Delaware Liberal

Ed Kilgore:

In conservative-land, you see, Obama's first election was a fluke and his second a calamitous accident, both canceled by the ensuring midterms and both destined to be remembered as incidental interruptions of the Long March of Movement Conservatism towards total power. The idea that 2008 and 2012 are just as significant as 2010 and 2014 (maybe a bit more significant insofar as far more Americans participated) is outrageous to the Right, and so Obama mentioning them was the defiant act of a political nonentity. Beyond that, the basic framing of Obama's remarks on the economy left Republicans even deeper in the trap they've been in ever since conditions began improving. The main criticism available to them for the performance of the economy is the one Democrats (and Obama himself) have been articulated: sluggish wage growth and growing inequality. But Republicans have little or no agenda to deal with that beyond the usual engorge-the-job-creators stuff dressed up with attacks on the few corporate welfare accounts they've agreed to oppose, and then the Keystone XL Pipeline. On this last point, Obama was very clever in dismissing Keystone as one controversial infrastructure project we're spending too much time fighting over as hundreds of others languish. It made Joni Ernst's plodding Official Response sound all the more foolish for spending so much time on that one project.

Ezra Klein says that if Mitt Romney was President right now, and we had all of this good economic news, the applause would never have ended on Tuesday night, and Brian Beutler says Republicans would have "draped him in Reagan’s cloak, and the public would have warmed once again to the kinds of policies that George W. Bush’s presidency briefly discredited."

The evidence points to - yes. The Cape Gazette Reports that at his latest January constituent coffee meeting,Rep. Smyk expressed concerns that the State Police and Delaware National Guard are not up to the task of ensuring order in the event of some "major occurrence." And that these agencies are in need of reinforcement from a whackjob militia composed of local whackjobs.

The National Journal quotes a Republican Congressman, Rep. Charlie Dent, on how horribly the first weeks of the new Congressional session are going for the GOP:

"I prefer that we avoid these very contentious social issues," said moderate Rep. Charlie Dent, reprising comments he gave in the closed-door conference meeting. "Week one, we had a speaker election that did not go as well as a lot of us would have liked. Week two, we got into a big fight over deporting children, something that a lot of us didn't want to have a discussion about. Week three, we are now talking about rape and incest and reportable rapes and incest for minors. … I just can't wait for week four."

In week 4, you got owned by the President on national television.

Governor Markell previewed his State of the State speech that he will deliver this afternoon to WDEL's Amy Cherry. Governor Markell said his top priorities will remain centered around economic development, education and effective governance.

"Certainly, the job growth over the last year has been really good, fourth fastest in the country, 24 straight months, where it's been strong relative to the rest of the country," he said. Markell said he'll continue to build on that progress along with progress made on education and environmental issues. Without getting specific, the governor said he'll revisit themes you heard in last year's State of the State.

I'd like to know what progress he thinks was made on education. More inside...

After six years, the science of "which mascot would win in a fight" continues to confound the experts with a 100% success rate. That's right,  6 for 6 Bitches!  Suck it Terry Bradshaw! Anyhoo...let's take a look at Super Bowl XLIX (official pronunciation - "Super Bowl Ex-licks"). This could be a tough one.  A minute man style colonial militia "Patriot" vs. Bird.  Frankly I was rooting for Packers vs Colts because that would have been dead easy.  But as Dick Cheney once said, "You may pray for defenseless victims and the easy snuff out of a bewildered child or an enfeebled old lady, but in the end you get what you get." Here is what I said about the Seahawks last year....

I remember back with Governor Markell nominated Chief Justice Leo Strine, some wrote that Strine may be too brash to fill the normally stoic and silent role of a Delaware Chief Justice. I thought of that when I heard that a war of words has erupted today between Senate Minority Leader Greg Lavelle (R) and Chief Justice Strine.

[Lavelle] called out [Strine] on the floor of the Delaware Senate[!!!], saying Strine owes law enforcement an explanation, "if not an apology," for comments on Monday that Lavelle said inappropriately compared Delaware's rate of incarceration to North Korea. Strine delivered the remarks to a Chase Center crowd on Monday at a Delaware State Bar Association breakfast honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The chief justice said Delaware can't "incarcerate our way to public safety" and noted "shocking disparities" for blacks in Delaware. Strine added, "You don't want to be in a state where incarceration rates are associated with North Korea."

Lavelle wants Strine to apologize for that? Pardon my french, Mr. Lavelle, but go fuck yourself. The Chief Justice owes no apology to anyone. You, however, owe an apology to all Delaware citizens for trying to create a false controversy. Strine's office bitchslapped Lavelle as well with the following statement inside....