Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Boehner Takes the House

Rich Galen

Friday October 1, 2010

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided that she didn't want to bring the issue of extending what are now called "The Bush Era Tax Cuts" to the floor prior to the election.

Reason? She would have gotten rolled by her own caucus because, in addition to all the other baggage she has loaded on Democrats running for re-election, they did not want their last vote to be a tax increase on small business owners.

When the "Bush Era Tax Cuts" were adopted the law was written such that they expired on December 31, 2010. Without Congressional action to the contrary, they all go away.

But, Pelosi didn't want to get into a fight over extending all the tax cuts so, she brought, instead, a motion to adjourn until November 15 - two weeks after the mid-term elections.

Motions to adjourn are normally among the most banal of votes. "Yes," is what happens because who doesn't want to get out of work?

Unfortunately for Speaker Pelosi, John Boehner (BAY-nur), who is the Republican leader, took to the floor and demanded that the House not adjourn for yet another six weeks until it had voted on extending the tax cuts.

According to The Hill newspaper:

"Thirty-nine House Democrats voted against adjournment after Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) urged opposition to the motion in a floor speech that said it would be irresponsible for Congress to leave without providing certainty on the tax issue. Dozens of Democrats in tough races voted against adjourning."

The White House is trying to use Boehner as its poster child for why people should vote for Democrats in November, but even Democrats in the House voted for Boehner on Wednesday.

The score was 209-209 as the clock was running down and so Speaker Pelosi (Speakers of the House rarely cast votes) had to stick her card into the little machine and vote for adjournment to make the vote 210-209 and avoid yet another embarrassment prior to the November elections.

According to people who crawl the halls of the Capitol, Pelosi and Democratic Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer disagreed on whether to hold the vote prior to adjournment leading to even more gossip that, should Republicans take control of the House Hoyer will supplant Pelosi as the senior Democrat.

Reporter after reporter called the move to avoid a vote on the tax increases by Pelosi as "punting" the vote until after the election. In American football a "punt" is an admission of failure that you couldn't move the ball forward.

Pelosi is so out of touch with reality that, according to a report by the AP's Dave Espo, she claimed:

"Rank-and-file Democrats departed Washington to campaign 'with a spirit of optimism, very pleased about taking the message of fighting for the middle class, of moving America forward and not going back.'"

It's a little hard to find a "spirit of optimism" among Democratic Members of the House outside of that very special world in which Nancy Pelosi now lives.

New Topic

The only thing I inherited from my father were his crappy cardiac arteries. I'm not angry about that. Much.

At least, I wasn't until I read that the North Korean Nut-Case-in-Chief, Kim Jong-il had made his previously unknown Number Three Son, Kim Jong-un a four-star general in the North Korean army.

To be fair, my dad could have made me a four-star general in the Galen army, but my cardboard uniform would have had those stick-on-good-boy gold stars that Miss Moore used to hand out in fourth grade at Hillside Grade School in New Hyde Park, NY.

The 26-year-old Jong-un is quite the little chunk-ola. A BBC video describes him as "clearly a little better fed than the vast majority of his fellow countrymen."

If North Korea weren't so dangerous, it would be funny.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the Boehner speech from The Hill newspaper, the AP summary of Pelosi's departure from Washington, and the video of the newest four-star North Korean general. Also another parking malfeasance Mullfoto and a Catchy Caption of the Day which made me laugh out loud.

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