Under the heading of "Poor Baby" -- It is hard to have compassion sometimes. And I have compassion fatigue when it comes to feeling sorry for Republicans.

• Senator John Ensign's poll ratings have plummeted since he disclosed his affair with a married staffer.


• Former Senator Norm Coleman still wants to help pay his legal expenses out of his Senate Campaign funds, but the FEC may deny part of his request.


• Senator Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member, got his feelings hurt when he heard that Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings on the confirmation of Judge Sotomayor had been scheduled without his knowledge. Senator Leahy tried to contact him ahead of time but was unsuccessful.
  

Under the heading of "The Party of No" -- It looks like the Republican Party prefers that over 40 million people are without health insurance, program costs are skyrocketing and service quality is diminishing.

• Senators Pat Roberts and Tom Coburn brought Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee debate on Medicare's possible use of comparative effectiveness research to a halt recently, charging that it would lead to rationing of service.


• Senator Jon Kyle reminded C-SPAN listeners that Senator Chuck Grassley "is not negotiating with Max Baucus" on the health care bill. "Sen. Grassley has been given no authority to negotiate anything by all of us Republicans on that committee," Kyl said. "The bill that [Baucus] comes up with . . . will not be a bipartisan product."
  

Under the heading of "Geez, they still don't get it!" -- Bigotry is one thing and hypocrisy is another. We see too much of this from Republicans.

• Pat Buchanan, Standard Republican Television Pundit, admits that he "prefers the old bigotry" to affirmative action policies that benefited Sonia Sotomayor, saying "at least they were honest," according to TPM Muckraker.


• Representative Pete Hoekstra may have leaked classified information regarding what was discussed in a closed committee hearing on enhanced interrogation techniques, says TPM Muckraker. What's worse, he is on record criticizing leakers for giving information to the NYT in the Valerie Plame case.

Under the heading of "Now, who was it that won the election?" -- The Change-Energy policy train has already left the station. But Republicans remain stuck in the environmental mistakes of the previous century.

• Senator Lisa Murkowski still wants to drill for oil in the Alaska Wildlife refuge. Representatives Eric Cantor, Joe Barton, John Boehner, Mike Pence, John Shimkus and others have presented their own energy bill which includes a title focusing on nuclear power. In congressional hearings, industry representatives are defending a federal loophole for drilling using hydraulic fracturing that causes water contamination, according to ProPublica.

Under the heading of Rants, I will try to hold these to a minimum, probably once a week or so.

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. My creative website is at Making Good Mondays. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics congress republicans