The Week: Former G-Dub speechwriter and recovering conservative, David Frum weighs in on the shame of conservative media. Wonder how Breitbart will handle this one? And let's not ignore the shame of the Obama administration. Finally, just shame

Vagabond Scholar: The Five Circles of Conservative Hell...more

The Reality-Based Community: Steaming piece of Senator

Cause For Concern: Sen. George Voinovich's doesn't have a 'topic' option on his web contact page for jobs or unemployment, but crazy, right-wing conspiracies are well-represented

Corrente: Straws in the wind at the convenience store: "Welcome to America"

The Hunting of the Snark Cookie of Gratitude: Let's hear it for the commenters!

Jon Stewart reports on Jeb's "shoot first and don't ask questions later" law

The Daily Show lampoons Sen. George Voinovich's statements today regarding John Bolton.

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Then he gets busy with Jeb Bush and the Wild, Wild West law, or the Deadwood Justice rule.

Well, the Senate Dems passed this yesterday. But the bill only applies to the eligibility period. It extends the deadlines for the unemployed to receive extensions, but it doesn't add any additional weeks for the two million Americans whose benefits are running out. Call your senators and tell them we need Tier 5 extensions:

Yesterday the Senate approved HR 4213, the Tax Extenders Act of 2009, by a 62-35 vote. As you can see from the roll call, every Democrat present except Ben Nelson of Nebraska voted for the bill. All but six Republicans (Kit Bond of Missouri, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, David Vitter of Louisiana and George Voinovich of Ohio) voted against it. Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts voted for the cloture motion to let the bill proceed but against the bill.

Senator Tom Harkin's office summarized some of the $140 billion bill's key provisions:

o Extend the current federal unemployment benefits program through Dec 31, 2010.

o Extend the federal funding of the state share of Extended Benefits through Dec 31, 2010.

o Extend eligibility for the temporary increase of $25 per week in individual weekly unemployment compensation through Dec 31, 2010.

o Extend the 65 percent subsidy for COBRA coverage through Dec 31, 2010.

o Extend the Medicare payment fix for doctors.

o Extend FMAP, the federal share of Medicaid payments, to give state budgets some relief.

Last week, Congress passed a 30-day extension of the federal unemployment benefits program (through April 5th) and the extension prior to that continued unemployment benefits for 2 months (from Dec 2009 to Feb 2010).

But Rick Ellis reports that actual extensions are may still in the works as the House and Senate bills are reconciled, although he's doubtful it can be passed and signed before April:

The Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) included in the stimulus package created three tiers of additional coverage. Tier one typically lasts up to 20 weeks, Tier two typically lasts up to 14 weeks, Tier three typically lasts up to 13 weeks. For those who have exhausted a regular unemployment account and federal EUC, there is are also Federal-State Extended Benefits (EB) which can run up to an additional 13 weeks. These numbers vary a bit from state-to-state, but the bottom line is that no one is able to get unemployment benefits longer than a total of 99 weeks.

The current jobs bill doesn't extend any of those tiers or add any additional coverage, such as a fourth or fifth tier.

What it does do is extend the deadlines for people to move from one tier to the next. Prior to the “phase out” period, if an applicant exhausts a tier of EUC benefits, he/she moves to the next tier. If he or she exhausts the third tier of EUC, he or she moves to Federal-State Extended Benefits. Under federal law, when the “phase out” period begins, applicants will no longer be able to move from regular UI to the first tier of EUC or from one tier of EUC to the next.

Instead, if an applicant exhausts regular UI, or the first or second tier of EUC, he or she will move directly to Federal-State Extended benefits. The new legislation moves the beginning of the phase out period from April 5, 2010 to September 5, 2010. But by the end of 2010, everyone's extended benefits will have been exhausted, whether they have moved through all the tiers of coverage or not.

Bottom line: It's important to call your senators and tell them to support an additional Tier 5 extension.

You barely see or read anything in the media about health care town halls that are constructive and where people actually ask pertinent questions. The media have also forgotten that the leader of the House Republicans isn't having a town hall either. What's up with that?

Why isn't John Boehner having a town hall?

I’ll take right here in southern Ohio. My own representative, and the House Minority Leader, John Boehner is not holding any townhalls. Add to that the district directly south of me, OH-02, which is represented by Jean Schmidt (R), and our Republican Senator George Voinovich.

