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When I beat up Obama for failing to repudiate Rev. Wright, Obama threw him under the bus.

When I punched Obama for telling the Teamsters he’d let them out of federal supervision, he backed down on that through a statement “clarification.”

After I questioned Obama’s patriotism because of his lack of a flag lapel pin, he put one on.

After harassing Obama for saying Iran was no threat, he willingly changed his mind and decided Iran is, in fact, a serious threat.

When Obama opened his mouth and lied about his family connection to the holocaust, he clarified again. Never mind that he’s told several different groups several different variations — he still attempted to do what I thought he needed to do.

When I bullied Obama over not going to Iraq with John McCain, his campaign decided he might just go.

Heck, I even picked on Barry for his “unilateral meetings with rogue nations” and Barry graciously nuanced his way out of it.

Then there’s the other stuff like his fully transparent campaign. He harassed John McCain for being secretive like the Bushies, I punched back, and Obama released just one page on his medical history so we couldn’t see that he actually has health problems due to his continued smoking. Likewise, he won’t even release his birth certificate to prove he really is an American citizen. I love that he’s willing to let this story and the whole “closet Muslim” story fester rather than be transparent like he claims he is. That just helps me out! And it signals that he really is just like the other guys; never mind the marketing.

Oh, and now after I demanded he throw Jim Johnson under the bus, Barry Obama does just that.

I love this guy. Everything I ask him to do, he does. Sure, sometimes I have to bop him on the nose, but just cause he’s into S&M doesn’t mean he’s not my type of guy.

Hell, look at John McCain. People attack him over supporting the surge and he does not cave. Those of us on the right beat him up over believing in that global warming crap and he will not yield to us. We wanted him to support the Bush tax cuts and he refused. And he does not apologize for it! The nerve of that guy.

Some people call that leadership. I call it stubbornness. Contrast John McCain’s stubborn refusal to do as I say when I say with Barry’s willingness to cave faster than a Taliban member with an F/A-18 over head.*

I have to endorse Barry Obama. Thus far he’s done nothing but signal his willingness to be my gimp. And me likey that!

*Note to the libs: this is a play on the word “cave” not a play on the word “Hussein”.

Hensarling’s memo to Republican Study Committee members is below.

Dear RSC Colleague—

Conference Leadership has just unveiled its Economic Reform Agenda. Incorporated within that agenda are all of the relevant points of the RSC’s 8-point Action Plan save one. For those who worked so hard on the RSC plan, I congratulate you. I believe it was an important contribution and catalyst to the Conference’s plan, and I ask that you thank Leader Boehner for incorporating most of our Action Plan.

The portion of the plan not included, as of now, is the call for an immediate and unilateral earmark moratorium to be enacted today. As you have heard me state before, without action today, I fear the American people will never learn our party has called for a moratorium, while the Democrats stand for business as usual on pork-barrel spending. I know there are a number of legitimate issues to be resolved, and I hope we can resolve them soon.

For your information, some press reports concerning the RSC’s role in this situation are misleading. To make it clear, most of our membership believe it will probably prove necessary to discuss and resolve this issue at a special conference to be scheduled soon. What is accurate, as described by CQ Today, is that, “Boehner and Hensarling were working to find ways to persuade more Republicans, to join them in taking a ‘no earmarks’ pledge.”

We will speak more of this at today’s meeting, and I again thank you for your help in this effort.

Yours respectfully,

JEB HENSARLING

Chairman of the Republican Study Committee

Jim Webb argues that the Confederacy “simply reflects Southern pride.” It’s not that simple, Jim. The Confederacy does represent the splitting of the United States of America, the split families, the casualties and the dead, and yes, ultimately it represents the institution of African slavery. If a southerner waves that Stars and Bars thing because he is proud to be from and to live in the southern States in America, that is one thing, inoffensive to me. It does not necessarily carry the baggage. Jim Webb, however, goes much further than that. He has a lengthy paper-trail including his own revisionist musings on this matter.

There’s trouble for Jim Webb:

Edward H. Sebesta, co-author of the forthcoming “Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction” (University of Texas Press), said Webb’s views express an unhealthy regard for a political system that propped up and defended slavery.

His book, in fact, will cite Webb as an example of the mainstreaming of neo-Confederacy ideas into politics, said Sebesta, a widely cited independent historical researcher and author of the Anti-Neo-Confederate blog.

“I don’t think people have thought through the implications of how his ideas have racial overtones, even if they are inadvertent,” Sebesta said.

