Last night, I went to see the Bourne Ultimatum (note: for those of you who liked Bourne I and II, this one is worth seeing, but if you felt that II was a downer, you may feel the same about this one.. anyway). I guess while I sat at the cinema, our Representatives were engaged in roughly the same amount of action and violent combat as Matt Damon...

The House last night unanimously agreed to create a special select committee, with subpoena powers, to investigate Republican allegations that Democratic leaders had stolen a victory from the House GOP on a parliamentary vote late Thursday night.

The move capped a remarkable day that started with Republicans marching out of the House in protest near midnight Thursday, was punctuated by partisan bickering, and ended with Democratic hopes for a final legislative rush fading. Even a temporary blackout of the House chamber's vote tally board led to suspicions and accusations of skullduggery.

[...]

The agreement to form a special committee was extraordinary. Such powerful investigative committees are usually reserved for issues such as the Watergate scandal and the funneling of profits from Iranian arms sales to the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s.

Wow.

Nancy Pelosi's view (which I'll mention right now I find odious)? "They've just been deluged by the success of the Democrats on behalf of the American people." Right. When there are allegations of cheating (literally, Patrick McHenry called the Dems cheaters on the House floor), it's really all about how successful Democrats have been. Particularly when by one measure, only 3% of the American public are happy with the Dems on the key issue of the day.

Deluged. By. The. Success. Of. The. Democrats.

I always knew that the ...

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From the WSJ (subscription required):

[I]n New Hampshire this week … Rudy Giuliani offered the outlines of his own health-care plan -- and even mentioned the free market.



The Republican Presidential candidate got right at the crux of the issue: the tax code. The health-care market is distorted because companies can deduct the costs of insurance but individuals cannot … Mr. Giuliani suggests a tax deduction of $15,000 for families that buy their own insurance, and half that for individuals, thus restoring tax parity for health dollars.



Mr. Giuliani's plan would also involve health savings accounts, medical malpractice reform and nationalizing the insurance market. By his count, there are at least 1,900 state regulations or mandates that increase costs and restrict access. He's probably lowballing it. ….



[I]t's an indication of the political appeal of consumer-driven health care that the Democrats immediately began attacking Mr. Giuliani. …

I'm inclined to agree. RudyCare looks set to deliver up real, positive changes to health care in America. That's a powerful thing, and something that's going to freak out his opponents. Democrats will continue their attack, and watch for Romney, whose RomneyCare model is very similar to what Hillary, Obama and Edwards is proposing, to join in as well.

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John McCain's new book is set to hit stores on August 14th. But, Bloomberg's Edward Nawotka is already writing about it.

The book is called "Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them."

Nawotka's first move in commenting on it is to cite Democrat George Shipley, who said about it "It's got to be ironic...because in recent years McCain has failed to make the hard calls. What does he really think about the war? About the abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib? About the justice department and Alberto Gonzales?"

That's not my beef with the book (actually, I think McCain has had to make plenty of hard calls in the last couple of years, and his most recent big one is one of the two main factors that has led to his dwindling Presidential campaign). My issue is that the name seems incredibly odd.

"Hard Call" sounds a lot more like something that Bill O'Reilly would write than John McCain, whose previous titles include "Character Is Destiny," "Faith of My Fathers," "Why Courage Matters," and "Worth the Fighting For"-- all of which allude to McCain's deep belief in some greater purpose and sense of duty, on some level.

"Hard Call?" It just doesn't achieve that, as far as I am concerned. But, then again, that may have been the idea in naming the book-- one of the things that some love, but some equally revile about McCain is this sense that he's always on some higher mission, and he thinks everyone else should be contributing more, too (see his calls to patriotic duty, civic involvement and so on-- all good things, but also things that tend to freak out freak out the libertarian elements in politics a little, and the usual comments you get about St. John McCain on conservative blogs).

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