A riddle, it is

“Cut the mustard.” “To the nines.” “Up to snuff.” Phrase origins are often a rabbit hole down which one can fall, often with no end in reach. In these cases the exact origins have so far not surfaced. Ain’t the English language great?

Who’s worried about a primary challenge?

I’d suggest that Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is. He used to be semi-reasonable, but he’s gone over the top in his allegiance to right-wing memes these days. Despite Secretary Clinton’s five hours of testimony to the House and Senate foreign policy committees last week, the Senator isn’t happy. “I haven’t forgotten about Benghazi. …

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Brother Jindal, he not so bright

Louisiana’s Governor Jindal’s gave a speech the other night attempting to persuade his party that it has to stop being the stupid party. Think Progress notes that he should perhaps look within himself and at his policies before preaching to a broader audience: He permits Louisiana schools to teach creationism. He allows state employees to …

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Filibuster “reform” dies

Words cannot express how disgusted I am with Harry Reid, Carl Levin, Pat Leahy, Dianne Feinstein, Max Baucus and Mark Pryor. Because of their fear that someday their party might be in the minority, they watered down proposed filibuster reform to virtually nothing. The changes will surely disappoint reformers who were pushing for more sweeping …

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Sec’y. Clinton v. the Republicans

During Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning, she had to put up with a crock of stupidity from the likes of Senators Rand Paul, John McCain and Ron Johnson. Finally she got tired of it and let Johnson have it: Charlie Pierce noticed this and had the …

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Where does filibuster reform stand?

Several newer Democratic Senators have been trying to modify that body’s institutional rules to make the filibuster more difficult to use by the minority. It can be done by simple majority on the first legislative day of a new Congress, and Majority Leader Senator Reid of Nevada has been extending that day by calling the …

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