Open Thread

Breitbart News (with is a contradiction in terms) claims at least 20 House Republicans have banded together in an effort to unseat House Speaker John Boehner from his position when it comes up for a vote tomorrow. Now, there are 233 Republicans taking their oaths of office tomorrow. If there are really 20 Republicans who will not vote for Boehner for Speaker, that means Boehner will be denied a majority, as 233 minus 20 is 213. Since there will be two vacancies at the start of the new Congress, only 217 votes is needed for a majority. So Boehner needs to peel off either 4 of those Republicans or 4 conservative Democrats to remain Speaker. Are there 4 conservative Democrats in the House anymore? Perhaps that is why John Boehner had a short temper with Harry Reid outside the Oval Office last Friday.

Looks like we need one of these! We're still in light blogging mode as we all still busy celebrating holidays and friends and family. Personally, this is my favorite time of the year. How are your holidays going?

Fox anchor Gregg Jarrett tries his best to spew RNC talking points, but Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen is just too smart for it, and proceeds to destroy Jarrett and the Republican Party. Of course, as whenever the Republican Party Talking Points are successfully revealed to be lies on their own air, the interview was ended quickly.

Well, I am finally getting back into the swing of things here. I was wiped out yesterday, recovering from Christmas, and cleaning up from hosting Christmas dinner for my large and loud Irish Catholic family. I am still kinda zoned out, and I am not sure what day it is. I am told it is Thursday. It does not feel like a Thursday. It feels like a Tuesday, and you just awoke from a 20 year coma. Yeah, that's how it feels like today. So, reconnecting to the political world.... We are going over the cliff. Whoops, I am sorry Nemski. I mean the street curb, or gentle ski slope.

Nearly all the major players in the fiscal cliff negotiations are starting to agree on one thing: A deal is virtually impossible before the New Year. Unlike the bank bailout in 2008, the tax deal in 2010 and the debt ceiling in 2011, the Senate almost certainly won’t swoop in and help sidestep a potential economic calamity, senior officials in both parties predicted on Wednesday.

ABC News' Sam Donaldson got arrested for DUI in Lewes. Once again, Washington's elite play too hard at our beaches. The man is 78 years old in our human years. What is he doing driving? Do you want to check out the cool Christmas light displays around Delaware? The News Journal and DelawareOnline have a nifty map for you to look at.

Jeffrey Toobin:

"Conservatives often embrace 'originalism,' the idea that the meaning of the Constitution was fixed when it was ratified, in 1787. They mock the so-called liberal idea of a 'living' constitution, whose meaning changes with the values of the country at large. But there is no better example of the living Constitution than the conservative re-casting of the Second Amendment in the last few decades of the twentieth century." "The re-interpretation of the Second Amendment was an elaborate and brilliantly executed political operation, inside and outside of government. Ronald Reagan's election in 1980 brought a gun-rights enthusiast to the White House. At the same time, Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican, became chairman of an important subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he commissioned a report that claimed to find 'clear--and long lost--proof that the second amendment to our Constitution was intended as an individual right of the American citizen to keep and carry arms in a peaceful manner, for protection of himself, his family, and his freedoms.' The N.R.A. began commissioning academic studies aimed at proving the same conclusion. An outré constitutional theory, rejected even by the establishment of the Republican Party, evolved, through brute political force, into the conservative conventional wisdom."

Why is this time different? Why are things going to change this time? Andrew Gelman at the Monkey Cage has a thought:

– The event itself is particularly horrifying: an elementary school instead of a high school, more kids getting killed, and the killer using three guns that were just lying around the house. – Cumulation: each new shooting is added on to what came before, eventually enough people become motivated to act. – Political timing: no national election for 23 months, now is the time for politicians to act without fear of the gun lobby. – Political alignment: the Republicans have had so much success getting gun voters to their side that Democrats now have nothing to lose politically by supporting gun restrictions. And, if the Democrats move to restrict guns, savvy Republicans can move toward the center on the issue, confident that their Democratic opposition won’t outflank them on the right. – The pendulum: to put that last point another way, gun policy has swung so far to the right in recent years that the force of public opinion will tend to pull it back to the center. This latest shooting has given politicians a chance to realize this and act on it.

Multiple reports over the weekend have Senator John Kerry being nominated to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. If that is the case, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D) will have to appoint an interim Senator who will serve until a special election can be held to fill the remainder of Senator Kerry's term. That special election must be held no later than 180 and no earlier than 160 days after Senator Kerry resigns. Assuming that Kerry resigns at some point on or near January 20, then the election won't be until July 8 at the earliest. So we will need an interim Senator for six months. Jonathan Karl has heard that Governor Patrick has talked to Senator Kennedy's widow, Vicki Kennedy, "about the possibility of replacing Kerry in the Senate and that she did not rule it out." Another reported possibility is a blast from the past. Former Governor and 1988 Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis (D) "may be headed back to the political spotlight as he's considered a likely interim replacement for Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)," The Hill reports.

It's Sunday, the Eagles are not playing (Go Ravens!) and many of us are still outraged, grieving and otherwise engaged with making sense of a country where freedom seems to mean being free to endure the mayhem of others.

So how about some content for this thread? Once again, thanks so much to everyone who came out to celebrate the holidays with us last night. It really is fun to see all of you, and so great to know that we have such generous readers. Everyone will have the shootings in CT on their minds for awhile now. I see lots of energy about pushing for a conversation about guns in our so-called civilized society. What I do know is that we won't be able to claim the mantle of being "civilized" until the lives of our children are more valuable than our guns. It is odd that we are more ready to defend the right to "bear arms" at the expense of any right to the safety of your kids. That said, this is an interesting Twitter exchange with Rupert Murdoch: