“Miami needs the money.” Politicians are asked about Super Bowl predictions…

“O’Reilly Factor” producer Jesse Watters goes to Washington DC and visits Capitol Hill, where he interviews members of Congress about their Super Bowl predictions, wagers they’ve made and game day traditions.

The highlight of the clip comes about 1:35 in, where New York Congressmen Charlie Rangel expresses his hopes for the game.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are screwed.

Extra point:  Watters said Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Bawney Fwank, a Patwiots fan, turned down an opportunity to be interviewed about the Super Bowl because he does not like to “mix” politics and sports.

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

LSU Congressman wears Bama tie, houndstooth hat, and calls out “Roll Tide” on C-SPAN

By: @LivingCrimson

Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (D-Alabama) and Congressman Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) had a friendly bet on whether the Crimson Tide or LSU would win the BCS National Championship game. Now that Congress is back in session, it was Rep. Cassidy’s turn to pay up. It’s a good thing Dr. Cassidy is a physician; he looked like he needed one after that performance on the House floor.

“Roll Tide” at the 1:26 mark.

Rep. Sewell introduced House Resolution 518 congratulating the Tide for winning its 14th National Championship and acknowledging its winning tradition, conference championships and bowl appearances. She especially recognized Trent Richardson, the Heisman Trophy finalist and winner of the Nation's Most Outstanding Running Back (Doak Walker Award); Barrett Jones, the Outland Trophy winner for the Nation's best interior lineman in college football; and the six Bama players named AP All-Americans -- Mark Barron, Dont'a Hightower, Barrett Jones, Trent Richardson, Courtney Upshaw, and Dre Kirkpatrick.

A full transcript of her remarks is here. Video of Rep. Sewell’s remarks before the House is here.

Besides being a good sport, the LSU Congressman is anti-SOPA and PIPA. Geaux Cassidy!

 

More Bama updates on Twitter @LivingCrimson.

BREAKING: Charlie Rangel convicted of 11 of 13 counts of violating House ethics

Breaking at 12:00 EST, the House Ethics Subcommittee has convicted Congressman Charlie Rangel of 12 11 of 13 counts of violating House Ethics code.  The subcommittee reached consensus on all but the last count, which was merged into a single count by the subcommittee.

His fate is now in the hands of the full Ethics Committee, which will decide the penalties to be applied.

Full Story Here.

Moonbat Civil War: The Black Caucus deserting Pelosi?

Via The Hill Blog. In the ongoing internal struggle to determine who should lead the Democrats through their mandatory journey through the wilderness of electoral defeat, battles are being fought on several different fronts.  In the weeks after the election, shell-shocked Blue Dogs voiced near unanimous distaste over the election of soon-to-be former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as House Minority Leader.

Pelosi’s announcement that she’d be seeking the leadership position pushed the number two and number three men in the House, Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn, into a potential battle for minority whip. Hoyer of course is rich white dude; Clyburn is a black man from a poverty stricken southern state (it’s not really, but that’s their meme so let’s run with it).

To resolve and avoid such a nasty fight, Pelosi agreed to create a new position in the Democrat Caucus and name Clyburn to it, allowing him to keep a leadership position.  But the Congressional Black Caucus is apparently still not satisfied, and is suggesting their caucus may not support Pelosi.

---

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the black caucus, told The Hill on Monday evening (site down) that she was "reserving judgment" about Pelosi's leadership candidacy.

The CBC is particularly looking to study the deal Pelosi had cut over the weekend to keep Clyburn in the third-ranking position of the House Democratic leadership by creating a new position to which the outgoing whip would have to be elected. CBC members had hoped Clyburn would remain in the position of whip, the second-ranking job in the minority. Under the deal created by Pelosi, outgoing Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) would become the new whip.

---

Overnight, this story, confirming the first, broke at CNN.com:

---

The Congressional Black Caucus has decided to withhold its approval for the House Democratic leadership team, denying Speaker Nancy Pelosi full support of the 42-member organization as she campaigns to remain leader.