The closest townhall the people of southwest Ohio have had is one held in Columbus last week by Senator Sherrod Brown, however Steve Driehaus (D-OH-01) is also planning an event.

I can fully get behind what the right is doing, but I can’t tolerate partisanship in such an endeavor. To me its amazing, yet not shocking that John Boehner isn’t holding one. Boehner is a pro at ignoring his constituency. A few years back during the Medicare debacle his office flat out refused to talk to seniors, even when there was a large gathering only a couple of miles from Boehner’s house.

Maybe they'll make him cry like he did at the Reagan Statue:

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I wonder if the South really appreciates Vitter's defense of them since he's been linked to hookers and diapers. I also have to wonder who had a hand in firebombing the car of Stormy Daniels' political adviser. She's Vitter's opponent for his Senate seat. Mr. Family Values and a regular customer of the D.C. Madam, Sen. David Vitter came out in defense of the south after Sen. Voinovich criticized the Republican Party for being way too Southern-fried.

Sen. George V. Voinovich, Ohio Republican, reignited the debate about the direction of the struggling party when he told a newspaper Monday that the biggest problem for Republicans right now is conservative Southerners, particularly Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

"They get on TV and go 'errrr, errrrr . . .' People hear them and say, 'These people, they're Southerners,'" said Mr. Voinovich, who is not seeking re-election in 2010. "The party's being taken over by Southerners. What they hell have they got to do with Ohio?"

The hooker-loving Vitter shot back with this:

"I'm on the side of conservatives getting back to core conservative values," said Mr. Vitter, Louisiana Republican and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "There are a lot of us from the South who hold those values, which I think the party is supposed to be about. We strayed from them in the past few years, and that's why we performed so badly in the national elections."

...Mr. Vitter also criticized Mr. Voinovich for voting last week against a failed amendment sponsored by Mr. Vitter and Sen. John Thune, South Dakota Republican, to expand Americans' ability to carry concealed weapons.

"He's a moderate, really wishy-washy," Mr. Vitter said.

Let's see who has it right---a moderate, or a diaper dandy?

So last week the Thune Amendment was thankfully defeated. A group I work with, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, took on the task of defeating this insane legislation, which only had a chance of passing due to the extremism of the NRA/Birther crowd and the ever-present cowardice of the usual Blue Dog Democrats.

I guess they weren't busy enough trying to destroy health care reform or climate-change legislation, so overriding state laws trying to prevent criminals from enjoying the right to concealed carry seemed like a good idea.

Thankfully, the NRA lost a gun battle for the first time in five years, but no thanks to squeamish Blue-Dog Democrats. Take Colorado Democratic Senators Udall and Bennet, for example. They waited to the end to vote, as if calculating which way to go right up until the last possible moment, and then voted with the gun nuts. Interestingly, two Republicans from generally pro-gun states, Senators George Voinovich of Ohio and Dick Lugar of Indiana, didn't feel a need to cave to the Bonkers Wing of the GOP. Nor did some other Democrats from pro-gun states, like Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bill Nelson of Florida and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

In response, a Columbine dad, who suffered what is the nightmare scenario for all of us with children in school, decided to remind these two men about what is and is not leadership in today's Denver Post. It says everything that needs to be said on this issue, as well as a host of others the Blue Dogs continue to practice duck & cover.

Sadly, the biggest threat to rational legislating right now is not from Republicans, who are and should be irrelevant, but from Blue Dogs. These people need to be taught not to fear their big contributors, but We The People.

(**As I stated in the piece, I am working with Mayors Against Illegal Guns.)

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George Voinovich is retiring from Congress next year, and I guess that means he can feel free to let a few things slip out. In this clip from CNBC, he admits what we've known all along - that opposition to the President is driving opposition to health care reform. Republicans know that if a Democratic President expands access to health care more than any time since Medicare, and lowers individual costs for most people, he will reap rewards. So their strategy, as revealed previously by internal memos and Jim "Waterloo" DeMint, is to obstruct reform to deny the President a "win", thusly turning the uninsured and the poor into pawns in a political game.

Most of Voinovich's remarks are of the fiscal scold variety, claiming that we cannot afford the cost of government (something I forget hearing from Voinovich when he voted to authorize a war in Iraq that cost three trillion dollars), but here's the key moment at around 4:25:

QUESTIONER: ...on health care, how much of this disagreement with the Administration is about the policy of health care and how to fix it, and how much of it is Republicans' obvious and understandable desire to declaw the President politically? How much of that does fit into the equation.

