Washington D.C. to work as President Obama’s chief of staff shows he always planned to return to Chicago — and therefore should be eligible to run for mayor.” Apparently, some people don’t think Rahm should be allowed to run Chicago after spending all that time in Washington, screwing the bejeezus out of America.
6.) Lefty groups lie to pass net neutrality — Public interest groups Public Knowledge and Media Access Project filed a complaint with the FCC last week, claiming that the agency’s proposed net neutrality rules did not go far enough. In their letter, both groups said that they were speaking for Amazon.com as well. Turns out, this is not true! Amazon loves the FCC’s proposed rules (which members of the left have alleged are too watered-down). “I reiterated Amazon.com’s longstanding and continuing support for rules to protect the fundamental openness and growth of the Internet, and I thanked him and the Chairman for their work on this net neutrality issue,” an Amazon policy executive wrote in a filing just a few days later. Apparently, web companies are falling all over each other to kiss the FCC’s ass. Wonder why that is?