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As our friends over at Show Me Progress noted this Tuesday evening, Claire, you must be living right. Regardless of what the polls show right now, I don't think Rep. Todd Akin's primary win in Missouri to face off against incumbent Sen. Clair McCaskill is good news for Republicans in the Show Me state. He's a wingnut of the first order and hopefully is not going to be very attractive to general election voters once they start to get a better look at him.

Back in 2009, we shared this lovely video of the Representative, making jokes about lynching his Democratic colleagues, which you can watch above. It was apparently a big hit with his constituents in his district, but he's going to have to appeal to voters all across the state now, and I'm sure there are a good deal of us besides myself that don't find lynching jokes particularly funny.

In August of last year, Akin refused to meet with his constituents to defend his vote to eliminate Medicare which you can watch the video of here: Rep. Todd Akin Refuses to Meet With Constituents and Defend Vote to Eliminate Medicare.

And we got a reminder on primary night from some local bloggers as to why Akin is going to have some trouble come the general election as well. From MO_Snark: The One reason Todd akin will lose to Claire McCaskill:

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In a 2002 video recently uncovered by ABC News, then-Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Mitt Romney bragged about being able to get taxpayer dollars from Washington, D.C.

"I am big believer in getting money where the money is," Romney said in an address to the New Bedford Industrial Foundation on Oct. 16, 2002. "The money is in Washington."

“I want to go after every grant, every project, every department in Washington to assure that we are taking advantage of economic development opportunities,” the candidate explained.

At a campaign event last week, Romney took aim at rival Rick Santorum for being a Washington insider, but in the 2002 video, the Massachusetts Republican touted his D.C. connections.

“I have learned from my Olympic experience that if you have people who really understand how Washington works and have personal associations there you can get money to help build economic development opportunities,” Romney said.

The former Massachusetts also recently suggested during a Republican presidential debate that he had not taken any more money from the federal government for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games than previous games.

Again, the 2002 video recorded by Democratic operatives tells a different story.

"We actually received over $410 million from the federal government for the Olympic games," Romney boasted. "That is a huge increase over anything ever done before and we did that by going after every agency of government."

At one point, he even explained how one of his colleagues managed to get Olympic funding from the Department of Education.

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As Cenk pointed out in the clip above, so much for these so-called "fiscal conservatives" who pretend like they're against pork barrel spending. Richard Shelby, hypocrisy is thy name, but what's new?

‘Fiscal Conservative’ Richard Shelby Forces NASA To Spend $1.4 Million A Day On Program It Doesn’t Want:

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) is a “self-professed fiscal conservative” who often rails against government spending and the supposed fiscally imprudent policies of his progressive opponents. He recently put out a statement that said, “Washington must put its fiscal house in order. American taxpayers are rightly infuriated by the federal government’s disregard for the same economic principles that govern every household and business budget.” Yet when it comes to pork barrel spending for his home state, he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to waste taxpayers’ money. The Chicago Tribune reports today that a provision Shelby inserted into the 2010 budget that has survived both recent continuing resolutions is costing taxpayers more than a million dollars every single day. The “Shelby provision,” as it is called, forces NASA to spend $1.4 million daily on the Constellation moon program, which it already canceled and doesn’t even want... Read on...

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It looks like the Jim DeMint's of the world got their way on the Senate passing a spending bill before this session is over. I guess the Republicans finally had enough of being mocked for their hypocrisy on earmarks and worrying about primary challengers. But first and foremost, the Republicans like DeMint are just doing their best to run out the clock on the last hours of the lame duck session of Congress so the Democrats can get as little passed as possible.

BREAKING: Senate Democrats give up bid to pass $1.1 trillion spending bill:

In a dramatic twist played out on the floor of the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid conceded Thursday night he lacked the votes to bring up a nearly $1.1 trillion spending bill designed to fund the federal government for the rest of the current fiscal year.

