Think of the wounded warriors

Republicans "support the troops" on the TV when it makes for a good press but in the chambers of the so-called "greatest legislative body in the world," the GOPers kick "America's brave warriors" to the curb.

This afternoon, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont brought forth a carefully crafted bill to provide $21 billion in new veterans benefits over the next decade. These included medical benefits, education benefits, and job-training. It contained 26 provisions that came from the Republican members of the Veterans Affairs Committee, which Sanders chairs.

It failed miserably. Republicans blocked it from even coming to an up or down vote. But not before they took to the floor during the procedural "debate" to shout about Bengahzi!!! Bengahzi!!! BENGHAZIIIIII!!!!!

In GOP world, the politics always rank above the people who go out and fight the damn wars they're so fond of starting.

Humanitarian assistance

Don't have much hope for this one passing, but at least it will bring the slow motion disaster that is our long term unemployed back into the news. First bill Harry Reid will bring to the floor in the new session will be a three month extension of unemployment benefits which expired on Saturday after the Boehner's Heartless House of Dysfunction skulked out town for their holiday joy without addressing the crisis.

The Senate is expected to take up a bill sponsored by Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.), which would temporarily extend the benefits without offsetting the cost.

“I hope we can get that done,” Reid said.

This on top of the cuts to food assistance for the poor, which are about to be cut again if the Crackpot Caucus succeeds in their latest round of policy by extortion. There are millions of Americans who will be starting out the new year, scared, hungry and cold because our coddled, self-absorbed, overpaid political class are more concerned about their own cushy sinecures than representing the interests of the commonwealth.

Charlie is right. These people must be stopped before it's too late. It will only happen if we fight together to take back our government.

GOP melts down under nuclear option

I'm seeing speculation that the GOPers forced Harry Reid's hand as part of some eleventy dimensional liar's poker move. Maybe it's true that McConnell thinks Harry changing the rules slightly to get governance moving again is going to give him some kind of great cover if he ever gets the Senate gavel back and proceeds to immediately annihilate the filibuster altogether. Of course that assumes McConnell will survive to see that day. Looking at his current re-election chances, that's not necessarily a sure bet.

Whatever sort of devious GOP plot this might be, for the moment their playbook calls for much overwrought indignation, strained analogies to Obamacare and pathetic wailing. Why poor little Rand Paul feels bullied. Witness that mean old bully Harry Reid. [via Roll Call]



Again, you should full text of Reid's remarks because it was actually a good speech but his delivery is so awful. But I'm posting the video because Mitch McConnell is so hilarious. I'm still laughing over the line about how the GOPers have been more than fair to President Obama.

Meanwhile you need fishing waders to slough through the knee deep remains of the crackpot cons' exploded heads on the internets. Trolls are crawling out from every rock to join what passes for the GOP establishment to hurl impotent threats of vengeance. What are they going to do? Obstruct every single damn bill in the Senate out of spite?

Deep tweets

I never get into internet spats but I was in a mood today. When my waste of a Senator, Richard Burr, started spewing the GOP talking points about Harry's big move I tweeted him like mad. He actually responded to me today for the very first time on the twitter. It doesn't show on the ticker so you have to go to my twitter page to see it. And then you have to click on the convo to see the whole exchange. But the upshot was he tried to nail me with the stale quote random Democrats from 2005 trick. To which I replied, oh Im sorry, I forgot to tell you I was quoting Mitch. Then I hit him with Harry's vine.

And this:

@SenatorBurr Also this from Mitch in 2005. http://t.co/7CIc6ofqIx
— Libby Spencer (@libbyspencer) November 21, 2013

I think I won the round.

Reid shuts down Republican obstruction

It was a good day for democratic governance. Admit I didn't think he'd go through with it. Happy to be wrong. Harry Reid made history today.

After years of threats and warnings, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and his Democratic majority on Thursday executed the "nuclear option" to eliminate the filibuster for executive branch and judicial nominees, except for the Supreme Court.

