13 thoughts on “The New Majority Leader”

  2. As an off-topic aside, Obama is sending 300 “military advisors” to Iraq. This seems vaguely familiar:

    May 1961 – President Kennedy sends 400 American Green Beret ‘Special Advisors’ to South Vietnam to train South Vietnamese soldiers in methods of ‘counter-insurgency’ in the fight against Viet Cong guerrillas.

    This reminds me of all those accusations of warmongering against Obama opponents. There seems to be a certain type of politician who gets us into the interesting wars and it’s not the warmongers.

    1. Obama said last week there will be no boots on the ground in Iraq, so these Special Forces soldiers will be wearing sneekers.

      History doesn’t really repeat itself but it does rhyme.

    3. They can do a lot of good by influencing the Iraqi commanders in the field. Even if we still had 10k troops in Iraq, much of the work would be done by Iraqi units with American advisers.

  3. I think I read where some of the “300” are to be used to secure the airport. This would be in case a bugout is required. I hope..HOPE – that Putz-POTUS will shut his effing arrogance off and LISTEN to the military and advisors and remove all non-essentials; get ready for a swift and complete bugout.

    The very last thing we need is another Iranian Hostage-type crisis. Or worse…beheaded embassy personnel and Marines. Or both.

    Seems I was wrong about Turkey not wanting a “Kurdistan”. I guess since it’s on Iraqi territory and not Turkish territory, that they see it as a net positive. Maybe, they figure, they can get rid of the troublesome Kurds on their own territory.

    I also hope we have established a military presence with the Peshmerga.

    1. Gregg,

      More likely they see it as a buffer zone between them and the crazies that want to take Iraq over. As such it not only makes sense to give them their own nation, but to give them the arms needed to protect their borders.

  4. Of course the big question is if Rep. McCarthy will actually use his powers to benefit “New Space”. Rep. Gingrich was a big advocate for space in his writing, even calling for a return to the Moon in his 1985 book “Window of Opportunity”, yet when he had the power to do something he basically did nothing…

    Time will tell if he is any different, or if he’s “support” for “New Space” is just because his district happens to include Mojave Air and Space port he’s “working” them for funding.

    As a side note, most of his committee assignments have been related to banking and finance, where the big money is 🙂

    1. Well, the real problem is that one of his “features” (and why he won) is that he will be more deferent to committee chairs than Cantor was. So the only hope is that he’ll be able to shake up the committee leadership next year. With him as Majority Leader and Dana as chair of the Science Committee (assuming he can buy off Lamar Smith with another committee) things could be looking up.

      1. Rand,

        They could IF Rep. Rohrabacher is given the committee. But the unknown is what Rep. McCarthy had to promise other representatives to get elected.

        Meanwhile CNN really doesn’t see any changes in committee assignments resulting from it,

        http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/19/politics/house-republican-whip-race/

        [[[Operationally, few expect McCarthy’s rise to significantly change how Republicans run the House.

        Supporters say Republican proposals will come largely from committees and McCarthy’s mainly will focus on using his political skills to help shape the GOP message and strategy to push its agenda, and help coordinate with Senate Republicans, who are in the minority.]]]

        also note this…

        [[[Some members on the right see McCarthy as the establishment candidate, and disagree with his position on immigration, a hot-button issue.

        McCarthy, who represents an agricultural district, has expressed support for some type of legal status for undocumented workers.

        Before last week’s stunning upset of Cantor many considered McCarthy as potentially the most vulnerable member of the House Republican leadership team.

        During his tenure as whip, there were several embarrassing episodes, when high profile bills — such as the farm bill and GOP debt limit plans — failed to pass.]]]

        So we will just have to wait and see what happens.

      2. With him as Majority Leader and Dana as chair of the Science Committee (assuming he can buy off Lamar Smith with another committee) things could be looking up.

        I dunno… I have the impression that, bizarrely enough, Smith has a genuine interest in the Science Committee and would be reluctant to give it up.

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