Today marks the anniversary of the start of President Obama’s first presidential campaign, an occasion we’re marking by carving a backward “B” on our cheek and punching ourselves in the face. A Missouri lawmaker called on his state’s congressional delegation to repeal Obamacare with “manly firmness,” though it should be noted that issues relating to manly firmness are covered by Obamacare. And Jeb Bush accidentally released the Social Security numbers of some of his former constituents. Sadly, it wasn’t the most offensive thing done by a Republican Florida Governor involving the social safety net in recent years. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, February 10th, 2015:
WHITE HOUSE TO SEEK WAR AUTHORIZATION – It’s just for fun, though. Jen Bendery: “President Barack Obama will ask Congress as soon as Wednesday for new war authority to fight Islamic State terrorists, including the ability to deploy limited U.S. ground troops — a provision all but certain to draw bipartisan fire. Obama will send his request in the form of a draft Authorization for the Use of Military Force. It’s a retroactive request: the U.S. has already been bombing the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, for the past six months. The president maintains he doesn’t actually need new congressional authorization to fight the group — he says a sweeping 2001 AUMF gives him that authority — but has said he welcomes a new AUMF anyway. Some lawmakers disagree he has current authority.
CONFIRMATION THAT OBAMA ONLY PRETENDED TO ‘EVOLVE’ ON GAY MARRIAGE – Either that or wild ass-covering after Joe Biden made him look like a fool. From David Axelrod’s book: “Gay marriage was a particularly nagging issue. For as long as we had been working together, Obama had felt a tug between his personal views and the politics of gay marriage…. [H]e grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a ‘sacred union.’ …‘I’m just not very good at bullshitting, he said with a sigh after one such awkward exchange.” Sam Stein and Amanda Terkel found 16 instances of President Obama effortlessly bullshitting about his love for civil unions.
MCCONNELL HOT POTATOES DHS FUNDING TO BOEHNER – It’s very kind of the Senate majority leader to not Bogart our nation’s legislative challenges. Elise Foley: “The Senate is ‘stuck’ on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday, and it will be up to the House of Representatives to figure out the next step. ‘I think it’s clear we can’t go forward in the Senate, unless you all have heard something I haven’t,’ he told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday. ‘So the next move obviously is up to the House.’ The statement was partially one of fact — the Senate voted three times on whether to move forward with a House-passed bill to fund DHS and block Obama’s immigration programs, and Democrats blocked the move each time. Democrats seem no more likely to support that bill now, and funding for DHS is set to run out on Feb. 27. The message from Senate Republican leaders, essentially, is that they did their best, but just can’t get the House’s bill through the Senate. But that’s unlikely to sit well with Republicans in the House, who said last week that they did their job and it is now up to the Senate. That was still the message after McConnell’s remarks on Tuesday, judging by a statement from House Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel. ‘The House has passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, and block the President’s unilateral executive action on immigration,” he said in an email. “Now, the pressure is on Senate Democrats who claim to oppose the President’s action, but are filibustering a bill to stop it. Until there is some signal from those Senate Democrats what would break their filibuster, there’s little point in additional House action.'” [HuffPost]
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@KevinWGlass: Coming soon to a tweetdeck near you:
“Western Civilization: Yea or Nay?”
@pourmecoffee: I would watch the hell out of the Vox Hodor interview.
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