Of course, everybody has an opinion but it's probably not going to restore the Senate to a functional body.

The "Reid Rule," as supporters are calling it, does not affect the minority party's ability to filibuster Supreme Court nominees or legislation.

GOPers will still block every bill and I don't think they should ever abolish the filibuster on SCOTUS nominees. Still this is a pretty BFD. By tradition, in the interests of responsible governance and Senate comity, the winner of the election gets to pick his own team and he gets to fill the vacancies on the bench. Thus does our government reflect the will of the voters.

You can read the full text of Reid's reasons for the rule change. This was the most important:

There are currently 75 executive branch nominees ready to be confirmed by the Senate that have been waiting an average of 140 days for confirmation. One executive nominee to the agency that safeguards the water our children and grandchildren drink and the air they breathe has waited more than 800 days for confirmation.

We agreed in July that the Senate should be confirming nominees to ensure the proper functioning of government. But consistent and unprecedented obstruction by the Republican Caucus has turned “advise and consent” into “deny and obstruct.”

Yes, both sides filibustered nominees, but for stated cause. Republicans don't even bother to pretend they have a good reason anymore. Why should they when BigMedia treats it as normal procedure? It's at the point where every filibuster is an attempt to extort policy concessions Republicans didn't win a mandate for at the ballot box. Somebody had to end the madness. Good for Harry for finally giving the Republicans some hell.

Just do it Harry

When last we heard from our intrepid Senate leader he was strongly considering the nuclear option but was giving the feckless Republicans one last chance because he just couldn't believe they would keep blocking votse on critical judicial nominations. Of course, those of us outside of the "greatest legislative body in the world" knew that was a fool's hope. So now having given the GOP yet more time to jam the works of responsible governance we get yet another sternly worded threat from Harry Reid.

“I’m at the point where we need to do something to allow government to function,” Reid said when asked if he would consider using the so-called nuclear option, a controversial procedural tactic for changing Senate rules. “I’m considering looking at the rules.”

Reid said he will insist that Republicans allow up-or-down votes on all three of Obama’s nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals: Patricia Millet, Cornelia Pillard and Robert Wilkins.

He will insist? What, he wasn't insisting months ago? He was just suggesting? Enough of the wimpy threats Harry. Stop flailing and do it to them before they bamboozle their way into control again and do it to you. Do it now, while there's still time to repair some of the damage.

Give me that old time populism

Just when I despair of the possible rehabilitation of the Democratic party, Elizabeth Warren delivers a speech on the Senate floor in which she calls for increased Social Security benefits:

“The absolute last thing we should do in 2013 – at the very moment that Social Security has become the principal lifeline for millions of our seniors — is allow the program to begin to be dismantled inch by inch.

“Over the past generation, working families have been hacked at, chipped, and hammered. If we want a real middle class — a middle class that continues to serve as the backbone of our country — then we must take the retirement crisis seriously. Seniors have worked their entire lives and have paid into the system, but right now, more people than ever are on the edge of financial disaster once they retire — and the numbers continue to get worse.

“That is why we should be talking about expanding Social Security benefits — not cutting them. Senator Harkin from Iowa, Senator Begich from Alaska, Senator Sanders from Vermont, and others have been pushing hard in that direction. Social Security is incredibly effective, it is incredibly popular, and the calls for strengthening it are growing louder every day.”

Bigger excerpt at the link. No, she won't be running in 2016 and that's a good thing. She can do a lot more good in the Senate right now. And we need to vote in more progressive Dems to help her in 2014.

GOP back to the same old tricks

You'll be shocked to learn Senate Republicans are blocking critical judicial nominees again. They're damned determined to keep the D.C.Circuit  controlled by cons and they're not afraid to filibuster. (What "gentlemen's" agreement?)

And can we please call the "court-packing" claim a lie?

Cornyn's court-packing claim is misleading -- it is a reference to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's attempts to expand the size of the Supreme Court; Obama merely wants to fill vacancies on the appellate level. But he repeated the talking point in multiple op-eds recently, laying the groundwork for a mass filibuster and pressuring GOP senators not to allow Obama to fill any of the three vacant seats on the D.C. Circuit court.

