Chaos in DC: Tweets from the Republican Congress Mess.....

Greetings to our blog readers in Azerbaijan, Ireland, and Switzerland........

Yes, it has been a full two weeks since we last entered a blog entry. In that time, Katie Holmes has reconciled with ex-husband Tom Cruise, and Tim Tebow has converted to Islam, well, of course, neither of those things have happened though the image with Tebow in a turban is quite striking.

As many of you know, Washington, D.C., our nation's capital has been turned upside down this week as House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, abruptly resigned from Congress. Then, today, Cong. Kevin McCarthy, his hand-picked successor 'bailed out' of being elected speaker. Thus, Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc., pict. bottom), the 2012 veep candidate is being recruited though he has told the media he is not interested.

This makes one speculate that just anyone, including actor Kevin Spacey (pict. top) who plays a fictional South Carolina congressman could be in the running! Spacey plays the house member of the Netflix series "House of Cards."

Netflix also made news today as they announced they were increasing their subscription rates by one dollar, which Twitter also chimed in on.

Here are 11 tweets from a group as politically diverse as Rich Lowry, an editor at the conservative "National Review" and David Corn, a progressive reporter with "Mother Jones."

1) The Nation (a liberal magazine): "The GOP has actually been teetering on a chaotic cliff for a long time_as has American conservatism."

2) The Weekly Standard (a conservative magazine): "Just over a week ago, Kevin McCarthy first considered dropping out of the race."

3) Rich Lowry: "Source says it's btwn Ryan and his wife right now. If that's a go, next hurdle will be whether he thinks he can 218 votes or not."

4) David Corn: "You know what we need today? Sarah Palin news."

5) Ryan Grim (Huffington Post): Fun fact: Kevin Spacey shadowed Kevin McCarthy for his House of Cards role.

6) Brian Stelter (CNN): " 'To continue adding more TV shows and movies incl many Netflix original titles, we are modestly raising the price...' "

7) Dave Weigel (Washington Post): "I'm shocked, shocked that Ryan did not elucidate his plans while being chased by cameras."

8) Chad Pergram (Fox News): Paul Ryan is fundamentally about two things: Family and numbers. And, balancing that equation doesn't always work in politics.

9) Washington Post: Ben Carson suggests that gun rights could have kept Hitler from killing as many Jews.

10) Mother Jones: The chemical in cookware and cupcake wrappers might be causing cancer.

11) Washington Diplomat: Imprisoned Saudi blogger's* wife protest at Saudi embassy in Vienna. (That blogger is Raif Badawi).

Well, that's it for tonight, now it's time to go to The Diner on 18th Street NW in Washington, DC**
http://www.dinerdc.com/ where who knows, we might run into Cong. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and pester her about what's going on inside Capitol Hill?! (we actually live pretty far from DC)

I Got a Letter from the Republican National Committee?!

I was very amused yesterday to get a letter from Michael Steele, head of the Republican National Committee, asking 'for my support.'

The letter was made more dubious (I am a fairly partisan Democrat) by the fact that it was addressed to Ms. Tilly Gokbudak. (yes, this is the reason we are featuring a photo of Frances Marie Burke who was Miss America in 1940). But, the last time I checked I had a prostate, so I am actually Mr. Tilly Gokbudak and I have been since I was born 40 years ago on March 4, 1970.

Let me post the opening part of this letter from Steele, a man I actually used to have a great deal of respect for since he is one of the few Republicans who is opposed to the death penalty and actually questioned some parts of George W. Bush's futile Iraq War policy:

"Dear Ms. Gokbudak,

After our Party's historic victory in the Massachussetts Senate race, I've had many Sustaining Members ask me when are Republicans going to take the fight to Obama and the Democrats in my community. THE TIME IS NOW!"

The letter goes on to boast about a new RNC AIRWAVE BLITZ (they used all caps) to set the 'record straight' about Obama's 'socialist schemes' to grow big government.

A few paragraphs down, the letter states:

"We are committed to using EVERY AVENUE POSSIBLE to reach those Americans who are concerned about the leftward direction that the Obama Democrats are dragging our country.

Ms. Gokbudak, our party must win the battle for America's future--- and I'm counting on GOP grassroots leaders like you in Mount Airy* to help us win the fight."

(*-I don't actually live Mount Airy, NC, but it is the town I use when stating my residency on this blog)

The timing of this over-the-top letter which has Glenn Beck's fingerprints all over it comes just as I had finished reading an excellent article by the ever-brilliant Jonathan Chait in the Feb. 4 issue of "The New Republic," my favorite political magazine since it reflects my nuanced center left political views (though I have now and then disagreed with them).

In his column stated "Steele Cage," Chait asserted that the GOP had found their inner Al Sharpton with Steele because the former Maryland lt. gov. was an embodiment of 'Republican racialism' which the analyst describes as 'an attempt to mimic Democratic racialism without first having any grasp of the original thing, like a person who decides to convert to Judaism by studying Madonna."

And, with that reference to the '80s pop music icon who I had the misfortune of growing up with (Oh great! "Vogue" and "La Isla Bonita" are now ringing in my skull, but that in itself won't make me switch to Rich Lowry and the arch conservative journal "The National Review"), we will conclude this entry so we can see if Old Dominion has in fact knocked off Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament though the Irish were up 10-6 when I last checked.

UPDATE: ODU has just won the game 51-50! Now, I guess I will have a mad Republican Fighting Irish fan to deal with........