TPM:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) made clear this evening that he would not block middle-class tax cuts as leverage for passing a fuller package. "To me there's very broad agreement on middle class tax cuts therefore we ought to get it done, and then we can argue about tax cuts for higher income people," Lieberman said.

(Emphasis supplied.) If the Dems stand firm, no one will vote against middle class tax cuts. Can the GOP and the Blue Dogs offer tax cuts for the rich later? Sure. The President can veto such a bill. After all, THE DEFICIT!

Speaking for me only

Digby writes about Ben Smith's piece about Andrew Sullivan and George Packer lamenting the demise of reason in our discourse. Digby asks where these people have been for the past decade. Let me answer -- Sullivan and Packer were two of the most irrational voices in the country is where they were. They fullthroatedly advocated for the most insane policy in the recent history of the United States - the Iraq Debacle.

Excuse me, but reading about Packer and Sullivan lamenting the triumph of "unreason" is just too rich. Who are they kidding? They were part of the problem. Sullivan especially - his irrational hatred of Bill Clinton and Al Gore (and Paul Krugman) should disqualify him from ever writing about anyone being unhinged. As for Packer, let me refer to a piece I wrote about his Iraq Debacle advocacy in 2005. Read this passage from Packer:

Rudy Giuluiani is up to his old tricks. Now he's touting federal anti-gang task force legislation.

Wrong answer, as usual. Rather than repeat myself:

• Senate Approves $1 Billion for "Gang Fear and Pandering Act"
• Report: Locking Up Gang Members Doesn't Work
• Calling All Conservatives: Anti-Gang Legislation
• Opposing the 'Gangbuster Bill'
• Feinstein and Lieberman: Two Peas in a Pod

[More...]

For the third time, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld the suppression of records in the Balco lab case.

A full 11-judge panel of the appeals court agreed to reconsider its August 2009 three-judge decision that the government violated the rights of players not covered by the search warrant and must return the confiscated drug-testing records to the Major League Baseball Players Assn. The appellate judges also upheld the lower-court rulings that all subpoenas issued as a result of the excessive seizure had to be quashed.

The illegally obtained evidence included results indicating that 104 Major League Baseball players had tested positive for steroid use during a 2003 confidential screening.

The opinion is here. [More...]

I'm finally done with court today, and about to watch the finale of the Bachelor Pad (even though I know who wins.) It should be fun to see what the pros from DWTS can do with them in such a short time.

Update: Congrats to Dave and Natalie. Of the two final pairs, they were my fave by miles. I've always liked Natalie, she has so much moxie and not an ounce of fake goody-two shoes-ness.(We also have the same birthday.) Dave really rehabilitated himself from his angry, psycho, over-macho performance on Jillian's season, something I never would have thought possible. I actually liked him on this show. [More...]

Really bad move by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Detroit underpants bomber. He fired his public defenders today and told the court he will represent himself. The Court will appoint stand-by counsel.

Is he taking a page from the Zacarias Moussaoui playbook? If so, he should know it didn't work out too well for Moussaoui, who is serving life in prison.

Abdulmutallab asked the judge if he could plead guilty to just some counts. The answer, of course, is "no" (absent government agreement.) And aside from the issue of guilt, there's the issue of sentencing. Federal sentencing requires professionals to navigate the guidelines and advocate for a below-guidelines or non-guideline sentence. No way will he be able to effectively do that himself. [More...]

TPM reports on Dem ineptitude:

A senior House leadership aide says[:} "We shouldn't force his hand, we should let the Republicans dangle out there with their divisions exposed and keep hammering them on holding middle class tax cuts hostage for $700 billion in debt-financed tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans [. . .] You don't need a vote in the House to say the party is blocking tax relief for the middle class - you can just point and say, 'Look! Senate Republicans blocked it,'" the aide said.

This is, of course, all kinds of stupid, and a ruse. The "senior Dem aide" (I'll bet dollars to donuts a Hoyer aide) is floating this to see how it will play in order to protect Blue Dog Dems who do not want to vote against a middle class tax cut and who may be just stupid enough to do it. Well the balloon went over like lead:

Whopper of a late update: Another senior leadership aide called TPM about an hour after this post was published to say that leadership is still considering all of its options, including a vote after all. [. . .] "We may have a vote anyway to get people on the record," the aide said. "There are a number of leaders who would like a vote even if the Senate is not able to get to 60 votes. It's good for us, it shows we're for the middle class, they are for the rich."