Republicans don't take issue with Millett's qualifications; they argue that the court's caseload is relatively low and so the size of its active bench should be reduced from 11 to eight judges. If they refuse to relent, it would put Democrats in a difficult position, forced to either surrender on a top judicial priority or possibly threaten to scale back the filibuster.

Filling standing vacancies is the Senate's damn job. As has long been the custom, the winners of the election get to pick the nominees. The losers of the election get to vote against them but they can't be allowed to continuously obstruct the process. Every Democrat inside the Beltway Bubble should be demanding an up or down vote. Maybe if they all changed their name to John McCain and stood on the steps of The Capitol chanting "up-or-down vote" Big Media might report about it on the teevee.

Meanwhile, nobody is scared of Harry Reid and his empty threats.

Republicans aren't fretting. "I don't really take this threat of the nuclear option very seriously when it comes to judicial nominations," Cornyn told reporters.

Screw those smug thugs. Kill the damn filibuster. You know if they ever regain the Senate, the GOPers will kill it on the first day so do it now.

Elizabeth Warren stands her ground

Go read Charlie Pierce for the elegant analogies on Elizabeth Warren's inspiring appearance on CNBC. All I'm going to add is: every time I see her do this stuff, I really wish she was our POTUS.

Reid threatens to go nuclear

Yes I know we've heard this all before, but this time Harry Reid sounds serious on filibuster reform.

After a tense exchange on the floor with his Republican counterpart, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, planned to recommend to his fellow Democrats at a private lunch meeting that they should vote to take the exceptional step of barring the minority party from filibustering presidential appointees.

The step that Mr. Reid will endorse, which drew strong objections from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, would not affect filibusters of legislation or judicial nominees. But it would prevent Republicans from being able to require a supermajority of 60 votes for the confirmation of people the president appoints to cabinet level posts or other executive-branch positions.

Greg Sargent has the details on the nuclear trigger:

“We’re going to file cloture on a bunch of nominations, and those votes will occur next week when we schedule them,” Reid said, adding later that if no movement occurred on them, “we know what’s going to happen.”

According to a senior Senate Democratic aide, this means that Reid will file cloture on the following nominations today: Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Gina McCarthy as head of the Environmental Protection Agency; Obama’s picks to the National Labor Relations Board; and possibly Thomas Perez as Labor Secretary.

These are the appointments the GOPers most want to block in order to subvert the will of the majority. So a real test of the laughable "gentlemen's agreement" Reid and McConnell made at the beginning of the session. Remains to be seen if any of the old geezers have the guts to see it through. As the NYT reports, "Senators in both parties also say they fear it could irrevocably change the nature of the Senate."

One could argue we're long overdue for an irrevocable change in that moribund body.

Predictably, Reid's threat left McConnell spitting out his own threats of revenge on the floor, should the tables be turned in the future. (Warning HuffPo link.) As if that's not exactly what Republicans would do anyway if they ever regain the majority, regardless of whether Reid screws up the courage to make a bold move now while there's still time to pass some useful legislation.

Mitch McConnell threatens Harry Reid

In a facedown between the two old geezers who both have held on to their seats of power for far too long, Mitch McConnell warns Harry Reid about the consequences of shutting down the GOP's obstruction function.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday starkly warned Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) not to eliminate the filibuster on presidential nominations, threatening to end the 60-vote threshold for everything, including bills, if he becomes the majority leader.

“There not a doubt in my mind that if the majority breaks the rules of the Senate to change the rules of the Senate with regard to nominations, the next majority will do it for everything,” McConnell said on the floor.

As if that's not exactly what McConnell would do on the very first day if the electorate is stupid enough to put these crackpot cretins back into the majority. Harry's only and obvious response should be, screw that noise you pompous windbag. Harry should do exactly that to the GOPers now, so at least the Senate can pass some useful policy before the electorate loses it mind again.

