QUESTION: HAVE HOUSE REPUBLICANS NO BRAINS WHATSOEVER?

        Sitting with Democrats to Simulate “Civility” is Sophomoric for Which the GOP Has to Partially Thank Starry-Eyed Establishmentarian Eric Cantor [R-Va.].   MORE.

                                    Udall, Cantor, Coburn, Kirk.  

       The new House Majority Leader has just made a roaring ass of himself by so drastically supporting the nonsensical seating-arrangement change in the House chamber last night for the State of the Union. True, Eric Cantor [R-Va.] didn’t think of it…U. S. Sen. Mark Udall [D-Colo.] did, old Morris’s son who as Arizona Congressman ran for president, narrowly losing the `76 Wisconsin primary to Jimmy Carter…Mark also being the nephew of old Stewart, also of Arizona, who became JFK’s interior secretary. But by whooshing along with the shallow Udall it and inviting Nancy Pelosi to be his seatmate, who tried to use the Tucson tragedy as a partisan tool (she rightly turned him down), Cantor looked like what he is, a puppy-dog junior chamber of commerce sprout.

        I fully expect Cantor’s next push for Alice in Wonderland publicity will  be to recommend a “No Name-Calling Week” followed by a “No Bullying Week.” The idea that a Congress so brim-full of weighty problems should sit with opponents is, of course, a great visual boon for Udall’s favorite, Barack Obama since it precludes the usual, very valuable photos, of one side rising in applause to presidential proposals and the other side sitting on its hands.  That doesn’t bother Cantor who has the mien and fighting heart of callow Freddy Eynford-Hill in My Fair Lady.  After being properly rebuffed by Pelosi, he had to settle for sitting with Democrat Bobby Scott of Newport News which makes it look so-so gooie phony nonpartisan.   But this first test that shows Cantor’s namby-pamby-ness for a majority leader is a great worry for the Republican future when the need will be steel for the party spine.

           Another disappointment regarding seating might seem a surprise but is not really.  Oklahoma’s Sen. Tom Coburn who has had the courage to often stand alone…against Lord Newt when Coburn was in the House…has many virtues but lacks one central indispensable one--understanding whom his friends are. Dr. Coburn who will not be running for reelection because of self-imposed term limits has a Sunday school teacher’s Puritanical abhorrence of incivility and has needlessly touted his closeness to Obama and Pelosi….even going so far as to warn his conservative colleagues against Fox News’ asperity against liberals.

          Alienating Fox News which is the GOP’s central ally in legislative fights shows that for all his good points, Dr. Coburn is strategically feebly impaired to succeed for his craft.  His criticism of Fox made him a sitting duck for exploitation by such wolf-pack liberals as Chuck Schumer with whom  Coburn….continuing in naivete…picked as seat-mate for the Obama speech—Schumer all the while enjoying it while privately conjuring how to cut Coburn’s heart out.

          Of no surprise whatever is Illinois’ cute button-nosed Mark Kirk who has picked Dick Durbin as his seatmate date.   I’m surprised Kirk didn’t sit on his lap.   Kirk is a famous incorrigible switch-hitter and,  believe me, my finger poised for at least a minute over the polling place voting screen before I made my mark—having rejected my original intention to give it a pass for the justifiable reason his opponent was banker for the mob.  

        Kirk’s political crossdressing is one thing, partly psychological—but the folly of Cantor and Coburn not understanding the point rejecting with justifiable rage the chaotic rule or ruin schema of the Democratic majority is sickening.  Coburn will go back to Oklahoma and resume delivering babies—but Cantor will be around the House as the wide-eyed idealist ready to be picked off by the next sharpie Dem to come around.  

                       State of the Union.  Score One for Un-Seriousness.

           One thing is clear: Obama was not serious and relied on getting good press rather than showing substance.  The presentation reflects the Bill Daley School of Pretended Centrism…starting with the retention of pinstriped big bank-big business lobbyist Daley himself as chief of staff…making faux gestures to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce…naming GE’s CEO as a jobs czar (the company having officially supported the stimulus, ObamaCare and which also runs NBC)…making a feeble 5-year spending freeze on spending which ignores social entitlements and national security leaving only 1/7th of the budget to “freeze”…referring incessantly to “investments” in lieu of spending—the ultimate irony of citing our “Sputnik” moment where government and business came together with the Russian space threat to win the race for the moon…

        …when forgetting the ultimate irony in the image: the citation coming from the president who has ended space travel for good as example of American chauvinism. 

          The mainstream media once again bought it hook, line and sinker heading that Obama wants “unity” and “an end to partisanship”—this from the same guy who only a few months ago growled his opponents will have to ride in the back of the bus.    

               …But a New Star Was Born Tonight in G0P Response.

           It wasn’t that Paul Ryan was specific—he wasn’t…but then he didn’t have to because earlier he had done the spadework on the Road Map.  I never had a doubt about his specifics.  If anything I feared his response would be a disaster as he would sound like an auditor come to analyze the books.

           I was stunned  that he performed so masterfully in his speech. The specifics….the substance…we know he’s got. The superb speaking style on television coupled with his undeniable command of government catapults him to the very top of the list in 2012 for the presidency—something I was not prepared to even consider before last night.

          The thing to remember is this: Obama is no longer on the ropes as he was for much of the time since his election.  He has gained eight points and will be no slouch to beat.  I cannot see him facing someone who is not in total command.   I think we have to reexamine the bench and Paul Ryan should well be considered for a major role on the ticket.

                          Interesting Under-Reported Development Yesterday.

         It was that Gov. Chris Christie sat down for dinner in New Jersey with Mitt Romney…the purpose being whether Christie who has almost irrevocably taken himself out of the running for the presidency might entertain running for veep with Romney.   Despite much pressure to the contrary, I am pragmatic enough not to dismiss Romney from consideration.  Remember, those who want outright repeal of ObamaCare are declining in number and quite quickly—obviating a repeat of the 2010 strategy of repeal.   

            Romney might well be able to recycle this to his advantage. Let’s not be so obtuse as to fight the next war with the last war’s battle-plan. I am more hospitable to a Romney-Christie ticket than I am to a Mitch Daniels being anywhere on a national ticket.   Reason?

            The very artfully hidden….until now….of the surprising Daniels marital record—nothing he did but which could be almost fatal.  Some years ago his wife left him and ran away to California to get a divorce and marry a physician-lover….abandoning him and their three young daughters.  A few years later she divorced the physician and came wending back home to rejoin Mitch and their kids.  Mitch was the innocent party, of course—but the image of a adulterous, child-abandoning potential first lady casts a pall and is almost irremediably fatal. 

            Beyond this, forgetting Mitch’s undeniable achievements in Indiana, a short, 5 foot 7 inch balding recreational cyclist going toe-to-toe with Obama is….barf-worthy.