William Kristol Wants the Impossible Republican Candidate, Washington Post Finds GOP Group Thought to Be Extinct, Iraq Gets Fighter Jets to Fight Assassinations, . . .

And Comments on the News of the Day

William Kristol is a writer/editor of the Conservative Weekly Standard and is considered a sort of icon as an observer and cheerleader for Republican politics.  His comments on the 2012 race are that he wants Rep. Paul Ryan (R, Wi) to run, and if not,

how about Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, or someone else who is young, sane, and unafraid?

Which demonstrates just how acute his political sense is in that he gets two out of three of the “young, sane, and unafraid” part right,.

The Washington Post has found existence of a species that was thought to be extinct for decades, moderate Republicans.  Really, they think they have found some.

But Boehner, too, showed signs of paving the way for compromise Saturday, convening a meeting of the Tuesday Group, a bloc of about 45 moderate Republicans whose votes would be key to pushing any deal through the House



Picture of Extinct GOP Moderates Dinosaur



When asked about the definition of “moderate Republican” a spokesman said that moderate Republicans believed that cutting taxes for the wealthy, cutting spending on health care, low income individuals, children and the elderly would do enough damage to society all by itself, and that it wasn’t necessary to end free public education for children in grades 1-12 or repeal every environmental protection law.

Iraq announced that it is going to buy 36 U. S. made fight jets. The rationale for the purchase is the unsafe conditions in Iraq. 

Iraq remains an extraordinarily dangerous place to work," Stuart Bowen, chief of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in a report. "It is less safe, in my judgment, than 12 months ago."

           

The report notes that 44 Iraqi government and security officials have been assassinated since April.

Fighter jets have long had a reputation as being an effective deterrent to assassination.  In fact, Secret Service officials in 1865 said that if they had only had a couple of F-16’s they could have easily prevented the assignation of President Lincoln, who was, of course,  killed while he was sitting in a theater by a hand gun. When asked how F-16's could have prevented Lincoln's assassination,  “No hand gun can stand up against an F-16” said the Service. 

An administration spokesman said the U. S. did not see anything that could go wrong by letting Iraq have advanced fighter jets, noting nothing in the history of the country should give anyone any concerns.

There is a new biography out of a man that had tremendous influence on the way government acts today.  No one today knows of Thomas Reed, Speaker of the House in the last decade of the nineteenth century, but Mr. Reed shaped the operations of the House of Representatives into much of what we now have.



What a House Speaker Should Be



When he first became Speaker, the House was paralyzed by members voiding the passage of legislation by refusing to answer to a quorum, even if they were present. 

Arguing against his Democratic colleagues’ emotional defense that their practice was part of their constitutional duty, Reed replied, “There is no such thing as suicide in any provision of the Constitution.”

What Mr. Reed did to fix things was to order a roll call, and if a member of the House was present but did not answer, Mr. Reed directed the clerk to count that member as present, which would establish a quorum.  When a member from Kentucky virulently challenged that ruling Mr. Reed replied

"The Chair is making a statement of fact that the gentleman from Kentucky is present. Does he deny it?"

Ultimately “Reed’s Rules” for operation of the House were adopted by both parties, and the House became a functioning branch of government.  We are, of course, all still waiting on the Senate to become one also.