The Superior Idiocy

Not for the first time do I ask myself existentially anew: How the bleep did these idiots ever manage to swindle their way to power?

***I haven't written about John Finger Kerry and his nautical tax evasion largely because I wrote enough about the Boston Balker in 2004 to last a lifetime.  Via J-Ger, the RNC does us the public service of reminding us (as though reminders ought to be necessary) that he (and, um, Charlie Rangel) are far from the only deadbeat Donks:

Obama’s First Nominee For HHS Secretary, Tom Daschle, Failed To Pay $128,000 In Taxes.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Failed To [withstand] Pay $34,000 In Taxes.

HHS Secretary Sebelius And Her Husband Had To Pay $7,000 In Back Taxes.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’ Husband Had A Tax Lien On His Business For sixteen Years.

Nancy Killefer, Slated To Be The White House Chief Performance Officer, Had A $900 Lien On Her House For Failing To Pay Unemployment Taxes For Household Help.

Lael Brainard, Obama’s Nominee For Undersecretary Of The Treasury For International Affairs, Was Late In Paying Property Taxes.

When Tiny Tim airily tossed off that the country can "withstand" another huge tax hike, I wish somebody had just hauled off and slapped him.

***Awwww; are House Democwats fewwing bad about getting hornswaggled into hanging themselves with cwipple & tax wope?:

But thirteen months after that tough vote [on cap-and-trade], [Ohio Democrat John] Boccieri and dozens of other House Democrats along the Rust Belt are not at all happy with the way things have turned out. The White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA8) had assured reluctant members that the Senate would take up the measure. Although Senate passage wasn’t a sure thing, House Democrats hoped to go back home to voters with a great story to tell — about reducing dependence on foreign oil, slowing climate change and creating jobs.

That didn’t happen. Senate leaders, sensing political danger, repeatedly put off energy legislation, and the White House didn’t lean on them very hard to make it a priority. In the aftermath of the gulf oil spill, the Senate is set to take up a stripped-down bill next week, but the controversial carbon-emissions cap is conspicuously missing.

This has left some House Democrats feeling badly served by their leaders. Although lawmakers are reluctant to say so publicly, their aides and campaign advisers privately complain that the speaker and the president left Democrats exposed on an unpopular issue that has little hope of being signed into law.

Cry me a river, fools.  In fact, you oughta be grateful that the Senate is saving C&T for the lame duck session to finally apply the toe-tag, given that it would have increased dependence on foreign oil, done nothing about a mythical "crisis," and destroyed millions more jobs.

Then again, I'm baffled by how a "tough vote" on a bill the public detests is any more politically saleable if the other chamber joins them on the political gallows.  Listen to comments from constituents of (regrettably tsunami-proof) Ike Skelton (D-MO4):

“That bill would just crucify Missouri. Voting for it, it just didn’t make sense,” said state Senator Bill Stouffer, who is one of two well-financed Republican primary candidates hoping to unseat Democratic Representative Ike Skelton in the fall. The GOP is using the climate change vote to accuse Skelton, now in his 34th year in Congress, of drifting from his moderate Midwestern roots.

“I vote for Ike Skelton. Everybody votes for Ike Skelton,” said Kay Hoflander, chairman of the Lafayette County Republican Party. But when Skelton voted for the climate bill, “he quit representing his district,” Hoflander said. “People now are saying, ‘Ike used to be one of us.’ “

Remember how the term "epistemic closure" was being applied to the Right not so long ago?

***He can't remember the federal job offer Red Barry dangled right in front of his nose to lure him out of his Donk primary challenge to Snarlin' Arlen Specter; he's never noticed in four years as a Donk drone that Crazy Nancy Pelosi might - just might - be a little bit left of center; is it time now to ask whether Joe Sestak is less in "possession of his faculties, physical and mental" than Strom Thurmond and Sheets Byrd combined right now?:

C'mon, Joe, it isn't as though Pennsylvanians don't know that Granny Stoneface is a crazy commie cunt, or that you were one of her faithful towel boys:

“He voted for the stimulus and thought it should have been $1 trillion; he voted for the cap-and-trade energy tax and thought it didn’t go far enough; and he voted for government-run health care and thought the government should have had even more control over people’s health care decisions,” said Nachama Soloveichik, Toomey’s spokeswoman. “If that’s not liberal, what is?”

This is just stupid.  Why lie when you have zero chance of fooling anybody?  How do you ingratiate yourself as a Democrat in this political landscape by going out of your way to insult voters' intelligence?  Admittedly it's not a much more viable approach for Sestak to frankly and honestly defend his unpopular votes, but by owning up to them he might earn the respect of some independents.  Playing moron sticks him with political unpopularity and voter contempt.

***The "Save Our Asses In 2010" Act goes down to well-earned defeat.

Why did it fail?  Because the boorish unsubtlety with which Red Barry led Donks at the State Of The Regime show in their beatdown of the assembled SCOTUS Justices over Citizen United continued right into the "DISCLOSE" bill, making it such a blatant partisan screwjob that not even the RINOest of RINOs could stomach it:

On a conference call with reporters today, Senator Chuck Schumer said he’s “working very hard on getting a Republican” to support his version of the campaign-finance reform bill known as the Disclose Act.  He added that “there are a number of possibilities.”

But with the measure slated for a Senate vote tomorrow, he can cross Sen. Susan Collins of Maine off his list of potential supporters.  Collins said through a spokesman this afternoon that she will not support the bill in its current form.

“The bill would provide a clear and unfair advantage to unions, while either shutting other organizations out of the election process or subjecting them to onerous reporting requirements that would not apply to unions,” Collins’ press secretary Kevin Kelley told ABC News.

“Senator Collins also believes that it is ironic that a bill aimed at curtailing special interests in the election process provides so many carve outs and exemptions that favor some grassroots organizations over others. This too is simply unfair.”

Know what the punchline was?  The carve-out for the NRA designed as Pachyderm bait ended up flipping gun control fanatic Dianne Feinstein.  Heckuva job, Chuckie!

As for leftwingnutters who'll be pissed about this loss after all the successes, political and policy, they've had over the past three and a half years: cry me a river, bitches.

***Anybody want to take bets on how long after the Democrats lose the Senate it'll take for Al Franken to quit on the grounds that "Nobody told me I'd have to be in the minority!"?