The Clown Show at the End of the Universe

I wonder if the King of the Oompa Loompas still has some of that sweet, sweet tobacco baksheesh left over in the kitty (from Bob Herbert in the NYT):

That’s Where the Money Is

...
I remember writing about that day back in the mid-’90s when this slick, chain-smoking, quintessential influence-peddler decided to play Santa Claus by handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists to fellow Congressional sleazes right on the floor of the House.

It was incredible, even to some Republicans. The House was in session, and here was a congressman actually distributing money on the floor. Other, more serious, representatives were engaged in debates that day on such matters as financing for foreign operations and a proposed amendment to the Constitution to outlaw desecration of the flag. Mr. Boehner was busy desecrating the House itself by doing the bidding of big tobacco.

Embarrassed members of the G.O.P. tried to hush up the matter, but I got a tip and called Mr. Boehner’s office. His chief of staff, Barry Jackson, was hardly contrite. “They were contributions from tobacco P.A.C.’s,” he said.

When I asked why the congressman would hand the money out on the floor of the House, Mr. Jackson’s answer seemed an echo of Willie Sutton’s observation about banks. “The floor,” he said, “is where the members meet with each other.”
...

Because it sure looks like he's gonna need every pfennig in his bribe sack and then some to squeak his utterly meaningless plan past his own members in his own House:

Boehner debt ceiling vote delayed, lacks votes for passage


House Speaker John Boehner announced late Thursday that a proposed plan on increasing the nation’s debt ceiling was delayed as party leaders scrambled to find additional votes.

The news came just minutes before Mr. Boehner was set to hold a 5:30 p.m. vote on the proposal, which would cut roughly $915 billion in spending over the next ten years but only raise the debt ceiling through the end of the calendar year. A Republican aide said the House would vote on the bill later on Thursday evening.
...

A plan which -- should it actually pass-- will immediately crawl under the Senate's porch and die.

And since Boehner's bill is absolutely DOA in utero, so to speak, this pointless drama is about one thing and one thing only: whether of not, in the House tiger cage, Boehner is the one holding the whip, or the one obediently running in a circle with a little dog prancing on his back.

You know, back in aught-nine I believe it was, I wrote a little song about it.

And here it is:

Oompa Loompa Sprayontan Dude
I've got another puzzle for you
Oompa loompa doompeda dee
If you are wise you'll listen to me

Who do you fault when your Party's insane?
A shrieking, bigot-riddled daisy chain?
Rabid from a diet of paranoid lies
Peddled by demented teevee guys?

The
Gutless
Party
Leadership

Oompa Loompa Sprayontan Dude
Letting his Party come completely unglued
A laquered corpse, irredeemably screwed
Like the Oompa
Loompa
Sprayontan
Dude...

Later Herman's Hermits stole that song and made a fortune off of it.
Me? I never saw a dime.
Damn hippies.


Meanwhile, the eminently calm and rational James Fallows (to whom I actually owe a beer next time he comes to Chicago) joins Paul Krugman in the Big Driftglass Party of filthy, America-hating Communist dupes:

Sad, really...

Five Reasons the House GOP Is to Blame

By James Fallows

Jul 28 2011, 2:56 PM ET
Many Republican readers have written to ask why I have posted "partisan" charts, like the one after the jump, that use data from the Congressional Budget Office and elsewhere to show that tax cuts over the past decade have played a huge role in creating mammoth federal debt.

In my view, these have been "charts," rather than "partisan charts." And to me their significance is less in allocating responsibility for creating the problem than in clarifying the real options for dealing with it.

Still, anyone who thinks I am mainly blaming the Republicans for the needless debt-ceiling fracas, especially the Tea Party-era House Republicans arrayed behind Rep. Eric Cantor (and Rep. Jim Jordan), is correct. To put the reasons in one place, as things go down to the wire, here they are...