Clearing the Browser Tabs – Default Before Defeat Friday Edition

Is there some word that describes what happens when the silly season becomes to silly for the phrase “the silly season”. If so, apply it to what’s been happening in the White House during the debt ceiling debate. Today, Jake Tapper attempted to ask Jay Carney a pretty straightforward question, only to have Carney hose him down with industrial strength blather.

Here is the essence of the question: The President has repeatedly maintained that he will not, under any circumstances, accept a short-term deal on the debt ceiling that would temporarily solve the immediate problem but push a vote on the bigger debt and default situation into the thick of the election season. Why is voting on a long-term debt ceiling bill next year worse than going into default?

Carney can’t give the honest answer to that question. He knows as well as we that the President doesn’t want fiscal issues to be right in front of the country while he’s on the hustings trying to blame the whole mess on George Bush or Wall Street or body snatchers. It would ruin his main campaign theme: none of this is my fault. Instead, he tried to blow through the answer by the White House Press Corps, most of whom have decided not to Speak Truth to Power until we have a Republican President again. Much credit to Tapper for asking the question Barack Obama most certainly did not want him to ask.

By the way, I don’t know what I did right yesterday, but I got a Stacy-lanche, a Nolte-lanche, and an Instalanche all of which brought me more traffic than I’ve gotten in an entire week lately. Thank you, guys, most sincerely.

And now, links!

• My friend Matt at Old Line Elephant is doing local blogging right. He interviewed Ari Winokur, who just entered the race for a seat on the Baltimore City Council. My guess is that his piece will give you more about Winokur than you’ll get from the Baltimore Sun. New media, folks. That’s where it’s at, especially at the local politics level.
• The Nashville Predators hockey team unveiled their new gold jerseys for next season and they’re very sharp! Preds fans should grab one, confident they’ll be clad in style.
• The only real question that remains about the failed auto bailout is why it didn’t leave a crater in the general Detroit area about a mile across. It was that large a bomb. (via Rand Simberg)
• Can you say “horrible optics that the GOP ought to exploit to the hilt”? I knew you could.
• If you live in one of these 14 cities that are being gutted with glee by the public sector unions, you should be out buying tar and feathers. If you don’t, just wait. The destruction is coming to your city very soon. (via Instapundit)
• Jimmy Carter? No, I think our President makes Carter look like a piker.
• This is what real democratic reform for Cuba looks like.
• I guess “equal rights” doesn’t quite mean what we think it means, at least not in New York.
• A private space capsule on display at Cape Canaveral? Oh, heck yes! More, and faster, please.
• My friend Amelia Hamilton has written what looks like a delightful book for kids called One Nation Under God: A Book for Little Patriots. I plan on snagging a copy in the very near future. You should, too, especially if you have young ones around the house.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Clearing the Browser Tabs — Saturday Edition
• Clearing the Browser Tabs – Mindblank Thursday Edition
• Clearing the Browser Tabs – Democratic Debt Mutiny Wednesday Edition

Tags: Linky Love

Category: Links