Gee, you think? Of course, Steny Hoyer's Blue Dog friends may line up with Republicans. Their choice and their consequences.

Speaking for me only

TPM:

An Associated Press story made waves this morning, by claiming that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had received a pledge from every member of his caucus to block tax legislation unless it extends all of the Bush tax cuts, even for the richest Americans. This morning spokesman Don Stewart told TPM that article is incorrect. "They're correcting this story," Stewart says. "I only said what I've been saying for months: there are no Republicans who support tax hikes[.]"

In response to the original report, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pounced [--] "It is unconscionable for Senate Republicans to hold middle-class tax cuts hostage in order to secure more tax giveaways for millionaires and CEOs who ship American jobs overseas," he said in a statement. "Today's declaration by Senate Republicans means they are willing to raise taxes on the middle class and small businesses in the middle of a recession...by this Republican logic, until rich CEOs get what they want, middle-class families can't get what they need."

(Emphasis supplied.) The GOP will cave on this if Dems stand their ground. Harry Reid's statement tells you where this is heading, Joe Lieberman notwithstanding.

Speaking for me only

Josh Marshall:

Legislation and politics aren't two separate worlds. Each feeds off each other, as the Democrats learned to their profound discomfiture during the Health Care Reform debate last year. Especially on the cusp of an election, any inability to grasp this can and usually is fatal. Reasoning that the views of the GOP leadership in the House are secondary because the bill has to get through the Senate only makes sense if your field of vision doesn't extend more than half a mile out of your Senate office.

Via Susie Madrak, how Rebecca Traister became a Hillary-bot:

The thing that had a radicalizing impact on me began after [Hillary lost in] Iowa. Because there was this pile-on, and to me it was mind-bending. It was coming often from people on the left. It was like something they had been keeping inside as they bit their tongues and covered this woman who had the gall to be the front-runner and the “inevitable” candidate, which was the word that they threw out there. And finally she had shown weakness, and they were just going nuts.

[. . .] I was one of those few, proud, now deeply embarrassed John Edwards supporters. So when it came to super Tuesday I had to choose between her and Obama, about whom I felt roughly equivalent. I wound up almost flipping a coin and voting for Hillary, but I was still completely ambivalent about her. Eventually I became a lot more aware of the ways in which not only Hillary but also her supporters were being talked about. I became increasingly sensitive to the scorn directed at her, and it built and built as she continued to fight, and it drove me nuts. Because I thought her continuing to fight was awesome and hilarious. I thought it was completely redefining how we view women and our expectations for them in public and political life. She would not comply. She would not give in. She would not do what the pundits wanted her to do, what her opponents wanted her to do, what reporters were insisting that she do, what everyone was telling her was the smart thing to do or, in one case, the classy thing to do. She just kept going. [MORE . . .]

Joe Lieberman:

I know that many people, including the President, have argued that the tax cuts should not be continued for people making more than $200,000 a year, but to me these are the people we need to be using their income to spend and invest to spur growth and job creation[. . .] I want the top income earners in our country to have the confidence and the money to spend and invest over the next year, rather than worrying about paying more in taxes to the federal government.

98% of Americans will be held hostage by Joe Lieberman and the Republicans who will deny them tax relief unless the top 2% get huge tax breaks.

Speaking for me only

Ezra Klein:

Congress is back in session today, and it's got a lot on its agenda. A food safety bill, for instance. The Bush tax cuts. An infrastructure bank. Ratification of the START treaty. But as Brookings' Thomas Mann says in this preview, they're not likely to actually do any of it.

Of all those issues, only one has political resonance - the Obama tax cuts for the middle class. The rest will surely be put over for a lame duck session, if they are passed at all.

Here is the one time where Democrats get to be for tax cuts and can force Republicans to oppose tax cuts. And if nothing happens because the Republicans hold the Obama middle class tax cuts hostage for tax cuts for the wealthy, what happens is the Bush tax cuts lapse as scheduled. If the Democrats and the President can not win this issue, then they should just disband the Democratic Party.

Speaking for me only