Sadly, I doubt Harry Reid, Man of Infinite Indecision, has the balls to do it.

Kill the filibuster before it kills us

I'm one of the last holdouts on this. I've argued for years that we should keep the filibuster to protect the Senate minority. But that was before the entire Republican party's brains melted before our eyes. Now convinced Paul Waldman is right.

The crackpots have taken over the GOP. When they manage to take the majority again, and they will, they will kill the filibuster. My only quibble with Paul is I don't think they'll wait a hot minute. They'll kill it preemptively on the first day of the session. So Harry Reid should just let it die with dignity now, while we still have a chance to get some sane legislation passed.

Give 'em heck Harry

Well here we go again. Harry Reid is kinda, sorta, thinking hard about cracking down on GOP obstruction.

“I’m not going to do anything now, precipitously,” he said. “But I’m looking at this very closely…. We’re going to fill that job. Cordray is there now. He’s going to get a vote.”

Corday you'll recall is the long being held in limbo nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. You'll also remember the GOPers are refusing to allow a vote unless the Dems agree to render the agency completely toothless, unable to enforce any actual consumer protection against predatory banksters.

Harry claims he's going to force a vote next week. Willing to bet it won't go well. [photo via The Moderate Voice]

GOP blocks environmental protection

We continue to see the fruits of Harry Reid's handshake agreement with Mitch McConnell that derailed filibuster reform. Today Senate GOPers prevented a vote on a new EPA chief by refusing to show up, thus denying the committee a quorum:

Today, the eight Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee will not attend the nomination vote of Gina McCarthy to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On April 25, 2013 the Committee Republicans asked Chairman Barbara Boxer to postpone the nomination vote because they had not received answers to their questions.

They blocked the vote essentially over only five unanswered queries, after the nominee Gina McCarthy, had already answered over 1,000 questions. Moreover McCarthy has been head of the Clean Air division for several years and had been easily confirmed to that position in 2009.

She's highly qualified for the job, had in saner times been lauded by Republicans for her work and has the support of the business and science community. Apparently the real problem is she believes in climate disruption or refuses to buy into climate change denialism or something. And besides, the GOP base hates the EPA, hates science and this grotesque grandstanding will piss off liberals.

The rubes love that crap, so no-brainer for the GOPers. Or more like the brainless Republicans still rule our world thanks to Harry Reid's apparently endless supply of patience.

Break up the Too Big To Fail banks

Don't want to get too excited about this just yet, but it's the best shot at killing the Too Big To Fail beast I've seen so far.

Last week, on April 24th, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Louisiana Republican David Vitter introduced legislation called the "Terminating Bailouts for Taxpayer Fairness Act of 2013 Act," or the "Brown-Vitter TBTF Act" for short. The bill is a gun aimed directly at the head of the Too-Big-To-Fail beast.

Who knows if they'll get anywhere with it. Big Finance will be throwing around a lot of big money to stop them. But there are quite a few surprise supporters including some Republicans and The Independent Community Bankers of America. The latter have been reluctant to take sides until now. And it surely sounds like a real fix in this telling.

Studies have shown that these banks borrow money at about 0.8 percent more cheaply than other banks, and that this implicit government subsidy is worth about $83 billion a year just to the top 10 banks in America. This bill would essentially wipe out that hidden subsidy and make the banks bailout-proof.

If it worked it would be a big step in restoring some balance to the national, and international, economy.

Hardly working

There are millions of Americans who have been out of work for so long they stopped even looking for a job. There are millions more who are barely employed in jobs that don't pay a living wage. I've heard that there are fast food joints that now require a bachelor's degree to apply for a position as an assistant manager. Against that backdrop, this was the scene at a Joint Economic Committee in the Senate hearing on long term unemployment.



The hearing started with only one out of 20 members of the committee in attendance. Eventually three others managed to show up. Shortly thereafter, they passed a sequester fix to eliminate waiting times for airline flights by unanimous consent at lightning speed. Of course, they have a job. For now.

