According to the Times:
Alan B. Krueger, a Princeton University professor who recently served as chief economist for the United States Treasury, was tapped on Monday by President Obama to head the Council of Economic Advisers.
Dr. Krueger, 50, was probably chosen in part for his award-winning research on the job market, an asset at a time when the country is suffering from the worst unemployment in a generation.
In remarks in the White House Rose Garden on Monday, President Obama called Dr. Krueger “one of the nation’s leading economists” and cited the professor’s record on economic policy work “both inside and outside of government.”
He is perhaps best known for his research on the minimum wage, in which he used an experiment to determine that raising the minimum wage did not reduce employment. But he has also written, both in his academic work and for the general interest press, about education, happiness, income distribution, social insurance, regulation, terrorism, rock concerts and the environment, among many other subjects. (His non-academic work has included stints as a contributor to the Sunday Business section and the Economix blog of The New York Times.)
Dr. Krueger is considered a liberal-moderate economist, but has supporters on both sides of the aisle. Greg Mankiw, a Harvard economist who served as the chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, endorsed the forthcoming announcement Monday as “an excellent choice by President Obama.”
Given that Dr. Krueger has already been approved once by the Senate — for his Treasury position — the White House appeared to be hoping that he would sail through a Congressional approval process that has been otherwise contentious for most of the administration’s appointees. He would replace Austan Goolsbee, who left the administration earlier this month.
Seems like a solid pick. You have to love the childish innocence of the White House- sure, a guy known for his work on the minimum wage will just sail through the Senate! I’m betting 51-49, with Manchin, Nelson, and the other blue dogs voting against.
Derf
I’ll bet against whatever wrong on everything Kristol v2 Cole is betting.
cleek
i’ll take NaN-1. aka: filibustered.
gex
It’s admirable the way he keeps trying in this f-ed up political environment. I wonder how much he just wants to take people by the collar and shake them until they come to their senses.
Hunter Gathers
I look forward to endless diatribes on the Senate floor about the evils of the minimum wage. Within a few days, Rick Perry will declare it unconstitutional, and his would-be running mate Marco Rubio will give a somber speech at Heritage about how the minimum wage weakens America, and how we can solve America’s weaknesses by raising Reagan from the dead to skull-fuck Castro on national teevee.
sb
So Cole is now another version of Bill Kristol?
What the fuck is wrong with you people? Serious question, this.
Dennis SGMM
Obama could select Jesus Christ in the flesh as his minister and the Republicans would criticize him for his choice.
My bet: 62-38 against confirmation with all of the blue dogs voting with the R’s. Just remember that the blue dogs are the best Democrats we can elect in some states and they vote with us on the important stuff – except when they often don’t.
Rhoda
Hah! He’s going to be filibustered; he works perfectly with the House Republicans plan to showboat on regulations and fight this fall to destroy the EPA etc. etc.
PeakVT
Wasn’t there something in the “gentlemen’s agreement” between Reid and Mitchell about filibustering nominees?
Scott
@sb: Derp is a fairly simpleminded troll.
Carol from CO
Given that Dr. Krueger has already been approved once by the Senate — for his Treasury position — the White House appeared to be hoping that he would sail through…
The WH still doesn’t get it. And neither does Cole, apparently. (But I hope you’re right.)
The Dangerman
@cleek:
Or one of those fancy-shmancy secret holds; this is going nowhere.
kindness
Uhhh, no. I predict that Senator Shelby will once again find this non-Nobel prize winner unworthy being that he just doesn’t have the background in ‘economics’ the good Senator seems to be searching for. I predict this one gets ‘held’ & no vote happens.
Downpuppy
Economic advice right now is the easiest thing in the world to give : Do something about jobs!
Doesn’t take much brilliance to see that. Lighting firecrackers under the right bottoms is the real trick.
JGabriel
Obama Administration: We nominate to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, from Princeton University, prize-winning economist Dr. Kru…
Entire Republican Senate Delgation: NOOOOOooooooo!
.
Amir Khalid
@PeakVT:
Between those two, I count one gentleman at most.
wvng
I concur with everyone but John. This guy is red meat for the tea bagger base. No way he gets through.
General Stuck
Maybe, as I understand it, Kreuger has already completed a confirmation early on in the Obama WH, and went back to his teaching gig.
I don’t think Obama is suffering any illusions that the GOP opposes anything he wants to do, just because they can, at this stage. Picking someone who was recently confirmed for another admin position, gives the prez a hammer to highlight the scorched earth nature of the wingers for his presidency. When they block it, like they probly will.
