A Fourth Response to the SOTU

OK, we’re now up to four responses to President Obama’s State of the Union address.

We have the official GOP response from Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the Tea Party response from Senator Mike Lee of Utah, the YouTube response from Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, and now the fourth — Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida will give the Latino response in Spanish.

Wait, aren’t these the people who want to make English the “official” language of the U. S. and freak out any time local/state/federal government makes any information available in both English and Spanish?

Why do we need four responses to a laundry list of what “ain’t gonna happen” in 2014?  And what next, a response from Sarah Palin in “word salad”?

How Many Damn Responses Do We Need?

Okay, we’re now up to three Republican responses to President Obama’s one State of the Union speech.

We’ve got Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington doing the official GOP response, we’ve got Sen. Mike Lee of Utah doing the Tea Party response.

And now we’ve got Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky doing what I guess we’ll call the YouTube response, since he will pre-record his speech and post it on YouTube, so he’s free to do CNN and Fox News live.  I assume even Fox passed on carrying three responses.

Why doesn’t every GOP congressman and senator just do a response, kind of a winding, whining filibuster that would take us from the SOTU to the Super Bowl?

“Lady” Congressman to Give GOP SOTU Response

Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) will give the official GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union on January 28.  That’s if, you know, she can keep her libido under control that night, and isn’t off in a cloakroom with some stud-muffin page.

The official Republican response is not to be confused with the official Tea Party response, which will come from Utah Sen. Mike Lee.

Sen. Mike Lee Will Do the Honors

It used to be that after the President’s State of the Union address, the opposing party would offer a response.

But since 2011, the GOP has offered two responses to President Obama, the official Republican response and a Tea Party response.  Because, you know, when you’ve got a Kenyan Muslim Socialist in the WH, one rebuttal can’t possibly be enough to deal with the horror.

This year, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah will do the Tea Party honors on January 28, following in the hallowed footsteps of Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, and Rand Paul.

The GOP hasn’t yet announced who gets their official gig.  But whoever it is will not eat anything salty or spicy for 24 hours beforehand, having learned the lesson of Marco Rubio’s “Big Gulp” from last year.

So look forward to Crazy and Crazier, Dumb and Dumber.

Can Anyone Explain This?

Rand Paul is fighting in the Senate to give full constitutional rights to fertilized eggs.  Yet at the same time, he’s going to filibuster any gun legislation Harry Reid brings to the Senate floor, legislation that might save the lives of, you know, actual already-born children like those killed in Newtown.

Marco Rubio, fearing that he might be out-maneuvered for 2016, just jumped on the filibuster bandwagon with Paul, along with Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.

Fiscal Cliff Deal Passes Senate

The Biden-McConnell deal passed the Senate 89-8.  Both D’s and R’s were among those opposed.

The Democrats who voted against it were Tom Carper of Delaware, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Michael Bennet of Colorado.  The Republicans who voted against it were Mike Lee of Utah, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Marco Rubio  of Florida.

Given that wide, bipartisan margin of victory, it will be tough for the House to turn down the deal.