When Anthony Weiner resigned in the wake of his Twitter picture scandal, no one could have imagined his seat would fall into Republican hands — but it has. For the first time since 1923, a Republican has won a deep blue Congressional seat in the heart of Brooklyn, New York. Republican Bob Turner soundly defeated Democrat David Weprin for NY’s 9th District. To call this an earthquake doesn’t really do it justice. Weiner’s district is heavily Jewish and so deep blue it’s practically purple.

In short, if a Republican can win here they can win anywhere.

It looks like GOP leaders are in a full scale war with Conservatives at this point:

The Republican conference erupted in anger Wednesday over how a conservative faction is undermining Speaker John Boehner’s debt ceiling plan.

Republican Study Committee chairman Jim Jordan apologized to members at a closed-door meeting because a junior RSC staffer, Wesley Goodman, earlier this week sent an email to conservative outside groups identifying which members were undecided on how they will vote on Boehner’s debt ceiling legislation.

“There was a sense of frustration that, we’re on the same team, how could you do this?” says a source who was in the room.

When the subject of the email came up, one unidentified member of Congress yelled “Fire him!” about Goodman, who sent the email, the source said.

The fact that Republicans in Congress are trying to keep their votes secret from Conservatives tells me they’re voting the wrong way. That said, it was certainly a ballsy move for that staffer to snitch. He better freshen up that resume, because any chance of a career on The Hill is mighty unlikely.

Paul Ryan’s response was right on the money last night. He nailed the president for his hypocrisy on fiscal issues and delivered a sober assessment of our nation’s economic woes.

Those fearful of newly elected Tea Party Republicans going wobbly once they got to Washington can rest easy, at least for this week. Republicans in the House today unveiled a plan that would cut spending by $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years. It’s not just BS window dressing. We’re talking about serious cuts. Sweet, succulent cuts.

Gone would be Amtrak subsidies, fat checks to the Legal Services Corporation and National Endowment for the Arts, and some $900 million to run President Obama’s healthcare reform program.

What’s more, the “Spending Reduction Act of 2011″ proposed by members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, chaired by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, would reduce current spending for non-defense, non-homeland security and non-veterans programs to 2008 levels, eliminate federal control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cut the federal workforce by 15 percent through attrition, and cut some $80 billion by blocking implementation of Obamacare.

Some of the proposed reductions will surely draw Democratic attack, such as cutting the Ready to Learn TV Program, repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, the elimination of the Energy Star Program, and cutting subsidies to the Woodrow Wilson Center.

I have a feeling Glenn Beck will be particularly fond of cutting subsidies to the Woodrow Wilson Center. I’m happy to see that subsidies for public broadcasting (NPR) also get nixed. Those bastards deserve it after what they did to Juan Williams and for injecting race into the Arizona tragedy.

Here’s the full list of cuts:

Additional Program Eliminations/Spending Reforms

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy. $445 million annual savings.

Save America’s Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings.

International Fund for Ireland. $17 million annual savings.

Legal Services Corporation. $420 million annual savings.

National Endowment for the Arts. $167.5 million annual savings.

National Endowment for the Humanities. $167.5 million annual savings.

Hope VI Program. $250 million annual savings.

Amtrak Subsidies. $1.565 billion annual savings.

Eliminate duplicative education programs. H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.

U.S. Trade Development Agency. $55 million annual savings.

Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy. $20 million annual savings.

Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding. $47 million annual savings.

John C. Stennis Center Subsidy. $430,000 annual savings.

Community Development Fund. $4.5 billion annual savings.

Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid. $24 million annual savings.

Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half. $7.5 billion annual savings.

Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20%. $600 million annual savings.

Essential Air Service. $150 million annual savings.

Technology Innovation Program. $70 million annual savings.

Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. $125 million annual savings.

Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization. $530 million annual savings.

Beach Replenishment. $95 million annual savings.

New Starts Transit. $2 billion annual savings.

Exchange Programs for Alaska, Natives Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts. $9 million annual savings.

Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants. $2.5 billion annual savings.

Title X Family Planning. $318 million annual savings.

Appalachian Regional Commission. $76 million annual savings.

Economic Development Administration. $293 million annual savings.

Programs under the National and Community Services Act. $1.15 billion annual savings.

Applied Research at Department of Energy. $1.27 billion annual savings.

FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. $200 million annual savings.

Energy Star Program. $52 million annual savings.

Economic Assistance to Egypt. $250 million annually.

U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.39 billion annual savings.

General Assistance to District of Columbia. $210 million annual savings.

Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. $150 million annual savings.

Presidential Campaign Fund. $775 million savings over ten years.

No funding for federal office space acquisition. $864 million annual savings.

End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.

Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. More than $1 billion annually.

IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget. $1.8 billion savings over ten years.

Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 billion total savings.

Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees. $1.2 billion savings over ten years.

Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of. $15 billion total savings.

Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.

Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million annual savings.

Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. $12.5 million annual savings.

Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million annual savings.

USDA Sugar Program. $14 million annual savings.

Subsidy to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). $93 million annual savings.

Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program. $56.2 million annual savings.

Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs. $900 million savings.

Ready to Learn TV Program. $27 million savings.

HUD Ph.D. Program.

Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.

TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years

Not a bad start. Not bad at all.

Reuters has an interesting piece today about a possible secret GOP plan to smash public sector unions in the next Congress.

Congressional Republicans appear to be quietly but methodically executing a plan that would a) avoid a federal bailout of spendthrift states and b) cripple public employee unions by pushing cash-strapped states such as California and Illinois to declare bankruptcy. This may be the biggest political battle in Washington, my Capitol Hill sources tell me, of 2011.