Same as with the “grand bargain” with the poison pill of requiring the wingnuts to raise taxes. Maybe Obama showed his “childlike innocence” with that. I don’t think he or his team are near that clueless on political realities concerning their opponents. But whatever, only Obama knows for sure, and he ain’t sayin”
j low
@Scott: I would bet that even among all the other simple minded trolls Derf rides the troll shortbus.
Sloegin
He’ll get as many votes as Elizabeth Warren did.
Zifnab
What craziness are you talking about? It takes 60 votes to get anything through the Senate.
Glenn
You really have to ask why this position requires Senate confirmation in the first place. The CEA is purely advisory, right? It’s not like they have the authority to actually promulgate regulations or implement policy.
trollhattan
Drum has a good post on Kreuger. The villagers have unloaded on him for informing us that minimum wage laws don’t lead to greater unemployment.
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/08/return-alan-krueger
Villago Delenda Est
“Goldline International, Inc. Trusted and used by Glenn Beck.”
A negative endorsement if there ever was one.
Zifnab
@General Stuck:
In a sane world, he’d be a masterful politician. But Obama continues to bring sternly worded letters to a knife fight.
I still haven’t seen the list of Republican incumbents that will suffer for their asshattery. If Shelby, Coburn, DeMint, and friends can keep thumbing their noses at the Administration and potentially reclaim the Senate for their troubles, come 2012, what has all this political jujitsu accomplished?
Hurray! We won a rhetorical struggle! But the economy is still in the shitter so Obama gets no votes.
Steeplejack
@sb:
It’s a troll. Ignore.
some guy
as has been pointed out above, no new Senators have been elected, and Obama doesn’t have 60 votes to get this (or diddly and his brother, squat) passed.
he should nominate K-Thug, then Bob Avakian, then some homeless dude who shouts at thje clouds, in that order, just to watch them all get filibustered.
Yutsano
@Glenn:
Because shut up that’s why?
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Sure he’ll probably get “held” or “filibustered”. At least this pick reflects Democratic values and that the Prez isn’t going to let the Senate “self censor” him in terms of who he sends up their for confirmation.
It’s a far cray from how the Administration handled Warren. A precursor of things to come? Well, that’s where I won’t hold my breath.
Glenn
@Yutsano: hehe, yes, you’re right.
Anonymous At Work
51-49 is naive because of the reasons others cited: there’s nothing to say he comes up for a vote.
Downpuppy
@some guy: Homeless dude who shouts at clouds would sail through.
Kristine
@trollhattan: Those appear to be Card’s words, not Krueger’s, although I admit it isn’t written very clearly.
trollhattan
@Kristine:
Whoops, my bad! Sure to be a theme in the confirmation hearings, “So, when did you stop beating
your wifeMilton Friedman?”Judas Escargot
I thought there were no more “secret holds”?
He either gets confirmed, or (IMO more likely) filibustered. In which case I can’t wait for little Luke Russert and the other Village Acolytes to grill the GOP Senators on why they’re so eagerly blocking the appointment of someone who might be able to help the jobs situation.
That’ll totally happen, right?
Yutsano
@Judas Escargot: Hee. U funnee!
catclub
@Downpuppy: John McCain.
Seven homes, homeless, what’s the diff. Main qualification is shouts at clouds
Turgidson
@cleek:
Seconded. Any Senator who would vote against him in the up or down vote will be more than happy to join a filibuster. That’s just how they roll these days.
Yutsano
@Turgidson: @Turgidson: The goal is simple. The nigra must become a one-term President. The real issue is that this is not exclusively a Republican goal.
Mike Goetz
Might be a good time to break out “Sailin’ On” by Bad Brains. I bet he won’t be confirmed.
MikeBoyScout
One does not need to pay for a president’s nominee to head the Council of Economic Advisers when you’re bound and determined to wreck the economy so that your friends take the loot and the president faces a greater up hill battle for re-election.
Remember, the Republican objective has nothing to do with the economy or the good of the nation. The Republican objective is to seize power by any means necessary.
boss bitch
Damned if they do:
but “cowards” if they don’t.
RP
What a bizarre comment. Do you really think the White House isn’t aware of the challenges they face in the Senate? What would Obama gain from announcing the pick and then saying “well, we’re in for a huge fight in the Senate, and he probably won’t get confirmed, but what the hell.”
