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1:19 PM, Aug 11, 2011 • By MICHAEL WARRENHouse minority leader Nancy Pelosi announced on Twitter that she has selected James Clyburn of South Carolina, Xavier Becerra of California, and Chris van Hollen of Maryland to serve on the joint select committee on deficit reduction (aka the supercommittee).
Read more... 3:00 PM, Aug 5, 2011 • By IRWIN M. STELZER
None. That’s the total of on-the-other-hand good news I have to report this week. Lest you think I am overlooking the debt deal cut in Washington last week, consider this:
Read more... From "leading from behind" to "leading from outside." 12:40 PM, Aug 4, 2011 • By MARK HEMINGWAYThere's a fascinating story over at The Hill that was published yesterday, "How John Boehner escaped disaster." I don't think we should get ahead of ourselves here, but certainly there's a storyline emerging here that when it comes to the art of the deal, Boehner is one of the more capable politicians of the era.
Read more... 3:55 PM, Aug 3, 2011 • By GEOFFREY NORMAN
With the debt ceiling thing done, the scribes are now straining for the illuminating metaphor and “terrorism,” it seems, is the preferred choice. One New York Times columnist writes that “the Tea Party Republicans have waged jihad on the American people,” and you had to wonder if he would have accused even Osama bin Laden of that. Another Times columnist describes the Tea Party as “the Hezbollah faction” of the Republican Party. Maureen Dowd, the Times’s diva columnist went with a different, idiosyncratic metaphor. The whole thing, she writes, was like a horror movie, a “gory, Gothic melodrama on the Potomac … without the catharsis.”
Read more... 7:10 PM, Aug 2, 2011 • By GARY SCHMITT and THOMAS DONNELLY
Now that the Great Debt Ceiling Deal has become the law of the land, it’s time to consider what just happened to America, and in particular to America’s armed forces. On the one hand, it’s complicated. On the other hand, it’s ugly.
Read more... 4:46 PM, Aug 2, 2011 • By MICHAEL WARRENAccording to the Budget Control Act, the 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the so-called supercommittee, must be formed within 14 days of the bill becoming law. Since President Obama just signed the law, Congress has until August 16, two weeks from today, to fill the slots. The next question Democrats and Republicans will need to answer is, which of their members will they select for the supercommittee?
Read more... 2:10 PM, Aug 2, 2011 • By MICHAEL WARRENSpeaking in the Rose Garden at the White House Tuesday afternoon, President Barack Obama tepidly praised Congress for passing the debt limit deal that he said will “avert a default that would have devastated our economy.” The president called the bill an “important first step” in reducing the deficit.
Read more... When it comes to the economy, is the president better off keeping his mouth shut? 1:41 PM, Aug 2, 2011 • By MARK HEMINGWAYMuch to the frustration of the press corps and the country at large, President Obama went nearly a year without giving a press conference at a time when the country was in a rather precarious state economically and politically. Lately, however it seems that Obama has decided that the debt ceiling debate is the time to reengage -- no doubt the looming campaign has something to do with this decision.
Read more... 12:48 PM, Aug 2, 2011 • By MICHAEL WARRENJust after noon today, the Senate easily passed the debt ceiling deal bill, 74-26. The House of Representatives passed the bill last night, and the president will presumably sign the bill today, the deadline set by the Treasury Department for raising the debt ceiling to avoid a default.
Read more... Will Senate Republicans be able to prevent tax hikes?9:34 AM, Aug 2, 2011 • By STEPHEN F. HAYES
The debt ceiling deal will pass the Senate early this afternoon. No suspense there. But the vote will be worth watching for another reason: Three Republican Senate sources tell TWS that senators who vote against the deal will be ineligible to serve on the so-called “supercommittee” for deficit reduction that the legislation creates.
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Washington plays by TSA rules.
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With American evangelicals on the ground in South Sudan.
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Romney’s challenge is to address the deep uneasiness in America and point the way to a comeback.
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