Obama's Affirmative Action EPA Chief Almost Quit: 'She Felt Like She Got Hit With a Hot Poker Between the Eyes'

Not only is Obama putting Obama before country, he doesn't even show the slightest bit of loyalty with in his administration.

The ozone almost did her in.

Lisa Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, was on the verge of quitting two weeks ago after President Obama rejected her centerpiece proposal for strict new air-pollution regulations, The Post has learned.

Jackson told intimates she had been convinced Obama would back her up despite aggressive lobbying from Capitol Hill Republicans and business interests.

But on Sept. 1, she learned her support in the West Wing had crumbled during two meetings -- one with Chief of Staff Bill Daley and another with the president.

In the face of a weak economy, bad poll numbers and bleak employment figures, Obama made it clear that “we just don’t need this fight right now,” according to an administration source.

A day later, the administration announced it was abandoning the proposal for the tougher emissions rules, which would have cut the amount of ozone that can be spewed into the air.

The White House said that it would revisit the issue in 2013, but that, for now, the changes to the Clean Air Act would have burdened businesses and local governments with costs to contain and monitor air pollution.

“She was very upset,” one administration official told The Post of Jackson’s reaction. “She didn’t know what she was going to do.”

Sources said Jackson spent two days considering whether to quit.

“Lisa was blindsided,” said senior Sierra Club official Jeff Tittel, a longtime confidant of Jackson. Obama “did it and then told her about it. She was pretty pissed off. She felt like she got hit with a hot poker between the eyes.”

Look at the upside. She'll be gone with Obama come Janaury 20, 2013. Let's just hope the damage can be minimized between now and then.

It's the Optics, Stupid: Obama Labor Secretary Buys Canadian-Built Car

Seems like Team Obama's really got a thing for our friends to the north. First the giant hearse he rode around on a couple weeks ago was built in Canada, now this hack Hilda Solis is tooling around in a Chevy assembled in Canada.

To show her support for American workers, President Obama's labor secretary, Hilda Solis, has junked the standard black limo and purchased a new Chevrolet Equinox to ride around Washington in. The problem: the crossover SUV is built and assembled in Canada from parts also made in Canada.

Solis proudly arrived at a media breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor today in the shiny silver vehicle, which she has dubbed the "bullet." She was asked about why she traded the standard-issue limo for the SUV. "What better example could I set if I encouraged my staff to go and purchase and seek how we could acquire a vehicle that would for me would send a signal that we're for supporting our American workers, American-made products, fuel efficient as well," she told the Monitor's Dave Cook, who provided this video of her answer.

Solis added that she was inspired to buy the Chevy because of the pride she saw in American auto workers during trips to U.S. car and truck plants. She said that she was wowed by "the pride that they take making our automobiles here in America."

The car is made at two Canadian plants and has been so popular that General Motors has been hiring more workers in Canada to keep up with demand.

A company official noted that the profits do come back to the United States.

For an alleged "media savvy" administration, they just continue to look buffoonish, not to mention supremely arrogant, on a daily basis.

Great: Now Republicans are Carjackers or Something

It's probably a safe bet anyone who practices carjacking is a card-carrying Democrat, but it would be racist to say that. But given the state of the Democrat and media meltdown the past few days, being called a racist is child's play.

Here we have some imbecile named Ruth Marcus, an obvious affirmative action hire by the Washington Post, which I'm told was once a great newspaper. Naturally, this hack down in the gutter pretty quickly As bad as things have gotten of late, can you imagine the hatefest coming our way as Obama heads toward defeat 15 months from now?

Welcome to the new Washington normal: endless rounds of legislative carjacking.

Perhaps that’s unduly grim — pessimism fueled by the exhaustion of the moment. Perhaps, having peered into the abyss of political gridlock and economic collapse, those Republicans who pushed things to the brink this time will be chastened on the next round.

Exhaustion? Ruth, baby, come back to us. How exhausting can it be sitting wherever you are tossing around verbal grenades? Maybe you need more than the three months vacation you probably clock every year.

Perhaps, but I’m sticking with pessimism. One side wanted the car, had a gun and wasn’t afraid — certainly not afraid enough — to use it. The other had a child in the back seat.

Wait, let me guess. The Republicans not only want to steal the car, now they going to kill the kids too!

Ruth is slow on the draw. She clearly hasn't realized we've moved on from the talk about hostages and on to the GOP being another incarnation of the Taliban.

