This Looks Like A Headline From "The Onion"

Still Bitter Over Loss On Health Reform, GOP Seeks To Block Judicial Nominee For His Health Care Views

Sadly its the reality of our political system, or should I say its the reality of the Republican Party, today.

This Is Why I Heart Claire McCaskill

She can be too conservative at times on some issues but she doesn't mind mixing it up with the Republicans and calling them out. I'll say one more thing too, this clip should be made into an attack ad immediately if not sooner with the heading that Republicans are putting the country at risk with their temper tantrum. Hell I would have damn near the whole caucus go down and do a floor speech blasting the Republicans for a "pre 9-11 mentality" and putting our men and women in uniform in harms way just to score political points and play games.

Just sayin

Can't Get Right

Ezra Klein agrees with me that the "win" over the holds on President Obama's nominees wasn't really a win at all and was yet another case of them hurting their own efforts.

Working backward, why not make recess appointments this recess? The administration remains terribly understaffed. Senate Republicans have slapped a historic number of holds on Obama's nominees, and Richard Shelby's effort to hold all of Obama's pending nominees as part of a multibillion-dollar shakedown made Nelson's Medicaid deal look like petty theft. What was the danger, then, of making recess appointments? That it would lead to a fight over Republican obstruction that the administration might actually win?

Worse, why explain the recess appointment as some sort of emergency measure? At what point does the administration accept that its success is dependent on finding ways to avoid being filibustered? Reconciliation can't be considered a nuclear option and recess appointments can't be saved for special cases. George W. Bush understood this and used reconciliation and recess appointments routinely in his first year. That meant it was no story when he used the processes for his next seven years. Obama is making the very consideration of these measures a story, which means any decision to actually use them will be a big deal and will make the president look like a bare-knuckle partisan.

This time the media and public opinion was on the administration's side on recess appointments, especially after Senator Shelby had put that blanket hold on all of the nominees just to try to get an earmark pushed through. But you wait and see the outcry if President Obama should ever try to do some recess appointments in the future. And guess what, it will all be their own fault.

This is getting to be quite disheartening.

A Sign Of Weakness

Remember President Obama And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threatening to use recess appointments to overcome holds on over 60 of Obama's nominees earlier this week? Yeah, that's not going to happen. And its not because they lifted all of the holds either. Its because they lifted less than half of them.

President Obama's statement:

Today, the United States Senate confirmed 27 of my high-level nominees, many of whom had been awaiting a vote for months.

At the beginning of the week, a staggering 63 nominees had been stalled in the Senate because one or more senators placed a hold on their nomination. In most cases, these holds have had nothing to do with the nominee’s qualifications or even political views, and these nominees have already received broad, bipartisan support in the committee process.

Instead, many holds were motivated by a desire to leverage projects for a Senator’s state or simply to frustrate progress. It is precisely these kinds of tactics that enrage the American people.

And so on Tuesday, I told Senator McConnell that if Republican senators did not release these holds, I would exercise my authority to fill critically-needed positions in the federal government temporarily through the use of recess appointments. This is a rare but not unprecedented step that many other presidents have taken. Since that meeting, I am gratified that Republican senators have responded by releasing many of these holds and allowing 29 nominees to receive a vote in the Senate.

While this is a good first step, there are still dozens of nominees on hold who deserve a similar vote, and I will be looking for action from the Senate when it returns from recess. If they do not act, I reserve the right to use my recess appointment authority in the future.

I just have to shake my head at this. Why take recess appointments off the table because Republicans gave less than half of his nominees, some of whom have been waiting for over half a year, an up and down vote?

I swear I just don't understand this administration. Not. At. All.

Chuuuuch

It seems that President Obama FINALLY remembered that he has the biggest bully pulpit on the block and he used it today. Now honestly his address to the White House press corps could have used a little more emotion and anger, piss and vinegar, etc etc, but just to have him speak on the GOP obstructionism, particularly on Senator Shelby's blanket hold which he did point out was over earmarks, was definitely a good start.

