The Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee are seeking a way to deny Richard Cordray a job by resorting to a variation of the tune sung by the late Jerry Falwell: Love the sinner but hate the sin. Where else except in the loony political atmosphere of GOP America would you find conservative senators praising the key witness for his competence while trying to strip him of the job he was hired to do?
Cordray, the former Ohio attorney general, is the still-unconfirmed director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a self-explanatory title. Republicans have all but declared the agency to be a front for Shariah Law. They insist Cordray would have too much power to raise hell with anyone ripping off consumers. They assured Cordray that they mightily admire his good work, but...
But really, folks, how are these stonewallers qualified to recognize good work?
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More hilarity from Capitol Hill: The Paul Ryan Show, one-man stand-up comedy that has played before, is continuing to amuse observers who scored more than a c-minus in arithmetic. In a revival that could reach Broadway for its impudent gag lines, Ryan has retrurned to his self-styled abacus to present a budget filled with what can only be described as a mathematical non-sequitur. Undismayed, Ryan invites everyone to come back in 10 years, when he will be able to show you that even if the numbers don't add up, they work.
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As if John Boehner doesn't have enough on his plate, a former Ohio Republican congressman who is back in street clothes from a prison term, has some untidy things to say about the Speaker in a new memoir. Bob Ney, who spent 11 months in a federal prison for political corruption from his illegal handiwork with Jack Abramoff, charges in the book that Boehner is a "chain-smoking, relentless wine drinker" who engages in the high life of "golf, women, cigarettes, fun and alcohol."
An alcoholic himself, Ney admits that his own crash "whichever way I look at it, was wrong, illegal, unethical and immoral." He says he has found peace through meditation inspired by the Dalai Lama. Will he now play nice and share the path with Boehner?
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Finally, another "rising star". As you may be aware, I'm keeping a list of the designated rising stars in politics while the supply lasts. Today's comes from the Associated Press, which described George Prescott Bush, Jeb's son, a "rising star among Hispanics."
G.P announced Tuesday that he's running for Texas land commissioner. A Bush grandfather, an uncle and a father, and now a land commissioner? How many stars can the universe accommodate? No problem, George Prescott Bush says on his website: "Texans are exceptional."
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If the Senate Republicans were capable of thinking straight, they would vote to confirm Cordray in the hope that he would stay in Washington and not run for governor in Ohio next year.....As for Paul Ryan's billboard budget plan, which is little more than a pander to his Tea Party partisans, his proposal has more holes than a moth-eaten sweater. It lays out a platform for members to run with in the off-year elections in 2014 and rests on fantastical premises that have absolutely no chance of being enacted into law -- such as repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the partial privatization of Medicare, and balancing the budget in a decade entirely by cutting spending and not providing new sources of revenue. The spending cuts, it should be noted, would mostly befall the poor and lower-income citizens, and his tax "reform" proposal would mostly benefit affluent folks. In other words, the yawning income gap between upper and lower income people would widen. Taking the biggest hits would be medical care for the poor, food stamp recipients, education assistance for school and college students, and vocational training.
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