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Bob Maistros

So the decision of Florida District Judge Roger Vinson to invalidate all of Obamacare may just be setting up a giant game of constitutional chicken.

Think that the ruling that the entire law is unconstitutional doesn’t have any real effect now since, as my colleague Dan Calabrese wrote yesterday, “the real meat doesn’t take effect until 2014 anyway?”

Already leaving the station?

Ha.  True, the individual mandate and many of the taxes and subsidies don’t start until then.  But the O-Ring has already been busy beavers.  Check out the lead story in today’s Wall Street Journal:

“(T)he Obama administration said it has no to plans to halt implementation of the law. Already, it has mailed rebate checks to seniors with high prescription drug costs, helped set up insurance pools for people with pre-existing medical conditions and required insurers to allow children to stay on their parents’ insurance policies until they reach age 26.

“’We will continue to operate as we have previously,’ a senior administration official said.”

And the Administration is seeking a stay of the ruling so it can keep on plowing forward.

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Bob Maistros

So whose fault was the 2008 financial crisis?

According to the Democratic-appointed majority of a blue-ribbon panel appointed by Congress, blame those lax regulators and greedy bankers.

Hearings but never understanding.

One Republican-selected dissenter says it was too long a leash for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

And three other Republican panel members insist that’s all too simplistic, and it was like ten different factors, some of which involve broad global trends.  I might be somewhat convinced by their argument if I could understand it.

In any event, as Richard Nixon used to say – or at least as Tricky Dick imitators used to say that he said – let me say this about that.  Actually, three “this-es.”

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A character clearly nourished on "home cookin'." (Photo by John H. Kim)

Bob Maistros

One luxury of working on Capitol Hill or in a big PR firm, as I used to,  is receiving a daily compendium of important and interesting news clips.  Today, my friends on Facebook provide much the same service.  And two seemingly unrelated articles separately by online acquaintances the other day presented a fascinating, and in equal parts troubling and triumphant, study in contrasts.

The two clips showed two very different takes on a question:  How do you respond when you are a relatively young man showered with riches and success?

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Bob Maistros

A funny thing happened on the way to the Republican State of the Union response last night:  the lovely and very talented Michele Bachmann.

Don't tread on ME, pal.

The House Tea Party Caucus Chair’s appearance as national spokeswoman for the grassroots movement – offering a rather unconventional and less than customary alternative to the usual GOP reply offered by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan – provided a sideshow far more fascinating than the main event, President Barack Obama’s continuing and credulity-straining efforts to feel his way to the political center.

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Bob Maistros

Greg Meyer – distance-running All-American, multiple world record-holder and last American male to win the Boston Marathon – made a powerful comparison to an overflow ballroom in Ann Arbor last Saturday night. A generation of football players can state with pride that they played for legendary University of Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, Meyer pointed out. And then added:  “The men in this room can say that they ran for Ron Warhurst.”

He was all about us.

Darn straight.  I’m one of the guys who can say that – in fact, I was with Greg on the first team led by the great Ronnie (we all called him that), who over his career coached 44 All-Americans and 12 Olympians before his retirement last summer.

Another of the outstanding athletes who paid tribute to Ronnie, Olympic bronze medalist Brian Diemer, asked rhetorically where our mentor came up with the famously tortuous workouts for which I served as one of the guinea pigs.  Well, I know.

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Bob Maistros

“We have some work to do in Egypt in terms of our relationships with the Hebrews.”  Pharoah Ramsses, speech at the dedication of the Pyramids, ca. 1600 BC.

“Here in the Hunnic Empire, we still need to tweak our associations with the Romans.”  Attila, State of the Empire Address, 450.

"Human rights? Hu, me?"

“We have a ways to go in Mongolia in terms of our treatment of conquered peoples.”  Genghis Khan, proclamation, 1200.

“We might have to make some adjustments in Spain in terms of our dealings with heretics.”  Torquemada, ecclesiastical conference, 1492.

“We in England may have to take a second look at our policies in terms of taxation of the colonists.”  King George III, address to Parliament, 1775.

“It may be that we in France need to widen our confectionary choices for the peasantry.”  Marie Antoinette, royal audience, 1791.

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Bob Maistros

News flash:  President Barack Obama signs an executive order calling for a review of regulations on business, complete with a splashy op-ed in the Wall Street Journal admitting the existence of “unreasonable burdens on business – burdens that have stifled innovation and have had a chilling effect on growth and jobs” and promising to restore “balance.”  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor complains that the President stole the idea from him.

Bedfellows?

(to the tune of “Fascination,” with apologies to F.D. Marchetti and Dick Manning)

It’s triangulation
They say
That’s my path to victory
Next Election Day
Call on Bubba’s heft
Distance from the left
Go on with O’Reilly on Super Bowl Sunday.

Start with elongation –
Tax cuts.
Look just like a centrist
When moveon goes nuts.
Watch approval ratings
Beginning to climb
Triangulation’s so sublime.

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Bob Maistros

Well, my North Star colleague Dacia is back to her “battle-of-the-sexes” shtick again.  But hey, thanks for bringing to my attention the mind-boggingly stupid recommendation to allow women officially into combat roles.

Dacia, I’m darned impressed with your 23-minute three mile.  I’m pretty close to back to that pace – at 55 – now that I’m recovering from my third operation in the last year.  But then, in my late 40s, I was running somewhere over 17 for three.  Back when I was four years older than you, I was around 16.  Plus I’m guessing that I too can still bench your weight – probably

Call me when the Chinese get here.

for 5-10 reps or so.

My point isn’t to brag.  It’s to underscore that the physical differences between men and women – just one of the many issues involved in determining “the weaker sex’s” fitness for combat – aren’t just large.  They are insuperable – no matter how much training women do.

But fitness for combat – and the military’s ability to carry out its mission of keeping us safe – are not the issue and never were in this debate.  The issue is “diversity.”  (Not coincidentally, the recommending panel is the Military Leadership Diversity Committee.)  And nothing will be allowed to stand in the way of that goal.

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Bob Maistros

After reading Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, there are two things we know for sure:  it’s too easy for the mentally ill in America to get guns.  And too hard for them to get treatment.

Let’s start, shall we, with some world-class reporting by Journal scribes Vanessa O’Connell and Gary Fields, who investigated what states are doing to keep guns out of the hands of folks with emotional issues.

May be a little less of this?

Suffice it to say they are dealing with some challenges.  You see, it’s been illegal to sell guns to the mentally ill for more than 40 years.  But ay, there’s a rub:  who is mentally ill?  As it happens, someone a court declares to be mentally ill – and that, according to the reporters, involves a “very high standard.”  Not to mention a lot of hoops to jump through for authorities, often hampered by privacy laws, and families who may not want to admit there is a problem, or who may find their own hands full.

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Bob Maistros

Well.  Here I am in a quandary.  Emotionally, I do get a little worked up about college sports involving my alma mater – especially since I’m a University of Michigan letterman. (Once upon a time, a huge hockey player gazed upon my skinny track-guy physique as we waited for a required x-ray and wittily commented, “I didn’t know the chess team was having physicals this year”).

Big biz.

As such, I want to get excited about the fact (caution:  news hook) that Michigan has brought in a Michigan man – better yet, an Ohio native who coached in Ann Arbor – to coach its football team.  And even better, Brady Hoke is a former defensive line coach for Big Blue who presumably believes, unlike the last occupant of the post, that his teams should actually play defense.

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