Now if I am wrong about the power of his bully pulpit you won't see much in the news about his presser today or the substance of it and not much will change.

But if I'm right, not only will the press pick up on the things he said, you will find that Republicans being the cowards that they are will also start to modify their behavior. The more he does this kind of thing, the more they will start slowwing their roll.

Of course that still leaves the ConservaDems as substantial obstacles to progress. But maybe, just maybe, if he sees the success he gets from chastising Republicans, he might be more open to chastising the ConservaDems too.

It could happen....

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Wow, That Was Fast

With A Rebel Yell, She Cried More, More, Mooooore

Boy, the attacks and push back from President Obama as well as his White House staff has been coming fast and furious of late. I think the light bulb has finally gone off that the only way to win a fight is to actually ENGAGE in a fight. This time its Dan Pfeiffer taking to the White House blog to point out more GOP obstructionism, this time on nominees to important governmental offices.

Nine months ago, the White House sent the nominee for GSA Administrator, Martha Johnson, to the Senate for its consideration. Today, she was finally given a vote and was overwhelmingly approved by a margin of 94-2. What happened in between was a perfect example of why Americans are so frustrated with Washington.

Martha Johnson is an ideal candidate for Administrator, which is highlighted by the unanimous vote she received in committee. And the only thing that's changed between now and then is that some in Congress found it to be politically expedient to delay her vote. This isn’t just about one person filling one job – it hampers our ability reform the way government works and save taxpayer dollars by making it more efficient and effective.

What’s worse, Martha Johnson is hardly the first nominee to fall victim to this trend of opposition for opposition’s sake. Nine of the President's nominees found themselves stuck in this same situation only to be confirmed by 70 or more votes or a voice vote. Several nominees, including two members of the Council of Economic Advisers, had cloture withdrawn and were passed by a voice vote.

Maybe votes on these nominations were delayed as a bargaining chip for someone's pet project – more likely it was part of a political strategy of opposition and obstruction at all costs. Whatever the reason, it's obvious from the margins of the final votes that it had little to do with their qualifications.

Not sure if there is a connection here, but President Obama JUST talked about Martha Johnson yesterday and how she was being held up by Republicans for no reason at all. At the least it should provide positive reinforcement that its the squeaky wheel that get's the oil. Perhaps if President Obama calls the Republicans out on more of his nominees that have been held up (cough Dawn Johnson at OLC cough) then they will ALSO get an up or down vote finally.

I swear man, after going through all the bullshit last year with the White House staying mostly silent and continuing to get their hand slapped when they reached out in "bipartisanship", I could certainly get used to this new, far more aggressive approach.

New Dems, ConservaDems, And Blue Dogs Are Damaging The Democratic Brand

At some point soon in the future the Democratic establishment along with the White House had better figure out that stuff like this is what is going to give the Republicans back the House and possibly the Senate if its allowed to keep happening. Right now we are allowing a small group of Republican light members of Congress to bring all of our legislation so far to the right as to not resemble mainstream Democratic thought. And I can promise you that those select few won't be the ones who really catch hell behind it, it will be the overwhelming majority of elected Democrats who rely on their base to come out in big numbers to vote for them in midterm elections. I truly believe that New Dems, ConservaDems and Blue Dogs wouldn't really mind if the Republicans took over Congress again so long as they keep getting money from their corporatist backers.

If somebody doesn't reign them in soon and stop "compromising" with them on issues that should amount to common sense and DEFINITELY amount to mainstream Democratic thought, we really will have a blood bath next year, no matter how bad the GOP screws themselves. When these folks start getting threatened of being stripped of seniority and or chairmanships then we will see how beholden they are to special interests. Until that day you can expect to see more of this kind of obstruction within our own party.

It is what it is.

