I'm annoyed. Mark Steyn seems to favor Perry, but won't say so; Rush Limbaugh must seem to like him somewhat, or else he wouldn't urge him to stay in the race, nor would he hope for a "miracle" in South Carolina.

So why not say so?

I don't get this.

Posted by: Ace at 10:11 AM | Comments (468)
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Hey don't get mad at me for asking. Apparently his own book says that, based on the prescriptions therein, one could accuse him of being a 'Big Government conservative.'"

I'm going to be giving him a first look. I have a reasonably open mind, but not completely open. I don't like his rightwing paternalism bias.

Is this what the Tea Party has meant with its Don't Tread On Me flags? I didn't get that.

Santorum’s book is crammed with an array of ideas for technocratic meddling; even the author acknowledges that some people “will reject” what he has to say “as a kind of ‘Big Government’ conservatism.”

Santorum grumbles about too many conservatives believing in unbridled “personal autonomy” and subscribing to the “idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do … that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom (and) we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues.”

Perhaps Santorum confuses libertinism with libertarianism, but for him “cultural issues” go way beyond defending the life of the unborn or opposing gay marriage. Santorum believes that conservatives should recognize “that individuals can’t go it alone,” which sounds a lot like the straw-man justification for nearly every state expansion in memory. Why does Santorum, a conservative, believe that getting government out of our lives means a person must “go it alone,” anyway? Maybe it means that person can go to his local church or his family or his community or his local bar to seek help — or maybe he can figure things out himself.

Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren have been hitting this same note an awful lot.

Posted by: Ace at 09:44 AM | Comments (362)
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Yesterday news broke that Obama was going to recess appoint Richard Cordry to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. There's just one slight problem, the Senate isn't actually in recess.

Today the Obama administration announced it's rationale for this extraordinary power grab.

Here are the facts: The Constitution gives the President the authority to make temporary recess appointments to fill vacant positions when the Senate is in recess, a power all recent Presidents have exercised. The Senate has effectively been in recess for weeks, and is expected to remain in recess for weeks. In an overt attempt to prevent the President from exercising his authority during this period, Republican Senators insisted on using a gimmick called “pro forma” sessions, which are sessions during which no Senate business is conducted and instead one or two Senators simply gavel in and out of session in a matter of seconds. But gimmicks do not override the President’s constitutional authority to make appointments to keep the government running. Legal experts agree. In fact, the lawyers who advised President Bush on recess appointments wrote that the Senate cannot use sham “pro forma” sessions to prevent the President from exercising a constitutional power.

Because of the PresidentÂ’s leadership and decisive action, the American people will have a consumer watchdog fighting tooth and nail on their behalf. The President knows this is a make or break moment for the middle class and heÂ’ll continue to build an economy thatÂ’s based on the values of fairness and shared responsibility. TodayÂ’s announcement is a critical piece to strengthen the economy and restore the economic security for the middle class and those trying to reach it. Mr. Cordray is the right man for the job and weÂ’re pleased heÂ’s finally in place to continue his important work.

Emphasis mine.

Let's look at the relevant words of Article II, Section II of the Constitution.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Funny, I don't see anything about "effectively" being in recess.

This is a blatant violation of the Constitution and he's doing it simply to pick a fight with congressional Republicans and energize his base.

Part of his strategy is dependent upon the MFM ignoring this power grab and early reports seem to indicate they will come through for him.

As for the politics of this...we're going to see calls for the GOP to begin impeachment proceedings. Let's just not even think about that. It's simply not going to happen and it'll give Obama exactly what he wants. He'll claim that Republicans are focusing on political games instead of helping the American people, blah, blah, blah.

There's really not much the GOP can do. A lawsuit will never work (any court will call it a "political question" and punt) and going nuclear will play into Obama's hands.

Basically Obama is running for President and he wants his opponent to be "Congressional Republicans". Sometimes the best strategy is to skip a fight you want to have and should have simply because simply engaging in it is a win for your opponent.

Think of it as ignoring a comment troll. It's unsatisfying but effective.

Let the GOP candidates take this fight to Obama while the House actually focuses on things like the tax bill that's coming up in 2 months.

Added: The Congressional Research Service has an analysis off the recess appointment power and it doesn't support Obama (pdf). more...

Posted by: DrewM at 08:26 AM | Comments (385)
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Suspending, whatever she is going to actually call it.

Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann will reportedly announce that she's suspending her presidential campaign after a dismal showing in the Iowa caucuses.

A senior Republican official familiar with the congresswoman's plans told CBS News partner National Journal that Bachmann came to the decision to effectively end her run, recognizing that "there was no viable way forward."

