Welcome to the first I Know What You Did Last Friday. IKWYDLF is a semi-regular Monday blog series. Politicians, and anyone with news they have to release that they might not want to release, have historically used Fridays to reduce the exposure of said news. Important things can happen on Fridays and in IKWYDLF, we are working to make sure those stories do not disappear into the weekend ether. So take a look at the news from Friday and keep the word alive this week by writing about them, posting them on Facebook or Twitter, and making sure your friends didn't miss anything important.
And this is quite a week to get started on! None of the news was "dumped", last Friday just happened have to have a lot going on. Take a look below the fold to see the goodies..
President Obama Goes Bartlett: I know I am not the only one who thought someone in the White House has been watching some West Wing recently when this story broke:
In candid remarks that he presumably didn’t realize were overheard by the press, President Obama said Thursday night that Republicans tried to “sneak” their agenda to kill his health care reform law into budget negotiations over the continuing resolution last week, CBS reports.
"I said, 'You want to repeal health care? Go at it,’” Obama told the donors. “‘We'll have that debate. You're not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we're stupid?'"
The remarks go on, with the President saying that Paul Ryan's budget plan isn't "on the level." You can read more about it in Blue Aardvark's recommended diary.
I See Your Crazy And Raise You One Bring-It: It is not often that the prankster comes across as the grown-up one, but that is exactly what happened when Democrats decided to let Republicans have their way:
During a series of votes on alternative budget proposals, Democrats made a play to sucker GOP lawmakers into passing a proposal from the conservative Republican Study Committee that calls for dramatic cuts that even some GOP Members would find too drastic.
At one point during the vote, a majority of Republicans were on record in favor of the RSC budget. Democrats then began casting votes as “present,” rather than “no,” as they would be expected to do. Without the Democratic "no" votes, the amendment would be adopted and would supersede Budget ranking member Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) ballyhooed budget.
Legislating is not a game. The bills that Congresscritters propose can have real and lasting impacts. The Republicans learned that lesson Friday. Stories like this make it clear that the conservatives aren't serious about governing, they should not get buried in the Friday news dump.
Compromise Budge Signed by President: More budget news as President Obama signs the compromise budget:
"I have signed this Act because of the importance of avoiding a lapse in appropriations for the Federal Government, including our military activities, for the remainder of fiscal year 2011," he wrote in a statement.
But did you notice that he did this about one of the riders when signing the compromise bill:
One rider – Section 2262 -- de-funds certain White House adviser positions – or “czars.” The president in his signing statement declares that he will not abide by it.
“The President has well-established authority to supervise and oversee the executive branch, and to obtain advice in furtherance of this supervisory authority,” he wrote. “The President also has the prerogative to obtain advice that will assist him in carrying out his constitutional responsibilities, and do so not only from executive branch officials and employees outside the White House, but also from advisers within it. Legislative efforts that significantly impede the President's ability to exercise his supervisory and coordinating authorities or to obtain the views of the appropriate senior advisers violate the separation of powers by undermining the President's ability to exercise his constitutional responsibilities and take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
Yep, the Republicans essentially tried to eliminate the President's ability to hire advisers. Separation of powers be damned! The President's response was a lot of words to say, "The President runs the executive office, not Congress. Read your constitution."
Nothing to See Here: Representative Mo Brooks withdrew comments about other members of Congress being socialists after, shockingly, said members got upset:
"Folks, we are here today forcing this issue because America is at risk. We are at risk of insolvency and bankruptcy because the socialist members of this body choose to spend money that we do not have," Brooks said.
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., interrupted and asked that Brooks' remarks be "taken down," a rare disciplinary action in which the clerk reports what was said and the person presiding over the House session determines whether the remarks were inappropriate.
Brooks, who was ordered to take a seat, said he was given two choices at that moment -- either ask to have the offending comment stricken from the record, or defend his remarks and wait until later in the day for a formal ruling. He said he chose to withdraw the use of the word "socialist" so he could continue his speech.
You know what is nice? Elected officials that do not have to withdraw comments in order to finish their speech because, somehow, they avoid lying about the political beliefs of their opponents.
Clouds Continue to be Source of Rain: In the least shocking news column we find another Republican sending another racist email:
The Weekly has obtained a copy of an email sent to fellow conservatives this week by Marilyn Davenport, a Southern California Tea Party activist and member of the central committee of the Orange County Republican Party.
Under the words, "Now you know why no birth certificate," there's an Obama family portrait showing them as apes.
Santorum's Gay, Union-Loving Inner Self: It turns out that Rick Santorum's new campaign slogan is actually a quote from a Langston Hughes pro-union poem:
ThinkProgress first pointed out Thursday that the line on the website homepage is from Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes's poem "Let America Be America Again":
At an event Thursday in New Hampshire, Santorum was asked by Lee Fang of ThinkProgress whether he realized the association. "No I had nothing to do with that," he said. "I didn't know that. And the folks who worked on that slogan for me didn't inform me that it came from that, if it in fact came from that."
When he was later asked what it means to him, Santorum replied: "Well, I'm not too sure that's my campaign slogan, I think it's on a web site."
Well, that's it for today. Do not forget to share some of these stories on the Twitsters and Faceblocks!