He's On A Roll

FINALLY someone or something has woken up Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and he has started attacking the Republicans for their unprecedented obstructionism!!!

Now if he could just take some of that and aim it at certain members of his own caucus...

Singing A New Tune

Arlen Specter is starting to sound like more of a Democrat than half of the Democrats in the Senate. Hell I am not exactly sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, honestly.

That Makes 2 out of 3

We already had already seen one member of the so called "Gang of Six", Chuck Grassley, admit that he isn't voting for any bill that he negotiates "compromises" into. Now the second of three Republicans in this clusterfuck, Mike Enzi, has come out and admitted that he is just there to obstruct and water down the bill as well.

Mike Enzi, one of three Republicans ostensibly negotiating health care reform as part of the Senate's "Gang of Six," told a Wyoming town hall crowd that he had no plans to compromise with Democrats and was merely trying to extract concessions.

"It's not where I get them to compromise, it's what I get them to leave out," Enzi said Monday, according to the Billings Gazette.

Enzi found himself under attack at the town hall simply for sitting in the same room as the three Finance Committee Democrats. Republicans in the crowd called for him to exit the talks. He assured conservatives that his presence was delaying health care reform.

"If I hadn't been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care," he said.

Excellent job there Max Baucus.

I don't want to hear another gotdamned word from President Obama or anybody else in his administration about these assholes negotiating in good faith. It is time to say to hell with it, pull the fucking bill back into the full committee where it should have been from the get go, mirror the HELP committee bill and bring the damn thing to the floor for a vote. And as an alternative drop it all and just move to reconcilliation and be done with it. Its over for this namby pamby farce of a bipartisan negotiation. It is time for Democrats to shit or get off the pot. We voted for change dammit not another 4 years of Republican rule.

Its time to make it happen!

They Got Nothing

When even Joe Scarborough is calling the GOP out for not having any alternatives you know they have hit rock bottom.

What Do You Know About Jeff Sessions?

The GOP has predictibly chosen Senator Jeff Sessions to take over as ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, taking over for the now defected Arlen Specter.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) will take over the ranking member position on the Senate Judiciary Committee after striking a deal with his more senior colleagues over the weekend, sources confirm to The Hill.

Sessions and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reached the deal that will allow the Alabama Republican to take over for Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), whose departure from the GOP last week left the committee without a ranking member.

Under terms of the deal, Sessions will serve as ranking member until the 112th Congress, when he will take over the ranking member post on the Senate Budget Committee. Current Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) is retiring at the end of the 111th Congress.

Now with a battle brewing over President Obama's nomination to replace retiring Supreme Court justice David Souter I think we would do well to aquaint ourselves with Jeff Sessions and learn what kind of a guy he is. I found this post from digby to be particularly enlightening.

Sessions was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. The year before his nomination to federal court, he had unsuccessfully prosecuted three civil rights workers--including Albert Turner, a former aide to Martin Luther King Jr.--on a tenuous case of voter fraud. The three had been working in the "Black Belt" counties of Alabama, which, after years of voting white, had begun to swing toward black candidates as voter registration drives brought in more black voters. Sessions's focus on these counties to the exclusion of others caused an uproar among civil rights leaders, especially after hours of interrogating black absentee voters produced only 14 allegedly tampered ballots out of more than 1.7 million cast in the state in the 1984 election. The activists, known as the Marion Three, were acquitted in four hours and became a cause célèbre. Civil rights groups charged that Sessions had been looking for voter fraud in the black community and overlooking the same violations among whites, at least partly to help reelect his friend Senator Denton.

