lameduck

 

Congress is back for the lame duck session.

The lame duck session after the 2010 “shellacking” of Democrats was possibly the most productive in history. Sadly, the Democrats who lead the Senate (for a few more weeks) seem to have no desire to break – or even come close.

As Rachel Maddow explained, the Democrats seem to be uninterested in doing any of the important work they could and should do, like confirm a new Attorney General…. Instead, in their infinite lack of wisdom, the Senate may push a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline under the misguided belief that putting the final nail in the coffin of the planet might help Mary Landrieu win re-election.

We are living in opposite world!

Susie Madrak joined me in the first hour today, as she does every Wednesday morning. Today, we talked about the latest Fox nontroversy about an MIT economist named Jonathan Gruber who allegedly was the “architect” of the Affordable Care Act. Fox dug up a video tape of him speaking at a university last year in which he said the American people are stupid. Well, duh.

The Washington Post actually tells us that Gruber was

one of the architects of the 2006 Massachusetts health care law, which became the basis for the ACA, and he helped craft the federal legislation that used a similar scheme of guaranteed coverage, financial assistance and insurance mandates. He was far from the only person who helped shape the ACA, but he has been one of its most vocal academic defenders in the nearly five years since it passed. (And he’s the only one to write a comic book about the law.)

So, Fox got it at least half wrong… Talk about a manufactured crisis…

What was more interesting to me was Megan Kelly’s Freudian slip about the name of Mike Huckabee’s TV show

(Yes, I must have been a 12-year old in a previous life.)

And finally, we might be nearing the finish line in the fight to preserve net neutrality. President Obama delivered his most forceful message since he took office on Monday

Tim Karr of FreePress.net joined me to talk about what it all means, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler’s defiant response, and weighed in on his troll that decided to pick a twitter fight with me about it this morning too!

Never a dull moment…

Tomorrow, it’s the Brad & Desi show! Brad Friedman will weigh in on the elections and what effect the GOP’s voter suppression actions and the electronic voting machines may have had on the results. And in hour two, Desi Doyen on the “historic” agreement reached by President Obama and China’s President Xi on climate change, plus the latest on the Keystone XL, TPP and more…. Talk to you then, radio or not!