Stimulus concession

In a front page piece in today's newspaper, LAT reporter Noam Levey, a Democrat propagandist, first says the passage of the stimulus bill yesterday by the Senate was a bipartisan compromise. In the very next paragraph, he says the measure passed because of "a concession by Senate Democrats." It can't be both.

In actual fact, the Democrats got all they could get. They couldn't get more because they didn't have the votes. They wasted a week or more beating a dead horse, something they repeatedly have done since they took over Congress, which is why they seldom get anything done. For some reason, they can't face the fact that their margin in the Senate is very small. Either that or they can't resist the pressure being applied by their base, which is even less realistic. The WSJ argues it's about adding to the Democrat margin in the November election. That would be rational, at least.

Partisan or non

The LAT's Noam Levey, a Dem propagandist, has a piece in today's newspaper about negotiations over the stimulus bills. Levey highlights a quote from liberal Senator Olympia Snowe, one of a small number of Republicans who support the Senate version, lamenting its failure so far and suggesting that other Republicans are partisans for opposing it. Most Republican Senators apparently were willing to pass the House bill, which was nonpartisan, last week. The fact they oppose a partisan Senate bill does not make them partisans.

Stimulus confusion

This morning we learn that what the Senate decided yesterday or the day before on the stimulus bills has been undecided and a new plan has been formulated. The situation is fluid and confused as to tactics but it still seems likely the House bill will pass, perhaps with some amendments. If amended it would return to the House where it could be amended again and then passed back to the Senate. It's even possible that no bill can be agreed on, which might not be a bad thing.

Petruno-less

The market was down big yesterday. Normally, you would expect to see Petruno today in the LAT. Is he sick? Has he been fired? Is this the end of an era?

McCain as front runner

If John McCain is to be the Republican front runner then he needs to do something about his wife's fashion sense. She dresses like an uptown whore.

Headlines

The LAT headline this morning has the Democrats' split on the top line, McCain's victory on the second. The OC Register has McCain's win on top, the Dems' split on the second. This treatment reveals the relative significance of the events to the two newspapers.

LAT picks a loser

The LAT argues this morning in an editorial on behalf of the Senate stimulus bill instead of the one passed by the House. The Senate bill will not clear the Senate because of Republican opposition. Tinkering with it only delays passage of the House bill and wastes "valuable" legislative time.

A report from another news outlet says the Senate last night voted 80 to 4 to invoke cloture on the House stimulus bill, with the result that the Senate will take up the House bill tomorrow, February 6th. Harry Reid has scheduled a vote on the Senate bill first. If that fails, which it surely will, the Senate will take up a number of amendments to the House bill before a final pass or fail vote on the amended House bill, probably near the end of the week.