Palace Intrigue

Three lefty websites are busy speculating the path of the 115th Congress now that the Republicans have seized control of the Senate, maintained control of the House and now have 31 Republican governors.  Obviously, they are trying to help steer a Democrat Party in shambles after their electoral drubbing.

Spinning like a whirling dervish, they theorize that six “red state” Democrat senators are “on the rise” and boldly proclaim that “bucking their own party leaders and the White House will determine whether Republicans will succeed in governing—or flop.”

The six senators mentioned are Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Heidi Heikamp (D-ND), Joe Donnelly (D-IN) Angus King (I-ME) and Jon Tester (D-MT).

McCaskill may vote in favor of the XL Keystone Pipeline. Manchin was against Reid’s filibuster reform.  Heitkamp voted to block gun background check legislation.  Donnelly is in favor of reversing the 30-hour work week definition under Obamacare.  Testor helped kill the DREAM Act filibuster in 2010.

And then there’s Angus King.  King will continue to caucus with the Democrats, but has tried to play deal maker on the issues of gun control and student loans.

Senator King feigned ignorance of the bombshell admission by Dr. Jonathan Gruber, Professor of Economics at MIT and technical consultant architect of the regime’s implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act AKA Obamacare who said. “The bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO (Congressional Business Office) did not score the mandate as taxes.  If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.  Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage.  And basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass.”  In the video, Gruber also noted “the stupidity of the American voter.”

This morning, Sen. King was being interviewed on Fox & Friends in what turned out to be an explosive exchange.  The video is embedded below.  Given his level of hubris and make-believe ignorance of Gruber’s remarks, you can pretty much figure out this guy is a worm who cannot be trusted.

Speaking of trust, it was The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer who said, “If you like your insurance plan, you can keep your insurance plan.  If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” some 36 times—that pabulum was later dubbed The Lie of The Year

The Rise Of An American Űber-Presidency

(L-R) Jonathan Turley, Professor of Public Interest Law at the George Washington University Law School; Elizabeth Price Foley, Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law; Simon Lazarus, Senior Counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center; and Walter Dellinger, partner at O'Melveny & Meyers

For four hours and 36 minutes the House Committee on Rules heard testimony on the lawsuit contemplating the authority to initiate litigation against The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer and his rise as an über-president.

Jonathan Turley, constitutional scholar and professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University testified that, “…impeachment has never been the focus of those who are critical of the constitutional violations committed by President Obama…Impeachment is an extraordinary remedy that comes at great cost to the country.”

In his opening remarks to the committee Turley hauntingly concluded:

“After years of eroding legislative authority, the decision of this body to take a stand and seek judicial review is a welcome change. The Obama Administration has advanced constitutional arguments on presidential power that can only be described as both extreme and largely devoid of limiting principles that characterize our constitutional system.  The Administration has tended to not only minimize the authority of Congress but the authority of the courts in interbranch relations.   It is hard to imagine a convincing argument for non-action in the face of such assertions.” 

“In his last State of the Union, President Obama pledged to effectively govern alone, a pledge that he has largely fulfilled.   What insular victories may be accomplished in these two years will pale in comparison to the long-term costs for this institution and for the Constitutional system as a whole. Despite our petty failings and partisan impulses, a single system of governance has brought us through wars, depression, civil unrest, and other towering challenges.  However, our system has been preserved under a certain covenant of faith from all citizens.  It is that very covenant that is affirmed every time a president or a Member of Congress takes the oath of office. There is no improvisation option for Congress.  There is no circumvention option for presidents. What we are witnessing today is a crisis of faith in our system despite its unparalleled and proven success.”  

“People have grown impatient with the constraints of the constitutional system, constraints which can seem quaint or antiquated when compared to pressing problems of health care or immigration or the environment.  It is tempting to embrace rule by a single person who offers to govern alone to get things done.  However, this is the very Siren’s call that our Founders warned us to resist.   We remain a nation of laws and we have a court system designed to resolve such controversies.  That is precisely where this authorization would take us and it is where these questions should be answered.”

Now I would ask you to go to the post below and go to vidmark 2:47.  What had been largely a civil proceeding turned highly partisan thanks to Jim McGovern (D-MA).  He cited an article in The New York Times that mentioned a piece written by Elizabeth Price Foley for The Daily Caller.

McGovern flagrantly obfuscated her words which spurred Foley to strike back with ferocity.  You should watch the takedown.  It’ll bring a glint of hope to your heart.

Democrats desperately argue the lawsuit has no standing, but I would ask you to think about this:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in last year’s case before the court over the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), wrote “Heretofore in our national history, the President’s failure to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ could only be brought before a judicial tribunal by someone whose concrete interests were harmed by that alleged failure.”

If the American people are not “the someone” whose concrete interests are being harmed by that alleged failure then who the hell is?

Unless the Supreme Court takes expedited action, Boehner’s lawsuit would not be placed on the docket until October 2015 with a ruling on the case coming out in June of 2016.

Watch Live: House Rules Committee Hearing on Proposed Lawsuit of President Barack Obama

Son Of A Glitch

The Op-Ed section of The Wall Street Journal tells us today that, “the exchanges fiasco is revealing the larger truth that ObamaCare's claim to technocratic expertise was always a political con. It won over the New Yorker and made ObamaCare designer Peter Orszag a celebrity. But it was all a veneer for ObamaCare's real goal, which is to centralize political control over health care."

The White House pitched President Obama's Rose Garden event on Monday as a new transparency, but the event amounted to an infomercial, complete with a 1-800 number. Operators are standing by and "the product is good," the President said. He even encouraged Americans to bypass the website and apply for benefits over the phone or by mail.

It is delicious irony that the regime decided to launch the ObamaCare website in October.  Halloween brings with it the summoning of frightening mythical creatures in the gloom of night.  Had the website been launched in November it would simply have been referred to as a turkey.

Welcome to Sleepy Hollow.  People are spending endless hours trying to create an account.  Each time they are met with failure.  They’ve called the hotline and been met with failure.  

Enter the Headless Horseman—Barack Hussein Obama.  Indeed a creepy fellow.  Little can be more frightening than the specter of a headless man who rides aimlessly through the night in search of his own head.

The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza offers this rejoinder for ObamaCare, “The ACA is the most important liberal project in decades. If it fails, it is a complete disaster for liberalism.”

The regime is guilty of putting the cart before the horse and now is pleading with Verizon to fix the hotline problem and a bevy of the “best and brightest” have been summoned to fix the computer software which is ten years old and filled with faulty codes.

The overwhelming obstacles that plague ObamaCare are beyond the pay grade of the techies.

Welcome to Sleepy Hollow.

See also:

The Buck Stops With Sebelius & Obama - New York Times
Web Site Glitches Feed Doubts About Bigger Issues - USA Today
Secrecy & Damage Control Won't Restore Confidence - Washington Post