After a nearly two hour long meeting on Monday night, chairwoman Barbara Lee of California said the group only will endorse caucus member James Clyburn of South Carolina for a leadership position. The causus first wants to know what his role will be in the Democratic leadership before backing the full slate.

"We fully support our current Whip, Mr. Clyburn, for the number three position and we are currently reserving judgment on the entire package until we see what the actual portfolio entails, in terms of responsibilities," Lee said.

---

If there are still enough Blue Dogs willing to walk out on Pelosi, and if the CBC presents a united no-support front, Madam Speaker’s days in the leadership of the Democrat Caucus may be limited.

When the Caucus does its private vote (possibly as early as this week), it will be interesting to see who emerges as House Minority Leader.

Look on the bright side, lefties: At least you still have K Street

Democrats lost Main Street for good last August, as the Tea Party movement gained steam and ruling class lawmakers went home to face town hall audiences angry over their leftist, big government agenda.  The super-sized majorities let them ram through all sorts of liberal policy initiatives, including cap and trade in the House and the $800+ billion stimulus.  Last summer, Congressional Democrats had a plurality of public opinion on their side.  This summer, a clear majority disapproves of their job performance, and the economic news is not going to get much better before they have to go home, campaign and defend their records.

The news gets worse for Democrats—as this summer, it looks like they’ve lost Wall Street.

---

Wall Street interests are giving the lion's share of their federal campaign contributions to Republicans, reversing their heavy giving to Democrats who control Congress, a new analysis of second-quarter financial reports shows.

Back in March 2009, people and political action committees in the securities and investment industry gave 70% of their contributions to Democrats. By June of this year, the situation had changed markedly with 68% of Wall Street money now going to Republicans, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which studies money in politics.

---

As an industry, Wall Street is as good as Vegas when it comes to picking winners and losers.  Sure, individual advisers bookies get it wrong on occasion, but in the long run, they always end up banking on the right side and pocketing the juice commission.

The USA Today story would like you to believe that Wall Street bailed on the Democrats because of the newly minted financial regulations reform bill.  Don’t buy that for one second.  The deep-pockets on Wall Street made sure their oxes wouldn’t be gored by that abomination.  The shift in backing isn’t vengeance, it’s just good business to bet with the odds-on favorite.

But, at least the lefties have one silver lining.  K Street still loves Obama and the Democrats, especially after Obama famously made—then broke—a promise that his administration would suffer no lobbyists in its halls.

I suppose they probably still have a little support on the Arab Street, too.

Gimme some feedback in the comments.

Yes, It's Just a Gimmick...

The GOP's latest stunt is political gimmickry, but as gimmicks go, it's a pretty darned good one. Touted by House GOP Whip Eric Cantor as first-of-its-kind, YouCut is a website and program aimed at the runaway spending culture in Congress. It allows website visitors to vote via online and text message on cuts to spending programs. You get to vote every week, and Cantor promises to try forcing a vote based on the people's choice. It's novel, it's techno-fabulous, and it's sure to entertain.

But let's be honest, folks. You won't see any entitlement program appear on the list of choices you are asked to make. Don't expect to see any of Paul Ryan's Roadmap waypoints show up anytime soon. The real spending problem with Congress is its absolute refusal to address the miracles of compound interest found in Social Security or Medicare, and don't expect to see any calls for repealing Obamacare to show up on YouCut. The programs you will be seeing fall on the discretionary side of the budget, and anyone who's paid any attention to our looming budget crises realizes that you could eliminate discretionary spending altogether and still not address the real problems.

Still, as gimmicks go, engaging the public in such a fashion as this is probably going to be a hit.  How could it not be? It scores high on PR points, even if it really won't do much to rein in spending.

Extra Point: It's also a brilliant way to annoy the living hell out of the Pelosi - Reid cabal. Thumbs up, Mr. Cantor.