Photo Of The Day

Obama taking Romney’s concession call on election night.

Man in the Middle

Speaker to speak live at news conference at 11 AM.

Obama’s Secret Plan?

Mitch McConnell says President Obama’s effort to take the debt-ceiling off the table is part of the President’s secret plan to assume “unprecedented power” to spend taxpayer dollars to his heart’s content.

Live Chat with Prof. William Schabas

This morning at 10 AM eastern we’ll be hosting a Live Chat with Professor William Schabas, a Professor of international law at Middlesex University in London, at TPMPrime. The subject of the chat is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the implications of the UN vote to upgrade Palestine’s status to that of a non-member state. Get your questions in now and join us at 10 AM.

The Mother of All Government Shutdowns

It seems crystal clear that Republicans will and know that they will concede the game on rates and try to reclaim power with a new debt ceiling hostage drama early next year. Having spent a few days in DC, it seems clear to me that absent a dramatic and preemptive climb down on the part of Congressional Republicans, this means we’re headed for the Mother of All Government Shutdowns.

Here’s why.

Update for Primates

I just posted an update on the new discussion forum software we’re building for TPMPrime. Stop by and give us your input.

Oh He’ll Fit Right In

If you have any doubt that Jim DeMint’s brand of path-of-destruction, everything is political, lose as many Senate seats as possible brand of conservatism will fit in at today’s Heritage Foundation, check out this video.

Feel the Love, Smell the Glove

Emerging ‘Fire Boehner’ lobby getting love from Palin-esque resignee DeMint.

More on Asterisk Bonds

More on Asterisk Bonds from TPM Reader MM …

I think you’re exactly right. Any Treasuries auctioned during a time of dispute would have to be sold at some sort of discount. It’s one thing for the credit rating to take a hit. This would be about actually issuing disputed bonds. Bondholders might rightly reason that they have a legitimate claim but the beauty of Treasuries, as opposed to other sovereigns and corporate securities, is that investors do not have to worry about things like that, ever.

McConnell’s Accidental Genius

It goes without saying on Capitol Hill that Mitch McConnell is one of the most deft parliamentarians in Congress. Even if that makes him akin to a Bond villain in your eyes, you can’t deny the fact that he’s a tactical master of the powers available to party leaders in the Senate.

But every now and again, he’s a bit too cocksure, and he makes an error. This past summer, Harry Reid outmaneuvered him, and he allowed a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts for middle-income earners to pass almost by accident. Today, he tried to embarrass Senate Democrats and the White House by calling for a vote on Barack Obama’s plan to allow the President, instead of Congress, to raise the debt ceiling. Well it turns out Democrats were perfectly willing to support that plan, and he ended up having to filibuster his own gambit.

In so doing he nearly dealt away the GOP’s last significant source of leverage over President Obama. If Senate Democrats can, and are allowed, to effectively raise the debt ceiling on their own, without GOP votes, House Republicans will be isolated next year, threatening to wreck the global economy rather than pass a viable Senate Democratic bill to avert a needless, politically motivated disaster.

Not Just the 14th Amendment

Many opponents of GOP debt-ceiling hostage taking have been pointing for more than a year to the idea that the 14th Amendment might give the President authority to continue borrowing money even without a debt-ceiling vote. In other words, the entire concept of debt-ceiling votes are themselves unconstitutional because the President has the borrowing authority himself. I actually think there’s something to the argument. But the White House clearly does not. And that’s probably not even the biggest problem.

New Day, New Sun

Notwithstanding the fact the GOP is now a whiter party than at any time in its history, no two ways about it: An African-American Senator from the post-Reconstruction South, from South Carolina of all places, would be a new day under the Sun.