After the inauguration ended, Rep. Jim Moran’s wife tried to enter the Capitol building. It’s standard operating procedure when the President is in transit, that the area be locked down. This wasn’t an acceptable answer for refusing her entrance into the building, and she called her husband demanding that the Capitol police officer immediately talk to him. The officer calmly explained that he’s not alllowed to, but rather the congressman could call the Sergeant at Arms who could call his boss and then call him.

Soon Moran stormed out of the building and angrily confronted the police officer looking at his wife and shouting, “Is this the one?” He then got in the officer’s face and insisted that he did not know the proper procedure. Moran’s wife was then allowed in the building under her husband’s congressional escort.

Actual AP Headline: “Scores March Against Abortion.” That’s quite a downgrade from the hundreds of thousands I saw marching on the Supreme Court today.

Did the Obama administration know about the existence of this old Daschle campaign ad? Because it alone probably would have been enough to sink his nomination:

According to this Republican release:

Just to give everyone a snapshot of the real debate that has occurred on the largest spending bill in history, as of 2pm today:

• 315 amendments have been filed
• 20 amendments have been considered
• 9 amendments have been adopted
• 11 amendments were rejected
• 14 are currently pending

This is a 736 page senate bill, rushed through committee with no hearings, and could pass after being on the floor for less than one week.   Based on where we are today, about 90% of the more than 300 amendments have not received consideration.   After the jump, a breakdown of the 20 amendments that have been considered so far, and a breakdown of the 14 currently being considered:

Speaking of disingenuous stem It’s a miracle I got past the headline in this WaPo piece about the Obama administration’s recent decision to allow federal funding of embryonic stem cell research:

Obama Aims to Shield Science From Politics

Really now? A decision fund embryo-destroying stem cell research by taking taxpayer dollars from millions of people that have ethical problems with it amounts to shielding science from politics? Because it sure seems to me that decision injects politics into the mix, whether they like it or not. “Obama Aims to Shield Science from Troubling Ethical Questions” strikes me as no less neutral a headline.

Unfortunately, it’s not just a bad headline — it’s the tone of the entire piece, which includes a string of choice quotes such as this:

“We view what happened with stem cell research in the last administration as one manifestation of failure to think carefully about how federal support of science and the use of scientific advice occurs,” Varmus said. “This is consistent with the president’s determination to use sound scientific practice, responsible practice of science and evidence, instead of dogma in developing federal policy.“

Well, that’s a fair way to characterize what happened in the Bush administration. Thank goodness the piece included some intelligent and sharply worded rebuttals to Obama administration officials. Hah! Joke’s on you! There aren’t any.

The Telegraph:

Mr Obama rang Mr Brown as he flew home, in what many suspected was an attempt to make amends.

The real views of many in Obama administration were laid bare by a State Department official involved in planning the Brown visit, who reacted with fury when questioned by The Sunday Telegraph about why the event was so low-key.

The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”

(via Ace)

The Washington Post:

The acting chief financial officer of troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac was found dead in his Fairfax County home early this morning after apparently committing suicide, Fairfax police said.

David Kellermann, 41, was a longtime Freddie Mac executive who joined the firm as an analyst in 1992. Police were called to his stately red brick home in the upscale Hunter Mill Estates subdivision shortly before 5 a.m., police spokesman Eddy Azcarate said. The call was made by someone inside the home, which is on a tree-studded corner lot in the 1700 block of Raleigh Hill Road.

It’s his former campaign manager and chief-of-staff:

A state lawmaker says Gov. Charlie Crist is picking his former chief of staff George LeMieux (leh-’MEW) to replace Republican Sen. Mel Martinez, who is resigning.

State Rep. Jennifer Carroll, who was considered for the position, said Crist told her he is choosing LeMieux. Crist planned to make the announcement later Friday.

By choosing LeMieux, Crist picked the candidate he trusts most to fill out the term that expires in January 2011. Crist is running for the seat in next year’s election.

LeMieux ran Crist’s 2006 campaign for governor. Crist then picked LeMieux as chief of staff. He left for a Tallahassee law firm in December 2007.

A reader writes:

We conservatives haven’t won much lately, but would be nice to see SOMEONE at NRO give Chancellor Merkel props for pounding the Social Democrats down to pre-1933 levels.  And she talks the language of tax
cuts and deregulation.

Ok, so she’s not Margaret Thatcher, and she’s on the global warming bandwagon, but she’s more pro-American business and pro-USA foreign policy than say… our own President Obama.

I don’t have a lot to say about this development, but I’m in total agreement with the reader that the results of Germany’s election are for the most part very positive.  Here’s a good Bloomberg story on the election. Also, my friend Vic Matus of The Weekly Standard is in Germany right now and has been doing some blogging.

UPDATE — I started composing this post and took a break before finishing. I didn’t see John O’Sullivan’s informative item on the German elections had been posted in the interim. Be sure and read that.

According to the New York Times, the Obamas have selected “some 45 pieces that the first couple borrowed from several Washington museums to decorate their private White House residence and the West and East Wings, the White House press office announced on Tuesday.” Among the selections is this piece:

The Times’ caption? “‘I think I’ll … ‘ by the California artist Ed Ruscha. It deals with the subject of indecision.”

While there’s a lot in the Baucus bill to pick apart, for now here’s the Republican Policy Committee’s take on what’s notable about the CBO score:

Re:  Preliminary Analysis of CBO Score

·         The total cost of the revised bill is $829 billion over 10 years (compared to $738 billion for the original mark).

 

                          o   The bill spends nearly $100 billion more without noticeable improvement in coverage.

·         CBO says the net reduction in the federal deficit would be $81 billion over 10 years.  The earlier version saved $49 billion over 10 years.

o   Note that JCT reported yesterday that the bill would generate $29 billion in additional revenue because drug companies, health insurers and the makers of medical devices companies would not be able to deduct new fees from their corporate taxes.

This exchange from this morning’s Senate Finance hearings between Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) and the Congressional Budget Office director says volumes about how hard it is to determine the impact of health care legislation when it’s passed so hastily:

SEN. HATCH: “Now, the process is moving too fast, and the demands on you were too high for you to give us a clear understanding of what we are going to do to premiums of millions of Americans who have coverage. Now, if I could just get yes or no answers to these if you can, I’d appreciate it. Has CBO done a premium impact analysis on this bill?”

CBO DIRECTOR DOUGLAS ELMENDORF: “No, senator.”

HATCH: “Okay. Has it done one — has it done premium impact analysis in the past on these other bills?”

ELMENDORF: “I don’t know the whole list, but we have certainly done that sort of analysis in the past, yes.”

HATCH: “Ok, but you have not done it here?”

ELMENDORF: “No, we have not.”

HATCH: “If you were given more time to truly inform the members of this committee about the premium impact of these policies on our constituents, would you be able to provide it for them as you’ve done in the past for legislation?”

ELMENDORF: “With sufficient additional time, yes, senator.”

Just a few minutes ago, Sen. McCain was on the floor of the Senate praising Texas’ medical malpractice reforms. By all accounts, Texas’ reforms have been largely successful in attracting and retaining doctors while helping keep costs down.

It’s been repeatedly pointed out that many of the Democratic health care reforms under consideration in Congress have been tried in states such as Massachussetts, Oregon and Maine with poor results and yet they are proceeding undeterred at the national level. But it’s also telling that Democrats continue ignore state level reforms that have been shown to work as well.