Nutter's Washington

Merry Christmas is different than Happy Holidays

I love to wish people Merry Christmas. I do it because I mean it and I like to see how a person reacts to the statement. It is Christmas, after all. It is a time for reflection, celebration, good cheer, family, feasting, exchanging useless gifts. It is special. Why not say it? Why not mean it? 

Happy Holidays is so bland, so secular, so bland. so ridiculous  Some people gleefully blurt back a hearty Merry Christmas, others like retail people are been instructed it seems not to mention the "C" word. Others are just humbug.

I am not ashamed of my Christian heritage, just as I would not expect any other person to be ashamed of their heritage. 

So for everyone, Merry Christmas and God bless you. 

Congress: Quit Whining

Congress is still lingers in town. It is akin to the smelly uncle who will not leave after Thanksgiving dinner. No number of hints or embarrassment seem to matter. In this case, it is the U. S. Senate under the merciful soon to end leadership of Majority Leader Harry Reid. (D-NV).

In a certain respect the last minute flurry is just politics and a way to try to sneak provisions into law by both sides. It is to be expected. It is also a result of pent up frustration of the entre year of a closed, non-existent legislative process and mismanagement on the part of the Senate leadership.

 One thing I found interesting is the complaints coming from Capitol Hill that there was a weekend session. Outrageous! My goodness, get over it. I have spent hundreds of weekends working. In the office. At home. On the road. That is what working people do. Not much sympathy here. If the Congress ran its business properly then this horrible weekend session could have been avoid. If I did not know what I was doing, it would take me a long time to do it. 

In any event, the clinging power grip of the Democrats is about to end and for the benefit of the institution and the country. From 60 members in 2010 to 44 (plus 2) in 2015, there would seem to be a lesson out there, or as the President says “a teachable moment.” Adios, Senator Reid. Hope you enjoy the move. 

Another Senate Democrat Bites the Dust: Landrieu is Final Obama Victim

 

Another Senate Democrat bit the dust on Saturday. The 2014 mid-term election results are almost completed. A recount remains unsettled in one Arizona House district with the Republican challenger holding a slight lead. However, the verdict has been rendered.

In yet another insult, rejection of the Obama government, Louisiana Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu, the party’s last remaining statewide officeholder from the Deep South, was beat soundly Saturday in the head-to-head Louisiana Senate runoff election. Republican Bill Cassidy’s resounding victory is the ninth Senate seat picked up by the Republicans in this year’s elections. I have to point out the number was precisely the number of seat pick-ups I predicted before the November 4th voting. Got is right for once!

Republicans will have a 54-seat majority when the Senate convenes in January, to go along with at least 246 seats in the House, compared to 188 for Democrats. The numbers give Republicans their biggest advantage in Congress in more than sixty years. The results leave Democrats without a single governor, U.S. senator or legislative majority across nine Southern states.

In spite of what you read and hear about the tarnished Republican brand, the party will now control both Houses of Congress. The lost of Democrats congressional and state offices in the Obama regime is nothing less than staggering. The challenge to try to govern is in front of Republicans but nonetheless, it’s also an opportunity for them. 

Senator Landrieu probably never had a chance to retain her seat. Mr. Obama was widely (and still is) unpopular in her state. His policies against the energy industry and imposition of a flawed heath care system are even more unpopular.  Although achieving some seniority as Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Ms. Landrieu’s achievements over they years were lackluster. Her last ditch failed effort two weeks ago to get a vote on Keystone XL pipeline was seen as pure desperation. She could not convince even one more of her Democrat colleagues to help her.

Senator Landrieu tried to run as an independent candidate but in the end she ran a nasty, duplicitous, and racist campaign. She tired to tar Mr. Cassidy with anti-black rhetoric to gin up the black vote while touting herself as being a moderate candidate. I find these types of slurs to be offensive, decisive and well, slimy. It is the kind of race baiting continually used by Mr. Obama and his political minions. In the end, it did not work. Her chief of staff was caught on hidden camera telling to a group of mostly African-Americans that Senator Landrieu votes with President Obama 97 percent of the time. Case closed.

There was also an incident of urging black voters to vote twice. “Early and often” as it is referred to. The speaker, or course, says it was all a joke but it did not sound like it to me.

In any event, Senator Landrieu deserved not to win, probably never had a chance to win. Rightly so.