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I call it the Honeymoon Glow, because there is simply no way Newton Leroy Gingrich is more competitive against President Obama than Mitt Romney, but that is what a new McClatchy-Marist poll finds. Obama leads Gingrich by just two points, 47% to 45%. Mitt Romney is next closest, trailing Obama by 4 points, 49% to 44%. Ron Paul is the third best bet for the Republicans right now, 8 points back from Obama, 49% to 41%. No other Republican is within single digits of the president. You know, I hope Ron Paul gets his flavor of the month chance. I doubt it though.

This is exactly the way I felt listening to Sandusky.  Watch:

When one of Delaware’s elected Democratic Senators starts talking bipartisanship, I get very suspicious, because it usually means Republicans get what they want. And with Senator Coons’ recent talk of “tax code reform” in response to any question about raising taxes on the richest 1% in this country, in response to closing corporate loopholes and giveways, and his talk of reforming entitlements, I suppose I have to look at any proposal from his office made in conjunction with a teabagger very closely and very skeptically.

Sen. Chris Coons reached far, far across the aisle Tuesday, introducing a job-creation bill with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. […]

Their bill, the AGREE Act — for American Growth, Recovery, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship — combines elements of President Barack Obama’s jobs plan, recommendations from the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and proposals from both parties in Congress.

“We can dwell on the partisan politics that have gridlocked this body and this town for much of our first year in office, or we can look forward and find ways we can work together to help Americans confront this jobs crisis,” Coons said in a statement. “We need to help our businesses grow and create jobs, and that’s what the AGREE Act is designed to do.”

Stop. Senator Coons, partisan politics have not gridlocked Congress. Saying that means that you equally apportion fault and blame between the two parties. And that is blatantly false. The Republican Party has gridlocked Congress with obstruction after obstruction, from taking legislation and nominations hostage, to refusing to ever compromise, from secret holds on the most mundane nominations and legislation to outright filibustering every single piece of legislation designed to create jobs. Senator Coons, you do your party and the nation a disservice when you say otherwise. But whatever. It is the same bipartisan mealy mouthed bullshit we have come to expect from any Senator elected from Delaware.

He and Rubio say the bill would extend tax relief for small businesses, encourage research and innovation, reduce barriers to immigration for highly skilled workers, protect businesses from illegal counterfeiting, and provide tax incentives for hiring veterans and regulatory relief for small companies.

More specifically, here are the bullet points from a summary on Rubio’s website:

–>Provide a three year extension of 100 percent bonus depreciation for the full cost of qualified investments such as equipment and property.

–>Provide a three year extension of Section 179 expensing levels for small businesses.

–>Provide a three year extension of eliminated taxes on certain small business stock.

–>Extend the Research & Development tax credit until 2013, increase the Alternative Simplified Credit (ASC) from 14 percent to 20 percent, and makes the ASC permanent.

–>Establish an enhanced research credit for domestic manufacturers to encourage job creation at home.

–>Provide veterans with a tax credit equal to 25% of the fee associated with starting a franchise up to $100,000.

–>Provide a five-year exemption from Section 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley for the first five years of a company going public, or for those below $250 million in total gross revenue (whichever comes first).

–>Eliminate the per-country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrant visas and adjusts the limitations on family based visa petitions from 7% per country to 15%.

–>Protect intellectual property by clarifying the Trade Secrets Act, and making it explicitly clear that it is not a crime for federal officials, in the performance of their duties, to share information about suspected infringing products with the right holder of a trademarked good.

Looking at this, a lot of it is temporary this and extension that. So I guess these are just simple quick fixes. I am not an intellectual property expert, so I have no idea if the proposal in there regarding IP is good or bad. So, Delaware Dems and Delaware Liberals, what’s the catch? I know there is one. How are we getting shafted?

In the News Journal story this morning on the continuing recovery and rehabilitation of Sussex County Councilman Vance Phillips, and the logistical problems his continued absence is presenting the Council, Sussex County Attorney Everett Moore says that Phillips cannot attend council meetings remotely, by either Skype, teleconference or videoconference because Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act expressly prohibits public bodies whose members are elected from participating via videoconference.

If that is true, that is a provision of the law that needs revision. Indeed, given that this blog and progressives in general throughout our state were quite instrumental in lobbying for the FOIA law, I think I will need it explained to me why and how this provision pertains to transparent government and the disclosure of information.

It just makes sense. Because if you go three terms, then you might become a cranky old asshole who cusses out anyone and everyone at every opportunity.

In a profanity-laced speech Tuesday, Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker lashed out at critics of a publicly supported hotel on the Christina Riverfront during a ceremony to announce the construction of another apartment building in the Justison Landing development.

“We should be excited about our city. I don’t understand where all the negative people come from. They all ought to go to hell and forget it. We don’t need them. I mean, they’re about as useful as a doggone flea on an elephant. Nothing,” Baker told a crowd of about 30 people who had gathered at the site of a proposed $17 million building across from the Kooma Restaurant and Lounge Bar on Justison Street.

Winding up his remarks, Baker said, “I don’t care anymore. You can’t kick me no more. I’ll kick your ass.”
In an interview later Tuesday, Baker did not temper his earlier remarks.

“Anybody who opposes me, I call a fool,” he said. “I don’t sugarcoat it.”

Well that’s just wonderful. Nothing makes me excited and proud about a city than a profanity and insult-laden tirade from a mayor who has been on the job far too long.

Now, some of you may call me a hypocrite here, since I use foul language and insult my ideological and political opponents every day of the week and twice on Sunday. But I am a blogger. I am not an elected official.

How does a two term limits connect to this? Well, sometimes you just get tired of dealing with people. You get more abrupt and rude in your official duties, duties that call on you to be gracious and dignified, at the very least in public remarks you make in and around the city. If you can’t manage a veneer of dignity and graciousness in office after 10 years and during your third term, then perhaps it is time for you to take a powder.

Then again, Mayor Baker may simply be an asshole.

Baker’s outburst is among several in his 10 years as mayor and 28 years on City Council. In March, Baker ripped into City Council for daring to question his budget proposal. He also has lambasted council members by calling them “idiots” more than once in public settings.

Come January 2013, I am sure most of us will be happy to see Mayor Baker and all his graciousness get shoved out the door.

I love pizza. It’s my comfort food. Yet I try to stay away from it because too much pizza is not a healthy thing. All that cheese, grease, and carb ladden dough. But it turns out that I was wrong all along. For you see, I had not considered the obviously true fact that a pizza slice, what with its one to two tablespoon of tomato paste or sauce, was a healthy vegetable. At least…. according to congressional Republicans.

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.

Is it the 1980’s again? Didn’t we already go through this with Ronald Reagan’s ridiculous “ketchup is a vegetable” idea? What is it with Republicans and school cafeterias. It is almost as if they want children in public schools to be unhealthy and obese.