From Berlusconi reality to Arshinkoff servility to Kasich

DAY TWO: Government Shutdown

Has Italy finally surpassed the U.S. in practical governing?  We've always been told that Italy has become at least a  6th world nation for the instability of Rome in rotating leaders.  But as America finds itself in the death grip of House psychos, Italy has staved off disaster thanks to Silvio Berlusconi, who  has called off his threat to topple the government.  Berlusconi, convicted of corruption  and a lot of other stuff, has been the nasty king of politics in Italy for many years.  But he has turned to reality by having his People of Freedom Party (sound familiar?) support a vote of confidence  to save the coalition government. Is the U.S. House listening?

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The Tea Party defenders of the shutdown continued to insist that Obamacare is "unconstitutional", one after another preening their ignorance for the TV cameras late into the night.  What is it that they don't understand about the historical truth that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it to be constitutional?  That the law was passed by the Congress of which many are now members?   That Obama has twice been elected even though the same critics tried to advance it as a political issue?  As I've written earlier, shouldn't they at least  be honest about it and say they hate Obama?

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So now we encounter one of the GOP's leading dead-enders, Newt Gingrich, on Pat  Robertson's program saying such dumb things that "Obama refuses to behave as an American president"  with the giggling reverend in agreement. Gingrich said  Obama places himself above the Constitution" - there, folks, the Constitution, again.  He has also supposed that the president holds  a "Kenyan anti-colonial world view," whatever that means.  Maybe Robertson should pray for Newt's lunacy.

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Talk about misdirected elitism:  How else can you explain the  Summit County Republican Party's servile  agreement with Gov. Kasich to bar all media, including the Beacon Journal,  from Tuesday night's finance committee dinner at the Fairlawn Hilton?  As the University of Akron's go-to guy for Kasich favors,  shouldn't we expect party Chairman Alex Arshinkoff to lobby the governor to give up his maniacal attitude toward all media interviews. But when Kasich can get away with it in the local party's house, it's bush-league politics at  both ends.  (For more, read my piece posted today on Plunderbund.)