That’s why the most intriguing aspect of President Barack Obama’s tax deal with Republicans is what the compromise fails to include — a provision to continue the Build America Bonds program.  BABs now account for more than 20 percent of new debt sold by states and local governments thanks to a federal rebate equal to 35 percent of interest costs on the bonds. The subsidy program ends on Dec. 31.  And my Reuters colleagues report that a GOP congressional aide said Republicans “have a very firm line on BABS — we are not going to allow them to be included.”

In short, the lack of a BAB program would make it harder for states to borrow to cover a $140 billion budgetary shortfall next year, as estimated by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. The long-term numbers are even scarier. Estimates of states’ unfunded liabilities to pay for retiree benefits range from $750 billion to more than $3 trillion.

To make the plan work, Republicans have to amend bankruptcy laws to allow states to declare bankruptcy. Legislation is currently in the works.

Indeed, legislation  amending federal bankruptcy law is currently being prepared by congressional Republicans. Local municipalities do declare bankruptcy from time to time, most famously California’s Orange County in 1994. But states can’t. Allowing them the same ability to renegotiate obligations could enable them to slash public employees’ lavish benefits, a big factor in their financial woes.

I hope this is true. Crushing public sector unions is the only way for bankrupt states to recover.

I love this. It’s so damn political. Even as Politico churns out hit pieces from anonymous GOP sources calling Sarah Palin is unelectable, the 2012 presidential hopefuls in the GOP are singing her praises.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said Monday it would be "great" for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) to run for president in 2012.

"She would be a great thing for the Republican primary process," said Romney, a 2008 presidential candidate and a potential candidate again in 2012. "It’d be a good thing for her to get in."

Romney, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) have all rallied around Palin, who on Sunday night condemned suggestions that GOP operatives in Washington were looking to stall any potential presidential aspirations she might have.

"The story is nonsense. Because first of all I know Sarah Palin pretty well, and if she wants to run there’s not going to be any Washington elites stopping her," Romney told conservative talker Laura Ingraham on Monday on her radio show.
Steele, who’s appeared on the campaign trail with Palin at times this fall, told her critics to "shut up."

The reason I find this so amusing is because none of these fools would dare say anything nasty about Palin in public — the Tea Party would destroy them. So these cowards talk trash to the media behind the scenes and praise her in public. At least Rove has the balls to criticize her in public. Of course, he’s not running for anything. And he’s wrong.

I think a Palin run would be exciting. I tend to think whatever the GOP establishment wants we should do the opposite. They hate Palin. I love her. I also think she probably will run. If she does there’s a very good chance she’ll win the nomination. The conventional wisdom is that her nomination would hand Obama another four years. I say the fortune tellers and prognosticators have been wrong about Palin every step of the way. She’s proven herself to be a worthy political adversary.

EMILY’s List President Stephani Schriock is claiming that the Republican Party is “anti-woman.” She also makes the absurd claim that the coming elections are likely reduce the number of women in Congress.

But as NewsBusters rightly points out, this election season has the largest number of female candidates ever. This is due to the unprecedented number of female Republican candidates — most of which Sarah Palin is backing.

It’s Stephanie Schriock and her phony ass EMILY’s List that’s really anti-woman. They think women are dumb puppets incapable of thinking for themselves. They don’t want women to have a choice in who they vote for or which party they belong to. They want women to toe the liberal line and think in unison.

This is hilarious. All the potential 2010 GOP presidential contenders have one thing in common — they all work for Fox News. As a result, the group is contractually bound to appear only on Fox. This has the other news networks crying foul because it’s hampering their ability to cover the presidential race early.

As Fox’s popularity grows among conservatives, the presence of four potentially serious Republican candidates as paid contributors is beginning to frustrate competitors of the network, figures within its own news division and rivals of what some GOP insiders have begun calling “the Fox candidates.”

With the exception of Mitt Romney, Fox now has deals with every major potential Republican presidential candidate not currently in elected office.

Roger Ailes has an eye for talent. What are you gonna do?

(hat tip johnny dollar)

I was not impressed with Rep. John Boehner’s performance this morning on Fox News Sunday. The kind of rhetoric I’m hearing out of the GOP strongly suggests to me that they don’t get it. All this crap about going back to 2008 spending levels is just that — crap. Spending was too f*cking high in 2008. It’s also pretty clear that things will return to business as usual with earmarks once all the dust settles.

The more I read the so-called “Pledge” the angrier I get. These Republicans are in for a rude awakening if they think they’re going to pull another fast one on us. Boehner may find his ass on the chopping block if he doesn’t deliver in a big way should he become Speaker.

The Republicans have unveiled their plan for moving America forward should they retake one or both houses of Congress in November. Thankfully, the GOP’s “Pledge to America” lacks the usual divisive “family values” issues like gay marriage, abortion, or sex education. It would have been a mistake of biblical proportions to muddy the waters with divisive issues when the vast majority of the country is focused on the economy and jobs.

Here’s the highlights from the “Pledge to America” from CBS and the full text of the pledge below that.

Jobs:

- Stop job-killing tax hikes

- Allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income

- Require congressional approval for any new federal regulation that would add to the deficit

- Repeal small business mandates in the new health care law.

Cutting Spending:

- Repeal and Replace health care

- Roll back non-discretionary spending to 2008 levels before TARP and stimulus (will save $100 billion in first year alone)

- Establish strict budget caps to limit federal spending going forward

- Cancel all future TARP payments and reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Reforming Congress:

- Will require that every bill have a citation of constitutional authority

- Give members at least 3 days to read bills before a vote

Defense:

- Provide resources to troops

- Fund missile defense

- Enforce sanctions in Iran

Here’s the full text of the document…

GOP Pledge to America