The Populist
I see Manchin supporting him unless he’s against the minimum wage. Nelson is the wild card.
MonkeyBoy
Filibuster because many won’t be able to distinguish Krueger at Princeton from Krugman at Princeton.
lacp
Given that the Senate won’t approve anybody he would nominate (well, maybe Zombie Milton Friedman), he might as well nominate somebody he actually wants.
jenniebee
I’m going to have to say Alive, but with negative hit points.
SensesFail
@lacp:
Zombie Ayn Rand FTW.
dww44
@General Stuck:
.
Seriously, I’ve often wondered if Obama is this naive? Maybe this helps to explain why so many on the right and, these days, sadly elsewhere, think that he’s “ in over his head” (cause he shud just return to being a college professor, since he’s so unqualified) as was just told to me on Facebook by a supporter of a friend who is forever railing against Obama. Every once in a while I weigh in with some sanity to counter the unceasing anti-Obama stuff from these GOP’ers. Mostly that’s a futile effort cause his minions come in and deluge me with hits. They really do think he’s in over his head, notwithstanding they haven’t applied the same metric to their clown cars over on the right. It really is frustrating and far too time consuming.
Just once, though, I wish the administration would do a better, i.e. more forceful, job of defending itself and perhaps dispelling this growing perception that he’s in “way over his head”.
Derf
@Scott: That is so sweet of you to go grade school on me. Obviously you are operating way up there in MENSA territory to come up with a zinger like that.
Obviously Wrong on Everything Cole doesn’t have the balls to defend himself anymore. He needs to rely on his mindless lemmings. Too much fail sauce for him to defend.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@MonkeyBoy:
FTFY
Emma
@Zifnab: Would you please explain to me what Obama could do, constitutionally and legally, to punish these republicans? I mean, can Obama summarily dismiss a Senator? He can campaign for the Senator’s opponent in the next election, but in some of the states in question, this would be considered a liability.
(sigh) I’m back to it, aren’t I? Thinking, really thinking, that Democrats really meant it when they said that they opposed the Bush administration for their unconstitutional power grabs.
Villago Delenda Est
@dww44:
Even if they did, the SCLM would be busy with a missing blonde girl, or a shark attack, or covering Eric Cantor’s press conference where he claims that someone was “out to get him” in last week’s earthquake.
Napoleon
@Emma:
Well this is not quite punishment but he can recess appoint and if the houses of Congress do not agree on when they should be taking their recess like they did recently the President can then simply put them in recess, than make his recess appointments.
rikryah
looks like a solid pick. the GOP will do what they do. shouldn’t stop the President from nominating qualified people.
danimal
Step 1: Find esteemed economic advisor whose opinions are insightful, creative and practical.
Step 2: Have advisor stop showering/shaving, place him in armory for two weeks and dress him in shabby clothes. Encourage advisor to shout at clouds.
Step 3: Submit name to Senate.
Step 4: Congratulate nominee after passing Senate vote 99-Shelby.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Napoleon: He can’t recess appoint if the Senate does not close, which the Republicans are doing.
Mike E
@Derf:
Haha, the tiny Swedish golfer has ball envy!
Dennis SGMM
@dww44:
Here’s my take, for what it’s worth. I think that Obama took office wanting to do great things. That’s a common desire among presidents and Obama, as the first person of color to be elected president, may have felt even more urgency to accomplish miracles. Meanwhile, unemployment was at less than eight percent when he took office in January. Bad, but not fatal so he took on health care which is undeniably a great thing to do. By March of ’09 unemployment was over eight and a half percent, by June it was nine percent. Unemployment kept going up until it peaked at over ten percent in November of ’09. Obama stuck to attempting great things while the good thing, addressing unemployment, languished.
Maybe Obama’s advisers assured him that unemployment would turn around. Maybe he thought that accomplishing the other items on his agenda would be better in the long run for the nation. We won’t now until the memoirs come out a few years hence. What I do know is that FDR is the only president to have been re-elected in the face of high unemployment.
trollhattan
@Derf:
And yet you’re here. Why?
Dollared
@Villago Delenda Est: That is the totally self-defeating excuse making of the weak. If the President can’t get the media’s attention, then he isn’t engaging in the level of playacting required to be a successful president.
He ought to get off his morally superior ass and do his fucking job.
Hill Dweller
Krugman just endorsed Krueger over on his blog, which is just more of an incentive for wingers to block the nomination.
