You Idiot.

Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning called Harry Reid an “idiot” during a lunch meeting with other Republican senators this week — the latest sign that the Senate majority leader is getting under the skin of his GOP counterparts. Bunning’s harsh words — confirmed by several people in the room — came in the midst of Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander’s presentation about Reid’s handling of the Senate floor. Bunning rose from his seat and, speaking loudly, read fundraising data that singled out Reid and other Senate Democrats for taking more money from Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms than Republicans had. After Bunning called Reid an “idiot,” another voice yelled out: “He is acting like an idiot.”..Link

This is the start of grunge music.

Financial reform? How about some indictments?

I really get upset when people offer suggestions with no thought behind them. Everyone in Washington keeps insisting that to fix the financial markets we need more rules and regulations and a lot more bureaucracy. My idea is that all we need is for the alphabet soup to start doing their job...Link

White House press corps gripes pile up.

One of the enduring storylines of Barack Obama’s presidency, dating back to the earliest days of his candidacy, is that the press loves him. “Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me,” Obama joked last year at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. But even then, only four months into his presidency, the joke fell flat. Now, a year later, with another correspondents’ dinner Saturday night likely to generate the familiar criticism of the press’s cozy relationship with power, the reality is even more at odds with the public perception...Link