The New York Times reports that yesterday was the first time in 42 years that there have been roll call votes in Congress during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.

"The House and Senate have held numerous pro forma sessions during the week between Christmas and New Year over the years, and in 1995 during a major budget battle. But the last time they held roll call votes that week, before Thursday, was during the second session of the 91st Congress, in 1970, amid a large spending fight and a filibuster over financing for a supersonic transport plane."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/us/pol...p&_r=1&

My husband's theory is that she actually had a mild stroke, not a concussion, and this is the cover story.

Sounds Plausible!

I didn't think of that. Wow, I hope not but yea it would make sense.


TIS

I would be shocked if that was the case. In this day and age, it would be nearly impossible to keep such a secret from leaking out due to social media/the internet and people (hospital staff, administration officials, her staffers, etc) always looking to make a buck or get a story out there.

But then again it could be possible...unlikely...but plausible she had a stroke.

I have to agree with DD. How can you cover up something like that in this TMZ epoch we're living in? Rex Ryan and Tim Tebow can have a "private" meeting and in hours the whole world knows what they talked about.

I'm not suggesting that Clinton had a stroke. But actually it is much harder today to get information about a medical event or condition of a famous person than it was 10 years ago because of HIPAA privacy regulations.

update:



http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/us/hil...tml?hp&_r=0

Cover up!

You serious? A cover up?


TIS

If it came out that it was a stroke it would hurt her chances to run for President in 2016! Wouldn't you agree?

TIS, don't feed the troll. Then again these same folks screaming cover-up (remember "Benghazi Flu" as they dismissed it?) where it was a scam, nothing happened to avoid testifying, now scream something did happen.

Whatever. They and the Loose Change folks need to pow wow sometime and have brunch.

Same folks? Had zero opinion on the topic! Didn't personally have the facts. I'm not like you Rocket Man. There is more in life to me than the (D) or (R) aside of someone's name!

At this point I have no reason not to believe what the doctors reported on Hillary.

Back to politics tho, RR and those following, looks like we might be going off the fiscal cliff. Then again, a deal might come about at 11:59 p.m. tonight. What do you think?


TIS

No idea TIS. I can't decide if the President folded or he's cobbled together the best deal he could with the idea that if his bluff fails (make the GOP vote for or against it), well he still gets the glory and make the GOP concede on raising taxes.

Again, I don't know.

sadly, most here don't understand that. criticizing D doesn't = R! Rocket, why don't you try and expand your horizons beyond the left vs right game, might do you some good! oh, i forgot, your spiel on this site is the goofy guy who is still politicaly aware despite all his silly behavior. newsflash, heard it all before, so try another angle and maybe you might get more credability outside of your partners in crime here.

Second the motion!

MSNBC is reporting an agreement has been reached but not yet voted on. VP Biden is on his way to the White House. We'll see. I say what's the hurry, still got almost three hours.


TIS

Dude you're just pissed because I said some not so nice things about your precious guns. Who knew that one thing would become such a cancer with your conciousness? We disagree, boo hoo.

Now that's a newsflash.

I give your post 2 out of 5 stars.

She will be in the hospital until her blood thinner level is within a certain range, and not before. It can take several days, so I'm not sure about that 48 hour timeframe.

Does she run in 2016? Hate to admit this, she was a great Sec of State! Tough as nails, played her cards smart! Our cards sorry! Libya was a tradegy, things were blown out of proportion for politics. Poor families

I never did like her but I wish her a speedy recovery.

I never did like her but I wish her a speedy recovery.


Not a big fan either! However I do feel she did a good job!

If you're wondering why people are still yelling at the top of their lungs a hour after the ball at Times Square dropped, its liberal blogs screaming bloody murder at the White House.

Anybody who compares the President to Chamberlain really really needs to abstain from their little self-constructed bubbles and re-enter reality.

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Cantor says no decision has been made whether the House will actually vote on the Fiscal Cliff compromise bill today.

EDIT -



http://www.nationalmemo.com/senate-passes-higher-tax-rates-on-rich-to-avert-fiscal-cliff-crisis/

Club for Growth has come out against the compromise.

EDIT - so has Heritage, FreedomWorks, and FRC.

