HALF-FULL REPORT 03/08/13

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, astonished Washington Wednesday (3/6) with an old fashioned filibuster – the kind where you talk until your voice gives out, a la Jimmy Stewart on the silver screen, Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-SC, in real life.  It was "a shock to the sclerotic Beltway system in which nothing is spontaneous and in which nuance is praised only in the abstract," said Jennifer Rubin.

"Paul was clever to pick an issue, a specific and narrow issue, on which virtually no one can disagree," she said.  "He wasn’t attacking the war on terror. He was objecting to the refusal of the administration to say whether it is constitutional to use drones on U.S. soil against U.S. citizens who are not combatants."

Attorney General Eric Holder dodged and weaved when Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex, pressed him on this at a hearing Wednesday.  But in a letter to Sen. Paul Thursday, Holder surrendered:

"Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?  The answer to that question is no."

Few in the MSM were startled enough by Sen. Paul’s filibuster to actually report on it.  So Holder’s letter put them in the position of having to report a response to an event they hadn’t bothered to tell their viewers/readers about in the first place.  For journalists with a sense of shame, this would be awkward.  For the New York Times, it’s becoming commonplace.

Sen. Paul’s filibuster galvanized CSPAN viewers and boosted GOP morale even before Holder’s capitulation.  He held the floor for nearly 13 hours.  This was well short of Thurmond’s record (24 hours, 18 minutes), and though Paul started his filibuster alone, he soon was joined by, among others, Sen. Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla), and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore).

"What it comes down to is every American has the right to know when their government believes that it is allowed to kill them," Sen. Wyden said. The ACLU also supported Sen. Paul.  After the filibuster ended, John Brennan was confirmed as CIA Director, 63-34.

* * * *

President Barack Obama wants Republicans to cave on additional tax increases, so his strategy is to make sequester cuts as painful as possible. This week he cancelled White House tours.  Sixth graders in Iowa protested. 

Cancelling the tours will save the Secret Service about $74,000 a week, NBC News said.  That’s about half what the Secret Service spent to protect the president and his family on their vacation in Hawaii over Christmas, substantially less than what the Secret Service will spend on the vacation he’s planning for Cape Cod in August. What Zero spent on his golf outing with Tiger Woods would fund the tours for a year, said Charles Krauthammer.

In the Obama White House, the annual budget for household expenses is $1.4 billion.  Charles Cooke describes here how large Mr. and Mrs. Zero are living at our expense.

Fox News anchors Eric Bolling and Sean Hannity offered to pay the cost of the tours for a week, so the Easter Egg Roll can go on as scheduled. Jeff Lord challenged Bill Clinton to join them. The U.S. Capitol will remain open to tourists.

The president’s ploy backfired, said Kim Strassel: "The sheer pettiness of it instead provided a moment of clarity. The cancellations were an open invitation for the nation to dive into the gory depths of the federal budget-and re-emerge with a debate over waste and priorities."

Ramirez thinks so, too:

* * * *

A sign Zero’s Chicken Little strategy isn’t working so well is that comedian Jon Stewart is mocking it.

"The sequester has yet to cause tremendous panic and consternation anywhere but in the executive branch, the congressional Democratic caucus, and, needless to say, MSNBC," said Matt Continetti.

The president’s job approval has plummeted in Reuters and Quinnipiac polls. That’s why this week Zero coupled his scare-a-thon with a schmoozefest of GOP lawmakers, said Eleanor Clift. 

Ms. Clift is impressed with the Mr. Obama’s "leadership." Yuval Levin is amused she’s impressed by Zero’s "wonderfully transparent attempts to counteract his image of aloofness and detachment," because Mr. Obama’s predecessors considered it part of the job to socialize with Congressional leaders. It’s a mark of "astonishing incompetence" Obama took this long to get around to it.

The sudden schmoozing indicates the White House "is waving the white flag on its assumption that it can bulldoze Congress," said Jonathan Tobin.  It’s no more likely than was his bullying to get the GOP to cave on spending and taxes, now that they’ve figured out how to beat him, and know they’re winning.

The election left GOP leaders with really lousy cards to play.  But House Speaker John Boehner and (especially) Senate Leader Mitch McConnell are "mopping the floor with Barack Obama," said John Feehery. 

* * * *

President Obama’s political strategy is based on the assumption he can lie with impunity, I noted in a column last week: What would happen if that were no longer true?

The flop of the sequester scare campaign may be the start of an Obama "crack up," thinks Jack Wheeler’s friend Quin Hillyer. He recounted a conversation a businessman friend had five years ago with a "Democratic insider."

"It’ll take the American people five years," said the insider, "to realize what Obama’s really about and what he’s really like."

People are starting to figure him out now, Hillyer said.

* * * *

While we’re on the subject of lying, retired Admiral James "Ace" Lyons reminds us the administration is still lying about Benghazi.

* * * *

The next battle in the budget wars will be over a continuing resolution to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends Sep. 30.  A continuing resolution is necessary, because though the House has passed a budget  for FY 2013 (as is required by law), the Senate (as usual) hasn’t.  The current CR expires March 27.  Obama hasn’t submitted a budget either, even though a 1921 law requires the president to do so before Feb. 1.

