Scots, wha hae wi' Reagan bled: Last update!

Exult, the Musulman pride is buried at sea, the glory ours and Heaven's! Vanquished, after our weapons, by the hurricane!

[Esultate! L'orgoglio musulmano sepolto è in mar; nostra e del ciel è gloria! Dopo l'armi lo vinse l'uragano.]

Or not exactly, I guess. But at least Braveheart Boehner has caved. I was crazy to doubt it would happen (recall, I confidently predicted it before that). And while we may bow to wiser heads than ours with the feeling that the payroll tax holiday was always a bum, or as some have expressed it, a Republican, idea (looking like a deeply sneaky way of making it possible to defund Social Security by making everybody forget how we pay for it)--well, that's another battle. This one was really about the fix for Medicare payments and the fix for unemployment checks. And, of course, about making John Boehner cry.

And just because we've all been good...

 [Even lovelier if the YouTubist had spelled "notte" correctly.]

Update 12/23:

 Steve Benen takes on the role of designated driver--a victory, yes, but someone has to stay sober on the way home from the parade.

Scots, wha hae wi' Reagan bled: Important update

Seems likely at this point that I am going to lose my bet on that payroll tax holiday extension bill: contemplating the possibility of some of them voting one way and some of them voting another, the Republican caucus shuddered and joined ranks to vote it down--sort of. Actually, knowing how the House likes to be positive, Boehner gave them something to vote for--half a committee which will negotiate with the other, senatorial half if it ever comes to exist (the senators are out of town until January) over the poisoned bill they did manage to pass some weeks ago. So you and I will be losing that 40 bucks or so from our next paychecks, doctors will be losing a lot more, to the point where they will have to send new Medicare patients away (to the emergency room? that should save the country tons of money!), and thousands of people who have no jobs because of John Boehner will lose the unemployment insurance checks (that's insurance, for which they, and we, have already paid the premiums) that they depend on to have any cash at all. But hey, Boehner has proven (to himself, I guess, not likely to anyone else), that he is a Real Leader.  Don't start thinking about Tomorrow!

One of the sheep in the video looks as if she is wearing a fabulous barrister's wig.

Update, later that morning:


From the once and future Speaker, Nancy Pelosi herself, via Jed Lewison at Daily Kos: Speaker Pro Tempore Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) flees the room as if his chastity were being threatened when Steny Hoyer asks to speak about voting on the payroll tax holiday extension. These guys really don't want to vote.

Scots, wha hae wi' Reagan bled,

Scots*, wham Newt has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to Victorie!

Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour;
See approach Obama's power--
Chains and Slaverie!

*I wanted it to be Belgians, but it just didn't fit the meter.

Meanwhile back in Washington, it's getting hilarious:

Do as I say--and next time try to let me know what I say in advance

Terrific example of the Thug Rule according to which if the Leader can't stop his thugs from doing what he wants them not to do, then he has to pretend he wants them to do it:

Yesterday, as soon as the payroll-tax holiday extension bill passed the Senate, Speaker Boehner was on a conference call begging Republican House members to vote for it, but they turned him down; so today on Meet the Press? He doesn't want them to vote for it at all, and I guess he never did!

"It's pretty clear that I and our members oppose the Senate bill. It's only for two months," Boehner said, adding this was "kicking the can down the road."

They were going to negotiate, but the Republicans made them cut half the syllables

A Freudian typo at Think Progress: