Ron Paul Portrays Himself as Champion of Minorities in Interview on Fox News' Neil Cavuto

He still doesn't address the core issue: Why would Ron Paul permit such inflammatory newsletters go out in his name? Paul says it's ironic he's getting hammered on this, since he's the biggest "civil libertarian" in the race, who backs the rights of minorities against government. That's chutzpah, I'll tell you. And he goes on to blow off the more incendiary charges as perhaps a failure of management. By now most people don't buy that Paul had no clue of these things, and the candidate simply keeps the discussion away from the clearly racist statements by saying that the "race war" stuff was less than 1 percent of what was published in what was basically a "hard money newsletter."

See also New York Times, "Gingrich Criticizes Paul on Newsletters and Foreign Policy."

And Robert Stacy McCain has a limited defense of Paul, seeing the newsletters as fringe fundraising classics of the pre-Internet era, "Classics of the Golden Age of Fringe, Or: Ron Paul Digs the Beatles’ White Album."

EXTRA: Ta-Nehisi Coates has a sick obsession with finding racism in every crack or crevice under the sun, so it's no surprise that the Paul letters have been a bonanza for his blogging. That said, I can't really disagree with this:

Yesteday [sic] Ron Paul claimed on CNN that he'd never read the newsletters that went out in his name. Here is Ron Paul in a 1995 video discussing the very newsletters he claims to never have read.

If you can find away to explain away a hateful newsletter written in someone's own name, it's likely you can find some way to explain this video away too. There's always a path to make yourself right, if that's your intent. Indeed, at this point it probably behooves me to stop arguing.

Yeah, House Republicans Screwed Up — So Suck It Up and Get Back to Fighting Democrat Big-Government

I'm glad Boehner "caved," as the radical progressives describe it.

Now Republicans can work to minimize the public relations fallout over being bizarrely tarred as favoring tax increases on the middle class. It's going to take a few news cycles and perhaps a few pessimistic economic forecasts before the administration will be forced back into what should rightfully be a defense of its failed policies. In the meanwhile, the MFM outlets are having a field day with the schadenfreude, so might as well roll with it for a while.

At New York Times, "The House Backs Down":

For a full year, House Republicans have replaced governing with confrontations that they allow to reach the brink of crisis, only then making extreme demands in exchange for a resolution. On Thursday, that strategy crumbled. Battered by public opinion and undermined by more reasonable Senate Republicans, the House’s leaders backed down and signed off on a deal to continue the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance for two months.

The House Republicans’ stubborn opposition to the extension “may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world,” Speaker John Boehner said, in the understatement of the week. He still called it “a good fight.”

If the deal goes through on Friday — and even one angry lawmaker could stall it — the paychecks of 160 million workers will not shrink for at least eight weeks and three million jobless workers will keep their benefits. That will be paid for largely by mortgage fees, and negotiations will resume on paying for the remaining 10 months.

A Republican demand that President Obama make a decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline will remain in the measure, as negotiated by the Senate last week. Republicans also won some minor adjustments to prevent small businesses from being harmed by the extension.

The struggle to reach an agreement, which was a clear victory for President Obama, exposed voters in the starkest way to the real temperament of the House that Americans elected a year ago. If the president wants it, they’re against it. If it might assist the middle class, as opposed to the rich, they will concoct an economic argument to oppose it. (“The payroll tax cut isn’t really that effective.”) And if it absolutely has to pass, they will throw in stray ideas — an oil pipeline, air pollution regulations — to win some part of their agenda, or kill the bill trying.

The Republican wounds this time were entirely self-inflicted. The crisis over the two-month extension wasn’t really about the payroll tax at all; it was about the hurt feelings of bumptious House members having to accede to a deal driven by the Senate and the White House. The real confrontation, over paying for the tax cut, is yet to come.

Well, enjoy the moment, New York Times. Paying for that "tax cut" is really more about paying for the endless entitlement state, which we can't afford and which is killing innovation and entrepreneurialism. The GOP House screwed up the messaging and tactics, but the larger goal to starve the bureaucratic beast is a necessity. The tough choices of reinventing government would perhaps be less wrenching during a period of robust growth. But we don't have any luxuries right now.

See Don Surber for more on that, "It’s worse than Zero Hedge said."

Obama Claims Victory as Congress Reaches Payroll Tax Deal

It's a good thing Boehner took the deal. The GOP was getting hammered on this, letting the Obama-Democrat-Socialists seize the mantle of tax-cutters. What a joke that is.

At Los Angeles Times, "Lawmakers reach tentative deal on payroll tax cut; House action Friday":

The agreement amounts to a reversal of sorts for the House Republican majority, which had rejected a compromise plan that the Senate overwhelmingly passed last weekend to extend relief for wage-earners for 60 more days.