Reid, D-Nevada, accused Republicans of withdrawing previously pledged support for the bill, and said he would work with the Senate Republican leader to draft a short-term spending measure that would keep the government running beyond Saturday, when the current spending authorization resolution expires.

The panel on AC 360 discussed Harry Reid's decision to pull the bill and the Republicans hypocrisy on earmarks with coming out against it.

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From The Senate Democrats, Republicans are finally taking a little bit of heat in the press for their hypocrisy on earmarks.

Republicans Say One Thing In Washington And Something Else At Home:

Senate Republicans took a lot of heat yesterday for stuffing a bill with millions of their own earmarks, then trying to claim they oppose earmarks. but Republicans’ earmark hypocrisy is even starker when you compare what they are saying in Washington, DC to what they are saying to their constituents back home.

In D.C., DeMint Decries Earmarks: “Americans want Congress to shut down the earmark favor factory, and next week I believe House and Senate Republicans will unite to stop pork barrel spending…Instead of spending time chasing money for pet projects, lawmakers will be able to focus on balancing the budget, reforming the tax code and repealing the costly health care takeover.” [The Hill, 11/9/10]

…But In South Carolina, DeMint Defends Earmarks: “U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint said fellow senators are ‘playing politics’ in blocking his colleague's efforts to secure a $400,000 earmark to study deepening Charleston Harbor.” [Herald Online, 9/11/10]

In D.C. , Cornyn Poses As An Anti-Earmark Champion: “I believe the public discontent can be accurately sourced, and Congressional earmarking process has become a symbol for wasteful and undisciplined federal spending. Earlier this month, I joined a bipartisan group calling for a one year moratorium on all earmarks. That effort failed. We missed a major opportunity to show we are serious about tightening our Congressional belts during a difficult economic period.” [Everyone Loses in the Earmark Game, 3/31/08]

… But In Texas, Cornyn Downplays Significance Of His Earmark Opposition, Emphasizes That It’s Only Temporary: Cornyn told the Dallas Morning News that the earmark ban, “’basically is a timeout while we reassess this whole earmarking process, which has been in some instances abused,’ said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the GOP leadership… Cornyn, like some other moratorium supporters, said the policy should not and won't last indefinitely but agreed that for now, ‘it will have an impact on Texas, just as it will have an impact on the rest of the country.’” [Dallas Morning News, 11/26/10]?

… And Requests Millions In Earmarks For FY2011. [Senator Cornyn FY2011 Appropriations Requests]

In D.C., Thune Lambasts Earmarks: “The bill is loaded up with pork projects, and it shouldn't get a vote. The bill was crafted behind closed doors, and it hasn't gone through the proper oversight or the proper channels.” [Press Conference, 12/15/10]

In South Dakota, Thune Defends Pet Projects: “He has backed similar moratoriums in the past but the proposed 2011 spending bills Congress will consider in the coming weeks include almost 30 Thune-requested projects, such as money for highway projects, water systems and safety programs on Indian reservations… ‘If you include [South Dakota] projects like Lewis & Clark, you end up costing taxpayers much more in inflation and lost economic opportunities,’ Larson said Monday. ‘We applaud responsible efforts to rein in earmark spending, but if that effort wrongly includes authorized projects like Lewis & Clark, it's counterproductive.’ Thune agrees. ‘There are ways that you can do this that really legitimize Congress spending money, and one is authorized projects that went through the normal process and passed the House and the Senate,’ he said last week. ‘To me, that's a very different thing than an earmark that gets dropped into an appropriations bill in a conference committee that hasn't passed the House and the Senate.’” [Argus Leader, 11/16/10]

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The panel on Fox News Sunday did their best to ignore the fact that if Nancy Pelosi doesn't want the Bush tax cuts to be extended, she doesn't have to “hold” anyone. All she has to do is refuse to allow a vote to come to the floor of the House and they expire. Whether they give away the store to get them extended for the lower incomes, who knows but they love to pretend that Republicans are holding all the cards here when they're not.