VOINOVICH: I think it's about 50/50, but I will tell you this...

He then claims that some Republicans want to work "on a bipartisan basis" on health care, but that's pretty much the death knell right there.

Democrats are right to jump all over this and expose the GOP as obstructionists. We've known this for some time with the record number of filibusters, but haven't gotten it out to the public. On a high-profile issue like health care, it should be radioactive to obstruct for political reasons and deny millions of people the right to have quality, affordable care.

The Cincinnati Enquirer is preparing to rank President Obama’s first hundred days. In doing so they listed how local lawmakers have voted with the President.

• Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio: 100 percent
• Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-Ohio: 86 percent
• Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio: 71 percent
• Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio: 43 percent
• Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.: 41 percent
• Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.: 24 percent
• Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio: 0 percent
• Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky.: 0 percent
• Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio: 0 percent

I think the most telling number there is that of the House minority leader, John Boehner. He is setting the lead for his caucus and they are following in lockstep with him. Even the Senate’s Minority Leader has been able to support the President 41% of the time.

The Senate Guru:

In the last week, speculation ran rampant over whether Ohio Republican George Voinovich would announce a re-election bid or a retirement. It was reported that he would be having a big conference call today, Sunday, with major donors to inform them of his 2010 plans. So what's the decision? Politico has the scoop:

Voinovich to announce retirement

Ohio Republican George Voinovich is expected to announce Monday that he won't seek reelection to the Senate in 2010. ...[..]

We'll know for sure tomorrow, but it looks likely that we can add Voinovich to a list of Senate Republican retirees that already features Florida's Mel Martinez, Kansas' Sam Brownback, and Missouri's Kit Bond. Further, Texas' Kay Bailey Hutchison may resign before 2010 to focus on her gubernatorial campaign. And we're less than two weeks into 2009. (Iowa's Chuck Grassley, Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, Kentucky's Jim Bunning, and Oklahoma's Tom Coburn are still all potential retirees.) New NRSC Chair John Cornyn must be losing it.

Former Congressmen Rob Portman and John Kasich are the two Republicans most frequently mentioned as stand-ins should Voinovich retire, but both are flawed. Portman served in George W. Bush's administration as both U.S. Trade Representative and Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Think it'll be hard to tie Portman to Bush's economic record? And how do Ohioans feel about the trade agreements that Bush supported? As for Kasich, his political career peaked a decade ago as House Budget Chairman considering a Presidential run. Since leaving the House in 2001, Kasich spent time as managing director of Lehman Brothers' Columbus division, wingnutted it up on Fox News, and demurred from an '06 gubernatorial run.

On the Democratic side, the top choice appears to be Congressman Tim Ryan, though Ryan would be sacrificing his seat on House Appropriations if he ran. Other Ohio Democrats on the fairly strong bench are Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, and Congresspeople Betty Sutton and Zack Space.

I'm not convinced that the Republican Party should count their Ohio chickens just yet, although much depends on the success of how the Democratic majority negotiates through this tough economic situation. It should be said that Voinovich did show occasional glimpses of party independence, though sadly, not enough when it counted.

The first question asked to Bush after his speech was about the Kevin Phillips book called, "American Theocracy." Read the review.
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QUESTION: Thank you for coming to Cleveland, Mr. President, and to the City Club.

My question is that author and former Nixon administration official Kevin Phillips in his latest book, "American Theocracy," discusses what has been called radical Christianity and its growing involvement into government and politics. He makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the Apocalypse. Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the Apocalypse?

He didn't answer the question, but rather went into a long rant about 9/11 and his most important talking point. The one that paves the way for the U.S. to attack Iran-"pre-emptive strikes." He threw in the word diplomacy to make believe that was on his mind, but the whole neocon game is to change the face of the Middle East and I don't think diplomacy is part of that equation.

Steve also notes:

"So, when Bush visited Cleveland this morning to share his bizarre optimistic perspective on the war in Iraq, which of the state's major GOP players were anxious to be seen with him? Well, none.

When a president's popularity plummets as Bush's has, other politicians often avoid public appearances with them. Prominent Ohio Republicans including Sen. Mike DeWine, Sen. George Voinovich and Rep. Steve LaTourette say they're skipping Bush's speech because of prior commitments.