Boehner had said the House wanted a full-year extension, and called on President Obama to demand the Democratic-controlled Senate return to Washington to continue negotiations.

Earlier Thursday, the Ohio Republican showed little sign of reversing course, convening his top negotiators in an otherwise-empty Capitol to call on Democrats to join them for "serious negotiations."

Asked later about the perception that Republicans had caved, Boehner said, "I think our members waged a good fight." He admitted, though, that it may not have been a politically popular one.

The White House issued a statement from Obama congratulating members "for ending the partisan stalemate.""This is good news, just in time for the holidays," he said.

"This is the right thing to do to strengthen our families, grow our economy, and create new jobs."

I commented on this debacle previously at length. But check Howard Portnoy at Hot Air, "The GOP’s costly fumble over the payroll tax extension." And also, Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "Capitol Hill Fiasco Again Shows Why Obama is No Pushover." More at Memeorandum.

Experts See a False Dawn in Economy's Recent Gains

Here's hoping the bad economic news weighs heavier on the voters than GOP incompetence.

At New York Times, "Signs Point to Economy's Rise, but Experts See a False Dawn":

WASHINGTON — As the fourth quarter draws to a close, a spate of unexpectedly good economic data suggests that it will have some of the fastest and strongest economic growth since the recovery started in 2009, causing a surge in the stock market and cheering economists, investors and policy makers.

In recent weeks, a broad range of data — like reports on new residential construction and small business confidence — have beaten analysts’ expectations. Initial claims for jobless benefits, often an early indicator of where the labor market is headed, have dropped to their lowest level since May 2008. And prominent economics groups say the economy is growing three to four times as quickly as it was early in the year, at an annual pace of about 3.7 percent.

But the good news also comes with a significant caveat. Many forecasters say the recent uptick probably does not represent the long-awaited start to a strong, sustainable recovery. Much of the current strength is caused by temporary factors. And economists expect growth to slow in the first half of 2012 to an annual pace of about 1.5 to 2 percent.

Even that estimate could be optimistic if Washington lawmakers fail to extend aid for the long-term unemployed and a payroll tax cut for the United States’ 160 million wage earners.

At stake is about $150 billion, the bulk of which would go to middle-class families and the unemployed. If Congress does not pass the measures, economists say, it would significantly weaken growth from already-damped levels anticipated early in the new year.

Well, come to think of it, Boehner and friends may still find a way to give the Dems all the political advantages of the lousy economy.

More on that coming up later...

GOP's Taking a Beating On Payroll Tax Extension

Image is everything, as Andre Agassi used to say.

And I can't see how the House GOP expects to win the public relations battle over the payroll tax holiday when you've got this kind of obstructionist imagery right at before the Christmas holiday. It looks really bad:

And the MFM headlines aren't helping either. At Christian Science Monitor, "In payroll tax battle, GOP shows cracks under Democratic pressure." At CBS News, "House GOP takes a political beating in payroll tax fight."And at Washington Post, "After payroll-tax debacle, GOP goes into damage-control mode."

Harsh: Wall Street Journal Slams GOP's 'Circular Firing Squad' on Payroll Tax Debacle

It's a devastating indictment, and depressing if you're a conservative.

See: "The GOP's Payroll Tax Fiasco."

And the story's trending at Memeorandum. No doubt progressives are eating this up, since they live for the deception.

It's Time for Senate Democrats to Stop Procrastinating and Join House Republicans to Get America Back to Work

At Los Angeles Times, "Boehner rejects tax cut deal":

House Speaker John A. Boehner escalated a year-end showdown over President Obama's payroll tax cut by rejecting a Senate-passed compromise — jeopardizing the $1,000 average annual benefit for 160 million working Americans and risking the blame if taxes rise.

The Republican-controlled House was expected to vote down the Senate's two-month extension of the tax break Monday in a largely symbolic demonstration that the stopgap deal is unacceptable. The tax break expires Dec. 31."How can you do tax policy for two months?" Boehner (R-Ohio) said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We should do this for the full year as the president asked for."

The speaker's dismissal of the deal reached by the Senate's Republican and Democratic leaders presents another example of his willingness to cater to the GOP's conservatives and tests his grip on the often-unwieldy Republican House majority.

House members are being called back to Washington as Republicans try to kick-start negotiations with Democrats by either amending the bill or launching formal talks on compromise. But they could end up shadowboxing. The Senate has left town and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he would refuse to engage in further talks until the House approved the short-term extension that passed the Senate on Saturday by a bipartisan margin, 89 to 10.

Harry Reid is the biggest loser.

I can't wait until November for when the freakin' Democrat-Socialists get the freakin' boot at the ballot box.

Also, at National Journal, "Why This Congressional Chaos Is Not About to End."