Don't let the door hit you in the Baucus on the way out

The tears being shed over that miserable excuse for a Democrat, Max Baucus, announcing his long overdue retirement wouldn't fill a shot glass. Me, I'm suppressing the urge to dance on the table out of long ingrained imperative to be polite.

Everybody seems to be excited by the idea of replacing him with this guy I don't really remember. But if a Senator Schweitzer makes Charlie Pierce this happy, I'm all in for a string-tie Democrat.

It's only just begun

Our broken Senate managed to prevent any reform of gun safety regulations yesterday. In a way it's almost a good thing because there were more amendments than just the watered down expansion of background checks that failed to break the perpetual filibuster requirement of 60 votes. In fact, the GOP's Cornyn amendment to further weaken interstate gun safety laws got more votes than Manchin-Toomey, though it also failed to reach the magic number.

While many were angered and disappointed by this complete failure of good governance, few have more reason to be angry than Gabby Giffords whose op-ed ran in the NYT last night. A powerful piece but these passages get to the heart of her remarks:

Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on. [...]

They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.

They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony.

As Gabby and the parents of the Newtown dead and so many others have vowed, this is not over. If anything this blazing display of political cowardice has only hardened the determination to change the status quo. And as Gabby said in the op-ed, if we can't reform the laws with this Congress, then we'll change the Congress members. In the end, anger may bring more change than hope ever could.

Meanwhile, while the vote was going on, many victims of gun violence were in the gallery. One of them was Patricia Maisch who shouted, “Shame on you!”

You may remember her from when Gabby Giffords was shot on that horrible day in 2011. "Maisch was hailed as a hero for disarming Tucson shooter Jared Loughner by preventing him from reloading a fresh magazine." As she was leaving the gallery, she was detained by security. They held her for two hours, which is "approximately 115 minutes longer than a background check at a federal gun dealer," in order to run a criminal background check because she dared to briefly disrupt the proceedings -- with three words. The irony is lost on no one.

GOP dances on the graves of the dead children of Sandy Hook

By now you've heard Senate Republicans killed the gun safety bill by filibuster today. Within minutes of the vote, even as the victims of gun violence were weeping in the gallery, Mitch McConnell posted this gloat on his facebook page:



The 90% of America who wanted better protection against allowing lethal weapons to fall into the hands of homicidal maniacs responded:



I'm too disgusted to say anything tonight and really I can't put it better than this:

"Today, the U.S. Senate decided to do the unthinkable about gun violence --- nothing at all," - Gabby Giffords

And to add insult to injury, on the same day our broken Senate refused to pass gun safety reform to protect 300million+ living Americans, they unanimously passed a resolution to pardon one man, Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight boxing champ. He deserves the pardon, but he died over 50 years ago.

These are the priorities of the so-called greatest deliberative body in the world.

Senate does something about gun safety reform

It's not much so far. Really it's kind of pathetic that a simple cloture vote to allow debate is such big news.

The procedural vote followed a breakthrough by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, who reached a compromise on broadening background checks to include private purchases at gun shows and on the Internet.

Because of the bipartisan deal, Senate Democrats backing the legislation received support from enough Republicans to approve the cloture motion, 68-31, setting up debate on the proposals and amendments expected to last for two weeks.

Only two Democrats defected and 16 Republicans voted for cloture. One of them surprisingly being my own generally useless Richard Burr. While I'm certain he'll vote against any actual reform bill, just voting to allow it to come to the floor brought out the gun loving crackpot hordes in protest. The general drift of the commentary was how dare he give OWEbama a political victory. They will never forgive this grave betrayal of their constitutional rights and they're going to kick his RINO ass out of office. Of course they'll forget all that when he votes against the final bill.

Some milquetoast bill may yet get passed out of the Senate. Then John Boehner's House gets to further eviscerate the reforms. Unlikely to solve the problems. But DC media and the Beltway junkies have something to talk about for the next few weeks. So there's that...