1. If the Republican Presidential Candidates Won’t Lead on This, What Will They Lead On?

2. How Many Male Semi-Pornographic Pictures Does Anthony Weiner Have on His Blackberry?

3. Case Closed? Leftblog Claims Definitive Proof Weiner Was Framed.

4. Reform on the Ropes in Louisiana

5. The Sprint/George Soros argument on AT&T/T-Mobile makes no sense

6. Mike Haridopolos Needs To Put Whatever He Uses On His Hair Into His Spine

7. This Week’s Horse Race

1. If the Republican Presidential Candidates Won’t Lead on This, What Will They Lead On?

It would be unfair to say that the Republican Presidential candidates have not weighed in on the debt ceiling. Most, if not all, have in passing mentioned the issue.

But the time for mentioning the issue in passing is over. The Dow Industrials have fallen. The Fed wants to print more money. Obama is gutting NASA’s space mission to socialize healthcare and fund global warming nonsense. And Republicans on Capitol Hill are hinting loudly that they will raise the debt ceiling, but they want a big show of something first.

Obama is prepared to wait them out and blame them. No one seems to have their back. And the congressional Republicans will, as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow, go wobbly. They just will. It is what they do.

So it is time for the Republican Presidential candidates to start forcefully and constantly demanding bold change in exchange for the debt ceiling increase.

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2. How Many Male Semi-Pornographic Pictures Does Anthony Weiner Have on His Blackberry?

Anthony Weiner is now offering up this to CNN.

“‘It certainly doesn’t look familiar to me, but I don’t want to say with certitude to you something that I don’t know to be the certain truth,’ Weiner told CNN in an interview.”

If Anthony Weiner cannot “say with certitude” that it was a picture of him on twitter, how many other men’s lower waists with erect appendages does Anthony Weiner have on his blackberry? After the last 48 hours, it is a bridge too far to say the picture did not come from Anthony Weiner.

He says he won’t talk further about the case to protect his wife. They’ve only been married about a year.

It is increasingly clear that Anthony Weiner is a pervert and if he is protecting his wife, it is to protect her from the truth that she is married to a cad.

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3. Case Closed? Leftblog Claims Definitive Proof Weiner Was Framed.

Case closed? Not so much. There is a post up at a the blog Cannonfire today titled: CASE CLOSED! CONGRESSMAN WEINER WAS FRAMED! Tweets of this article are blowing up on the #p2 hashtag on Twitter, and many blogs in the leftosphere are beginning to cite it, including Little Green Footballs and DailyKos diaries section.

The post claims to definitively prove that Rep. Weiner could not have sent the now infamous underwear photo that is causing him so much trouble this week.

“It had to have been sent by someone else.”

Had. To.

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4. Reform on the Ropes in Louisiana

Although he has not kept a national profile as high as that of some other Republican governors like Chris Christie or Scott Walker, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has been quietly and competently reforming state government in Louisiana since his election. Jindal has successfully reduced bottom-line spending in Louisiana by 26% since he took office, an impressive accomplishment in its own right. However, Governor Jindal recognizes that merely cutting spending is not enough; in order to make a lasting change on the size of Government’s footprint, spending cuts must be accompanied by reforms that change both the manner and extent to which the government provides services. Many of these reforms, which have been carefully planned out and in the works for years, are coming to a head right now during the current Louisiana legislative session. Given that Republicans in Louisiana have finally taken control of both chambers of Louisiana’s legislature, one would hope that Jindal’s reforms – which read like a lengthy wish list for long-time conservative activists – stand a good chance of passing.

However, due to some reticent Republicans in the Louisiana House, substantially all of Jindal’s reform agenda is now in danger. Sadly, it appears that Republicans may be preparing to shoot themselves in the foot in Louisiana and blow yet another golden opportunity to reform the way government works, choosing short-sighted temporary cuts over meaningful, long-term reform.

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5. The Sprint/George Soros argument on AT&T/T-Mobile makes no sense

Regular readers of my Tech at Night series have seen me make the case for the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA by pointing out how it would improve competition because the two companies combined could compete better with 4G networks like Verizon and the combined Sprint/Clearwire.

But there’s a more basic reason than that to oppose any government meddling in the deal, as proposed by Sprint Nextel itself, as well as George Soros/OSI-funded front groups like Public Knowledge or Free Press. Both a Constitutional and a common sense approach would be not to intervene unless we have good reason. And the reason for intervention given by the radical left, as well as by competitors like Sprint, just doesn’t make sense.

Put simply, the AT&T/T-Mobile deal cannot simultaneously hurt Sprint and give AT&T price setting power, especially not when the Sprint/Nextel deal had the opposite effect on prices.

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6. Mike Haridopolos Needs To Put Whatever He Uses On His Hair Into His Spine

This is embarrasing.

Yesterday morning, Haridopolos got thrown off a Florida radio show for going wobbly on the Paul Ryan Medicare plan, including not wanting to say yes or no on whether he supports it.

Then, his campaign issued a press release, which you can read below the fold. The key nugget of which is this line, “I absolutely support the goals of the Ryan Plan to cut federal government deficit spending and applaud Rep. Ryan’s bold leadership in putting forth an intelligent and serious plan to tackle the largest issue confronting our nation.” That line is subsequently repeated in the 222 words.

In between the repetition is this: “While I support almost every provision of the Ryan Plan, I believe that it must be amended to provided greater protections for Seniors.”

After all that, Haridopolos is now a solid “no” on the Ryan plan, claiming he’d vote against it.

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7. This Week’s Horse Race

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done one of these. A lot has happened since then.

Let’s get started and, again, we’ll go in alphabetical order.

Just note that I’m putting Sarah Palin and Rick Perry outside the list, since they are just speculation right now and I want to deal with them first, above the fold.

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