There is no shortage of hostages, and no reason to imagine that the hostage-takers are anything but emboldened. If anything, the worry is that the tactic extends beyond the fiscal arena.

I'm almost nostalgic for those heady days seven months back when out moral superiors lectured us about the New Tone and the New Civility.

Good times, good times.

Chris Matthews Hangs Himself Out to Dry

Speaking of Tingles, I'm sure JWF won't mind if I pile on here with a hilarious clip from yesterday's "Chris Matthews Show" - an actual TV show that usually airs on Sunday mornings. Of course, it is routinely beaten in the ratings by infomercials, televangelists, and test patterns, so you've probably never seen it or even heard of it.

Watch as Matthews utterly exposes his ignorance and/or shameless partisan hackery by asserting that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was actually a closer friend to Bill Clinton than he was to George W. Bush.

Say what?

Not even Matthews' hand-picked panel of liberal sycophants could bail him out on this one. For a guy who talks politics for a living, this is a cringe-worthy display.



Via Newsbusters.

Unions and Shrieking Democrats Crushed in Wisconsin

It's a beautiful night, folks. The whining and caterwauling has hit new highs. Their tears taste delicious.

The Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, approving an explosive proposal that had rocked the state and unions nationwide after Republicans discovered a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's "budget-repair bill" - a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday separated from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, which spends no money, and a special committee of lawmakers from both the Senate and Assembly approved the bill a short time later.

The unexpected yet surprisingly simple procedural move ended a stalemate that had threatened to drag on indefinitely. Until Wednesday's stunning vote, it appeared the standoff would persist until Democrats returned to Madison from their self-imposed exile.

"In 30 minutes, 18 state Senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people."

The lone Democrat present on the special committee, Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, shouted that the meeting was a violation of the state's open meetings law. Republicans voted over his objections, and the Senate convened within minutes and passed the measure without discussion or debate.

"The gig is now up," Barca said. "The fraud on the people of Wisconsin is now clear."

The fraud was clear when the cowardly Fleebagger 14 fled the state.

They lost. Badly.

Obama's union thugs react predictably.

Said Neuenfeldt: "Republicans have exercised the nuclear option to ram through their bill attacking Wisconsin’s working families in the dark of night. (Gov.) Walker and the Republicans acted in violation of state open meetings laws, and tonight’s events have demonstrated they will do or say anything to pass their extreme agenda that attacks Wisconsin’s working families."

I haven't seen many of these folks working the last month. Those of us in the private sector who actually do work to support their lavish lifestyle have had enough.

Stunner: Another NY Democrat Facing Corruption Charges

In the end it doesn't matter. New York is just a revolving door of Democrat hacks. One goes down, another takes his place. Then when he goes to jail, the schmucks elect another Democrat. Lather, rinse, repeat.

State Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) will turn himself in to federal authorities tomorrow morning to face corruption charges, The Post has learned.

Kruger, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Finance Committee, has been under investigation since 2007 by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, who are probing allegations that he has performed official acts in exchange for campaign donations.

But that previously reported probe — which remains ongoing — is independent of the charges that Kruger will be facing in Manhattan federal court, sources told The Post.

A source said Kruger will be the biggest name among a number of political and public people who will be charged or linked to the heretofore unknown Manhattan corruption case.

The FBI declined to comment today.

Last week, a lawyer ensnared in the pending Brooklyn federal corruption probe into allegations of influence peddling by Kruger pleaded guilty to charges that he lied to FBI agents about a pay-to-play bribe.

Michael Levitis, an attorney and restaurant owner, admitted in Brooklyn federal court that he lied when questioned about his involvement in an effort to pay off Kruger through an intermediary — who he didn’t realize was acting an informant for the FBI.

Levitis allegedly acted as a go-between in a pay-to-play scheme to help Kruger raise money in exchange for official favors, the feds say.

In April 2009, Levitis was caught on a secretly recorded audio-tape telling the informant that he needed to pay off Jason Koppel — Kruger’s longtime chief of staff and campaign treasurer — to get assistance on an upcoming official business inspection.

The informant was instructed by Levitis that he would “have to do a fund-raiser“ for Kruger.

On the FBI’s instruction, the informant recorded another conversation with Levitis, and agreed to give him $3,000. About $2,000 of that money was allegedly for Koppel, and the rest allegedly for Levitis.

Defeat May Scuttle Deval Patrick Book Deal: 'It Would be a Horrendous Event'

Actually the horrendous event would be giving this Obama wannabe another term as Governor of Massachusetts.

