Underpants Gnomes

As NC Steve reminded me today, whether its Senator John Thune's lame-brained idea to eliminate the deficit 10% a year in just ten years, or Tax Cuts for the uber wealthy, the GOP's ideas boil down to the same ol' Underpants Gnome business model.



And to quote my Father about this (cough-cough) idea to eliminate the defict in ten years...

If the deficit is $100,000, and you reduce it 10% a year, the first year you reduce it $10,000 to 90,000. The next year you reduce it $9,000 (10% of 90,000) to 81,000, then you reduce it 8,000 to 73,000.

Anyway it takes way more than ten years to reduce it to zero. There are even tables to help you figure out where you will be in n years. Greta Van Susteren and John Thune don't understand math, amongst other things.

Sure, Pop! It's all so easy if you take Middle School Mathematics. How do you know Greta and Senator (Democrats are scurred of me in 2012) Thune even went to Middle School, Dad? That's awfully presumptuous of you, sir!

For the record, my Father is Professor of Mathematics, and former Chairman of his Department. One presumes he took Junior High School Math at some point.

Senator Ed?

I've stopped listening to and watching Ed Schultz in recent months because of his "my way is the only way" stance on the Health Care Debate. My plan was to give it about a year, and see calm the waters were before wading back in.

But now this matter of Sen. Byron Dorgan's (D-ND) retirement has come up, an since Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) isn't going to run, Ed's name has come up as a possible candidate for the Senate Seat.

And I think he's seriously considering it.

Here's the deal. Byron Dorgan was a bit of an odd political duck. He was a Liberal Senator, from a blood red state, that routinely whupped his opposition by 30-60 points an election. Now that Dorgan is retiring (and don't be surprised if he's not the first name on the list for any cabinet vacancies in the Obama Administration) the current and popular Republican governor of North Dakota, John Hoeven, would look to be a shoo-in. So Ed has got to know that he might be the only shot the Democrats have at holding the seat...short of Dorgan changing his mind.

Now, Ed's got a fairly popular MSNBC Show...even though I've deleted it from my DVR. It's taken him a long time to get where he is. To give the Ed Show up (which he'll have to do) in order to run for a seat he might not win has got to be weighing on him. But I also know for a fact that he loathes Hoeven, in much the same way Al Franken despised Norm Coleman. Ed might want to stay in TV, but I know he'd love to take a shot at Hoeven. It's almost more important to him than holding the seat.

So, the long and the short of it is, I don't know what he's going to do. Ed is couching his language veeeerrry carefully. He's not ruling it in...but he's sure as hell not ruling it out. If you asked me for a prediction, I think he might do it.

I must warn you that my predictions are worthless at this stage. I thought Ken Salazar was going to run for Governor of Colorado, and ten seconds after I had that thought...this appeared.

Also, Dad reminded me this morning, if nothing else, Ed's running might demonstrate to show progressives that their way does not always command 50%.

We'll see. More on this as it comes.

Salon: Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) says no to a Public Option??

...or...not.

Between GOP Reps saying possibly saying yes, and Democratic Senator's possibly saying no, it's been a confusing day.

There was some excitement on the Internet Friday evening because of a report that Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., told a roomful of his constituents Thursday that he won't vote for a bill with a public option.

If true, that story -- originally published by the Jamestown Sun, a local paper -- would be a big deal. First of all, that's one less Democratic vote for healthcare reform, and with a filibuster almost certainly on the horizon, supporters need all the votes they can get, and would have to pick up a Republican to make up for Conrad's defection. Second, the senator has been the driving force behind a co-op plan as an alternative to the public option, but has thus far explained his position as arising from a sense that the public option simply can't get 60 votes -- this would be a pretty dramatic shift.

Turns out, though, that it's not true. The Sun's story never quoted Conrad directly about the public option, and the senator's communications director, Sean Neary, told Salon that the story was inaccurate. Conrad has been telling his constituents that he won't let the government run their health care, which may be the cause of the confusion, but that language doesn't preclude the public option.