Grayson apologizes

Rep. Alan Grayson apologized today.

No, not to Republicans in Congress for hurting their itty-bitty widdle feelings when he said -- correctly -- that when it comes to health care reform, Republicans "want you to die."

Not only did Grayson stand by what he said yesterday -- again, correctly -- but he actually apologized to dead people for Congress' failure to enact health care reform sooner.

"I've spoken to other members of leadership and nobody has asked me to apologize. Nobody is going to ask me to apologize. As I said before, no rules of the House were broken. We have a - if you bother to look it up - there's something in the Constitution called the Speech and Debate Clause and I think it well covers this situation. So no, nobody is going to ask me to apologize among the Democrats. I think the Republicans have something to apologize for but I made clear exactly what that is last night," he said.

Grayson also took to the House floor to offer a different sort of apology - to those who have died for lack of health insurance. "I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't acted sooner to end this holocaust in America," he said.

I love this guy ... in a manly way, of course. Thank Jeebus one Democrat (and from Florida, no less!) has the balls to say what needs to be said. And when lesser Democrats -- Harry Reid, Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel, et al. -- bow and scrape at the slightest breath of Republican consternation, Alan Grayson is one Dem who says he's mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore.

More like Grayson, please. Many, many more. It's nice, finally, to have someone who, as another Floridian once put it, won't back down.

Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Boy, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Miami) is some powerful dumb. I think this latest episode even surpasses her infamous call to assassinate Fidel Castro, the last time she took the Daily Schadenfreude award.

"Unfortunately, yes, I did hang up on president-elect Obama twice," Florida congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs committee told ABC television.

"This was pretty embarrassing -- it took two hangups on my part. Whoops. Sorry about that."

Ros-Lehtinen twice put the phone down on Obama, then also snubbed the president-elect's incoming White House chief of staff and former House of Representatives colleague Rahm Emanuel.

Obama finally got through to congratulate Ros-Lehtinen on her reelection after a fellow congressman was asked to phone her and alert her to her mistake, she said.

Heckuva job, Illy.

But congratulations anyway, because today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you! (Just don't hang up on me when I call you to announce the award!)

So much for a progressive White House: Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff?

I don't know what made me hope -- no pun intended -- for a progressive slant to a potential Obama presidential administration. All the nice words about tax cuts and spending more on education and getting our troops out of Iraq and all that, well, it almost made me forget that as a senator, Barack Obama also voted to extend FISA and that ridiculous bail-out-the-CEOs thing a couple of weeks ago.

But I was reminded this morning that Obama really still is a centrist, and maybe not a very strong one at that, when I read that his team may have approached Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), one of the key cheerleaders for the bailout, and a notoriously centrist (read: DLC) legislator, about becoming White House chief of staff in the new administration.

I suppose I should prepare myself to be disappointed now, so it doesn't hit so hard when President Obama surrounds himself with centrist sycophants and can't-we-all-just-get-along types ...

Give me a fucking break

Where does one begin with a Washington Post headline that is ridiculous, an article even more ridiculous, and self-serving quotes from a bunch of fucking enablers?

Well, right here, I guess, with an article entitled "Key Setbacks Dim Luster of Democrats' Year."

Handed control of Congress last year after making promises to end the war in Iraq, restore fiscal discipline in Washington and check President Bush's powers, Democrats instead closed the first session of the 110th Congress yesterday with House votes that sent Bush $70 billion in war funding, with no strings attached, and a $50 billion alternative-minimum-tax measure that shattered their pledge not to add to the federal budget deficit.

"I'm not going to let a lot of hard work go unnoticed, but I'm not going to hand out party hats, either," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.).

On Iraq, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said yesterday: "Nobody is more disappointed with the fact that we couldn't change that than I am." But Pelosi was not about to accept Republican assertions that her first year as speaker has been unsuccessful, saying: "Almost everything we've done has been historic."

Unable to garner enough votes from their own party, House Democratic leaders had to turn to Republicans to win passage of a $555 billion domestic spending bill after the Senate appended $70 billion to it for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The war funding passed 272 to 142, with Democrats voting 141 to 78 against it.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the primary reason the Democrats were unable to effect change is because so-called "leaders" like Emanuel and Pelosi caved in at every turn! How dare they claim disappointment when they know full well -- or should know -- that they had numerous opportunities to make a real difference, from ending the illegal war in Iraq to FISA and SCHIP. Why not just keep passing things and make Drunky McStagger keep vetoing them? When he vetoed SCHIP, he just looked petty and hateful (which, of course, he is) ... so what's wrong with making him dig his own political grave? Instead, facing a lame duck president of the opposing party, the Democrats repeatedly gave him what he wanted.

It's fucking idiotic. What's that line about insanity? It's doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. How can we get congressional Democrats to understand that Drunky and the Republicans won't play fair?! Never have, never will. The bullshit about "let's all get along" has gone on far too long. Nancy and Rahm and Harry and Pete Stark and the rest of those DLC bootlickers need to shut the fuck up and get to work being, you know, a real opposition party, instead of the D-FUCKED Caucus they are now.

All I want for Christmas is my country back.