Hello:

So, after the "shellacking" Obama took, he's kicking some a$$. Where did that come from?

Since that devastating defeat, he passed tax cuts, extended unemployment benefits, repealed DADT, and passed a food safety act... Plus, he's going to pass a 911 first responders health bill, and the Senate is going to ratify the Start treaty.

Really. Who'da thunk this would happen?

excon

That's what happens when the majority party realizes that this is their last chance to get anything at all. So now they're willing to compromise - hence they swallow a tax cut which no Democrat would have ever supported prior to the big Republican gains. I think that both DADT and START are not "liberal vs conservative" or "Democrat vs Republican" issues, so as long as Obama and his cronies in Congress were willing to work with their Republican colleagues in a reasonable way (for once) they were bound to pass. I say that as a life-long old-school Republican who is in favor of both START and repealing DADT, and so I'm not surprised that the few remaining "old school" Republicans who are still in Congress were able to get it through.

That's what happens when the majority party realizes that this is their last chance to get anything at all. So now they're willing to compromiseHello again, e:

Or that the Republicans (at least a few of them) are willing to compromise BACK. The leadership is still fully opposed to Obama's agenda... Yet, he's getting it done.

excon

PS> You're kidding about DADT not being a partisan issue, aren't you?

The majority party flexed it's muscles after the elections when they didn't have anything to lose. Many of those who made these decisions will be doing something else for a living in a week.

The lame duck session also shows that the Republican reformation is a process that will take more than one election cycle to accomplish. There are many establishment Republicans who need to be shown the door. It was very amusing watching Arlen Specter's pathetic exit address yesterday.

It also shows that the Tea Party is not monolithic on social issues. They are united on fiscal and constitutional issues.

It also shows that with all his gnashing of teeth and belly aching about being taken hostage; the President realizes that his future political viability is tied to compromising with the right. He got DADT which he thinks placates his base. But the most important thing done is the tax extension (glad to see you have recognized the need to keep all tax rates the same) . The extended unemployment was an easy giveaway since there is a lot of support for it .

The Dems also were not able to shove another pork laden budget down the throats of the next Congress.

START is a joke ,but I recognize that the numbers are not on the side of those who oppose it . The Republicans did good to dangle it as a carrot.

Not sure how the numbers on the 9-11 bill will play out ;but it is clearly something that needed to get done a long time ago. Hopefully it isn't laden with provisions ripe for abuse.

I stand by my position that a lame duck session is something that has outlived it's usefulness . If Congress cannot get it's work done before election day then they should not take so many days off .

(glad to see you have recognized the need to keep all tax rates the same)Hello again, tom:

I didn't say I support it. I just said he did it.

excon

Ezra Klein of the Washington Compost says that the defeat of the omnibus budget and the passing of the 'continuous ' resolution to fund the government is the beginning of the Republican move to defund Obamacare http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/12/senate_votes_to_defund_health-.html.

Not that any move will the GOP will prevent the Obots from implementing Obamacare by bureaucratic fiat. HHS boss Kathleen Sebelius issued a 136 page "rule" that will now give her unchecked power to pass judgment on the prices of health insurance under the guise of transparency .
She will have virtual sole authority to determine what constitutes an "unreasonable" rate increase.

The ruling would not be applied evenly across the board. Sebelius will have the authority to determine on a case by case basis if a rate increase is 'reasonable ' . She will pick winners and losers at her sole disgression .

Congress explicitly refused to give HHS the power to block premium increases.That will still be the authority of the states .

But that will not stop the Obots from seizing the power by fiat . Sebelius ;in addition to this new decree ,will dangle the threat of exclusion in the Obamacare exchanges to any insurance company that doesn't play their game.