The conversation then shifted to the Republican divide over earmarks with Chris Wallace asking Bill Kristol what he thought would happen on that front.

KRISTOL: I think the earmark banners are going to win in the Senate, at least for a couple of years. I think Mitch McConnell can make all the theoretical arguments he wants, earmarks aren't all that important. What's the argument against trying life without earmarks for a year or two? If it's a disaster, if the Obama administration is spending money in an irresponsible way using that discretion that Mitch McConnell is so worried about; and most of the money isn't a discretion of the Obama administration, it's formula, grants and the like. But I don't think his defense of earmarks is the right thing but if things go wrong they can reinstate earmarks in a year or two. They can make their case to the public.

So I think Senator DeMint will win in the Republican conference this week. Republicans will be against earmarks, President Obama will be against earmarks and we're going to have a wonderful moment of lots of bipartisan bliss. We're going to have agreement on extending current tax rates for three or four years I think. We're going to have an agreement that we shouldn't have earmarks. There will be an agreement on some spending cuts. They're will be an agreement on prosecuting the war in Afghanistan.

We're going to have the Obama-Boehner-DeMint agenda for the next three or four months and it's going to be good for the country actually.

WILLIAMS: Well in keeping with the spirit of bipartisanship...

KRISTOL: And Nancy Pelosi... and the one person who's going to be the most fervent opponent of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi.

WALLACE: Which wouldn't be bad for Barack Obama.

WILLIAMS: Exactly.

Yeah Bill, until the impeachment hearings begin. They do love to demonize Nancy Pelosi don't they? Let's just hope they're wrong on how much the Democrats are willing to compromise with them on this. They need to let the tax cuts expire for the upper earners, period.

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Looks like Kentucky Senator-elect TeaPublican Rand Paul is already flip flopping on whether he supports a ban on earmarks.

Senator-Elect Rand Paul Breaks Tea Party Pledge, Now Vows To ‘Fight’ For Earmarks:

Congressional earmarks has been one of the key targets of the Tea Party’s anti-spending fervor. Angry over the House GOP’s failure to include an earmark moratorium in its “Pledge To America,” Tea Party supporters looked to their Washington outsider candidates to champion their current raison d’être.

One Tea Party hero, Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-KY), jumped on the anti-earmark bandwagon early, making “a ban on wasteful earmark spending in Washington D.C. one of the key points of his campaign” in March. Lambasting lawmakers who opt for “photo-ops with oversized fake cardboard checks,” Paul vowed to “dismantle the culture of professional politicians” even if he “ruffled a lot of establishment feathers” while doing it.

But after joining the GOP flock on Election Day, Paul is singing a different tune. In a Wall Street Journal profile this weekend, Paul signaled an about-face on his earmark position, committing to “fight for Kentucky’s share of earmarks and federal pork.” After all, he’s “not that crazy” of a libertarian. [...]

UPDATE: Rand Paul's new-found support for earmarks marks a stark flip from his anti-earmark position he held as recently as yesterday. On ABC's This Week, host Christiane Amanpour pushed Paul on the ways he'd cut spending. When she asked about earmarks, Paul declared "no more earmarks"

His campaign made similar remarks to the staff of AC360:

COOPER: Well, after we taped that discussion this evening, we got an explanation from Rand Paul's office.

A spokesman told us "The Wall Street Journal" reporter is a good guy and a -- quote -- "thoughtful writer," but he -- quote -- "misunderstood" the part of the discussion he had about earmarks.

The spokesman for Rand Paul also told us that senator-elect Paul was saying that he will advocate for Kentucky's interests and -- quote -- "submit request for funding through the appropriations process, but he will not request earmarks."

We put in a call to "The Wall Street Journal" to see if they stand by their reporting. We haven't heard back from them. We will continue to watch what happens when Rand Paul gets to Washington.

Earmarks... did I say earmarks?