On its own, the case might not have been enough to stain Sessions with the taint of racism, but there was more. Senate Democrats tracked down a career Justice Department employee named J. Gerald Hebert, who testified, albeit reluctantly, that in a conversation between the two men Sessions had labeled the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU ) "un-American" and "Communist-inspired." Hebert said Sessions had claimed these groups "forced civil rights down the throats of people." In his confirmation hearings, Sessions sealed his own fate by saying such groups could be construed as "un-American" when "they involve themselves in promoting un-American positions" in foreign policy. Hebert testified that the young lawyer tended to "pop off" on such topics regularly, noting that Sessions had called a white civil rights lawyer a "disgrace to his race" for litigating voting rights cases. Sessions acknowledged making many of the statements attributed to him but claimed that most of the time he had been joking, saying he was sometimes "loose with [his] tongue." He further admitted to calling the Voting Rights Act of 1965 a "piece of intrusive legislation," a phrase he stood behind even in his confirmation hearings

All of that's a GOP qualification for elected office in Alabama, so being rejected on that basis naturally vaulted him into the Senate. Making him the ranking member today means the Republicans will put their ugliest face forward during judicial confirmation hearings. But hey, it's their long, ongoing funeral.

Now in light of the fact that is very likely that President Obama will choose a minority and perhaps a woman to fill this post it will behoove us to make sure that this information on Sessions is out there so people can judge whatever his motivations might be should he choose to try to block this nomination. I won't even go into what it says about Alabama that they elected a guy like Sessions, but I will say that we can't allow someone whose mindset is still stuck in the pre Civil Rights era to hinder progress in this country. So get ready for the fight and arm yourself with information. I have a feeling we are going to need it.

Say Hello To My Little Friend

The Republicans in Congress have been oh so proud of their obstructionist ways since President Obama came into office. They have held up nominees and tried to filibuster major legislation to get the economy back on track. They have also taken to the airways to smear President Obama and try to label him a socialist or a facist, even encouraging and in some instances speaking at those wacky teabagging protests. The House Republicans even went as far as releasing a youtube video to celebrate their zero votes for the stimulus bill. This was all done when President Obama was trying to reach out to Congressional Republicans to find avenues for compromise. At the time many of us felt that President Obama wasn't being as hard with them as he should have been. Well those days are over my friends.

In a meeting with House Republicans at the White House Thursday, President Obama reminded the minority that the last time he reached out to them, they reacted with zero votes -- twice -- for his stimulus package. And then he reminded them again. And again. And again.

A GOP source familiar with the meeting said that the president was extremely sensitive -- even "thin-skinned" -- to the fact that the stimulus bill received no GOP votes in the House. He continually brought it up throughout the meeting.

Obama also offered payback for that goose egg. A major overhaul of the health care system, he told the Republican leadership, would be done using a legislative process known as reconciliation, meaning that the GOP won't be able to filibuster it.

Congress has until October 15 to pass health care or student lending reform under the normal process. If it doesn't, reconciliation can be used to eliminate the 60-vote requirement.

Democratic aides said that Obama made clear to the GOP leadership that he would continue to work in a bipartisan way, but that they didn't have veto power over health care policy. GOP aides, however, said that Obama was pretty clear that reconciliation would be used. "From what was told me, it sounded more like he would

That's right, healthcare WILL happen this year and if the Congressional Republicans decide not to come to the table to help then they will get runover with budget reconcilliation all but insuring that it will pass whether the GOP votes for it or not. If the Republicans want to model themselves after the Taliban its high time President Obama started treating them like the Taliban.

But President Obama didn't just put the GOP on notice, he also sent the same message to ConservaDems in his own party, specifically Ben Nelson, when it comes to reforming student loans. Budget reconcilliation will be used there as well if no compromise can be found. President Obama is moving to get shit done, and thats change I can believe in!

Rachel Maddow Tells Senator Burr To Cut The Shit

What North Carolina Senator Richard Burr is doing, blocking Tammy Duckworth from taking her job running the Veterans' Affairs office, is reprehensible. I am SO glad Rachel took him to task for it.

Cao Strikes Again

I hope Congressman Joseph Cao isn't getting too comfortable in Washington because he definitely won't be there very long.

HIt And Run

The DSCC isn't letting up on the GOP for their obstructionist ways and I say good on em. Keep holding their feet to the fire!



