Wednesday Open Thread [3.19.14]

Wednesday Open Thread [3.19.14]

3 Comments
Scott Galupo fears a GOP in complete control of Congress will sabotage both the GOP presidential primary and the nominee it produces:
[T]he seeming tranquility in Washington is simply the sound of two parties behaving well until a midterm election. If and when Republicans retake the Senate, the intraparty feud, now simmering, will begin to boil anew. The rightmost flank, flush with victory, will need to be appeased. And the ideological toxicity; the demographics of death; the lack of a viable national standard-bearer — these factors and others will conspire to elect the next President Clinton.
UPDATED: Carney Gives Finger to LGBT Community

UPDATED: Carney Gives Finger to LGBT Community

39 Comments
Update: John Carney belatedly signed on to the letter. Seriously, what's wrong with this guy? Rhetorical question. He's a Republican. Anyway, from the attached article:
Forty-eight senators and 148 representatives have signed a letter calling on Obama to sign an executive order providing workplace protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
When Obama campaigned for president, he said he'd support such an order. He has not. So, 196 D legislators signed a letter to Obama (R's were invited, none signed) calling on him to enforce this through Executive Order since the R's are delaying consideration of a legislative remedy in Congress. Even Carper and Coons.
Tuesday Open Thread [3.18.14]

Tuesday Open Thread [3.18.14]

2 Comments
Glenn Thrush has written a pretty neat profile for Politico Magazine on Vice President Joe Biden.
“The only thing I know is I ain’t changing my brand. I know what I believe. I’m confident in what I know. And I’m gonna say it. And if folks like it, wonderful. If they don’t like it, I understand.” Vice President Joe Biden and I were riding the Amtrak to Philly on a frigid February day. I had asked about 2016 and whether America was ready, at long last, to elect a guy with such a mouth. There he was, barely cracking double digits in the polls, abandoned by the party big shots, and appearing, beyond all good sense, like he wanted nothing more than another crack at the presidency.
I feel sorry for Joe. For all intents and purposes, a sitting Vice President is the de facto frontrunner for the presidency, especially for the party in power's primary. But not this time.
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., March 18, 2014

Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., March 18, 2014

14 Comments
Assuming that neither snow nor St. Paddy's Day waylaid them, the legislators return en masse to Dover today. I expect the Governor and his staff to be meeting with legislators both to push for the infrastructure package (10 cents a gallon increase) and the clean water package ($45 on average per homeowner). This, to put it mildly, is a tough sell in an election year. I have to wonder why the governor didn't do this at the beginning of his second term rather than throwing out a not-well-thought-through proposal late last session. It makes passage less likely. Although...a compromise on the infrastructure package could well be reached. One respected legislator suggested a phase-in, a nickel and more state borrowing the first year, and an additional nickel and less borrowing the second year. This is, after all, among other things, a jobs bill. If proponents can message this properly and emphasize this fact, reluctant D legislators could well be brought along. I also expect caucuses to get briefings from their Joint Finance Committee members as to where things stand following the agency hearings (Oops. DEFAC says we're down another $40 mill). Keep in mind that the budget bill likely won't get marked up until around Memorial Day, so there will be a lot of dickering between now and then. And more DEFAC numbers.

Late Night Video — Penis Pumps Paid for by Medicare

2 Comments
And penile implants too. All the while no one in Congress or any of the schoolmarm crowd who think that women should pay for their own contraceptives never seem to want to ask men to pay for their Viagra, Cialis, penis pumps or even penile implants. Interesting values here, right? Penis pumps should be taxpayer funded while contraceptives should not be. Hmm. Samantha Bee from the Jon Stewart show takes a look at the hypocrisy:

Monday Open Thread [3.17.14]

3 Comments
Marc Ambinder: "One undeniable truth: Iraq weakened the U.S. more than anything done since. Maybe Obama overlearned its lessons; maybe we all have. But nothing empowered Vladimir Putin more than America's squandering of moral standing in the early part of this century." Today, Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC) will release the first revenue forecast of 2014. In December, DEFAC added $42 million to incoming revenues, but that still left a hole of about $125 million for Gov. Jack Markell to fill in his budget.