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Jim DeMint says he'd be willing to shut down the government, the country to go into default on our debt and probably throw us into a world wide great depression by refusing to raise the debt ceiling if we don't do something to get the budget balanced. When asked by David Gregory on this weekend's Meet the Press to name specifically what he'd cut DeMint can't name any specifics other than earmarks. He does also cite Paul Ryan's plan which includes privatizing Social Security and Medicare so Wall Street can get their hands on the Social Security Trust Fund.

Defunding "Obamacare" which is not called "Obamacare" would have the reverse effect since the Affordable Care Act actually reduces the deficit and as David Gregory pointed out when he asked DeMint the question, earmarks only amount to less than 1% of the total deficit and are a drop in the bucket compared to the other spending. Gregory should have pointed out that the already self-imposed earmark ban hasn't put a dent in the deficit.

GREGORY: All right-- let me ask you about another hot button issue. And that is the debt ceiling. Come spring, Congress is gonna have to vote to raise the debt ceiling, because our debt is increasing. And it’s reaching the $4.3 trillion limit that Congress has already set. $14-- .3 trillion limit-- that Congress set in February. Will you vote to increase the debt ceiling?

DEMINT: No, I won’t. Not-- not unless this debt ceiling is combined with some pa-- path to balancing our budget. Returning to 2008 spending levels. Repealing Obamacare. We have got to demonstrate that we have the resolve to cut spending. Now, we’ve already spent the money and raising the debt ceiling is just like paying off your credit card bill. But we cannot allow that to go through the Congress without-- showing the American People that we are gonna balance the budget. And we’re not gonna continue to raise the debt in America.

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If Eric Cantor thought he was going to get a friendly interview on the O'Reilly Factor last Thursday night with guest host Laura Ingraham, he was sadly mistaken. Ingraham hammered Cantor about whether the Republicans would bring forth a bill to repeal "Obamacare" if they regain control of the House of Representatives to which Cantor responded "Absolutely I will pledge to do that! Are you kidding? Of course!"

As even Ingraham acknowledged though it's not likely the Republicans will have the numbers to over ride a veto by President Obama. Cantor laid out what their strategy will be instead of they regain control of the House.

So we are faced with a situation where, hopefully, this November, a conservative majority will regain position in the House. And we're going to do everything we can to repeal the Bill, to delay the Bill, to defund the Bill, to do all of the above. I mean, these things go hand in hand, Laura.

So they're going to take the weak tea we managed to get passed, most of which hasn't gone into effect yet and make it worse when what we need are improvements to the bill. Wonderful. Between that type of obstruction for obstruction's sake and Darrell Issa's endless witch hunts if the Republicans get back the House as well, they're going to make the days of the Clinton era look mild in comparison.

One last note on this interview as well, after the browbeating Cantor took from Ingraham during this segment, I've got to wonder if he'll be coming back on the air with her any time soon. Laura Ingraham tends to regularly emote about all of the warmth and fuzziness of a rattle snake IMHO.

Full transcript below the fold.

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Chris Wallace does his best to make sure Chris Van Hollen can’t adequately respond to him when pointing out the Republicans hypocrisy with their temporary ban on all earmarks which as Van Hollen tries to point out is nothing more than an election year stunt. As he noted if they were serious about doing reform, they’d have done it when they were in power and they’d be pushing for permanent changes and not temporary ones.

Wallace: Congressman Van Hollen this week House Democrats announced a one year ban on earmarks—those are the individual members’ pet projects going to for profit corporations—then House Republicans announced a one year ban on all earmarks, for profit corporations, to anyone. Will House Democrats join House Republicans in a one year ban on all earmarks?

Van Hollen: Let me say Chris, I’ve got to smile when my Republican colleagues talk about earmark reform. For sixteen years when they had the Congress they did nothing. The test of whether you’re serious is what you do when you have the power to change it. Not what you say when you don’t. Earmarks quadrupled during those sixteen years. The first day of the new Democratic Congress in 2007 we put in place transparency reforms, accountability reforms, we can no longer tuck these pet projects in the middle of the night into the…

Wallace: Sir you’re not answering my question.

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