(h/t Greg Sargent)

I Told You They Aren't Even Trying Anymore

Republican Minority Leader of the House of Representatives John Boehner in the New York Times:

“As I told my colleagues, we don’t have enough votes to legislate,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader. “We are not in the majority. We are not kind-of in the minority; we are in a hole. They ought to get the idea out of their minds that they are legislators. But what they can be is communicators.”

That should run on every attack ad including one for the NY20 seat. If the Minority Leader of the House explicitly says he has no intention of even trying to legislate what more evidence do you need that they are not working in good faith for the country?

Against It Before They Were For It

Predictable

Why We Call Them "Rethugs"

As I watch these Republican jack asses cast aspersions on the floor of the House of Representatives I am reminded of this Matt Taibbi article that John Cole posted on his blog the other day. Its funny how the Rethugs are pointing the finger at the Democrats for brokering this deal without them when if there was ever a party that pefected that kind of behavior to a science it is definitely the GOP as you can see by Taibbi's investigation. Warning, its a typical Taibbi article so be ready for the language (which is right up my alley)

But the 109th Congress is no mild departure from the norm, no slight deviation in an already-underwhelming history. No, this is nothing less than a historic shift in how our democracy is run. The Republicans who control this Congress are revolutionaries, and they have brought their revolutionary vision for the House and Senate quite unpleasantly to fruition. In the past six years they have castrated the political minority, abdicated their oversight responsibilities mandated by the Constitution, enacted a conscious policy of massive borrowing and unrestrained spending, and installed a host of semipermanent mechanisms for transferring legislative power to commercial interests. They aimed far lower than any other Congress has ever aimed, and they nailed their target.

"The 109th Congress is so bad that it makes you wonder if democracy is a failed experiment," says Jonathan Turley, a noted constitutional scholar and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington Law School. "I think that if the Framers went to Capitol Hill today, it would shake their confidence in the system they created. Congress has become an exercise of raw power with no principles -- and in that environment corruption has flourished. The Republicans in Congress decided from the outset that their future would be inextricably tied to George Bush and his policies. It has become this sad session of members sitting down and drinking Kool-Aid delivered by Karl Rove. Congress became a mere extension of the White House."

The end result is a Congress that has hijacked the national treasury, frantically ceded power to the executive, and sold off the federal government in a private auction. It all happened before our very eyes. In case you missed it, here's how they did it -- in five easy steps

snip

It is no big scoop that the majority party in Congress has always found ways of giving the shaft to the minority. But there is a marked difference in the size and the length of the shaft the Republicans have given the Democrats in the past six years. There has been a systematic effort not only to deny the Democrats any kind of power-sharing role in creating or refining legislation but to humiliate them publicly, show them up, pee in their faces. Washington was once a chummy fraternity in which members of both parties golfed together, played in the same pickup basketball games, probably even shared the same mistresses. Now it is a one-party town -- and congressional business is conducted accordingly, as though the half of the country that the Democrats represent simply does not exist.

American government was not designed for one-party rule but for rule by consensus -- so this current batch of Republicans has found a way to work around that product design. They have scuttled both the spirit and the letter of congressional procedure, turning the lawmaking process into a backroom deal, with power concentrated in the hands of a few chiefs behind the scenes. This reduces the legislature to a Belarus-style rubber stamp, where the opposition is just there for show, human pieces of stagecraft -- a fact the Republicans don't even bother to conceal.

"I remember one incident very clearly -- I think it was 2001," says Winslow Wheeler, who served for twenty-two years as a Republican staffer in the Senate. "I was working for [New Mexico Republican] Pete Domenici at the time. We were in a Budget Committee hearing and the Democrats were debating what the final result would be. And my boss gets up and he says, 'Why are you saying this? You're not even going to be in the room when the decisions are made.' Just said it right out in the open."

