“McConnell fallback plan would leave debt-ceiling hikes to Obama.” That is, cede the constitutional authority of Congress to the Executive branch — presumably to force Obama into making the politically unpopular move and save themselves from having to stand tough to the end. With the casualty being limited government itself. And here we were praising McConnell. Silly fucking us, we should have known better. Fail. **** update: could it be

CBS News: President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks. “I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it,”

Or rather, they speak a little more forthrightly. And frankly, it’s refreshing. — Though, to David Brooks, it’s a sign that they’re being held hostage by extremist bitter clingers who are too daft to appreciate the crease in Obama’s pant leg. To which I say, just declare yourself a Democrat and get it over with.

It occurs to me that Bill Hicks was essentially the Obama of stand up comedy — and that, for all the hagiography that surrounds him, the only real boundaries he pushed were those that disguised a rather obvious and pathetic pander for acceptance as a form of faux cosmopolitanism and wannabe intellectualism. That even saying such is considered a sort of pop-culture sacrilege explains, at least to me, the “historic”

No wonder this guy thinks the Constitution a “flawed document”: it gives voice to those who aren’t “professional politicians” — and such people really need to keep their bitter clinger mouths shut and let the super smart people (who can be identified by their having never done much besides tell others what they should be doing) do the heavy lifting. — Which, if the President wants to take this tack,