I bring this up because as both sides do have these special interest groups, there is real difference: Liberals hated the compromise, yet 51 of the 89 votes passing it were Democrats, who control that chamber. Traditional American politics when the Party in the White House with chamber leadership use their muscle to get something passed even if the party body aren't fond of it. They'll grumble about Obama caving in, but so what? They're not going to do anything about it.

On the other side, the special interest groups have clear more power and influence than the party chamber leadership itself in the House. It's why Jim DeMint quit the Senate to run Heritage.

If the House GOP doesn't hold a vote today, they'll get massacred in the papers tomorrow. I think Boehner's escape route is to just hold an up and down vote. Sure it'll break that precious Hastert Rule, but so what? Make the Dems try to carry this bill since I'm not sure there'll be enough House GOPers to vote for it to passage on their own.

Mind you this compromise, in a reality ignored by the leftist blogs, has NO Spending cuts but raises taxes.

The House needs to approve this compromise by Thursday or then they have to start all over as that is when the new Congress in sworn in... this whole thing just continues to get interesting.

Ronnie, what do you think of the deal?

Krugman hit the nail on the head when he said this, IMO. He was referring to Obama's insistence on $250K and estate taxes.

“Anyone looking at these negotiations, especially given Obama’s previous behavior, can’t help but reach one main conclusion: whenever the president says that there’s an issue on which he absolutely, positively won’t give ground, you can count on him, you know, giving way – and soon, too,"

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/the-worlds-worst-poker-player/

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/conceder-in-chief-2/

Sad thing is this whole brinksmanship thing will happen again when the debt ceiling needs to be increased in a few months. Even for a political junkie like myself, I am tired of all this shit. Makes me glad I came back to NYC and didnt go to DC when I finished business school last May.

Krugman is the sort of liberal who's never been happy with Obama no matter what, short of him storming Congress and coming out with Boehner and McConnell's heads on his pike. The knee-jerk ideologue sort.

Until otherwise proven wrong, I'll stick by my pet theory that the President decided to make as good of a serious compromise deal with the idea that the details (i.e. raising taxes) would keep the House GOP from passing it (Which so far is proven to be true today) and be stuck as an even bigger loser in the public sphere than they would if that last minute compromise hadn't been hashed out.

If this poison pill didn't do that job, then well at least the White House can fly the PR victory flag of saving America from the Crisis and continue this fight for another day. Not a Grand Bargain as much as using up leverage to hopefully win either the short, or long game. (Of course I do agree with the POV that this is more a Curb than an actual Cliff but nevermind.)

If the House GOP did pass this but with amendments, which would mean the Senate would have to approve that new version, quite frankly if I'm the Democrats I would tell them to drop dead. Pass this bi-partisan bill, the one sanctioned by your party's Senate leader and 30+ GOP votes, that we passed last night or no deal, and we start all over in 2 days. Oh and the Fiscal Cliff will not be averted. And all the Bush Tax Cuts would go bye bye. And you get stuck with the blame. We've done our part, now do yours.

Some locals whined at me earlier for playing this partisan game (just like their representatives), but here's a honest assessment: Do the GOP want their shit sandwich with bread or not? This is why Lindsey Graham implored his colleagues in the House to hold their nose and pass the thing, fight to live another day. He wants bread.

Of course this pet theory is contingent on that no matter what, the Democrats don't reconvene the Senate tonight or tomorrow and tell the House GOP to choke it or be dismissed as the extremists who just screwed the nation in this crisis. If the Dems "cave" again (or for real this time), then Krugman might have a point.

Some more from Kruggie...

"On the principle of the thing, you could say that Democrats held their ground on the essentials — no cuts in benefits — while Republicans have just voted for a tax increase for the first time in decades.

So why the bad taste in progressives’ mouths? It has less to do with where Obama ended up than with how he got there. He kept drawing lines in the sand, then erasing them and retreating to a new position. And his evident desire to have a deal before hitting the essentially innocuous fiscal cliff bodes very badly for the confrontation looming in a few weeks over the debt ceiling.

If Obama stands his ground in that confrontation, this deal won’t look bad in retrospect. If he doesn’t, yesterday will be seen as the day he began throwing away his presidency and the hopes of everyone who supported him."