Are we getting another mini-snowpocalypse? Who angered the weather goddess again? While we wait for more snow to come, let’s open this thread.
Ooooh, delicious – rightwing slap fight:
Wow. So, Glenn Beck’s CPAC keynote speech on Friday was apparently so powerful it united Jon Stewart, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin…against him. I’m not sure what that says about Beck except that he really has managed to carve out a place all his own in the media landscape these last few months and he maybe is making some people nervous. Well not Jon Stewart per se (‘gold mine’ might be a better description), but it’s certainly interesting to hear Rush Limbaugh (ever so gently) push back at Beck. Sign of things to come? Is Beck on his way to becoming the Frankenstein of the right? The tone of both Levin and Limbaugh suggest they were less than thrilled at Beck’s conservative bashing/reality check (videos of all three below).
Said Rush:
I would not have said that the only people who can stop Obama should be excoriated for being just as bad…It would never occur to me to say that. I don’t know what the objective would be.
Levin’s tone was equally low key though his criticism had a sharper edge to it. He advised Beck to stop acting like a clown and to “be careful playing footsie with the mainstream media…they will promote so they can destroy you.” Levin also pushed back at Beck’s criticism of the right: “Stop dividing us…Republicans deserve reinforcements.”
Harry Reid seems to have found the vestiges of a spine:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has heard quite a few cries of late from Republicans about how truly awful it is to vote on legislation by majority rule. I get the feeling he’s tired of it.
Reid said reconciliation had been used 21 times since 1981, mostly by Republicans when they were in control of the Senate for the passage of items like the Bush tax cuts. Under reconciliation, Democrats would need a simple majority in the Senate to pass legislation, as opposed to the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.
“They should stop crying about reconciliation as if it’s never been done before,” Reid said.
Following Senate Democrats’ weekly luncheon, Reid said “nothing is off the table” but that “realistically, they should stop crying about this. It’s been done 21 times before.”