Ron Paul's Ground Game in Iowa Could Be Decisive

I mentioned this possibility at my essay this week at PJ Media.

See New York Times, "Paul’s ‘Ground Game,’ in Place Since ’08, Gives Him an Edge":

ANKENY, Iowa — It was four years ago that Ross Witt, a soft-spoken electrical engineer at John Deere, overcame his natural discomfort with knocking on hundreds of his neighbors’ doors during dinnertime as a precinct coordinator for Ron Paul’s campaign.

But when Mr. Paul dropped out of the national race in June 2008, Mr. Witt did not stop, because, in a sense, neither did Mr. Paul: Mr. Witt and many other supporters here joined the Iowa branch of an independent political group Mr. Paul established after the race. They carried on his libertarian message, and picked local organizers. And when Mr. Paul announced that he was running for president this year, Mr. Witt and others jumped back onto his campaign, a force more motivated and efficient than before.

Alone among the Republican field, Mr. Paul, a Texas congressman, has a built-in network from 2008 that gives him a decisive organizational edge. Iowa Republicans say that advantage is an important reason some polls show him within striking distance of a victory in the Jan. 3 caucuses, with a battle-tested ground game poised to take advantage of a lack of passion for the rest of the candidates, a stark contrast to 2008, when evangelicals rallied around Mike Huckabee.

“This isn’t a year-and-a-half campaign,” Craig Robinson, a former Iowa Republican Party political director during the caucuses four years ago, said of Mr. Paul’s organization. “This is a five-year campaign.”

More at the link.

RELATED: At ABC News, "Ron Paul Takes Swipes at GOP Rivals, Says Michele Bachmann ‘Hates Muslims’." (Via Memeorandum.)

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers on 'The Kudlow Report'

Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers discusses the U.S. role in the European debt crisis:

And see John Gizzi, at Human Events, ""Exclusive: IMF Chief Lagarde, Rep. McMorris Rodgers in Sitdown," and at Telegraph UK, "Christine Lagarde: European financial crisis is too serious for eurozone countries to solve alone."

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers: 'We Are Changing the Course Here in America to a Pro-Growth Agenda'

McMorris Rogers hammers the administration's threatened veto of the payroll tax cut extension with the Keystone XL provision.

Also earlier at New York Times, "House Republicans’ Bill Sets Up Pipeline Battle."

PREVIOUSLY: "House Approves Payroll Tax Cut Extension."

House Approves Payroll Tax Cut Extension

At National Journal, "House Passes Payroll-Tax Package Obama Has Threatened to Veto":

Legislation to extend the payroll-tax holiday, reduce and extend unemployment benefits, and avoid a 27 percent cut to Medicare doctor reimbursement passed the House on Tuesday by a vote of 234 to 193.

The legislation, which passed with just 10 Democratic votes, will head to the Senate where a vote is expected later this week. Leadership aides in the Senate said they expect the GOP-drafted legislation to fail when it reaches the Senate floor.

Leaders in both the House and the Senate have agreed to extend the programs in the GOP legislation, but the fight still continues over the size of the unemployment program, the future of the Keystone XL pipeline, and how to pay for the package. Democratic objection to the House-passed bill led to an official veto threat from President Obama on Tuesday.

Also at New York Times, "House Passes Extension of Cut to Payroll Taxes" (via Memorandum).

Occupy Wall Street to Attend Capitol Hill Meeting Chaired by Congressional Progressive Caucus

The congressional commies will hold a hearing with the anarcho-commie scumbag murderers and rapists.

See Weasel Zippers, "Report: Occupy Wall Street Protesters oo Address Congressional Progressive Caucus Meeting…" (via Astute Bloggers).

Yep.

Real revolutionary communists to meet with real congressional communists, despite the lies of their progressive enablers. See: "Communist REPSAC = CASPER Takes Umbrage?"

RELATED: At Commie Blaster, "PROGRESSIVES = SOCIALISTS = COMMUNISTS = LEFT-WING RADICALS = ANTI-CAPITALISTS = UNAMERICAN."

BONUS: At Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Marxist Congresswoman Susan Davis Speaks to Occupy San Diego talks about fishermen and cutting holes in boats."

Scott Brown Faces Tough Challenge From Elizabeth Warren

At Wall Street Journal, "Scott Brown's Strategy":

This week Senate Republicans blocked President Obama's nomination of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Only two Republicans broke ranks -- Olympia Snowe of Maine and Scott Brown of Massachusetts -- and both senators are up for re-election next year.

Ms. Snowe should win handily if she isn't toppled by a primary challenger. Mr. Brown's re-election prospects, by contrast, are shakier. Two new polls show the GOP freshman trailing Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor who helped establish the CFPB and is expected to be the Democratic nominee. The University of Massachusetts-Amherst gives Ms. Warren a four-point lead and a University of Massachusetts-Lowell/Boston Herald poll has her up by seven points. Three months ago, most polls showed Mr. Brown slightly ahead. The senator's approval rating has also fallen by eight points to 45%, though his favorables are still in positive territory and exceed Ms. Warren's.

