Senate Republicans Hold It Together, Pork-Filled Omnibus Bill Killed

The Senate Republicans were able to hold it together and force Harry Reid to back down and pull the omnibus bill full of Christmas goodies to various special interests because of a lack of support:

Sen. GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has long been known as an effective whip, and Thursday night he showed his prowess as he effectively stripped Democrats of the GOP votes needed to pass the $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill, killing the measure for good.

A visibly frustrated and angry Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, lashed out, saying that he had nine GOP senators supporting the measure, but that suddenly the support evaporated.

"This action taken by my friends on other side of aisle going to cause people to lose their job," Reid predicted.

"There's only one reason why cloture is not being filed...He doesn't have the votes.," McConnell chided, as he referred to the term for the process to shut down a filibuster. "And the reason he doesn't have the votes is because members on this side of the aisle increasingly felt concerned about the way we do business."

A McConnell aide said the leader "worked the phones" for days, pressing his members to quash the bill which contains $8 billion in earmarks (1% of the overall bill), several that belonged to the leader, himself, before he agreed to a pork moratorium.

Tempers flared in the chamber quickly, as Republicans gloated.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, crusader against pork, tweeted all day Wednesday and Thursday with earmarks he found in the bill, from money for disease-resistant wine grapes to a ceramics museum in Biloxi, Miss. And Thursday night, with a big grin, he praised GOP members for ditching the deal.

Two cheers for the Republicans for, actually, standing up for Republican principles. This bill needed to be tossed out and started anew. Hopefully, they will be able to do another one soon. Hold the pork, though.

They needed to do this to keep or regain the confidence of the people that elected them to turn things around. The GOP has been just as bad in this area over the last decade as the Democrats, which is why they got the boot in 2008. Luckily, the TEA Party was able to wake up the Grand Old Party this past year before were exiled into oblivion forever.

They are still are on probation with the voters. So, they need to keep working on being the fiscally responsible and cutting spending, if they ever want to get regain our trust for good.

McCain: What's In Senate HCR Bill?||Durbin (D): Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

According to Dick Durbin, the he's "in the dark" about what the Senate compromise entails just as much as the rest of America:

The 10 Democratic senators who crafted a healthcare compromise are keeping its details a secret, says Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Friday.

Responding to a complaint by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that Republicans haven't been told what's in the new bill, Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, responded that he's in the same position.

I would say to the senator from Arizona that I'm in the dark almost as much as he is. And I'm in the leadership, Durbin said on the Senate floor.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has submitted the bill to the CBO from scoring, but Durbin said no one involved in the compromise will spill the beans until the score is released.

It makes me wonder what Reid is so afraid of that he won't release it. It couldn't have anything to with his own tanking numbers in Nevada. Could it?

McCain's Chief Campaign Advisor Preemptively Calls Palin's Possible Presidential Run "Catastrophic"

With Palin's already #1 Bestseller, "Going Rogue", set to be released in a few weeks, John McCain's chief strategist from his 2008 presidential campaign, decided to throw Alaska's former governor and potential presidential candidate in 2012 under the bus:

Steve Schmidt, John McCain's former chief campaign strategist, said today that if former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin were to be the Republican nominee, it would be "catastrophic" for the Republican Party.

"I think that she has talents, but my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican candidate in 2012, and in fact, were she to be the nominee, we would have a catastrophic election result."

"In the year since the election has ended, she has done nothing to expand her appeal beyond the base. ... Th[e] independent vote is going to be up for grabs in 2012. That middle of the electorate is going to be determinative of the outcome of the elections. I just don't see that if you look at the things she has done over the year ... that she is going to expand that base in the middle."

This isn't the first time that Mr. Schmidt has gone off against Gov. Palin. Even though they have denied repeatedly, Steve and Nicole Wallace have been called "prime suspects" in the search for the origination of the leaks that said there was in-fighting in the McCain camp. After all, the main source of information that was leaked was an exchange of emails between Palin and Schmidt "magically appeared" in the media's inbox. So, it was either someone close to Palin or Schmidt, and Palin had nothing to gain at all from their release. So, that leaves Schmidt.

As Allahpundit points out, the upcoming Palin memoir will, more than likely, include some unsavory comments about her experiences on the 2008 campaign trail. Many of those comments may be directed at Mr. Schmidt, and may be trying to get the first shot in before Palin drops her bombshell on November 17.

What gets me the most about what he said above is that he seems so certain that a Palin candidacy would be a disaster based on her lack of exposure and action now, over three years away from the next presidential election, but later on in the same interview he says this:

"What counts politically is where we are a year from today." Schmidt said that while he thinks 2010 will be a "good Republican year," it won't be a referendum on President Obama.

So, let me get this straight. Since Palin isn't calling a press conference once a week or attacking Obama's policy everyday in the news today, she is going to lose three years in the future, but for Obama, what happens now won't affect him much, politically, a year from now. That's a bit of a double standard.

Sarah Palin is, probably, doing the smart thing, right now. She is, for the most part, keeping a low but not invisible profile. She'll release a statement about something that is going through Congress or being pushed by Obama every few weeks.

If she exposed herself more this far before 2012, people would be tired of hearing her name by the time the election came around. She has plenty of time to get her agenda across the voting public.before the Iowa primary. What's the rush?

Of course, there is a chance that she could have a Couric-like moment, and it'll sink her chances. However, how would that sink the whole party as Schmidt suggests?

Is South Park located in Arizona? McCain Echoes Napolitano's Canadian Fiction

Did Arizona Not Receive 9/11 Commission Report? Did it get lost in the mail?

Has McCain not been paying any attention to the news lately? Did he not learn anything from Napolitano's mistake?

Arizona Sen. John McCain made the dubious claim Friday that Sept. 11 hijackers entered the United States through Canada -- just days after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona, said the same thing.

I guess not.

But when asked about the gaffe on FOX News Friday, McCain said: "Well, some of the 9/11 hijackers did come through Canada, as you know."

Just like with Janet Napolitano, Canada wasn't amused:

(McCain's claim) drew an instant retort from the Canadian embassy, which re-issued Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson's public comments from Tuesday, in which he said: 

"Unfortunately, misconceptions arise on something as fundamental as where the 9/11 terrorists came from. As the 9/11 Commission reported in July 2004, all of the 9/11 terrorists arrived in the U.S. from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued to them by the U.S. government. No 9/11 terrorists came from Canada."

Way to go, John!

McCain Will Feel Some Heat From His Right During the 2010 Senate Primaries

John McCain feels some heat from the right:

Chris Simcox, the founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and a prominent figure in the movement to clamp down on illegal immigration, will be announcing tomorrow at an event on the Mexican border that he's resigned from the group to run in the 2010 Senate primary.

With the increased violence at the border brought by the drug cartels and crossing illegals, McCain's moderate approach could cost him, if he sticks to his stand on immigration.

However, Simcox, is a newcomer to the political scene so he is an unknown commodity. Many don't give him much chance to win. He could shine or flop in the spotlight. Time will tell on that.

It should at least succeed in making McCain hold a more conservative stance on immigration, and bring the issues with illegal immigration to the forefront of the debate. That is an issue that is vital to America's national security and economy.