The House passed its version of the CR Wednesday, 267-151, with more than 50 Democrats joining all but 14 Republicans.  Crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis, the CR keeps overall funding at the sequester level of spending, but provides more for defense.  He won’t support a CR unless it includes repeal of Obamacare, said Sen. Marco Rubio.

Ryan will offer shortly his proposed budget for the fiscal year which begins Oct. 1.  GOP moderates reportedly are freaking out about it.

* * * *

The government of Venezuela announced Tuesday (3/5) that Hugo Chavez had died.  Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who made the announcement, didn’t say from what, exactly, but el jefe was known to be suffering from cancer.  He was 58.  The Chavistas kicked two U.S. military attaches out of the country.  The Yankees were somehow responsible for el jefe’s death, the Chavistas implied.

President Obama didn’t let that little bit of unpleasantness keep him from sending to represent the U.S. at el jefe’s funeral today a Congressman accused of corrupt ties to the Chavez regime.

El jefe was mourned here by Sean Penn and Oliver Stone, and by Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY). The selfless champion of the poor they hailed somehow was able to accumulate a personal fortune of $1 billion.  But he couldn’t take it with him, heh heh.  Jaime Darenblum summarizes the Chavez legacy here.  Bridget Johnson recounts the thug’s battles with the Catholic Church here.

Maduro said Chavez left this world (for a much hotter place) at 3:55 p.m.EST Tuesday. He actually died in Cuba in late December or early January, his sources tell him, says Jack Wheeler.

"The Chavistas lied so Cuba wouldn’t get the blame, and far more importantly, so (Chavez) could be inaugurated in absentia on Jan 10, enabling Maduro to legally succeed him, thus avoiding an immediate new election," Jack said.

Cuba has been getting two thirds of all its oil from Venezuela on very favorable terms.  Cubans fear the death of el jefe could put an end to this largesse.

The Chavista’s story is that Chavez returned to Venezuela after surgery in Cuba in mid-December, and has been recuperating at a military hospital. Donna Bowater of the London Telegraph was skeptical. "Officials had insisted he remained in the military hospital in Caracas since returning but some observers found discrepancies, such as the absence of government ministers at his bedside."

Chavez returned to Cuba last Friday for emergency treatment last Friday, and died there, according to leaks from el jefe’s medical team.

Had Chavez’s death been reported before Jan. 10, and a special election forced then, opposition leader Henrique Capriles almost certainly would have won.  Capriles got 44 percent of the officially reported vote against Chavez in the presidential election last October.  Student protesters claimed then that 2.9 million votes weren’t properly counted.  An exit poll indicated Capriles won. "Those who vote decide nothing," Josef Stalin is alleged to have said. "Those who count the vote decide everything." 

There’ll be a new election, but now Maduro can run as the incumbent.

* * * *

Nearly 80 percent of high school graduates in New York City can’t read, write or do arithmetic well enough to meet the standards for entering community college.

* * * *

The most successful political party in the Italian elections Feb. 25 was the brand new Five Star Movement, headed by comedian Beppe Grillo.  Jack Wheeler introduced TTPers to Beppe last June.  Beppe’s party got the most votes for seats in the lower house of the Italian parliament, the second most for seats in the Senate, and now holds the balance of power.

Everybody else lost, said Alessandra Potenza. "Grillo represents change, a rarely heard word in Italian politics," she said. "Thanks to Grillo’s M5S, the average age in Parliament is now 49, down from last year’s 55."

The Economist described the Five Star Movement’s performance as "dazzling."  The election result "has come as a bombshell in Italy and across the euro zone."  The Economist is grumpy about it:

A quarter of the electorate-a post-war record-did not even bother to show up. Of those who did, almost 30% endorsed Silvio Berlusconi, whose ruinous policies as a clownish prime minister are a main cause of Italy’s economic woes. And a further 25% voted for the Five Star Movement, which is led by a genuine comedian, Beppe Grillo. By contrast, Mario Monti, the reform-minded technocrat who has led Italy for the past 15 months and restored much of its battered credibility, got a measly 10%. This result is a disaster for Italy and for Europe.

Grillo’s success may doom the Euro, the  editors fear.  Which is why conservatives should cheer it, Jack Wheeler explained..

* * * *

Alabama is about to stick it to one of the most powerful teachers unions in the country.

* * * *

There isn’t much doubt who the Hero of the Week is this week:

Rand Paul  "shifted the political orbit," and established a template for how Republicans ought to respond to Zero in the future, Jonathon Mosely thinks. He’s made lots of new friends, said Buzzfeed.  Paul captured the hearts of young voters, said Mediaite.

"Paul has a sense of political timing few others have," Jen Rubin said.  He’ll be a "formidable force" for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, she thinks.  Additional praise from Hugh Hewitt is here.  From Jim Taranto here.

Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio also sparkled, Jennifer Rubin said. "The dividing line in the GOP, I would suggest, is not so much ideological these days," she said. "There is a generational shift between the old guard and the new."  Wes Pruden contrasts "the tall talker and the old geezers" here. 

In a week in which Zero is mocked by liberal comedians, protested by schoolchildren, plummets in the polls, and new stars arise in the GOP, the glass is way more than half full.