A devastating Nov. 2 defeat could cost Gov. Deval Patrick more than his lofty position and promising political career - it could scuttle the happily-ever-after ending to his million-dollar “inspirational” memoir and turn it into a bookstore bomb, experts said.

“It would be a horrendous event,” said Hub book agent and attorney John Taylor “Ike” Williams. “The publisher would have a hard time with that book.”

The success of Patrick’s 200-page autobiography - titled “A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life” and priced at $21.99 - hinges largely on the governor raising his national profile.

That’s a far-fetched feat for an ousted, one-term wonder.

“I assume the senior editors are saying, ‘You told us this book would ride on the coattails of the Obama book,’ ” Williams said, noting the similarities between the rags-to-riches tales of Patrick and his pal, President Obama.

David Drake, a spokesman for Patrick’s publisher Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, declined to comment, other than to say the book is due out in April.

The publisher’s initial optimism when the governor landed the deal in March 2008 was clear from Patrick’s reported advance of $1.35 million - a staggering sum for a first-time author.

Even if Patrick somehow clings to office in five weeks it's difficult to see why anyone would bother buying his book. Although we figure the book will mysteriously turns up as required reading in Massachusetts public schools.

Scott Hartwig of Calif.-based Rose Ave Press, which specializes in smaller-name memoirs, said he had misgivings about Patrick’s sizable advance. “I question the logic of giving that big of an advance,” Hartwig said. “Especially if he’s not effective politically.”

He added that the niche industry relies on the author making headlines, or finding a way to be exceptionally relevant. Otherwise, he said, “It could look kind of silly.”

Weiner's Witchhunt

This ought to go over well with an already enraged populace counting down the days until the midterms. A sniveling, whiny twerp holding hearings against businessmen who have the temerity to advertise their product on radio programs that have actual ratings.

A gold trading company has no plans to end its high-profile sponsorship of conservative commentators despite coming under congressional scrutiny.

Scott Carter, executive vice president of Goldline International, Inc., told The Hill that the firm is “very pleased” with its advertising relationship with Glenn Beck and other radio and television pundits that are popular among conservatives.

“We get pressure from organizations to stop advertising on these programs all the time. We pushed back against them and state that we want to evaluate our advertising based on its performance,” Carter said.

“We have a passion for gold and our product. We don’t have a political platform that we are trying to push,” he said.

The advertising on conservative programs, however, is what Carter believes had led lawmakers to target the company for investigation. On September 23, Carter is expected to testify at a hearing of the House Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee to discuss legislation that would regulate the gold trading industry.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) has been leading the charge against Goldline, releasing an investigative report in May about the company’s business practices. Citing consumer complaints, Weiner has charged that the company overprices its gold coins and also offers unsound investment advice to customers.

Weiner has also taken issue with the firm’s advertisements with conservative commentators, believing both sides benefit from driving up fear of an economic collapse.

“They prey on fear. They prey on insecurity. And they prey on the ignorance that most Americans have when they buy and sell a rare commodity, like a collector coin or gold bullion,” Weiner said.

Great electoral strategy there, Weiner, calling most Americans ignorant. Weiner's problem is he's never spent a minute of his live in the private sector and has no idea that most Americans aren't ignorant of how the world works.

The arrogance of Weiner and his ilk is simply breathtaking. And if he had the slightest clue how business works, he'd realize these companies would gladly advertise on liberal shows if any of them had ratings.

Time is short on the legislative calendar to move the bill, considering the fast-approaching midterm elections in November. But Weiner said he is looking for Republican co-sponsors and that the “non-controversial” legislation could pass quickly in the House under a suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds vote of House members for approval.

Oh sure, Republicans are going to race to Weiner's side when they know four months from now this pasty-faced puke is going to be relegated to backbench bomb-throwing as part of the Democrat minority. Any Republican joining in this abuse of power deserves to be voted out themselves.

Carter said Goldline is looking forward to discussing its business model at the hearing, noting the company’s A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. The executive also has been meeting with lawmakers this week to discuss the company.

His company has an A+ rating and Weiner's Democratic Congress has an approval rating nearing single digits. It should make for fascinating theater.

Excellent News: Democratic Party Hacks Facing Mass Unemployment

When is unemployment a good thing? When it's a bunch of Democratic Party apparatchiks out on the street. Various party hacks are looking directly into the ugly face of unemployment post-election and they are getting scared. I mean, after all, unemployment is for the little people who cling to their guns and bibles, not the chosen elite.

