Nancy Pelosi Elected House Minority Leader; Steny Hoyer Becomes Whip

Not a big surprise, but a good move, given how much was accomplished when she broke the glass ceiling to become the first woman Speaker of the House. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the current Majority Whip, becomes Assistant Leader, and Maryland’s Steny Hoyer will be the Minority Whip.…

BP Apologist Joe Barton Might Become Chairman Of The House Energy And Commerce Committee

By Yashwanth Manjunath

One of the biggest accomplishments of the Obama administration was negotiating a $20 billion independently-controlled escrow fund with BP, to compensate the victims of the catastrophic Gulf coast oil spill. At least, that’s how anyone with the best interests of the American people in mind would see it. But Republican Congressman Joe Barton disagreed. Barton referred to the negotiation between The White House and BP as a “shakedown” and apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward during a public hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Now that the Republicans are back …

Texas State Rep Wants Law To Force Candidates To Show Birth Certificate

Texas state Representative Leo Berman has introduced a bill which would “require any candidate for president or vice president of the United States to show his or her birth certificate to the Texas Secretary of State.” Berman last adorned these pages when he referred to Obama as “God’s punishment on us.”

Berman explains his thinking: (via Think Progress)

“This bill is necessary because we have a president whom the American people don’t know whether he was born in Kenya or some other place.” Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, said in reference to President Barack Obama and of House Bill 295. …

Man Shoots TV Over Bristol Palin’s Performance On DWTS

A 67-year-old Wisconsin man took a shotgun to his television because he was furious with the way Bristol Palin was performing on “Dancing with the Stars.”

A Dane County Sheriff’s detective said Steven Cowan felt Palin was “not a good dancer and was only on the show because of her famous mother.”

Then Cowan shot his TV before turning the gun on his wife, who ran out and escaped.

SWAT officers surrounded the home and talked Cowan out Tuesday morning.

Cowan was charged second-degree reckless endangerment and could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted.…

GOP Postpones Meeting With Obama; Should He Forget About Working With Them?

Republican leaders are delaying a planned summit with President Obama with a flimsy excuse.

The roots of the partisan standoff that led to the postponement of the bipartisan White House summit scheduled for Thursday date back to January, when President Barack Obama dominated a GOP meeting in Baltimore to deliver a humiliating rebuke of House Republicans.

The one-sided televised presidential lecture many Republicans decried as a political ambush – Obama’s staff wanted the event be broadcast and GOP aides agreed reluctantly at the last minute — has left a lingering distrust of Obama invitations and a wariness about accommodating …

Insurance Cos Gave Chamber Of Commerce $86.2 Million To Fight Health Plan

Insurance companies gave $86.2 million to the Chamber of Commerce to oppose health care reform.

The insurance lobby, whose members include Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp., gave the money to the Chamber in 2009 as Democrats were increasing their criticism of the industry, according to one person who requested anonymity because laws don’t require identifying funding sources. The Chamber of Commerce received the money from the Washington-based America’s Health Insurance Plans when the industry was urging Congress to drop a plan to create a competing public insurance option.

The spending exceeded the insurer group’s entire budget …

Health Care Reform REDUCES The Deficit And Debt

By Yashwanth Manjunath

Yes, the headline is not a lie. Health care reform or “Obamacare,” as the RWNJ’s like to refer to it, reduces the federal deficit and debt substantially over time. According to a report released by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO):

The federal government faces long-term fiscal pressures that predate the economic downturn and are driven on the spending side largely by rising health care costs and an aging population. GAO’s simulations show continually increasing levels of debt that are unsustainable over the long-term. Under the Alternative simulation, debt held by the public as a share of …

Palin Daughter Uses Homophobic Slur On Facebook

Willow Palin used her Facebook page to attack a user who didn’t like her mom’s reality show and choose to use anti-gay language to do so, reports TMZ. Someone named Tre, who it seems the Palins know, wrote “Sarah Palin’s Alaska is failing so hard right now,” as a status update.  Willow then wrote, “Ha ha your so gay,” on his wall. I’m not sure what’s worse, that response of her unfamilarity with use of an apostrophe.  Certainly worse is her next comment telling him, “Tre STFU. Your such a f**ot.”  Then Bristol Palin got involved telling Tre, “You’re …

Sarah Palin Whines That The Media Didn’t Vet Obama; Problem Is McCain Didn’t Vet HER

As Hillary Busis at Mediaite points out, Sarah Palin criticizing the media is another day at the office. On Alaska’s Bob and Mark morning show, Palin complains that the media did a lousy job vetting Barack Obama. Yeah, we hardly knew anything about him other than how the community organizer hung out with terrorist Bill Ayers and worshiped at a church run by a guy who hates America. Palin rambles on, defending a film that attacks Obama and the media, and defends her.

“My degree was in communications, and having learned way back when, in college, the who what when …

On Tuesday’s Radio Show…

• The “touch my junk” incident provoked a national outcry, so does the TSA need to change its policies? We’ll debate it.

• Good for me, not for thee: Alan exposes the latest example of conservative health care hypocrisy.

• Not So Fast: Alan responds to the inevitable rush to attack all Democrats for Charlie Rangel’s misdeeds.…

New Book Reveals GOP Never Wanted To Cooperate With Obama On Health Care

Greg Sargent has details of a new book by Richard Wolffe, Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House, that shows how Republicans didn’t want to cooperate with President Obama on health care, even if they got everything they wanted.

Wolffe reports that Obama got into a testy exchange with Senator Chuck Grassley, in which the President flatly asked Grassley if he could support health reform if the public option were dropped and he got everything he wanted. Grassley, in effect, said: Nope. And he told a top Obama adviser the same.

From the book, Obama …