Mass SNAFU

Waxman calls off corporation witch hunt

 

Henry Waxman has cancelled his inquisition of US corporations who had the gall to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and report the costly effects of ObamaCare to their investors.  From Fox News:

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has canceled a hearing intended to grill CEOs who took a charge against profits because of the health care reform bill.

The cancellation came after they realized what everyone already knew - that the companies were required to do what they did because of accounting rules. Waxman and others had reacted with outrage and accused the companies of doing it - in essence, to make health care reform look bad.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act – which Waxman supported – requires that any information that will have an adverse effect on a company’s bottom line has to be reported immediately.  When AT&T, Caterpillar and John Deere announced close to $1.5 billion in increased costs due to ObamaCare’s passage, they were following the law. 

Waxman was either too stupid to realize this or simply didn’t care and demanded the corporations appear before Congress to answer for their O-Care demagoguery.  My guess is someone got to Waxman and informed him how ridiculous his intimidation stunt looked and that nothing beneficial could come from demonizing businesses that were following a law that he voted for.

Chief Justice Roberts comments on Obama State of the Union pep rally

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts finally commented on the president's SOTU speech in which Obama called out the Supreme Court on their decision to allow corporations similar freedoms to those of unions in contributing to political campaigns:

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday the scene at President Obama's State of the Union address was "very troubling" and the annual speech has "degenerated to a political pep rally."

Obama chided the court, with the justices seated before him in their black robes, for its decision on a campaign finance case.

Responding to a University of Alabama law student's question, Roberts said anyone was free to criticize the court, and some have an obligation to do so because of their positions.

"So I have no problems with that," he said. "On the other hand, there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum.

"The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling."

Roberts is right of course. Civility in politics has become a rarity, especially since Obama's election to POTUS. When you have a president making comments such as "I won" and "the campaign is over" and otherwise acting like a petulant elitist in any bipartisan setting, the tone has been set and the rest of the party falls in step.

The image of Chuck Schumer hovering over the justices clapping and cheering after the president called them out – with a statement that was factually untrue and deceptively misleading, by the way - just reeks of dirty politics by a bunch of rank amateurs. If there's one thing Obama can claim success at, it is bringing the Chicago way of dirty politics to the national level.

“This is not about me. But thank God you have me.” – Barack Obama

The Blue Dog Democrats have had to walk a fine line since Obama got elected – pick and choose what legislation to back and try not to upset the conservative leaning district back home – and maintain employment. It's quite the political balance. The problem for the Blue Dogs today however, is that the majority of legislation to come from this administration has pitted them against a rock and a very hard place, as in their disapproving constituency. And Democratic Congressional leaders have been dropping quicker than Obama's health care approval rating.

The latest victim to the voter backlash is Arkansas Blue Dog Rep. Marion Berry who, instead of fighting in a losing campaign, announced his retirement today. Rep. Berry who was elected in 1997, has always had to represent a conservative district and balanced his voting record well enough to maintain his seat. On his way out the door however, Rep. Berry had some notable comments on President Obama's response to the Blue Dog's concerns about voting for unpopular bills:

"I've been doing that with this White House, and they just don't seem to give it any credibility at all," Berry said. "They just kept telling us how good it was going to be. The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, 'Well, the big difference here and in '94 was you've got me.' We're going to see how much difference that makes now."

Can you believe the chutzpah of this megalomaniac? Dear God, he is so full of himself he's ignoring the political carnage occurring all around him and still thinks he's the second coming.

In 1994 the Republicans had a net gain of 52 seats in the House, 9 in the Senate, 14 Governorships and 18 state legislative houses. This was due, in large part, to a very unpopular agenda thrust onto the electorate by Hillary William Jefferson Clinton. Sound familiar?

To be fair, that reality slap to Clinton forced him to the center where he governed accordingly for the remainder of his terms. He still remains the only president to leave office with a higher approval rating when he left office than when he entered it.

Could this same dynamic happen with Obama and his presidency? It's possible but Obama moving to the center is unlikely – radicals only move left.