And K Street will not be a safe haven, either.

Democratic congressional aides aiming for a big payday from K Street have seen their value plummet with their party’s declining fortunes, according to corporate headhunters and lobbyists.

Less than two years ago, after President Obama’s coattails increased already-large Democratic majorities in Congress, Democratic congressional leadership aides could demand premium salaries from K Street firms. Lobbying salaries offered to Democratic staffers leaving Congress for K Street about a year ago ranged from $250,000 to $500,000

It’s difficult to say how much those salaries have dropped now that the party appears poised to lose seats in the House and Senate, and possibly their majorities, in November. But corporate headhunters say Democratic salaries have probably peaked, and that they could go down further with a GOP victory in the fall.

“It is likely we have seen the peak of Democratic salaries, with the exception of those folks involved in the ‘money committees,’ ” said Ivan Adler, a principal for the McCormick Group. “Money committees” are the congressional panels overseeing healthcare, taxes, energy and financial services.

Aides on committees or in leadership who lose their jobs because of a congressional shake-up could suffer the most. The minority party gets fewer committee and leadership aides than the majority.

“The people really affected by this are in the committees or in leadership because if it flips there are a lot less people in [those jobs] in the minority than in the majority,” said Adler, who specializes in headhunting for lobbying jobs.

Democrats would be likely to flood the market if the GOP wins control of the House.

“Hundreds and hundreds of professional staff will be out of work,” said Robert Raben, founder of the Raben Group. “There will be many more people than there will be jobs available.”

So pretty soon these hacks will find out what 15 million plus unemployed have known for a long time now. Which is that the Democratic Party's Socialist agenda has seriously damaged this economy, the Democrats have no clue how to grow an economy nor encourage private sector job creation.

And while I do not wish unemployment on anybody, it could not happen to a more deserving group than them.

Welcome to our nightmare.

Left Outraged as Pol Urges Voters to Embrace Someone Who Looks 'More Like Us'

Here we thought we were living in a post-racial era where the color of someone's skin no longer mattered and we had moved beyond racial divisions. Sadly, there are still people out there who judge people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character or their qualifications. Clearly the Democrats and liberals have a point when it comes to castigating those who plays racial politics and divide the electorate.

Oh, wait, it's a Democrat icon preaching racial politics here.

Never mind.

Mayor David Dinkins encouraged voters to embrace a state Senate candidate because he looks "more like us."

"It's important, it is so very important, particularly for the people of this district who vote on Tuesday to recognize how important it is to understand that the city is changing," Dinkins said in his endorsement of state Senate candidate Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat on Thursday.

"Most people in the city are going to look more like us than others and that's just a fact," Dinkins said.

Espaillat opponent Mark Levine, who is white, yesterday called on Espaillat, who is Hispanic, to denounce the divisive comment.

Espaillat did not repudiate Dinkins' words.

"Mayor Dinkins is one of New York's finest public servants, and he's built his career around the principle that communities of different ethnic and economic backgrounds must work together if we want to bring about long-term change," Espaillat said in a statement.

Levine, who called Dinkins' comment "insulting to the district and electorate," also took issue with its timing.

"The fact that they were delivered on the first day of Rosh Hashana added to their inappropriateness," Levine said.

Dinkins is at least being consistent. After all he's the guy who was too busy watching tennis while the Crown Heights Pogrom went on for three days back in 1991.

'Make Checks Payable to Rangel Victory Fund'

Nice to see this crook shaking people down to the very end. Under the guise of celebrating his 80th birthday, which actually occurred a couple of months ago, the corrupt Democrat hack used the occasion last night to glom some money for his legal defense and re-election.

What a guy.

The night's big event in the Grand Ballroom at The Plaza hotel was described in the invitation as Rep. Charlie Rangel's 80th birthday gala.

Unlike most birthday parties, just being invited was not going to get a guest through those mirrored doors.

And the birthday boy was not going to be satisfied if his pals brought him a present like a new tie or one of those pocket handkerchiefs he wears with such flair.

Even Hermes was not going to make it, no matter how snazzy the wrapping paper or how big the bow.

This was a fund-raiser, and everybody was expected to pony up from $200 for a "special guest" to $2,500 for a "sponsor."

Not to pay was not to get a ticket.

Not to have a ticket was not to go.

And if you didn't go, you were liable to feel complicit in a bash in a whole other sense.

