Live Q&As

Then I guess my only question is who is playing the part of the King's Executioner? Because if I remember correctly, William Wallace was hung, drawn and quartered, castrated, eviscerated, had his bowels burnt before him and then beheaded before being ripped to shreds and sent to the farthest corners of the land. Right now I think Mitch McConnell would like to submit his name for that duty...

Please help me understand Eric Cantor. He seems to relish every opportunity to blow something up, and then walks around smirking about it. How does someone with such lack of respect for the governing process get into a leadership position?

Do you think McConnells' decision to come out in favor of the short-term fix to the payroll tax issue this morning (right after Boehner's presser) represents the beginning of the end of Tea Party influence within the party?

Dana: When I read your column about the freshmen Republicans likening themselves to the Scots who followed William Wallace, I had to laugh, remembering a great episode of The Simpsons in which Mel Gibson, playing himself, allowed Homer to rewrite Gibson's remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, making it highly violent. When the studio refuses to release the movie, Homer says that he and Mel will defy them and win, just as Braveheart defied the English. Mel replies, "Did you even see the movie? My troops were slaughtered, and I died an agonizing death!" Homer looks at him uncomprehendingly. This popular culture misreading also reminded me of how 1980s conservatives loved Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA, because they only really listened to the patriotic sounding chorus, not the verses, which told the story of an embittered Vietnam vet who felt betrayed by his country.

Here's a holiday damage control question for you: where's a good liquor store in NW (ie Friendship Heights or thereabouts) or Bethesda? I have to lay my hands on some kirschwasser before Saturday and the place by my office downtown specializes more in pocket-size bottles of cheap vodka. I turn to you, all-knowing one.

All that doing nothing all year must have worn the House GOP out. They need to kick back and relax.

The Republican frosh are not going to bend, and as such, neither will the House Republican leadership (with Boehner looking nervously over his shoulder at Cantor who is waiting in the wings, dagger at hand). Where is the endgame? Seems the most likely scenario is that the payroll tax goes up on Jan. 1, and then negotiations will begin in earnest after the holiday break. Your thoughts?

The House GOP isn't exactly playing into the President's hands, because I don't think that POTUS thought they'd be this dumb. Still- all the President needs to do is spend the next 11 months saying "I'm the guy who wanted to lower your taxes and they're the guys who wanted to lower Bill Gates' taxes..." The House Republicans just reinforced the image that they aren't the party of smaller government and lower taxes, they're the party of saying the opposite of President Obama... it's not cute when 5-year-olds do it, so why do they think it'll be cute when a political party does it?

It was announced that the Republicans did not want to vote on passing the Senate bill because it might pass. Is that a dream on the newsman's part? Please explain why the actual vote Monday was "procedural" rather than on the Senate bill.

Is there any lie Barack Obama can tell that is so egregious that even you would admit it?

Jon Huntsman wins the New Hampshire primary.

I'm not familiar with this one myself, but I'd put money on Chevy Chase Wine & Spirits (on Connecticut, near the Avalon Theater) having something like that.

Dana: The internet is ablaze today with Rep. Sensenbrenner's comment that the First Lady should not be telling Americans how to eat healthier foods and exercise because of the size of her posterior. (Producer's note: He apparently has apologized).

Rep. Sensenbrenner, of course, looks like the archetypal fat, white, old guy whose arteries are about to shut down any minute from the grease clog. (Point of privilege: I'm a 63-year-old white guy with a pretty visible spare tire.)

Anyway, how stupid can he be? I would like Mrs. Obama to challenge him to arm wrestling, followed by 10 minutes of jumping jacks, followed by Rep. Sensenbrenner's funeral.

The votes are all in / And the respect is rotting / The party's teed off/And headed for ruin / You won't have a name when you walk in the big room / All they will call you will be conferee

Does the current standoff demonstrate even more strongly that Boehner is merely an unwilling puppet of the Tea Partyers?

While I doubt many journalists have trudged through Gingrich's dissertation on Belgian educational policies in the Congo when they were its colonial rulers, Laura Seay did for The Atlantic, and I was struck by this quote of Newt's:

If the Congo was not the model colony Belgian publicists pretended, neither was it the disaster news reports from 1960 to 1965 suggested.

Is Newt self-destructing in Iowa, what with demanding that Romney call off a SuperPAC ad against him -- even though that's illegal for a candidate to do? Seems to me that if one gives most of the GOP candidates enough rope, they'll hang themselves.

{like now} perhaps you can be persuaded to write a Cheap Booze blog. The story ideas are endless.

How about paying the full costs of government? Just a thought. You know citizens get off the permanent dole; Congress types take the coat and work up a sweat; president starts acting presidential. You know, America in the 40s.

Would Eric Cantor be playing the part in the movie Braveheart where he betrays William Wallace and turns him over to the English?

Wait, there's a problem with the link - isn't that the late Chris Farley?

I know far too many people who are not rational about Obama, where his race combined with his education pushes a button with them. These are the same people who misinterpret the First Lady as a scold telling people what foods they should eat. It's reasonable to suspect that many in the frosh contingent are driven by similar irrationality, where having an educated black man in a position of power goes against everything they've come to believe as normal.

That's he's quit smoking for good?

When Labour tossed out the Tories, John Major went to being a back bencher, at least for one term. Do you see that happening w/Boehner, Cantor and that crazy woman from TN? This, of course, presumes the Tories get chucked out by the voters come November.

as president? Has anyone thought this through? 4 or 8 years of that hectoring voice rattling in your head day and night. Seriously?

Obama is Bill Murray, Boehner is Rodney Dangerfield, and Cantor is Ted Knight.