Time for Sean Duffy to Meet the Real World

From the wausau daily herald:

Democrats are getting some amusing mileage out of Rep. Sean Duffy’s recent exchange with a Polk County constituent about his congressional pay.

In a videotape of a town hall meeting in Amery, Duffy, R-Ashland, is seen telling a construction worker who lost his job and now drives a bus that even he was having difficulty making ends meet. As a member of Congress, the Republican freshman is paid $174,000 a year.

“I struggle to meet my bills right now,” Duffy told the constituent after noting that he has six children and a mortgage, drives a used minivan and is still paying off his student loan. “At this point, I’m not living high off the hog.”

Duffy also pointed out that he resigned from his prosecutor’s job to run for Congress and spent six months without a salary.

Exsqueeze me?  If you can’t afford 6 kids, keep your weewee in your pants, and don’t buy a house if you can’t afford the mortgage payments (isn’t that one of the Rethuglican themes?).  In addition, don’t quit your day job if you can’t afford it, even if it’s to run for Congress.   How ironic that Seanie got his start on The Real World back in 1997, and he still has no clue about it.
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The Games Rethugs Play

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

In a statement this afternoon, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor acknowledged what top Republicans have hesitated to acknowledge since they won back the majority in November: a government shutdown is a real possibility and, he says, the country will blame Democrats if that happens.

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Rethuglicans Peddlin’ It All Over Iowa

From USA TODAY:

DES MOINES — Stylistic differences in the developing 2012 Republican presidential campaign began to appear during a conference of conservatives here over the weekend that included five potential candidates.

The five prospects who spoke at the conference Saturday sponsored by Iowa Rep. Steve King focused primarily on their opposition to President Obama and his policy initiatives.

I’ve obtained a photograph of the event from one of my unimpeachable anonymous sources who swiped borrowed this from the event’s photo album .

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Cheeseheadstrong

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

Yet another shoe has dropped in the battle over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) anti-public employee union law — with state Republican leaders now apparently defying or attempting to circumvent a court order that temporarily blocked implementation of the law.

…snip…

The judge’s order “restrain[ed] and enjoin[ed] the further implementation” of the law, including the prevention of Secretary of State Doug LaFollette (D) from publishing the act in the Wisconsin State Journal, which acts as the state’s official newspaper for the purpose of giving the public official notice of new laws — the final step for the law to take effect. That decision is now going through an appeals process, which remains up in the air.

But now, state Republicans have had the bill published through a different office — the Legislative Reference Bureau, which handles drafting and research for the legislature — according to the LRB’s statutory requirement to publish legislation within ten days of enactment.Interestingly, the LRB itself says that this publication does not constitute action that would put the law into effect. But the state’s Republican leaders disagree.   Senate Majority Scott Fitzgerald (R) says the LRB publication constitutes official publication and the insists the law will take effect Saturday.

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ɥɔıɹbuıb ʇʍǝu

From The Wonk Room at THINK PROGRESS:

Newt Gingrich really doesn’t like it when Barack Obama takes his advice. It’s not just true of intervention with Libya — it’s also the case with fighting global warming pollution. In short, Newt was for carbon cap and trade, until Obama became president:

February 15, 2007: “I think if you have mandatory carbon caps combined with a trading system, much like we did with sulfur, and if you have a tax-incentive program for investing in the solutions, that there’s a package there that’s very, very good. And frankly, it’s something I would strongly support.” [Frontline, 2/15/07]

April 4, 2009: “And now, in 2009, instead of making energy cheaper—which would help create jobs and save Americans money—President Obama wants to impose a cap-and-trade regime. Such a plan would have the effect of an across-the-board energy tax on every American. That will make our artificial energy crisis even worse—and raising taxes during a deep economic recession will only accelerate American job losses.” [Newsweek, 4/4/09]

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The Pain in Maine’s Due Plainly to His Reign

Yesterday, the Raisin reported on Governor Paul LePage of Maine ordering the Department of Labor to remove a mural that celebrates the history of labor in the state. There’s going to be an awful lot of blank wall space, so I thought we’d try to help and suggest a replacement. I did a little digging, and i found out about something called the Maine Heritage Policy Center. From WLBZ (Bangor):

Tarren Bragdon has risen to a position of influence as CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, and was the leader of Gov. Paul LePage’s transition team. He goes In the Arena with Pat Callaghan to talk about the efforts to shrink the state budget and reform government.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center says Gov. LePage’s proposed budget doesn’t make enough cuts. The center believes Maine should cut 4,000 state jobs. Bragdon talks about that, as well as collective bargaining rights for state employees, and Gov. LePage’s decision to create private advisory groups to counsel him on business matters– which will not be subject to Maine’s open meeting laws.

Why is that important?  Well, this is from Dirigo Blue:

Trevor Bragdon has stepped down as the State Director of AFP Maine, and will be replaced by long-time Republican legislator Carol Weston.

AFP Maine is a chapter of Americans for Prosperity, an AstroTurf front group founded by David Koch, a major funder of libertarian groups across the country. Trevor Bragdon is the brother of Tarren Bragdon, the Executive Director of the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC), and one of the co-chairs of Gov. Paul LePage’s transition team. MHPC has ties to the Heritage Foundation in D.C., which also receives money from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.

Anyone else think it’s quite a coincidence that the Koch brothers’ names keep popping up when anyone is discussing the new Republican governors who are trying to pull the rug out from anything that’s good for the middle class and the poor?  With that in mind, I’ve come up with a picture that I think will look just great on the walls of the Maine Department of Fellating Corporate Bigwigs Labor.
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Maine Event

From the Sun Journal:

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage has ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural depicting Maine’s labor history from the lobby of the Department of Labor.

Worker advocates described the move as a “mean-spirited” provocation amid the administration’s high-tension standoff with unions.

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Planned Parenthoodwinked

From The New York Times:

In a signal that Senate Republicans will not be automatically aligning with their brethren in the House over the course of a vast and raucous spending debate, Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts said on Tuesday that he did not support eliminating federal financing of Planned Parenthood, a move approved by the House last month as part of a larger spending bill.

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(I had to include Michele Batshit Bachmann, because she looks so natural in that pose.)