Anybody who stayed away was not simply declining to contribute toward Rangel's campaign for another term and help pay the lawyers who have been trying to resolve the ethics charges against him.

If you stayed away, you would be viewed as shunning, maybe even deserting, an iconic New York figure.

Yet, if you went ahead and bought the ticket and attended, you were putting your money where you mouth might not necessarily wish to be.

"Make checks payable to Rangel Victory Fund," a reminder posted outside the ballroom read.

Meanwhile, the always gregarious former Mayor of New York, David Dinkins, kept things classy.

A who's who of Democratic officials turned out to celebrate scandal-scarred Rep. Charles Rangel's 80th birthday last night -- whooping it up as if he didn't have an ethics charge in the world.

In fact, former Mayor David Dinkins, 83, went so far as to flip the bird to a protester who called Rangel a "crook" outside The Plaza hotel gala.

Not everyone matched Dinkins' gusto, but the New York political establishment did turn out in force.

Apparently the New York Democrats were able to scare up enough people so Rangel could pretend people actually care about him.

Earlier yesterday, Rangel boasted of success in his bid for a huge turnout. "Despite what the media wants you to believe, #BirthdayGala is sold out!" he wrote on Twitter.

If he indeed put that on his Twitter page he's removed it since. He might want to update the photo on that page as well since he no longer has a gavel.

Update: Here's some video from CNN. Dinkins is shown at the end. Man, he looks like he put on a hundred pounds. I remember being at a wake about nine or 10 years ago and he showed up there. All the cops and firemen there turned their backs to him when he appeared. A real low-rent guy despite his always being portrayed so kindly in the media.

Insane: Dem Leader Hoyer Calls Expiration of Bush Tax Cuts a GOP Tax Increase

Does this guy have a severe drinking problem or something? How on earth can Democrats letting Bush's tax cuts expire be translated into Republicans increasing taxes?

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on Wednesday that the expiration built into the Bush tax cuts is a “Republican tax increase” for “working Americans” and the Democrats have “no intention” of allowing it to go into effect.

“We have no intention of allowing the Republican tax increase — that their policies would lead to — to go into effect for working Americans. Period,” he said. “We’re going to act and make sure that the Republican phase out and increase in taxes does not end as they provided for in the laws they passed.”

Hoyer’s press secretary told CNSNews.com in an e-mail that the Democratic Majority Leader was referring to the “middle class” when he said “working Americans.”

Hoyer also said at the press conference, “If we left the Republican policies in place, their [working Americans] taxes would be increased next year. We’re not going to let that happen.”

Isn't anyone with a job considered a working American?

H/T AoS.

'Campaigning with Kerry Would be Like Campaigning with Thurston Howell III on Gilligan’s Island'

Why the Long Face?

One question not being asked following John Kerry's yacht debacle is why is he not being hit with tax evasion charges? If you or I stiffed our home state to the tune of about a half million dollars we'd be facing felony charges at the least. Whatever the case, here's hoping Liveshot's Democrat brethren feel the pinch.

Buoyant Massachusetts Republicans say U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s boat tax bumbling could turn the state’s already storm-tossed Democratic congressional campaigns into a fleet of S.S. Minnows: at risk of being lost.

“Campaigning with Kerry would be like campaigning with Thurston Howell III on Gilligan’s Island,” said Jennifer Nassour, chairwoman of the state’s Republican Party. “Could he be more out of touch?”

GOP consultant Ron Kaufman expects Democrats to flee from what he called “the sinking ship.”

“The thing that kills you the most in politics is two things - arrogance and hypocrisy. (Kerry) represents both of those,” said Kaufman. Kerry’s choice to dock his $7 million yacht in tax-free Rhode Island plays into voter anger about out-of-touch Washington insiders - the same anger that pushed U.S. Sen. Scott Brown to victory, he said.

If the Republicans are right, that could make the state’s senior senator an electoral albatross. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Lowell) declined to say if she would welcome Kerry at the oars in her own re-election bid. But former state Democratic Chairman Phil Johnston called the boat scandal a passing squall.

“I think John Kerry remains very popular,” said Johnston, a consultant for congressional candidate and Norfolk District Attorney William Keating. “Bill Keating would be happy to have (Kerry) campaign for him.”

Tory Mazzola of the National Republican Congressional Committee, countered that the squall hit at the worst possible time for Dems fishing for Brown voters.

