News Roundup for 7/16/10

House minority leader Boehner

-Headline of the day-
"Boehner: No more new Federal regulations!"

House minority leader, would-be House speaker, and pillar of the Orange-American community John Boehner has had it up to here with burdensome regulations on industry! It's liberals' answer to everything. A big oil volcano in the Gulf of Mexico because the oil industry wasn't paying attention? More regulations on the oil industry! Wall Street melts down because it had become a rigged casino? More regulations on Wall Street! A mine in West Virginia caves in because mining safety regulations are pretty much nonexistent? More regulations on the mining industry! We need a moratorium on new regulations! Do it, do it now!

Seriously, wasn't everything going just fine before?

This hit the blogs and everyone agreed that John Boehner was being stupid, so he checked the polls and figured he could afford to throw the oil industry out the window. "More regulation of Big Oil!" Boehner's spokesman said later in the day. "Boo for Big Oil! We're gonna call those "emergency regulations," so those don't count. Other than that, no more regulations..."

You know what I'm having trouble remembering? A statement by John Boehner that wasn't walked back the same day. (Plum Line)


-The party of ideas-
Republicans are being accused of be all obstruction and no ideas. In fact, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that the GOP could get away with adopting "We're Against Things!" as the official GOP motto. If that doesn't seem classy enough, then whatever that is in Latin.

But Rep. Peter King takes offense at the accusation. Republicans are totally for things and they'd love to tell you what those things are, but it's a secret -- shhh!

In a discussion with radio host Bill Bennett -- who wants to abort black babies, by the way -- King explained that as soon as Republicans explain what they stand for, everyone's going to make a big deal about how dumb they are. So mum's the word.

"...I don t think we have to lay out a complete agenda, from top to bottom," he told Bill, "because then we would have the national mainstream media jumping on every point trying to make that a campaign issue."

So if you think you've figured out what the GOP stands for, don't tell anyone! Not only will it screw up their chances in November, but it'll spoil the surprise. (Think Progress)


-Bonus HotD-
"Hannity: 'I can't find any' racist Tea Party signs."

Finding works better when you actually look, Sean. (Raw Story, with video)