Todd's Mischief Blog

Yes. That is a Stones reference. Since the naming of Paul Ryan as the running mate of GOP Presidential nominee-apparent Mitt Romney, the Anybody-But-Romney crowd has quieted down its protests. It’s about time, considering that his last serious competitor, Newt Gingrich, dropped out of the race in May, and even the ABR crowd can’t get behind holdout Ron Paul. Still, as pleased as they are with the Ryan pick, and the unabashed conservatism he represents, they aren’t singing Mitt’s praises just yet. Oh, they’ve come around in just about every way imaginable. They’ve always praised his business experience. The flip-flopper and gaffe memes have been largely discredited. His lack of foreign policy experience is dismissed by citing the same of Reagan. Likewise, the Tenth Amendment is cited to put aside questionable aspects of his governorship in Massachusetts apart from RomneyCare. And even there, the ABR’s seem to now take Mitt at his word that he intends to do away with ObamaCare and are ev...

I don't think there was any question about which topic would dominate the Sunday shows this week. Pretty much every show was devoted to discussion of the Supreme Court's ruling on ObamaCare and trying to make some sense of Chief Justice Roberts' decision. While the blog-o-sphere and talk radio are lamenting that the bill is upheld, I think it is good to pause for a moment and take note that the liberals in Washington and the MSM appear like they've taken the loss. Case in point: on ABC This Week, CBS Face the Nation, and NBC Meet the Press, their respective guests, White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi all read from the same script refusing to acknowledge the High Court's determination that the ObamaCare mandate does constitute a tax. Even in the face of this legally set definition, all three vehemently insist that the tax is merely a "penalty," and one directed at the 1%, I might...

This week's edition of the Sunday Spin Cycle is going to be brief, not only because I have other time obligations, but because all the Sunday shows were in virtual lock-step today. With the exception of CBS Sunday Morning , which did an episode inexplicably devoted entirely to islands, all the shows focused on the debt limit and the Paul Ryan Plan vs. the Simpson-Bowles Plan. In a nutshell, Washington is poised for another budget battle when it comes to spending limits. The Democrat argument is that if Republicans would agree to raise the debt limit, then the debt wouldn't matter. The Republican argument is that spending limits wouldn't need to be raised if spending could be brought under control, and the debt absolutely matters. The Democrat counter-argument is, "La-la-la-la!" Moving on to budget plans: if you are a Democrat, then Simpson-Bowles = Good while Ryan Plan = Bad. If you are a Republican...well, you can figure it out. Here's the nasty little secret...