Bismarck’s sausages and laws.
It is likely a character flaw that the Head Groundskeeper hereabouts is transfixed by the klusterflock in the House of Reps. Shouldn’t Ted Koppel do a nightly TV recap: Day 3, America Held Hostage?
Except that we seem to be getting along just fine without Congress. Was Mark Twain wrong? “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” Belgium toddled along without any government for two years. (It may not have one now, for all we know.) The UK went through three prime ministers in three months. Still punch above their weight. The Wisconsin Badger football team went through three coaches in about the same period. Still won a bowl game.
Does it not seem that our favorite Wisconsin capital city has too much government? How many of our state government employees are “non-essential”? (Blaska raises his hand.)
“You can’t lead a majority that would really rather be in the minority.”
— ‘Who’s crazy enough to be a Republican speaker?’ — Wall Street Journal.
The election denial caucus
Which takes us to the Gang of 20. We may have missed one or two but, at first blush, who of the 20 has ever governed — chaired a committee, run a city, governed a state? Easier to lob grenades than build bridges. Purifying the party leads to Robespierre and Joe Stalin, an ever-narrowing gyre. In an irony worthy of Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal, the likes of Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz hurt the Republican brand. They are responsible for tamping down the expected electoral red wave into a pink trickle. Hard heads who can’t take yes for an answer, like Yassir Arafat.
Nominating Kevin McCarthy in Round 4, Wisconsin's Mike Gallagher said democracy is messy. Deliberately and — to our mind — delightfully so. Gallagher could wind up getting the job himself, much like Paul Ryan, who didn’t want it either. Mike Gallagher is a future president.
Blaska respects the legislative process, having served a dozen years on the Dane County Board of Supervisors. When we conservatives took over in the mid-1990s, we were accused of being discordant. Isn’t full and open debate the sound democracy makes? What other branch of government does that?
One of our conservative majority criticized our chairman as a poor leader. Being that the chairman was brother Mike, that rankled. Given that, under his leadership, Dane County built a jail, built Monona Terrace, and ended a 1930s-era welfare program for able-bodied adults without dependents — it was a statement based solely on personal animosity. And Mike personally recruited many of our majority — as did Kevin McCarthy.
“Maybe you’re just a poor follower,” this old warhorse retorted. Going one’s own way may be noble but it adds up to defeat in a legislative body. Paul Marunich once commented that chairing the Dane County Republican party was like herding cats. Our own conservative contingent consisted largely of tavern keepers, restaurateurs, property developers, body shop owners, farmers, and self-employed attorneys. People accustomed to giving their own orders.
Democrats don’t have that problem. They have an organized labor mentality. They coalesce like hydrogen and oxygen atoms. A couple decades ago, the Madison teachers union picketed Briarpatch because its director, a school board member, was being tough in the contract negotiations. Briarpatch employees ran out to the picketers, informed them that the nonprofit counsels suicidal kids, who would now be forced to cross a picket line of their teachers. Several of the protesters apologized and began to leave. Their union steward ordered them back in line and back in line they went.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: It’s a hard truth: Making a governing majority requires some take and a lot of give.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
It’s Stalin and Hitler all the way down.
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Gideon John Tucker (February 10, 1826 – July 1899) was an American lawyer, newspaper editor and politician. In 1866, as Surrogate of New York County, he wrote in a decision on a legal malpractice claim against a deceased lawyer’s estate: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”
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“Several of the protesters apologized and began to leave. Their union steward ordered them back in line and back in line they went.”***
Juuuuust like good li’l, easily herded Lefties.
“When School Children Start Paying Union Dues, That’s When I’ll Start Representing The Interests Of School Children.” attributed to late, Über Lefty AFT president Albert Shanker.
*** quickly removes any doubt that that’s what Shanker truly believed.
The Gotch
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Since the Omnibus Budget Bill passed funding the government till September what does congress or the legislative branch have to do until then? In my lifetime of over 60 years every time the government has shut down nothing happens except they are not spending more money. When Barack Obama was president and the government shut down it was his administration decided to close national parks instead of sending IRS workers home.
Maybe without the government mucking things up our retirement accounts might bounce back some.
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This is the most work some of these people have done in years. I saw that Kevin offered to buy Boebert a pony for her vote. Even tRump’s phone calls did nothing proving that he’s a has-been. Democracy can be messy, but it doesn’t have to be stupid.
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richard lesiak wrote, “This is the most work some of these people have done in years.”
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Richard actually thinks voting on who becomes the Speaker of the House is “work”.
Oh my, Congress certainly has blinded you.
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Seriously Richard, this is the same kind of “work” that all those in Congress do every day while they’re in session. They talk the talk, walk the walk, negotiate until they get what they want disregarding the concessions they’re making to get what they want. It’s all a great big game of deception, don’t ever think it’s “work”.
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“Send me to DC and I will work for you.” How many times have you heard that? Kevin has given everything away except oral sex and hasn’t gain one vote. There are 20 right-wing nutjobs screwing up the process and they like it. Solution; if you are newly elected and not sworn in you don’t vote. It turns my guts to see that asshat Santos sitting there helping to determine the direction of my country.
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YOUR country? What a bad…BAD JoKe!
YOUR country saddled us with an Alzheimer-addled phuque-wit who’s so catastrophically STOOPID that he has to ask his ≥ STOOPID Affirmative Action hire, and The Gotch quotes:
HOW_CAN_SAY_IT?
Lord help us!
The Gotch
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Erratum: HOW_CAN_I_SAY_IT
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As a general rule erratum is used after a production error. A corrigendum is an author’s error. Please correct your post.
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Can anyone fathom anyone so mind-numbingly imbecilic and pitiably pathetic that, ignorant of the definition of erratum (translation: error), they’re embarrassing reduced googling?
The Gotch sure can’t!
It gets worse.
They then copy-n-paste…verbatim…from wiki…sans attribution/quotes.
Plagiarism; just (heh!) like DementiaJoK?
Priceless!
The Gotch
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” Kevin has given everything away except oral sex ”
A bit naive of you
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Personally I think what’s happening with this process is a decent representation of what’s going on inside the Republican Party, some are trying very hard to get away from Trump influence of any kind and some are still embracing it, it’s a conflict that needs to happen right now so it’s resolved before the 2024 presidential primary.
Suck it up butter cups, they really need to hammer this out now.
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Spot on!
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When a Latino congressman confirmed Jeffries for minority leader, he naturally highlighted his own ethnicity and Jeffries’ race–which is all Democrats care about. Not a word about his qualifications or record (which is pretty thin). It must be nice to have a world view so narrow and simplistic it requires no thought, just a willingness to pay lip service to the party’s twisted, racist ideology.
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In our one-party system rule, McCarthy looks an awful lot like Pelosi with external plumbing.
If you don’t stand up for something when you start, you’re going to have a hard time standing up for anything later on.
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Everyone wants to clean up the swamp until it starts to happen and then suddenly get cold feet. What did they think it would look like?
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“Mike Gallagher is a future president.”
Gawd, I hope not. He may sound tough on a Fox sound bite, but out here in the 8th he is pretty spineless. As a former Marine, and he lets you know that every time he opens his mouth up here, he should have been a lot tougher on t Rump and the assault on the Capitol. He backed away from any criticism of rump in a few days.
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the democrats fall in line lock step or goose step just like well programed robots
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