Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the House
Not a creature was stirring, not even a louse
(apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

As Congress desperately tries to get home for the holidays, the reality that they were out of time to be dicks apparently overwhelmed John Boehner and crew. After the Senate overwhelmingly passed a rare bi-partisan bill to extend payroll tax cuts, Boehner initially said "No - it's not enough". This, after fighting the extension of the payroll tax cuts for months (it seems tax cuts initiated by Republicans = Good; tax cuts initiated by President Obama = Bad). Perhaps they realized that if they didn't, there would be a whole bunch of unhappy constituents in January when their paychecks suddenly dropped.

The news was all over this yesterday crowing that Boehner and the House Republicans "caved". Considering they were getting pressure from their own party (both in the House and especially in the Senate), perhaps that's an accurate depiction. Regardless, since Obama was pushing for this deal, it can certainly be seen as a win for him which is likely another reason the House Republicans were reluctant to go along with it. Merry Christmas, Mr. President, here's a tax package under the tree...

The First Lady got a small gift of her own in the form of an apology from fat-ass House rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) after commenting that she has a "large posterior". Some have come to his defense that it was a private communication never meant to be public, but if you're a rotund U.S. congressman talking loudly on a cellphone in a crowded airport, all claims to privacy are tossed out the window. Sensenbrenner came off looking like a boorish hypocrite, and the first lady - once again - was cast in a sypathetic light. Merry Christmas, Mrs. Obama...

Ron Paul was also in the news, after (once again) it was pointed out that numerous racist and bigoted items were printed in a newsletter that bore his name. One would hope that the publicity would inform the rabid Ron Paul supporters who only focus on his military and drug views (there's also this in case they need 9 more reasons not to vote for him). In defending himself, he said the only reason these newsletters were controversial was because CNN was making them so. They aren't controversial because of their content? Merry Christmas Democrats...

Most everyone who reads this blog knows of James O'Keefe, the self-styled "investigative journalist" who hacks together pieces of video (some shot surreptiously) to try to sell a point of view, even when the results are completely dishonest. He has not been able to repeat his singular success with ACORN, despite help from Breitbart and FOX News. It's also been reported that he has tried his games at the Occupy protests with little success. Did he go too far? One organizer thinks so, and has accused him of sexual harrasment. She won't get her case tried in criminal court, but she is pursuing it in civil court. Stay tuned! Merry Christmas common decency...

Here at FourFreedoms Blog, we are doing our own secret Santa today (dubbed Blogger Joe), opening our gifts at 10:00-ish. Merry Christmas to us!