The State Of The Union Mess

Ever since the glory days of Lyndon B. Johnson days like today, the day of the State of the Union Address had an almost Christmasy feeling. Eager cabinet secretaries giggled in the glee that new federal largess would soon be visited on the many deserving project under their purview. New rights and new freedoms were constantly being discovered in budgetary esoterica. There was "freedom from want" and a "right to a job". Then the "right to affordable healthcare" was discovered and while not a favorite of the public it was loved by the political class who would be exempt from it so it was duly ordained as a natural right, passed into law and then the music died. The president is obligated by law to present a budget not to give a speech but President Obama is better a talking than he is at budgetary concerns so the country will get a speech but no budget and like it. Showing up with an empty sack on a traditional day of giving can be a little awkward especially to blue state legislators so what will the president serve? In the past he has served red meat to his adoring buffoons by attacking the members of the Supreme Court. That's not a good idea this year. The Supremes have been rather testy lately. They have handed the Obama administration two 9-0 losing decisions in recent weeks and during oral arguments in Sackett v EPA the justices all but bitch slapped Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm L. Stewart across the courtroom. The administration may even lose the vote of its own Elena Kagan.

Now Obama, with no money to give must cast about for a new target for his demagoguery or face the wrath of discontented Democrats. Oh, for the glory days of 2009 when then Speaker Nancy Pelosi jumped up and down like a wound up toy, applauding every inanity. Vice President Biden elected to forgo his nap and joined the Speaker in the almost erotic bliss that filled the chamber as Democrats anticipated a near trillion dollar stimulus slush fund. But now as the great orator Jeremiah Wright would say, "the chickens have come home to roost." Probably the Tea Party and its adherents will be called on to sate the blood lust of the party that puts people first. Although thought to be dead by the popular media, the Tea Party can still be vilified as the awful enemy that destroyed so many political careers. It hit the Democratic party like a plague in 2010 and the landscape is still littered with political corpses of the brave men and women of the party that only wanted the best for their friends and allies in business and labor. So if I were to bet, I would bet that tonight the Tea Party and House Republicans will be demonized far more than Ahmadinejad has ever been.