Earlier, Bachmann canceled her campaign trip to South Carolina.

She scheduled to speak around 11 eastern.

I'm kind of surprised by this. I thought she would have stayed in for a couple of the upcoming debates. It doesn't cost much to do that. I guess she figures there's nothing she can do at this point to get on Mitt's VP list.

Well Michele, we'll always have Tardisill.

Oh and can we now admit that the Ames Straw Poll is meaningless?

UPDATE: From Perry's Twitter account.

@GovernorPerry: And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State..Here we come South Carolina!!!

Well.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:04 AM | Comments (339)
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Good morning. I expect we'll be spending the next week reading Iowa post-mortems, so I'll keep mine brief. I'm disappointed that the GOP has once again let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Center-right nation, my ass. This is a stupid-right nation.

Oh, I have to apologize for not getting the AOSHQ straw poll up yesterday. Life intervened. I'm not going to put one up this morning, however, because there's too much in flux today. Do I take Perry's name off? What about these rumors Bachmann is dropping out today? We'll give it a few days and see if things settle.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:54 AM | Comments (656)
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Arizona Senator John McCain, his partyÂ’s 2008 nominee, will endorse Mitt Romney in New Hampshire tomorrow, a well-placed former McCain aide told BuzzFeed Tuesday.

Other stuff at Hot Air. I'm too annoyed to link.

I'll be in the other thread, discussing what skillz I/others have decided to pick up.

I'm going to learn lock-picking so I can steal Ron Paul's gold, for example.

Rick Santorum is now giving his victory (?) speech. (Counties are still out and it looks like Romney might take it.)

Posted by: Ace at 08:15 PM | Comments (467)
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Hey, just got back from helping out at one of the 4 caucus locations here in Madison County, Iowa. We had the South Half of Winterset and the fairly rural SW quarter of the County caucusing at the Middle School here in Winterset. The North 1/2 of town & the NE quarter of the County were about 2 blocks away at the Jr. High School, and the NW and SE quarters of the County were in Earlham and Truro, respectively.

The raw numbers from my home County? Here you go:

Santorum.......223
Paul...............221
Romney.........170
Perry.............154
Gingrich.........144
Bachmann........54
Huntsman..........5
Cain..................1
Roemer.............1
"No Preference"..1
"Other"..............1

more...

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 07:00 PM | Comments (146)
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Do Presidents Age Faster in Office?

Well that's the common perception but research shows that presidents by and large are more healthy and youthful than their peers - even after leaving office.

Neo-neocon has a theory on why we perceive presidential aging to be faster than normal:

IÂ’ve noticed in my own life and among my friends, as well as for public figures, that visible aging doesnÂ’t progress in smooth linear fashion. It advances in fits and starts and discrete bumps.

...There’s a group who hit the aging wall in their mid-to-late forties, going almost overnight from young to oldish. They’re the canaries in the mine. Another bunch “turn” quite suddenly in their late fifties, with the early sixties a time of particular peril for many.

These periods happens to coincide with the ages of many presidents while in office. I hereby submit that it’s not so much the stress of office—after all, the stresses come with an awful lot of perks, too—but the age of presidents during their administrations that is accountable for some of this perception of accelerated aging in presidents on the part of the public.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:51 PM | Comments (718)
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I say rumors because, like, it's just getting started. I don't know when the results come in.

At 9pm Eastern I'll join the Howe brothers on a live-streamed podcast at FTRRadio. (Link should be is fixed.)

By the way, our own Russ From Winterset is caucusing tonight, and he'll file a first-person report later, at around 11.

County By County: Neat tool. Not really sure how to read it, but Google has a map which purports to track results as they come in.

Via @starchambermaid

Posted by: Ace at 04:02 PM | Comments (1045)
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The proper conjugation is: snit, snitted, had snat. Or, en Deutsche, haben geschnitten.

So as not to mislead: I am informed Countdown will not be on tonight. I must defer on all questions to @JoelHyatt @AlGore and @Current

Now why would he have announced he was on his way to his office earlier, if he had an inkling that he wouldn't be permitted on air?

My guess (just a guess) is that it's a legal maneuver, an attempt to show that, despite whatever draaaamaa his previous snittings caused, he was now ready to work as scheduled, and was only being barred by a management which is Legally At Fault and In Breach of Contract.

Or else he's just griefing and creating more drama.

Honestly I don't know.

What I do know is that Keith Olbermann has more draaamaaa and moments of truth than the new reality series about women's biological cycles I'm pitching to Lifetime, called Menses Frenzies. more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:22 PM | Comments (212)
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