Straight to the good stuff:
1. I'm a big fan of Mark Blumenthal's "power outsiders" poll, here on Rick Perry and electability.
2. Do Members of Congress vote their social status? From John Sides.
3. Andrew Sullivan: "Republicanism as religion."
4. Budget caps and why they don't work, from Suzy Khimm.
5. A primer on Social Security from Glenn Kessler. Or, even more on Social Security from Karl Smith.
6. Ta-Nehisi Coates: "Somehow we got in our head that the Civil Rights movement happened because Martin Luther King was a really nice guy." On how to move ahead.
7. Harold Pollack talks to a lobbyist and learns about ACA.
8. Nate Silver's pre-mortem on the NY-7 Special holds up well still.
9. Norm Ornstein and Tom Mann on the silliness that is third-party wishful thinking.
10. Diversity, Obama, and the courts, from Jesse Holland. And Adam Serwer on Rush, Michael Moore, and Bill Maher. Also, Sides on Obama and the Jews.
11. A fun glossary of Congressspeak, from Matt Glassman. Do people really say "cats and dogs"? I've read about it several times now, but never heard anyone actually use it.
12. And I'm not sure if Philip Bump is really covering new ground in his takedown of discredited pollster Frank Luntz, but I'm always up for rehashing his credits.
Monday, September 19, 2011
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I can assure you that 'cats and dogs' is both real and in regular use, at least in the world of appropriations. The most common usage is to describe what issues are still outstanding for negotiation,whether it be with the minority or the other chamber.
ReplyDeleteExample: subcommittee clerk asks what issues are still open in the portion of the bill you cover. You answer: well, we took care of the library issue and the police issue, so all that's left is the AOC settlement. And a few cats and dogs in the CAO numbers.
The issues are always trivial, usually things that either require the agencies to make a choice about how to spend a trivial amount of money, how to administratively solve a non-controversial issue, or just get expected sign-off on something.
MG
Cool. Like I said, I've heard of it, but never heard it used in conversation when I worked on the Hill, or in conversations since then with staffers. Then again, I wasn't a real LA (or committee staff), just a press person -- although my boss on the Senate side was on approps.
ReplyDeleteOn Republicanism as Religion: Their hope is to save us from our ways even if they have to mess the US to expedite the messianic.
ReplyDelete