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CNET News’ Declan McCullagh reported yesterday that the U.S. Senate passed a $26 billion bill, which didn’t even have its name filled in.

The bill passed 61 to 39.

So, we have 61 Senators who are so vigilant and thorough in their analysis of the legislation they are voting on that none of them noticed that the bill didn’t even have a title?

And some people wonder why Congress has a 21% approval rating…

Web watchdog spots unusual congressional gaffe | Politics and Law – CNET News.

Well, no she didn’t actually say that.

What she said was, Democrats would stop blaming Bush ‘when the problems go away.’

As far as I’ve know, she’s been Speaker of the House since January 3rd, 2007 – nearly 3 and a half years.

But, according to her, the problems the U.S. is facing can all be pinned on Bush.

Take for instance the U.S. budget deficit.

She blames Bush for the budget deficits, but she doesn’t seem to remember that the White House only submits a budget request.  It is the House of Representatives which originates the actual legislation to implement the budget.

The same House of Representatives which she has controlled for three and a half years and which has passed three budgets during her tenure as Speaker.

As far as I can tell, Madame Speaker Pelosi’ ‘just blame Bush’ politics are about as helpful as the Republicans’ “Just say ‘No’ to ‘O’” legislative campaign.

In other words, she’s just a part of the problem  – not the solution.

Which brings me back to the title I chose for this post – “Nancy Pelosi Says She’ll Keep Blaming Bush As Long As She’s Speaker of the House.”

I’m not sure if Florida Representative Dick Grayson was joking or serious, but based on some of the previous statements he has made, I’d bet he was at least half serious. Listen to the clip and form your own opinion.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d surely like to see President Obama kick someone’s ass over this oil spill and I’m certainly favor moving towards green/renewable energy sources, but calling for the rounding up and imprisonment of U.S. citizens because they favor expansion of oil drilling as a path towards reduced dependency on foreign oil is just being, well, an ass.

I’m sure there has to be more to his speech than this clip, but as far as I know, Harry Reid is second only to Vice President Ramblin’ Joe Biden for the number of times he has put his foot in his mouth, so I’ll take my chances that this is really all he said.

Harry Reid is closing in on the Veep, though, as the White House has done an incredible job of keeping Ramblin’ Joe occupied with no-press-allowed meetings on transparency in government and trips to Iraq to do, you know, Vice Presidential, er, “stuff”.

I do have to wonder, however… if this is Harry Reid’s idea of good news on the jobs front, what the heck are we in for when (if) the Democrat’s health insurance reform plan is passed (whichever and whatever that plan actually ends up being).

Here’s Harry:

I like Roland S Martin.  He usually provides very good analysis and commentary.

In his latest piece at CNN.com (“Time for Obama to go ‘gangsta’ on GOP “) , though, I think he tanks an otherwise good article with a misguided summation paragraph.

He sums up the article nicely near the beginning:

For me, I’m sick and tired of Democrats having power and being unwilling to use it. I’ve always respected Republicans when they had power because they were willing to use it and maybe apologize later.

His basic idea isn’t bad – President Obama needs to play hardball in order to move his agenda forward.

Now, I don’t agree with everything in the Democratic agenda (more often than not, it is the means I have a fundamental dislike for, not necessarily the ends), but I do find it interesting that even when they had total control over Congress and the White House, the Democrats were unable to push through their ‘signature’ legislative pieces (in particular Health Insurance Reform and Cap and Trade).

Personally, I think it was because of President Obama’s decision to let Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid drive the agenda – a mistake President Obama first made with the ‘Spendulus’ package and repeated with the Health Insurance Reform legislation. Read more…

James O’Keefe, the man who brought infamy to ACORN with his hidden-video recordings of himself (posing as a pimp) and a female friend (posing as a prostitute)  being given advice by ACORN employees on how to break the law, has been arrested and “accused of trying to tamper with Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office phones”, reports the AP.

Mr. O’Keefe and three others were allegedly involved in some sort of plot to gain access to Landrieu’s New Orleans office’s phone system. Two of the men were stopped trying to enter Senator Landrieu’s office, which is located in a federal building. They were posing as telephone workers, dressed in “hard hats, tool belts and fluorescent vests.”

Others arrested in connection with the incident are listed as Joseph Basel, Stan Dai, and Robert Flanagan.

I’m not sure what to make of this.

The AP reports that “O’Keefe was sitting in the waiting area of Landrieu’s office and appeared to record Basel and Flanagan on his cell phone when they arrived posing as phone workers”, so it doesn’t sound like they were really attempting to ‘tamper’ with the phones.

Why?

If they were, they probably wouldn’t have been trying to record themselves doing it.

On the other hand, they were messing around in a Senator’s office in a federal building, which is, in a word, unwise.

Whatever they were trying to do, Mr. O’Keefe may be wishing he had quit while he was ahead… I’ve heard the Department of Homeland Security and FBI aren’t too keen on people trying to monkey around in federal buildings.

UPDATE:

I was doing further reading and it appears that they were actually tampering with the phone system.

The whole hidden-camera expose is one thing, but this really does sound like wire-tapping (or something similar).

I’m pretty sure that is a big ‘no-no’.

Unless you have a warrant to do so.

Or, you are the government and can persuade telcos to do it for you without a warrant and then get Congress to give them a blanket immunity after the fact.

Whichever way works for you.

I think the way you aren’t supposed to do it is get a couple of guys to dress up in phone repairman costumes and try to bug a U.S. Senator’s office.

In other words, have fun in the big house, guys!