This is how it figured to play out. Mitch McConnell caves in the Senate, offering up a so-called clean bill on Homeland Security and steering clear of any responsibility for a shutdown showdown. That puts Obama in the clear. And Democrats in the clear. And Senate Republicans in the clear. So, guess who’s left holding the shutdown bag? Via the National Journal.
John Boehner has taken the nation on this ride before. It ends like this:
Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill to ban “pray away the gay therapy” — the attempt by mostly religious organizations to steer gay and queer people straight through counseling. The “therapy” is anti-scientific and has caused great suffering to the mostly young people subjected to it. But this is Colorado, where evangelical empires thrive and where the science of immunization is pooh-poohed on the right and the left. The ban will pass in the Democratic-controlled House. It likely won’t pass in the Republican-controlled Senate.
John Cassidy writes in the New Yorker that Scott Walker’s so-called gaffes aren’t gaffes at all, but rather part of a grand strategy to win the Republican nomination for president.
Democrats died last year in the midterm elections. Now the autopsy is out. Guess what: Democrats say the patient is just fine, leading the Atlantic to ask: Are Democrats in denial?
Virtually everyone agrees we need to do something about our crumbling infrastructure. So, why won’t anything be done about it? Via Al Hunt at Bloomberg View.
Not yet officially running, Hillary Clinton goes to Silicon Valley to present the outline of her unofficial 2016 agenda. Via the New York Times.
What’s Elizabeth Warren’s next fight? You’d know if you turned on CSPAN to watch her grill Janet Yellen. Via Vox.
Barack Obama’s Keystone veto was so expected that it’s almost a non-story. But the real story is that there will be many, many more vetoes to come. Via Politico.
Paul Farhi writes in the Washington Post that Bill O’Reilly has decided that the best defense — against the accusations that he embellished some wartime stories of his own — is a good offense. Which is how O’Reilly comes to suggest that one of his critics be put in “the kill zone.”
Amid falling gold prices, South African mining company AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. says it might sell off all or part of the Cripple Creek gold mine west of Colorado Springs, which is in the midst of a $585 million expansion. Nobody knows for sure whether Cripple Creek will have to close up shop, so for now they’ll keep on drilling. Via the Gazette.
The 10 angriest reactions to things actors said at the Oscars. (Interestingly, most of the critics were liberals.) Via New York magazine.
