Manchin-Toomey: A gun control "compromise" manufactured by the gun lobby

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Gun-crazy "bipartisanship"

I wrote on Friday that there was no hope in hell of meaningful gun control legislation getting through Congress. Manchin-Toomey may be a "bipartisan" "compromise," insofar as it has a few Republican backers, but even if it were to get through the Senate it would still have the House to contend with -- and there the NRA, which opposes the measure, has even more sway. Which is to say, we're a long way even from this limited measure making its way into law, and it may never get there.

Ah, but the tide is turning, is it not, what with two Republican senators -- John McCain and Susan Collins, joining Mark Kirk -- coming out this weekend in support?

Well, there's your "bipartisanship" on an issue that has the overwhelming support of Americans: Democrats plus a few Republicans. And we're not talking about a comprehensive gun control package here. This is just expanded background checks (important, yes, but not nearly enough). And even then McCain's support is a tad wishy-washy: he's "very favorably disposed," which is not a full endorsement, leaving him more than enough room to back out. What's more, Republican Jeff Sessions, a staunch opponent, said yesterday that he didn't think the measure would pass, and co-sponsor Pat Toomey acknowledged that passage is an "open question."

And again, this is just the Senate.

But okay, let's say it does pass, and let's say House Republicans buck the NRA, however unlikely, and support it, doing the least they can do as a way to make it seem like they're doing something, appealing to popular opinion, while pushing off having to do anything else. And let's say President Obama signs it, which he would, even though he's called for much more, because it's something, and something is supposedly better than nothing, and he likes the whole bipartisan thing anyway.

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Scary Jack Lew

By Frank Moraes 

Let us give a little thought to Jack Lew. Obama has nominated him to replace Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary. The Republicans are afraid -- very afraid. How can Obama choose Jack Lew?! 

And he is a scary guy, I can tell you that. Last year, Eric Cantor told Politico, "No one was more prepared and more in tune with the numbers than Jack Lew." This was in an article titled, "Jack Lew: A Liberal GOP Says It Trusts." So you know: this is Freddy Krueger scary. No. Wait. Not Freddy Krueger scary; Kermit the Frog scary. When it comes to Obama nominees, it doesn't take much to scare the Republicans. 

Jonathan Bernstein over at The Plum Line tells us that Jeff Sessions (fucktard from Alabama) is against Lew becoming Treasury Secretary. But not because Lew is a drunk or a philanderer. No, Sessions thinks he doesn't have the "gavitas" for the job. What this means is just that he's against him because that's what you do to all the nominations of a Democratic president -- especialla un oo's a colored. Bernstein is nicer: "Or, as Kevin Drum figures, it's just that Lew insists on using real math during budget negotiations." That's even worse: a edacated colored's nominee.

Bernstein argues that the real problem is that congressional Republicans have abandoned norms. Until Obama was elected, it was accepted that the president should be allowed to have the cabinet that he chose. But no longer. 

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The Republicans' anti-gay litmus test for the Supreme Court

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Steve Benen posted yesterday on Republican Sen. John Thune's comment that a gay nominee for the Supreme Court just wouldn't be acceptable. Other Republicans, like Sen. Jeff Sessions, aren't nearly so dogmatic in their bigotry, but I suspect that Thune's position is a pretty common one on the right. Republicans may talk merit, but they are the real practitioners of identity politics, the ones who use identity, or identities they don't like, to divide America into demographics of "us" and "them."

It's disgusting, of course, not to mention deeply hypocritical, and it's pretty much business as usual on the right.