Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

SASHIA AND MALIA OBAMA GET READY FOR FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

The GOPers new plan to destroy Obama's mandate [is] actually the same as the old plan. Now that we have a Democratic president again, the Republicans have suddenly discovered the importance of checks and balances. In a stunning display of brazen hypocrisy, John Bolton and John Yoo, the two biggest proponents of the unitary executive theory, are very concerned that Obama might try a foreign policy based on diplomacy instead of bombing half the planet into glass ashtrays, and find it imperative that Congress reclaims its treaty power.

-- IMPOLITIC

As Republicans struggle to determine the future of their party after a tough election, intraparty tensions have flared over three forums next week that may prove crucial to determining the winner of the six-way race for the chair of the Republican National Committee -- a post that will hold considerable sway over the direction of the GOP.

"Some people are pissed off at [Americans for Tax Reform President] Grover [Norquist]. Some people are pissed off at the Conservative Steering Committee. Some people are pissed off at [current RNC chair] Mike Duncan. Some people are pissed off at social conservatives. The social conservatives are pissed at leaders in Congress," said a Republican consultant who has worked with the RNC. "Everyone is basically pissed."

-- ALEXANDER BURNS

The only question is . . . are they pissed or are they pissed?

-- SEBASTIAN

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules . . . to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi's proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.

Pelosi’s rule changes will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America."

-- CONNIE HAIR

While GM and Ford still lost more sales across the year than Toyota and Honda (because they also tanked during the gas price crash of the summer), their performance against Toyota and Honda more recently demonstrates the degree to which recent sales are a credit driven issue, and not what Richard Shelby likes to claim is a failed business model.

Moreover, there is better news for Ford in the numbers, as its market share is beginning to rise for the first time since 2001.

-- EMPTYWHEEL

Have you seen or heard anything in recent months that points to a near-term improvement in the economy? I haven’t. The economic news in this period has been uniformly awful. Bankruptcies and foreclosures continue to soar. Job losses mount at a frightening rate. Consumer and business confidence keeps plunging.

So why has the stock market gone up 16 percent since the end of November? The answer, of course, is that we’re seeing a faith-based rally.

. . . There are all kinds of other reasons to think that an economic turnaround is not imminent and that a market rally now is purely faith-based. But, hey, I, too, saw The Wizard of Oz when I was kid. Several times, in fact. So who knows? Maybe if we all click our heels together in unison and close our eyes and wish very, very hard for good times to come again, maybe, just maybe, just maybe, just maybe . . .

-- MICHAEL SILVERSTEIN