Using Marco Rubio as an example, Steve Benen demonstrates that the GOP can't eject the "cranks, haters and bigots" from the party -- as a Politico story suggests is going on -- because they're all cranks, haters and bigots. That's the GOP mainstream.
John Boehner threatens to shoot the hostage if he doesn't get what he wants in a sequester deal. But even conservative columnists like Matt Lewis are saying, "What hostage?" Republicans are basically threatening to shoot themselves here, like Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles.
Still, Greg Sargent reports that Senate dems plan to take the lead in the upcoming sequester fight (formerly the "fiscal cliff" fight, which wasn't solved at all, just kicked down the road again), by offering a "compromise proposal that includes a mix of new revenues and specific spending cuts, in order to avert the sequester." It seems like a bad idea, but Sargent makes a good case for it. Count me among the unconvinced. It may work politically, but it's rock stupid economically.
A "potentially historic" blizzard is bearing down on the northeast.
Bad news for the White House's drone policy: polling shows that only 24% think it's legal for the US to kill Americans overseas with drones and without trial.
No, torture didn't get Bin Laden.
Code Pink managed to shut down John Brennan's confirmation hearing briefly.
A California cops snaps.
A new and broad-ranging Quinnipiac poll finds that people overwhelmingly support allowing women in combat, stricter gun control, a ban on assault weapons, universal background checks for gun purchases, and a ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Oddly, slightly more think the NRA reflects their views on guns, rather than Pres. Obama. If the rest of the numbers are correct, most of those people are just plain wrong. They obviously have no idea what the NRA's positions actually are.
Finally, the GOP Civil War begins. Cue the Ken Burns-style harmonica music and wait for the blizzard of mutually destructive, brother-against-brother primary spending.
[cartoon via McClatchy Newspapers]
