The WaPo "factcheckers" go for some low-hanging fruit on a Santorum rhetorical flourish that everyone on the West Bank are Israelis. Yes, I'm about 99.99% sure that the former senator knows about the facts on the ground, but was merely stating his thought that Israel has historial rights to the territory.
On those grounds, these folks would give JFK four Pinoccihios for "Ich bin ein Berliner"-- if he were a Republican.
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The Broad Street Bullies are alive and well; just ask these poor NY Ranger fans who went south to Philly.
The graphic video shows three suspects wearing Philadelphia Flyers jerseys beating and kicking the two victims outside Geno's Steaks in South Philly at 7:15 p.m.
If they listened to Santorum, they would know better than do the wit or witout shtick-that's a Pat's thing.
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Meanwhile, while we're digesting all things Iowa (and thinking about digesting a classic cheesesteak), the president is trying to pull a fast one by trying to recess appoint three NLRB members and the head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The fine print of the CFPB law might keep the new boss, Richard Cordray, from taking control, since it keeps that authority in the Treasury department until a head is approved by the Senate.
That doesn't affect the NLRB folks, however. The problem is that the normal rule for recess appointments is that Congress has to be out of session for at least three days for it to be considered eligable for a recess appointment, lest the President use it in the middle of the night when Congress is not in session.
The Senate has been in pro-forma session over the Christmas break, just showing up every few days and counting heads, in order to block such a recess appointment. That's a trick both sides of the aisle have used; Democrats used that trick to block Bush appointees in the 2007-8 session.
Thus, there is game-playing on both sides here, but the Senate pro-formas are at least constitutional if not sneaky. Trying to use a recess appoitment on an overnight adjournment is a lot like calling not buying something interstate commerce.
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Speaking of Santorum, he's single-handedly redeeming the sweater-vest after Jim Tressel gave it a bad name in Tattoogate. He's got vested authority even without holding office.
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