And don't forget Mitt Romney now has to be counted on to cooperate

I can just see it now.

Mitt Romney, Lisa Mercowskie and Susan Collins will form the trio of stooges broken by the death of John McCain to stand in the way of Mitch McConnell.

Well, at least Jeff Flake and Bob Corker are out of the equation.

Once again Republicans refuse to even THINK of cutting spending in order to cut taxes

Reported here:

The Senate parliamentarian ruled Thursday that a fiscal "trigger," important to winning deficit-wary Sen. Bob Corker's support for the GOP plan, will not work under Senate rules. Republican senators are now looking to find new ways to address the concerns of Corker, a so-called deficit hawk Republican from Tennessee.

"It doesn't look like the trigger is going to work, according to the parliamentarian," Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters, according to Politico. "So we have an alternative, frankly: a tax increase we don't want to do to try to address Sen. Corker's concerns."

Retiring Sen. Bob Corker demands Republicans raise taxes in order to cut them

We had to destroy the village in order to save it.

Bombing is the only way forward.

We had to have a war between the States in order to save them.

Export subsidies are necessary in order to preserve free trade.

I have abandoned free market principles in order to save the free market system.

The London Interbank Overnight Rate system had to be suppressed in order to save the banking system.

We had to bail out the banks so that we could sue them. 

Mark Levin did a great job eviscerating Republican hypocrite Bob Corker in the show's first hour tonight

As Levin says, we have Bob Corker's defiance of the constitution to thank for Obama's Iran deal.

The Washington Times had a nice summary of Corker's malfeasance from Jed Babbin, here:

He sponsored a measure that required the president to submit the agreement to the Senate but turned the Constitution upside down. Under Article 2, Section 2 the president must get a two-thirds vote in favor of any treaty to make it a part of the law of the land. Instead, Mr. Corker’s provision required opponents of the deal to muster a two-thirds vote — 66 senators — to vote against it. It was a pretense to conceal another Republican cave-in to Mr. Obama. Mr. Corker’s provision passed the Senate by a vote of 98-1, Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, being the only negative vote. In an entirely predictable result, when the time came for a disapproval vote, Republicans couldn’t even overcome the Democrats’ filibuster to get a final vote on disapproval. After that, it was a small matter for the president to take the Iran deal to the U.N. Security Council, which eagerly approved it. What Mr. Corker had done was to enable Mr. Obama to claim Senate approval of his deal even though the Senate hadn’t done anything of the sort.

Like Jeff Flake, Corker won't be standing next year for reelection to the Senate.

Spineless Republicans Cave On Cordray Nomination, CFPB Spying On Citizens

Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), John McCain (Ariz.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Roger Wicker (Miss.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) voted with Democrats to confirm Cordray. ... Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee ... pointed out that Republicans want to replace Cordray's director position with a bipartisan “board of directors with staggered terms.” He also expressed concern over recent reports that the bureau is conducting “unprecedented data collection.” “The CFPB [Consumer Protection Financial Bureau] is collecting credit card data, bank account data, mortgage data and student loan data,” Crapo said ahead of the vote. “This ultimately allows the CFPB to monitor a consumer’s monthly spending habits.”

More here, if you need to puke.

Sen. Harry Reid wins.

Rule By The Rich: Do They Really Need Their Salaries of $3.83 Million?

2009's top congressional millionaires consist of ten senators and twelve representatives, in order from top to bottom as follows:

1. Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, $188.6 million

2. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, $160.1 million

3. Rep. Jane Harman, D-CA, $152.3 million

4. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, $83.7 million

5. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-TX, $73.8 million

6. Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, $70.2 million

7. Rep. Jared Polis, D-CO, $56.5 million

8. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-FL, $53.5 million

9. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, $49.7 million

10. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, $46.1 million

11. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-FL, $31.1 million

12. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, $21.7 million

13. Sen. Jim Risch, R-ID, $20.1 million

14. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-NJ, $19.9 million

15. Rep. Gary Miller, R-CA, $19.4 million

16. Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, $18.3 million

17. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-MO, $15.7 million

18. Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-TX, $15.6 million

19. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-NY, $15 million

20. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, $14.1 million

21. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-ME, $12.6 million

22. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-TN, $12.1 million.

Altogether they represent wealth of $1.15 billion. Twelve are Democrats, seven of whom are in the top ten and six of whom are in the senate, worth $744.7 million. Ten are Republicans, worth $405.4 million,  three of whom are in the top ten and four of whom are in the senate.

TheHill.com has the complete story here and here, published annually.