It’s Wednesday. The line is open. Parting shots:
* JUST SAY NO TO FLOOD VICTIMS: How strict is the Republican discipline on spending? Strict enough that all Three Mouseketeers — Tim Griffin, Rick Crawford and Steve Womack — voted yesterday against extending authorization of the Flood Insurance program, legislation that would have provided grants to help flood victims and protection against insurance premium increases for flood victims. You might have heard that flooding did some damage in Arkansas, particularly in Crawford’s district.
* CONVENIENCE STORE FIGHT: The convenience store owner shut down by the city at Wright Avenue and Battery has hit YouTube with a video featuring a neighbor supporting him.
* A MAN ON A MISSION: That would be Tim Griffin, quoted in Salon, along with other House freshmen who apparently think Mitch McConnell has caved on holding America hostage to their strangle-government (and sick people, poor people, etc.) initiative.
As Tim Griffin, a freshman from Arkansas, put it to me, “A lot of us feel that we’re here on a mission, and the mission is now, and we’re not that concerned about the political consequences.” That mission — to throttle the role of the federal government in general and Obama’s progressive initiatives specifically — may seem more like a kamikaze pursuit to some of the freshmen as the 2012 elections get closer and their constituents become increasingly impatient for government solutions. For now, however, they and their Tea Party backers constitute the most formidable power bloc on Capitol Hill.