Monkey Business
I think we need to coin a new acronym: AVRO
Another Victim of Republican Obstructionism
For example, I believe Alan Kreuger is about to be AVRO’d.
Derf
@trollhattan: Why are you here?
Why do people slow down to look at car wrecks?
Tonybrown74
@Derf:
So, you;re comparing yourself to a car wreck? A mangled, bloody mess that people can’t take their eyes off, despite the horrific gore of it all?
Bless your heart, honey!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Monkey Business:
Just like I am Spartacus, we are all AVRO’d. The whole fucking country is AVRO’d. We are so AVRO’d we have AVRO coming out of out of our ears and out of our ass. I have enough AVRO to last a fucking lifetime and then some. God I hate AVRO.
wrb
@Tonybrown74:
Consider its aspirations:
Urban Dictionary:
1. derf
a slang term for dry humping. Involves sexual contact through clothes
Did you get way derfing her last night.
2. Derf
the act of gettin fucked up, or describing that someone is fucked up or got fucked up
im tryna to get derfed tonight
3. Derf
Noun:
Someone who is an idiot, annoying person, jerk, etc.
Verb:
The act of doing something stupid, lame or annoying.
Adjective:
Something that is rather lame, tedious, annoying, uncool, bad, etc.
Schmitty: That Shane guy is such a derf.
Joe: Yeah, he really derfed up that photo.
Cameron: It was such a derfy thing to do.
Brodie: Derfalicious indeed.
Triassic Sands
@MonkeyBoy:
Hell, the Republicans can’t distinguish Krueger at Princeton from Krueger at Elm Street.
Tonybrown74
@wrb:
So … definition No. 2?
Fitting …
Hill Dweller
@Dennis SGMM: Keep in mind the administration was using bad numbers from the BEA that underestimated the scope of the recession. Economists(in and out of the administration) had been trying to explain the elevated unemployment numbers as labor skills mismatch because, unbeknownst to them, the BEA numbers were actually too low. When the revised BEA numbers came out last month, showing the true depth of the recession, the elevated unemployment numbers were in line with the new economic numbers.
While it is true that Obama should have come to the realization that things were worse than projected/expected sooner, and his switching to deficit reduction was a mistake, their actions don’t look that bad considering the numbers they were acting on at the time.
The real problem, which is willfully misdiagnosed by the media, is the republicans handcuffing Obama for political gain. Without that hurdle, the administration would have had more flexibility to act.
That said, Obama should repeatedly and forcefully point this out to the public.
Napoleon
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
In Article II, section 3, clause 3 of the US Constitution:
Obama can simply adjurn Congress and then make his recess appointements.
Brachiator
Everyone remember that a Republican senator is holding up Obama’s choice for Secretary of Commerce.
It pisses me off no end that the GOP plays its obstruction games, which undermines Obama’s ability to govern. I also find it not only ridiculous, but dangerous, that the Obama Administration cannot look for the best people available, but have to look at the much more narrow pool of those who have already been confirmed and who have supposedly passed the ideological litmus tests insisted on by not only the GOP, but also the Village.
I think that Obama needs to shake up his economic team. I was glad to see Locke leave Commerce, and would like to see a new person at Labor, people who can bring new ideas and offset the dominance of Treasury. But Obama’s ability to make bold moves (he’ll, any move) is hampered by the GOP’s obstructionist tactics.
These fools don’t care that the economy is in shambles. They just don’t care. They clearly believe that they can play their political games and serve the oligarchy without worrying that the shit will all come crashing down on their heads.
Corner Stone
@wrb: Actually, for people without kids you may not know this but Derf is actually a new number.
It goes like this “One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Derf, Six, Seven, Eight”
iCarly explains it all to her tutoree.
Elizabelle
I would make it really hard for Manchin and Nelson and any Blue Dogs to vote against Krueger.
It’s not like they don’t have unemployed constituents in their states.
Dennis SGMM
@Hill Dweller:
Good points. My only thought about them is that if the administration relied solely on BEA numbers and ignored payroll data from ADP and raw numbers from the Bureau of Labor statistics then it may have been willfully discounting any data that conflicted with their suppositions.
trollhattan
@Derf:
I’m certainly not here because I hate John Cole and the other front pagers and the snarky commenters. That would be a pathetic waste of my time if I felt that way. Right?
Corner Stone
@trollhattan: Why are any of us here?