“It is certainly a drag on Democrats going into a tough election season where they already have to defend a record of raising taxes and spending recklessly,” said Mazzola. “When it comes time to pay their bill to Uncle Sam they conveniently forget.”

Howie Carr can't help but gloat.

Sen. John “Liveshot” Kerry was so angry last night he threw somebody else’s tax bill over the White House wall.

The real JFK had PT 109, and now all John Forbes Kerry is left with is PT 1099.

Even Christy Mihos and Jack E. Robinson held out longer against the DOR than Liveshot did, and that reminds the senior senator of what he likes least about the 21st century: The Globe can’t protect him anymore.

Why, did you see those riff-raff reporters Monday in Weymouth, chasing him into the SUV, asking him those impertinent questions about his tax evasion?

Don’t those ruffians know who John Kerry almost was? Why, if Diebold hadn’t stolen all those votes in Ohio in 2004, it’d be Liveshot’s picture hanging in the lobby of the Yale Club on 44th Street in New York City, right alongside Clinton’s and Bush’s.

Would that it were, would that it were...

Why the long face, Sen. Kerry?

You know very well what Mama T served him for dinner last night - hot tongue and cold shoulder - especially when he started asking her questions like “Lovey, have you seen the checkbook?”

He’ll be down at the bank first thing this morning: “Can I get me a cashier’s check for a half-million dollars here?”

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.”

Or as John Kerry would put it, “Taxes are what everybody but me pays for civilized society.”

Benjamin Franklin said, “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”

That, and rich liberal Democrats trying to cheat on their taxes.

Cranky Old Thug Faces Ethics Charges

A shame the JournoList no longer exists or this story would die quickly. Oh, who am I kidding? What's left of the media will downplay this anyway and just bring up Jack Abramoff or something.

A House investigative committee on Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, a blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and an election-year headache for Democrats.

The committee did not immediately specify the charges against the Democrat, who has served in the House for some 40 years and is fourth in House seniority. The announcement by a four-member panel of the House ethics committee sends the case to a House trial, where a separate eight-member panel of Republicans and Democrats will decide whether the violations can be proved by clear and convincing evidence.

The timing of the announcement ensures that it will stretch into the fall campaign, and Republicans are certain to make it an issue as they try to capture majority control of the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi had once promised to “drain the swamp” of ethical misdeeds by lawmakers in arguing that Democrats should be in charge.

Rangel led the tax-writing Ways and Means panel until he stepped aside last March after the ethics committee criticized him in a separate case — finding that he should have known corporate money was paying for his trips to two Caribbean conferences.

Officials said that in the current case, the committee and Rangel’s attorney tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a settlement. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions. A settlement would have required Rangel to agree that he violated ethics rules.

A bright shining star of The Most Ethical Congress Ever.

AP Authors Love Note to St. Charlie

It's not possible you could have a more sympathetic portrayal of a greedy political hack if Charlie Rangel's office wrote this themselves.

A 43-paragraph hagiography ending with this gem.

"When the venom is out of the air, Charlie will be remembered as one of the most extraordinary political leaders in the history of this country."

Good luck with that.

'Let Us Sing a Song About the Wonderfulness of Nancy Pelosi'

With one sentence Gail Collins of the New York Times forfeits her and her newspaper's credibility for all time.

What is this, North Korea? We don't sing song to our leaders, unless you're some captive schoolkids signing to our own Dear Leader, which is bad enough as it is.

Yet here we have a alleged journalist gushing like a grade-schooler, urging us to sing songs in homage to a hack with an 11% approval rating when last polled.

Just pathetic.

Let us sing a song about the wonderfulness of Nancy Pelosi.

What a run she’s been on. This week — with the big financial reform package edging toward completion, and the House approving a major campaign finance reform bill — was a reminder of what an incredibly productive speaker she’s become.

Last winter, when Washington was backing away from the whole health care deal after the Republicans won Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, Pelosi was uncowed. “We’ll go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, we’ll go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole vault in,” she said. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed for the American people.”

I sort of like the image of Nancy Pelosi parachuting in. Would she wear her high heels? Probably not, but her hair would still look as if it had been blow-dried by a stylist on the way out of the airplane.

She’s a 70-year-old perpetual motion machine who seems, in her public appearances, both ultra-programmed and ultra-intense. Many Americans were first introduced to her when the new speaker sat behind President Bush at his State of the Union speech in 2007, blinking so ferociously that she seemed to be sending out Morse code distress calls from the back of the podium.