While the poll results may be disconcerting for Mr. Brown and Senate Republicans, they're not unexpected. Ms. Warren's campaign has spent $1.5 million on an ad that portrays her as a defender of the middle class. And the League of Conservation Voters has dumped $2 million on spots that tar Mr. Brown as a Washington insider. The real surprise is that Mr. Brown still leads Ms. Warren, 53-37, with independents. Because Republicans constitute less than 15% of the Massachusetts electorate, Mr. Brown will probably have to win more than two-thirds of the independent vote and probably pick up some Democrats as well.

Continue reading.

VIDEO HAT TIP: Los Angeles Times, "Elizabeth Warren blasts 'ridiculous' charge in ad by Karl Rove group."

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Serves Thanksgiving Meal to Troops at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson

At Boston Globe, "Giffords serves Thanksgiving meal at Ariz. base."

Obama Rushes to Blame GOP for Super Committee Failure

Via Gateway Pundit:

Newt Gingrich Surges to Top of Pack in Presidential Nomination Polling

I'm not surprised. Folks are looking for the alternative to Mitt Romney --- and Gingrich's wonkishness is a needed dose of gravitas.

At Gallup, "Romney, Gingrich Now Top Choices for GOP Nomination" (via Memeorandum). Gingrich beats Romney 22 to 21 percent among Republican-leaning registered voters at Gallup. And at CNN, "Gingrich at top of pack for first time in CNN polling."

The question now is whether Gingrich can maintain the momentum over the next six weeks until Iowa, or will he fade from the spotlight like every other Republican alternative to Mitt Romney all year? See, for example, USA Today, "Rising from the pack, Gingrich invites scrutiny."

PREVIOUSLY: "Newt Gingrich to Occupy Wall Street: 'Go Get a Job Right After You Take a Bath'."

Bachmann Decries 'Bailout Socialism'

At Los Angeles Times, "Michele Bachmann says Bush, GOP embraced 'bailout socialism'."

Reporting from Urbandale, Iowa— Michele Bachmann goes after not only Democrats but also fellow Republicans in her new book, accusing former President George W. Bush and her GOP colleagues in Congress of failing to stay true to conservative, free-market principles when they supported the $700-billion Wall Street bailout.

"The Bush administration … was embracing a kind of 'bailout socialism,' " wrote the Minnesota congresswoman, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination. "It was painful to find out John McCain too favored the TARP bailout. … Here was no ‘maverick’ moment. The same disappointing stance was taken by the Republican leadership in the House."

"I knew there was no way I could vote for it, because I couldn’t find authority for it in the Constitution,” Bachmann continued. “As a constitutional conservative, I put principle over party."

Debt 'Super Committee' to Announce Failure

I'm going to have more on this later. The "super committee" was an utter joke to begin with.

See National Journal, "Super Committee Talks Break Down."

And at New York Times, "Lawmakers Concede Budget Talks Are Close to Failure."

WASHINGTON — Conceding that talks on a grand budget deal are near failure, Congressional leaders on Sunday pointed fingers at each other as they tried to deflect blame for their inability to figure out a way to lower the federal deficit without having to rely on automated cuts.

The testy exchanges — which dominated the Sunday talk shows — made clear that leaders in both parties now see the so-called sequester — a term meaning an automatic spending cut — as the most likely solution to reduce the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years, instead of a negotiated package of spending reductions and tax increases, something they have been unable to achieve over the last 10 weeks.

Democrats blamed the Republicans for their unwillingness to walk away from a no-new-taxes pact they signed at the request of a conservative, antitax group, arguing that the American public realizes that no grand deal could be reached without a combination of spending cuts and new tax revenues.

“As long as we have some Republican lawmakers who feel more enthralled with a pledge they took to a Republican lobbyist than they do to a pledge to the country to solve the problems, this is going to be hard to do,” Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, the co-chairwoman of the 12-member special Congressional committee on deficit reduction, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

It's the spending, not no new taxes.

Expect updates.

GOP Tax Pledge Is Hurdle to Deficit-Reduction Deal — Or Is It?

At New York Times, "Economic Memo: Tax Pledge May Scuttle a Deal on Deficit."

It's a good piece. But I think the claim that the tax pledge is the main driver of GOP decision-making behavior is off base. Spending it out of control today in a way that is dramatically different from earlier eras. That's what Senator Jeff Sessions is talking about, for example:

Occupy L.A. Day of Action

A video from Reason.tv:

Also a slideshow at L.A. Weekly, "Occupy LA: Day of Actions in Downtown Los Angeles."