Wheeler's very career is a symbol of a bipartisan age long passed into the history books; he is the last staffer to have served in the offices of a Republican and a Democrat at the same time, having once worked for both Kansas Republican Nancy Kassebaum and Arkansas Democrat David Pryor simultaneously. Today, those Democratic staffers trapped in the basement laugh at the idea that such a thing could ever happen again. These days, they consider themselves lucky if they manage to hold a single hearing on a bill before Rove's well-oiled legislative machine delivers it up for Bush's signature.

The GOP's "take that, bitch" approach to governing has been taken to the greatest heights by the House Judiciary Committee. The committee is chaired by the legendary Republican monster James Sensenbrenner Jr., an ever-sweating, fat-fingered beast who wields his gavel in a way that makes you think he might have used one before in some other arena, perhaps to beat prostitutes to death. Last year, Sensenbrenner became apoplectic when Democrats who wanted to hold a hearing on the Patriot Act invoked a little-known rule that required him to let them have one.

"Naturally, he scheduled it for something like 9 a.m. on a Friday when Congress wasn't in session, hoping that no one would show," recalls a Democratic staffer who attended the hearing. "But we got a pretty good turnout anyway."

Sensenbrenner kept trying to gavel the hearing to a close, but Democrats again pointed to the rules, which said they had a certain amount of time to examine their witnesses. When they refused to stop the proceedings, the chairman did something unprecedented: He simply picked up his gavel and walked out.

snip

Thomas is also notorious for excluding Democrats from the conference hearings needed to iron out the differences between House and Senate versions of a bill. According to the rules, conferences have to include at least one public, open meeting. But in the Bush years, Republicans have managed the conference issue with some of the most mind-blowingly juvenile behavior seen in any parliament west of the Russian Duma after happy hour. GOP chairmen routinely call a meeting, bring the press in for a photo op and then promptly shut the proceedings down. "Take a picture, wait five minutes, gavel it out -- all for show" is how one Democratic staffer described the process. Then, amazingly, the Republicans sneak off to hold the real conference, forcing the Democrats to turn amateur detective and go searching the Capitol grounds for the meeting. "More often than not, we're trying to figure out where the conference is," says one House aide.

snip

Although cooperation between the two parties has ebbed and flowed over the years, historians note that Congress has taken strong bipartisan action in virtually every administration. It was Sen. Harry Truman who instigated investigations of wartime profiteering under FDR, and Republicans Howard Baker and Lowell Weicker Jr. played pivotal roles on the Senate Watergate Committee that nearly led to Nixon's impeachment.

But those days are gone. "We haven't seen any congressional investigations like this during the last six years," says David Mayhew, a professor of political science at Yale who has studied Congress for four decades. "These days, Congress doesn't seem to be capable of doing this sort of thing. Too much nasty partisanship."

One of the most depressing examples of one-party rule is the Patriot Act. The measure was originally crafted in classic bipartisan fashion in the Judiciary Committee, where it passed by a vote of thirty-six to zero, with famed liberals like Barney Frank and Jerrold Nadler saying aye. But when the bill was sent to the Rules Committee, the Republicans simply chucked the approved bill and replaced it with a new, far more repressive version, apparently written at the direction of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.

"They just rewrote the whole bill," says Rep. James McGovern, a minority member of the Rules Committee. "All that committee work was just for show."

To ensure that Democrats can't alter any of the last-minute changes, Republicans have overseen a monstrous increase in the number of "closed" rules -- bills that go to the floor for a vote without any possibility of amendment. This tactic undercuts the very essence of democracy: In a bicameral system, allowing bills to be debated openly is the only way that the minority can have a real impact, by offering amendments to legislation drafted by the majority.

These are the same people in Congress right now crying about how they were excluded from a process that they were going to vote against anyway. If you want to know my feelings on this I will put it very succinctly.

FUCK THEM

As long as they keep up their obstructionist ways I say let them die on the vine.