In conversation, she’s a runaway train. Talking about global warming in an interview last week, she warned: “You don’t want me to go into the melting of the polar cap and the glaciers and the great rivers of Southeast Asia and the water supply in Tibet and the encroachment of the Gobi Desert and the sandstorms in Beijing and the rise of sea level in all of our maritime areas in the world and. ... I would just recommend you go to Alaska to see what is happening.”

The Republicans have turned Pelosi into the Demon Grandmother — in ads, a satanic figure in the flames of deficit spending, or a 50-foot monster smashing houses with her big-government feet. (She seems utterly indifferent to the endless public pummeling — although she did express some dismay, in an interview with The Times’s Mark Leibovich, that people had been speculating that she might have had a face-lift.)

Where would anyone get the impression Pelosi's had a facelift?

Collins, meanwhile, tosses in this howler:

Pelosi has actually been very good on ethics. Under her watch in the House, earmarks are fewer and more transparent. Travel rules are tighter. She fought for the creation of a new in-house watchdog, the Office of Congressional Ethics, pushing it over the wire by one vote. Since then, the aggressive ethics office has won the rancor of investigated members of Congress and the hearts of good-government groups.

Two words for that idiocy: Charlie Rangel.

She's been transparent? Huh?

Does anyone at the Times ever bother to check Coliins' drivel before it's printed or is this intended to be self-parody?

She has been around a long time and must have known that from the start. But she pushed anyway. Pelosi is an idealist working in the practical now. She genuinely sees her party as a vehicle for good and her pragmatism is not the least bit cynical. She is the most powerful woman in the country, the most fearless person on Capitol Hill and on track to be one of the most productive speakers in history.

I don’t know about you, but that kind of knocks me out.

I think it was the overdose of hallucinogens that knocked Collins out.

It's Official: Client No. 9 Now on at 8

It's official. Disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and faux conservative Kathleen Parker will be hosting a CNN program.

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Kathleen Parker will co-host a new hour long CNN primetime news program starting in the fall as the nation prepares for the 2010 midterm election, the network announced Wednesday morning.

The yet-to-be-named “roundtable discussion” program will air at 8 p.m. ET replacing Campbell Brown.

“Other cable news channels force-feed viewers one narrow, predictable point of view; in contrast, CNN will be offering a lively roundup of all the best ideas – presented by two of the most intelligent and outspoken figures in the country,” Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S., said in a statement released by the network. “Eliot and Kathleen are beholden to no vested interest – in fact, quite the opposite: they are renowned for taking on the most powerful targets and most important causes.”

Indeed, Spitzer has no narrow or vested interest, except for the Democratic Party.

I give this hot mess six months tops.

Pathetic: Mika Brzezinski Again Reads White House Talking Points on the Air

At least she's honest about it. Just a few months after being caught promoting ObamaCare talking points, MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski is at it again, and she's brazenly honest about being completely in the tank for the White House.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Do you want to know why I have a file that I've been working on with the White House—and I'll be very transparent about that? Because of your friend Rudy Giuliani who came here last week spewing out a whole bunch of nothing.

So an opposing viewpoint to this hack is a whole bunch of nothing?

Maybe MSNBC can just replace her with the guy who's probably supplying the talking points when he leaves the White House? Until then, maybe they can feed them into the TelePrompter so it's not so painfully obvious what she's doing.

Maybe We Should Ask to See His Birth Certificate

His memory has clearly been faulty for some time since he's always "forgetting" to pay his taxes or recall exactly how many rent-controlled apartments he's got. Well now New York's Charlie Rangel apparently doesn't even know when his birthday is.

According to his birth certificate, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) turned 80 this past Friday. But according to Rangel, his birthday is sometime in August. He’s just not sure when.

“As far as I’m concerned, my birthday is the day of my big summer fundraiser,” he told ITK. “I just can’t remember the exact date of it this year.”

He explained that the moving-target birthday had evolved out of political necessity. “You see, for years the Democratic primaries in New York always used to be held the second week of June, and you know, nobody wants to celebrate right before a primary, all stressed out, so I just canceled my birthday every year until I stopped even thinking about it.”

The late-summer party is a perfect way to make up for lost merrymaking. “Now my daughters, and even my sister, will call me up and say, ‘Charlie, when’s your birthday this year?’ ”

But the big issue this year wasn’t when. It was where.