Emma
@Napoleon: The problem is that the Constitutional phrasing is not exactly clear:
[The President] may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper;
To me, it says that if the President calls an extraordinary session of Congress, he can dismiss it. It does NOT say that the President has the right to adjourn Congress during a regular season. In fact, I find it hard to believe that the Founders wanted to give the President a Royal prerogative to disband Congress whenever he felt like it. edited for clarity
Not a Constitutional scholar, though. So, take it for what it’s worth. If you have a cite to a case, or a legal scholar making the case, I’d be interested in seeing it.
Svensker
@Hunter Gathers:
You have to admit, any country that could accomplish that would be a country to reckon with.
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
Speaking personally, Cogito ergo beer.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@Corner Stone:
and when 7-8-9 was derf there to stand with 6 in protest?
SensesFail
@Hill Dweller:
This
Chris
@Hill Dweller:
Wouldn’t it be simpler if they simply hijacked an airplane and demanded that the Democratic Party disband and no one but a teabagger-approved Republican ever run again?
wrb
@Corner Stone:
In the ancient Celtic sheep counting system it was a call interjected when one came a particularly fluffy and fetching sheep, indicating that you were pausing to hump.
Yan, tan, tethra, pethera, pimp, sethera (DERF!) (button trousers, smoke a cig)) lethera, hovera, covera, Dik!, (I’m not going to explain this next part, but it can leave you sore) Yan–dik, tan-a-dik, tethra-dik (DERF!) (leave trousers down for sheep 15 through 19), bumfit!, Yan a bumfit, tan-a-bumfit, tethra-bumfit, pethera-bumfit, Figgot!
,
This is the origin of all three definitions:
1) Humping someone who still has their woolies on
2) it’s fucked up
3) if your shepherd partner is derfing all day it is pretty fucking annoying.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@Chris:
and have the letter “O” removed from the english language.
h/t steve martin.
pluege
the White House appeared to be hoping …
when obama was selling us his line of crap about hopey/changey, who knew that what he really was referring to was his reliance on hope to get anything accomplished, who knew?
pluege
@Brachiator:
why should they care – obama makes sure there is no political prices to pay. Every wildass plutocratic wet dream republicans come up with obama buys into immediately and makes it his own.
Gretchen D
@Derf: Trolls are so mean, also too.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Emma:
Given the past history of English Parliamentary dismissals, and in particular the 17th century history thereof, I think they (the Founders) would have been horrified by the idea. I parse that language to say that the President may call a special session of Congress into being (and they don’t have any choice in the matter) but the House and Senate get to decide when the special session is over. If the House and Senate can’t agree with each other on when to adjourn, then the President has the power to specify not only when the special session starts, but when it ends as well.
I must confess that at times the US Constitution presentes such syntactic and grammatical peculiarities and complexities as to make me wonder how much drift the English language and its common usage have experienced in the last three centuries and how much of this needs to be taken into account in interpreting the document. If the Constitution were written in the English of Chaucer’s time the perils of literal interpretation of every word and comma would be plainly obvious. As it is, we are almost half-way to that sort of antiquity already.
Napoleon
@Emma:
I have seen some articles that I printed out and have at home discuss it, but I do not have links here. I don’t think its ever been used, but you make some good points.
Origuy
@wrb: I knew about the Brythonic counting system, but the “derf” part is new to me and Wikipedia. You learn something new everyday at Balloon Juice!
General Stuck
@dww44:
The quote you have was from Cole, not me. I don’t think Barack Obama is in over his head. I think he has a handful of concern trolling morons mostly on the internet, that are in over their heads. Like you for instance. And the rest of the clowns on this blog who sit around all day waiting and hoping for any excuse to write this president off, because they want to.
And “in over his head” is a racist meme, in case you didn’t know. Dumbass.
Tom Levenson
Best comment on Krugman’s blog post about Krueger’s nomination. A suggestion that the two Princeton economists, whose mail sometimes gets mixed up, refer to themselves as
2LiveKru.
Seconded.
General Stuck
@Hill Dweller:
Good and fair comment and critique from a basic supporter of a sitting dem president.
wrb
@Tom Levenson:
That comment was by me, writing from my wife’s computer
Emma
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: We literally don’t speak their language. Yes, we both speak English, but “their” English lays traps for us in that we think we understand what they meant, but we don’t. Justifies the whole field of Constitutional scholarship, I suppose.
Tom Levenson
@wrb: My hat is off to you, sir.