Jim Webb is too thick-skulled to consider the implications of much of anything he recites, but he does take himself seriously.

I have heard it asked if this is Webb’s “Macaca Moment,” trashing his chances to be Obama’s veep selection like then-Senator George Allen’s comments regarding a Dem hecklers haircut set up his loss to Webb in 2006. This is not the proper question. Allen made a mistake, while Jim Webb has spent a lifetime preaching basically that the Confederate States of America were right to split with the United States when their “right” to hold humans as slaves became imperiled by the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln. That is what the Confederacy means to him, not merely a harmless means to show geographic pride.

I neither know nor care if Barack Obama tabs Jim Webb as the bottom of his ticket, although if he does and the media does its job, Webb will eventually have to withdraw his name. Perhaps it would be best for the Dems if Webb were to do that now, not that I care a whit. (But it would be entertaining to here Obama repeat: “This is not the Jim Webb I knew and campaigned with for the past year.”)

Beyond this election cycle, I think you’ll find that Webb will be one-term-and-out. Allen did not challenge Webb’s support for the more unsavory aspects of the Confederacy, as the media created some problems for him, but the next Republican ought to be ready.

Jim Webb has ancestors who were Confederate officers. I carry the blood of a man who was tortured, starved to death at Camp Sumter in Andersonville, Georgia.

(The text of Webb’s 1990 speech at the Confederate Memorial at Arlington has been removed from his web site: http://www.jameswebb.com/speeches/confedmemorial.htm.)

Here are complete details of the economic agenda:

1. A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY WILL LOWER GAS PRICES

• We’ll lower gas prices by increasing supply, expanding environmentally sound production of American energy, promoting new technologies to deliver new, cleaner energy and provide incentives to increase our energy efficiency – implementing energy reforms long delayed at America’s expense by short-sighted Democratic politicians.

2. A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY WILL CUT THE PORK

• We will restore fiscal responsibility in Washington by reining in spending, passing meaningful entitlement reform and balancing the federal budget by 2012 without raising taxes.
• We will enact an immediate moratorium on congressional earmarks and establish a bipartisan panel to fundamentally reform how Washington spends taxpayer dollars.
• We will reduce the size of government, make it more efficient and transparent while eliminating eliminate duplicative or wasteful programs.
• We will limit the growth of federal spending to a level families can afford by adopting a spending limit that would prohibit federal spending from growing faster than the economy except in time of war or national emergency.
• We will eliminate the exclusive tax breaks Democrats have given rich trial lawyers, and enact reforms to stop lawsuit abuse and prevent American jobs from being destroyed by abuse of the legal system.

3. A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY WILL STOP THE DEMOCRATIC TAX HIKE

• We will stop the largest tax increase in American history on workers, parents, married couples, small businesses, and those saving for retirement. We will offer new tax breaks for Americans – including eliminating the unfair Alternative Minimum Tax and making the Internet permanently tax-free.
• We will end a tax code that is too long, too complex and too unfair by providing individuals an alternative, two-tier flat tax system that can be filed on one page. Taxpayers can choose the new, simplified system or stay with the current tax code—whichever option suits them.
• We will make the tax code more family-friendly by reforming the child tax credit and lowering taxes on retirement benefits.

4. A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY WILL FIX A BROKEN WASHINGTON TO SUPPORT LONG-TERM ECONOMIC GROWTH

• To encourage a welfare safety net that fosters marriage and work, we will extend many of the current welfare work requirements to other programs – namely food stamps and housing – so that those who are not old, young, or disabled are either working in the private sector or serving in their community.
• We will strengthen education by supporting increased state and local control and flexibility, increasing parental options through school choice, and encouraging states to provide extra support for good teachers through teacher performance pay initiatives.
• We will tear down barriers that prevent U.S. products from being sold abroad. We will reject policies that retreat from world trade and segregate America from the rest of the world, in favor of policies that level the playing field for American employees and employers and give our workers the ability to go toe-to-toe with workers overseas.
• We will level the playing field for American workers and start importing jobs here by cutting taxes on American industry.
• We will strengthen homeownership in America through a series of reforms that encourage home purchases and help needy homeowners who are truly victims.
• We will reform and improve our current health care system. The House GOP health care reform agenda, to be unveiled in detail in the coming weeks, will include reforms that will help small businesses deal with skyrocketing health care costs and help patients by broadening the array of health insurance choices available to them by allowing them to purchase health plans available in other states.