“For years, I held a big party at Tavern on the Green,” Rangel recalled, shaking his head nostalgically, “but they went under last year, which was such a shame."

Aw, poor thing. Now he'll just have to find another place where taxpayers can pick up the tab.

It's not as if he can't afford it.

Don't feel too bad for Rep. Charles Rangel.

The Harlem Democrat has an investment fund worth between $250,000 and $500,000, and four investment accounts valued at $100,001 to $250,000 each, according to financial reports for 2009 that were released yesterday.

He's got three other investment funds worth between $15,001 and $50,000, and another one worth $50,001 to $100,000.

Plus, he raked in as much as $15,000 in rent from his beach villa at Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic.

His failure to report that rental income or pay taxes on it spurred a House ethics investigation that's still ongoing.

Idiot Boston Globe Sportswriter: Conservatives Should Like the World Cup Because They Fascists or Something

Since liberals eat, drink and sleep politics, nothing is off-limits when it comes to taking cheap shots at conservatives. The past few days we've seen the cranky left hopping on the World Cup bandwagon in order to bash conservatives who dare to voice an opinion about soccer. All it took was an offhand comment from Glenn Beck and the folks living off our dime over at NPR took the ball and ran with it. Ace gently reminded them why it is soccer never has and never will capture the public imagination here in America because, you know, we have other, more prominent sports here we play and pay attention to.

I never played organized soccer as a kid because in the NYC neighborhood I grew up in we played baseball, basketball and football. That's it. Sure, there were some other activities kids had, but as far as team sports were concerned, that's all we had, so that's what you played. If I walked out the door with a soccer ball or some golf clubs I'd have found myself very lonely, or getting whacked around with a 9-iron.

Now I enjoy watching some World Cup games and follow the games to some extent. I'd love to see the USA fare well and enjoy watching some of the finer teams such as Brazil and Germany, who tend to make other teams look dreadfully inferior, as was the case Sunday when the Germans overwhelmed Australia.

Somehow since I, liked the rest of the planet, voiced my distaste about the incessant noise produced by the vuvuzelas, that has now incurred the ire of some Boston Globe hack who hates to bring politics into everything like the right supposedly does, but he just has to speak up since we're all just a bunch of xenophobic, fascistic yahoos because the noise everyone is complaining about gets on our nerves.

In case you missed it, the American Right is all a'tizzy about the World Cup. They're not having any of this, by God. Some of them have even abandoned Americanism entirely and lined up with the Cheating French Bastards on the issue of vuvuzelas -- which, I am sure, most of them believe is some sort of synonym for the naughty bits of which they've all heard rumors around the old campfire.

I have heard endlessly about how it is liberals who a) wedge their politics into every aspect of modern life, and b) go through life desperately afraid that someone, somewhere, is having fun. (In the conservative formulation, this usually means that the Someone is smoking a big cigar and lining up his next ex-wife.)

To my knowledge Rush Limbaugh hasn't mentioned the World Cup, likely because he's been on his honeymoon, but that doesn't stop Pierce from taking a swipe at him. He's heard endlessly how liberals wedge their politics into every aspect of modern life and goes about making our case. Thanks, Chuckie! The notion the right is upset any time people are having fun is patently absurd. We're the ones with a sense of humor and honestly, when was the last time you saw a Democrat laugh? Surely not anyone in Washington I've seen lately. Liberals are incapable of being funny or taking a joke, which is why they walk around miserable with a permanent scowl.

So Pierce wonders why it is we couldn't enjoy a game yesterday between Paraguay and Italy.

Look, kids. People aren't enjoying the World Cup because they're liberals. They're enjoying the World Cup because it's a Big Honking Deal and Americans love Big Honking Deals, and they're enjoying it because live daytime sports provide an excuse to duck out of work and into a cool, dark place that sells beer to watch Paraguay draw with Italy, two countries that conservatives historically should embrace, if only for nostalgia's sake. I mean, really, guys. Don't you have birth certificates to chase down? Lighten up, Francis.

How subtle. See, we should like a game between Paraguay and Italy because Paraguay was at one time run by a dictator and Italy 70 years ago was run by Mussolini.

Oh, OK, I get it now. We're all fascists and like dictators. Gee, that's a novel take from the left. OK, Charles, I'm all on board now. I bet you can't wait until the North Korea match so you can root along with your Communist pal Kim Jong-Il.

Remember, though, it's those of us on the right who inject our politics into everything. Using the World Cup to call people fascists is just telling the truth or something.