Dollared
@Brachiator: Up or down vote.
How many times did you hear it from Republicans? If Obama can’t figure out how to make the obstruction an issue, he doesn’t ahve the media smarts on his team to be a successful president.
Brachiator
@pluege:
Sorry, this is ignores,the clear strategy of GOP obstructionism that began under Clinton and has continued under Obama. And Clinton wasn’t as much interested in making the Republicans pay a price as he was in finding ways to subvert their efforts to achieve his own goals.
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I agree with you here. The British, and the Founders, clearly viewed the dismissal of Parliament as something that tyrants do.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Brachiator:
Between the two of them, Charles I and Oliver Cromwell did a pretty good job of giving the practice a bad name, not that it was all that reputable to begin with. I must however admit a certain fondness for Cromwell’s “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately..” speech dismissing the Rump Parliament. Probably one of the best Fuckoff and go DIAF speeches in the English language, IMHO.
OzoneR
@Dollared:
or maybe a public willing to listen.
OzoneR
@Elizabelle:
It doesn’t matter if they think they’re unemployed cause the immigrants took their jobs and black people are getting welfare so we need to cut some spending like Rush said.
Brachiator
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Yes, the English do have a way with words.
@Dollared:
Obama has to find a way to make it an issue without sounding as though he is whining about it.
I am sure that there have been news stories and blog posts about the number of Obama nominees who have been sidetracked or halted by the Congress. And for the record, there is this background (from Wikipedia):
And this, from the LA Times:
And lastly, in July, there was this:
So the larger problem is not just talking about obstruction, but how to stop it. Ultimately, the only way to do it is to get a majority in the Congress. I don’t know how achievable this goal might be. Short of this, there is only so much that can be done by means of recess appointments and other tactics.
Brachiator
@Dollared:
For some reason, I cannot edit my earlier comment, but let me add this: The Republicans had an advantage in that they could always find a way to get the Democrats to cave and give them what they wanted. Or they could peel off some Democrats over to their side.
The Tea Party people have formed a more reliable opposition force, buttressing standard GOP tactics. Democrats in Congress are sometimes unreliable; and Obama is unwilling (often for good reason) to try to punish Republicans for opposing his plans, nominations and policies.
Jenny
What a horrible pick!
He sold us out!
Another wall street bankster!
Primary him!!
Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhggghhhhh!
Herbal Infusion Bagger
Peter Diamond, a f**king Nobel Laureate on unemployment, got blackballed for appointment to the FOMC by the GOP because they considered him underqualified (never mind the GOP were fine appointing a B.F.A. in Drama to FOMC in 2005 under Bush).
Now, if they hated Diamond, they’re gonna really hate the author of the Kreuger/Card study that blew the liberatarian/conservative arguments against the minimum wage out of the water.
He still might get confirmed as the CEA has virtually no influence, or the GOP might still block him out of spite.
Brachiator
@Herbal Infusion Bagger:
Never underestimate the appeal of spite to the GOP.
The Populist
@Derf: Funny, pot meet kettle.
You troll and taunt Cole like the little annoying jerk on campus. When somebody calls you on it, you play the schoolyard card.
LOL, wow.
The Populist
@Derf: Yes, people do that for car wrecks and they always have to look at the big attention whore in the room as well. Well, I don’t have to tell you what you are now do i?
The Populist
@trollhattan: Ahhh, he’s just trying to show his friends at Crud State and Tea Republic that he showing all us how real Merkins defend liberty from the likes of libs and lib sympathizers. Yep, he’s not all that original nor is he all that smart from what I can tell. Not once does he do more than call names which is a sign of both a dull brain and small pecker.
dww44
@General Stuck:
Sorry, General Stuck,for offending your sensibilities and for being a “dumbass, a concern troll, and in over my head”. Yes, I did know that the quote was from Cole, but you clearly made reference to it here:
@General Stuck:
However you’ve read into my comments what YOU wanted to read into them, gone all defensive, and decided to insult me. While I am fully aware that you are an Obama supporter (and I frequently agree with many of your points), I’ve also figured out that it is incredibly easy to get on your “wrong side” without even intending to.
Never fear, I’ve learned from this. Mostly I will return to lurking and if ever I am inclined to comment, I’ll make sure it’s not a reply to one of yours.
General Stuck
@dww44:
You haven’t gotten on “my wrong side”. Just be sure when you blockquote someone, it is attributed to who said it.