Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., ripped GOP lawmakers for promoting the “bizarro” idea that Congress could pass a balanced-budget amendment with its current representation. “That is worse than foolish. That is deceiving many of our constituents,” McCain said on the Senate floor Wednesday. But columnist Rick Horowitz blamed McCain for helping unleash such grandstanding by picking Sarah Palin to be his running mate in 2008: “Who was it who put pizzazz in the spotlight and pushed serious right into the orchestra pit? . . . ‘Dr. Frankenstein, call your office.’”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., thinks one result of this debt-ceiling fiasco should be a 2012 primary challenge for President Obama. But the Daily Beast’s Eric Alterman observes that “as angry as many liberals may be — and I count myself among them — the fear engendered by the craziness of the current Republican crop of candidates provides a strong corrective to any dreams of mounting anything more than a nuisance candidacy to challenge Obama. . . . Barack Obama is not going to be seriously challenged from his left any more than he is going to be impeached.”
Gov. Sam Brownback was understated in opposing the 2011 Legislature’s attempt to repeal the 2004 state law allowing children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at state universities and colleges — which failed again. If Brownback, who sponsored such a law in the U.S. Senate before voting against it, wants to be a bolder defender in the future, he might look to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s approach. The first-in-the-nation Texas law, which Perry (in photo) signed in 2001, lets kids pay the lower in-state rates if they’ve lived in Texas for three years and earned a GED or diploma from a Texas high school. Perry, who soon may join the GOP presidential field, told the New Hampshire Union Leader that he still supports the law. “To punish these young Texans for their parents’ actions is not what America has always been about,” Perry said. He’s right.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., ripped GOP lawmakers for promoting the “bizarro” idea that Congress could pass a balanced-budget amendment with its current representation. “That is worse than foolish. That is deceiving many of our constituents,” McCain said on the Senate floor Wednesday. But columnist Rick Horowitz blamed McCain for helping unleash such grandstanding by picking Sarah Palin to be his running mate in 2008: “Who was it who put pizzazz in the spotlight and pushed serious right into the orchestra pit? . . . ‘Dr. Frankenstein, call your office.’”
