Sarah Palin Arrives, Aretha's Hat Might Be Staying

It was a weekend of comings (Sarah Palin), goings (House Republicans), stayings (Aretha’s hat) and general tomfoolery as the country watched the Super Bowl and the Senate checked out Tom Daschle‘s unpaid taxes.

While the Washington elite gathered this weekend to eat, drink and crack the occasional bad joke at the Alfalfa Club, House Republicans — once on the top of the D.C. food chain — were retreating at a West Virginia resort and bemoaning the fact that Sarah Palin lied to them. Apparently, when they invited the Alaska governor to speak, she said she had too much going on in Juneau (Alaska lawmakers sort of wish she actually felt that way), but then found the time to come hear President Obama speak. I mean, when your potential 2012 Presidential candidate thinks you’re less cool than Obama, you’ve gone from jock clique to chess club president without even knowing it.

In the meantime, former Senator Tom Daschle became the second member of the Obama Cabinet to head into his confirmation hearings with some pretty gnarly tax issues (not to mention the free trips he probably ought to have known better than to take). And while that was all going on, House Democratic staffers crunched the numbers on the GOP’s supposed stimulus plan and found that it would drive up taxes for many middle class Americans, to which the GOP responded, of course, that they just planned on passing a bill later to drive them back down so that the American people would never know the true cost of their plan. With all the tax cheats in the Obama Administration and tax-raisers in the GOP, it is enough to make a tax policy wonk’s head spin. Or that might have been all the booze I drank last night, who knows.

Speaking of spinning, Obama is getting rid of the overused phrase “war on terror” (drink!), but keeping renditions and talking to the Chinese to make up for his Treasury Secretary being less-than-diplomatic. Jill Biden’s back to teaching while the DOJ is trying to teach its employees a lesson about phishing. And, while it turns out that we sold Israelis the white phosphorus shells they used on civilians in Gaza in violation of international law, Aretha Franklin isn’t all all sure that she’s ready to part with her inaugural hat for the sake of other people’s history. I wouldn’t, either.