"Herbert Hoover" Time

Senate Rethuglicans eager to return to their "small government" roots are prepared to sabotage the proposed loan of $15 billion to GM and Chrysler, just a couple of months after approving a bailout over 45 times that size to Wall Street investment banks and insurance companies. So if it's a white collar industry, help yourself; if it's a blue collar industry, tough luck. Talk about Rethuglican class warfare. Bust those unions at any cost to America!!

In a rare moment of honesty, (Vice) President Dead-eye Dick Cheney spoke to Senate Rethugs on Wednesday, according to Politico, and warned them that this was "Herbert Hoover" time as far as allowing the automakers to fail. The ripple effect through the economy of having this key domestic industry fail would be catastrophic, according to economists of every political stripe. Millions of jobs are related to the domestic auto industry, union and non-union alike. But for for so many winger Rethugs, it's an opportunity to return to the 1930s.

The GOP's "Very Sad Road" Ahead

Analysis by the Cook Report indicates that the Democrats are looking to pick up even more seats in the Senate in the 2010 elections. That would make 3 elections in a row that the Rethugs lose ground in Congress. Several vulnerable Rethugs are up for reelection: Bunning in Kentucky, Voinovich in Ohio, Martinez in Florida, and Specter in Pennsylvania to name some. Also some Rethug retirements are in the offing: McAncient in Arizona and Brownback in Kansas, paving the way for Democratic Governors Napolitano and Sebelius, respectively, to potentially win those seats.

Looking at the Senate picture for Rethugs in 2010, one Cook analyst said, "it's a long, very very sad road, if you're in the GOP." Yes, but we're not. BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Rethug Mischief

Rethuglican Senators are making mischief again: they defeated an energy bill which would have had the first new fuel economy standards in some 30 years because of the bill's imposition of taxes on oil companies. Surprised? In addition, some Rethug Senators, unhappy with the NIE's deflation of the march to war against Iran, want a Congressional investigation of the report's findings, suggesting that the NIE was "politicized." Riiiiight! The consensus of 16 intelligence agencies is "politicized" when it doesn't fit the Rethug roadmap for endless war in the Middle East. So the Senate Rethugs want to jump in and. . . what's the word? POLITICIZE the process. This should be interesting; maybe the Rethugs can put the Yellow Elephant logo on the next NIE cover.