It's only been two weeks, but it feels like months of stupidity and craziness. In the end, the inevitable proved inevitable and Chuck Hagel is your next Secretary of Defense.
I try to bring it up from time to time, but I was reminded that it's slipped my mind lately; if any of my links in these "Stories to Watch" posts seem a little spare on the info, hover your mouse over them to get the headline to the article it links to. It shows up as a tooltip near your cursor. Yes, the title tag in HTML really does have a use.
Michele Bachmann says, "I was very proud of the fact that I didn’t get anything wrong that I said during the course of the debates. I didn’t get anything wrong and that’s a huge arena." Damned liberal reality! She's basically just proved she still can't get anything right. Good thing irony doesn't hurt you any or Shelly'd be in the ER.
Mississippi GOP Rep. Steven Palazzo has introduced a constitutional amendment that would basically gut Obamacare. Normally, amendments are just ways for House Republican backbenchers to make headlines without risking all that much -- amendments generally go nowhere. But Pallazzo's is sure to earn a shunning from even many of his fellow Republicans for one simple reason: it kills dead the argument that Obamacare is unconstitutional. When SCOTUS ruled it constitutional, that's one thing. It's OK to disagree with a ruling. But if people were to actually vote on Steve's amendment, they'd be admitting the opposite -- you don't need to amend the Constitution to make the unconstitutional unconstitutional. Palazzo is admitting that the Affordable Care Act is a perfectly cromnulent law -- whether he meant to or not.
Right on schedule, the Republican freak out over the release of "low priority" immigration detainees begins. I'm a little surprised that Republicans aren't urging restraint in responses to the move, because you just know this is going to go from zero to racist in no time flat.
Seth MacFarlane rules out another Oscars hosting gig. I kind of doubt they were going to ask him back anyway.
Finally, this is a short one tonight. I had to deal with a sink clog. Luckily, I had the headlines mostly done. A short stack will have to do.
[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]
