Leftovers from the cave

The past week's leftovers:

With so many hawkish wingers who won't shave a budgetary dime in protecting the lives of Americans from terrorists overseas, it does seem odd that the very same hawkish wingers on the right  continue to hack at Obamacare that protects the lives of millions of uninsured Americans at home.

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That was another of Gov.Kasich's sunny performances in his CNN interview by Gloria Borger.  It could have ended quickly after he said that all of his options were on the table, or at least after he again mentioned  Matthew 25 (the part about feeding the poor!). He also shrugged off any interest in the vice presidency , cheerily saying he's been on the veep list since he was 35. He also called for an unspecified "battle plan"against ISIS and claimed to be  "worried about America".  He dismissed any thoughts about  conservative opposition  if he decides to run for the presidency (which at this very moment is an idea that controls every lobe of his brain) because right-wingers do not represent the culture of Ohio. You'd be better off if you didn't allow any of the above Kasichisms burden your lobes.

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Re Matthew 25,  do you think the guv might start showing up with John 3:16 on a placard in his public appearances - the way they do it at baseball games?

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Hope you saw the angry letter in Monday's Beacon Journal from Brian Williams defending Common Pleas Judge Tammy O'Brien   for recusing herself from more than 60 cases after her bailiff threatened to quit because the bailiff didn't like the assistant county procesutor assigned to the court.  "Mercilessly vilified," Williams complained.  But it does seem that a judge at the common pleas level should have weighed  the consequences of her behavior.  Indeed, she finally did by saying she would now preside over all of the cases from now on.

If you do crossword puzzles (as I do) Rep. Darrell Issa, the toothy mega-millionaire Republican from California, is manning the battlements against the army of Giuliani  critics by asking us to thank the New York City mayor.  But he also tests all of us to know the difference between "believe" and 'wasn't".

Here's Issa:

"Rudy Giuliani said he didn't 'believe'  [that Obama doesn't love America]  He didn't say the president 'wasn't'."

Yeah.  Me, too.

A president talking to himself

I'LL GIVE the Bushies this much credit:  They sure know how to orchestrate a 13-minute Farewell  Address.  Unrepentant for the havoc that his administration created around the world and at home,  George Walker Bush merely told the nation that if folks are patient, even those whose belongings are out on the lawn of their foreclosed homes,  America will do fine.  And that's because, except for a few blips here and there, he did fine during his 8 years in office  (it seemed twice as long).  This was not the old soldier Gen. MacArthur who said he would just fade away.  This was a president with ground-level ratings  who was blind to his many shortcomings and will leave office unapologetically believing that he was right - courageously right, at that  - on all counts.  I  thought it was clever, too,  how the  people he praised in the audience were all African-Americans.  So there.  Obama didn't  capture all blacks on Election Day, I guess.  It was another conceit on his part that will be forgotten tomorrow.  It was not one of Bush's better days - and nights.  A plane crash into a river dominated the network news before and after the speech, and - signs of the times - NBC's Brian Williams,  late into his news program,  said, "By the way" NBC would be carrying Bush's speech at 8.  By the way?  That's no way to dismiss  a presidential epilogue. Unless, of course, it's George Bush's.