Category: Congress

It Sucks to be Blanche Lincoln Right Now

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The polls say, “Bummer of a birthmark, Blanche.”

Her poll numbers are in the toilet, and she looks unelectable in the general election, and now Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter has announced that he is running against her in the Democratic Primary, and the AFL-CIO has decided to come out against the Senator from Wal-Mart and the Insurance Companies Arkansas to the tune of a $3 million independent expenditure.

And, yes, I’ve added Mr. Halter to my Act Blue Page as well.

This is one of the cases where it’s a win-win.

We have a pseudo-Democrat who will lose anyway, and by taking her out in the primary, we have a chance a real Democrat taking the seat.

When Your Sellout to the Banks Offends Chuck Schumer………

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So Chris Dodd has come up with a “bipartisan” proposal for protecting consumers from predatory financial institutions, he wants to make it the Federal Reserve’s job:

The chairman of the Senate banking committee is seeking Democratic support for a Republican proposal to house a new consumer-protection regulator inside the Federal Reserve, a compromise that could clear the way for bipartisan legislation on financial reform, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

Embracing the proposal marks a turnaround for Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who has lambasted the Fed repeatedly over the past year for not protecting borrowers from lender abuse. It is unclear whether other Fed critics, both Democrats and Republicans, will follow suit. The Fed already is responsible for writing consumer-protection rules, but it did not prohibit some of the most abusive mortgage and credit card lending practices during the housing boom.

The proposal by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) would place a presidential appointee inside the Fed with an independent budget and a mandate to write rules protecting consumers. Those rules, however, would be enforced by existing banking regulators.

Of course, the Fed is already the consumer protection agency, and they failed, and they don’t provide information to Congress, or to anyone else.

Even Chuck Schumer (D-NY) thinks that this is a bad idea, and Schumer’s career is largely based on raising campaign money from Wall Street fatcats:

Chairman Dodd is to be commended for working so diligently to come up with a bipartisan compromise on financial services reform, which demands urgent attention. But in my 20 years of trying to get the Federal Reserve to properly protect consumers, it has been an uphill, and very often unsuccessful, battle. I am very leery of any consumer regulator being placed inside the Fed.

You know, if you’ve lost Chuck Schumer on this idea, it’s time to tell the Republicans to go Cheney themselves, and jam them up and make them vote against financial reform, over, and over, and over again.

The regional Federal Reserve banks are literally owned by the banks, and the presidents of these regional banks hold a lot of sway, and 5 of these bankers sit on the FOMC, and we are to expect an organization that has already shown itself to be both hostile to consumer protection and unresponsive to consumer complaints to somehow protect consumers?

I know that Mr. Dodd wants to make sure that he has a source of income when he leaves office in 2011, but he has a pension coming to him of something in excess of $120,000/year, so he should be fine.

Stop sucking up to the banks, sir.

Deep Thought:

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It appears that the Republicans have successfully prevailed upon Jim Bunning (R-KY) to end his filibuster, so the emergency unemployment extension will proceed.

Additionally, the Republicans are suggesting that the distinguished gentleman from Kentucky is suffering from overwork, so they are suggesting:

  • That he take a vacation.
  • And go to Sea World in Orlando.
  • And let his hair down.
  • And go swimming.
  • And meet Tillicum up close and personal as a part of a whale watching junket.

That is all.

Harold Ford is Not Running for NY Senate

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I guess he finally realized that it was moving from long-shot to fiasco:

Harold E. Ford Jr., the former Tennessee congressman who has sought to parlay his star power and Wall Street connections into a political career in New York, has decided not to challenge Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand in the Democratic primary this September, according to friends and advisers.

After traveling the state on a closely watched tour, he told friends that he could prevail but feared that an ugly campaign would leave the winner drained of cash and vulnerable to a Republican challenger at a time when the Democratic Party controls the United States Senate by a slender majority.

“I’ve examined this race in every possible way, and I keep returning to the same fundamental conclusion: If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary — a primary where the winner emerges weakened and the Republican strengthened,” Mr. Ford wrote in an opinion article to be published in The New York Times on Tuesday.

Don’t let the door hit you on your butt.

The moral of this story: Republicans are mean; Democrats are patsies.

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Taylor Marsh’s take on the latest filibuster kerfluffle, where Jim Bunning told Democrats, “Tough sh%$,” when they confronted him about blocking the emergency unemployment extension:

In a colloquy with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Jeff Merkley, a freshman Democrat from Oregon, was pleading for Bunning to drop his objection, when the Kentucky Republican got fed up.

“Tough s—t,” Bunning said as he was seated in the back row, overheard by the floor staff and others in attendance.

Like I said before, prima donnas and drama queens, and the prima donnas and drama queens always win in the Senate.

Good

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Nancy Pelosi is saying that notwithstanding the healthcare summit, the house will not move until the Senate passes a reconciliation fix:

However, the House can’t act, she noted, until “we see what the Senate will be able to do.”

Now, Pelosi stopped short of saying–as she’s said in the past–that these changes must be made before the House passes the Senate bill. And, in a surprising statement to reporters today, Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) said it would “help a lot” if the Senate simply wrote a letter–signed by a majority of members–pledging to make the fixes.

I think that her statement is a strong rebuke to the Senate, as well it should be, it is a body that rewards prima donnas and drama queens.

Still, she is moderating her language a bit, which does make me worry.

Charles Rangel ‘Admonished’ by House Ethics Committee

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I think that the facts are beginning to catch up with him, which is a pity, because he’s right on the issues:

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, has been admonished by the chamber’s ethics panel for trips he made to the Caribbean.

The committee determined he violated House gift rules when he accepted the trips to conferences in 2007 and 2008 sponsored by the Carib News Foundation. The foundation received contributions from corporations specifically to fund the conferences, the panel said in a statement.

The committee said yesterday that while it didn’t find evidence Rangel was aware of the funding, members of his staff did and “Representative Rangel was responsible for the knowledge and actions of his staff in the performance of their official duties.”

We are going to be seeing more of this, and I do not expect Rangel to run for reelection in 2012, because by that point, the pile of sleaze will be too high.

I expect a new eruption every few months for the next 2 years or so.

What a Bitch

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I am reverring to Kent Conrad (DINO-ND) who is saying that he’ll kill any attempt to use reconciliation to pass a fix to Senate’s awful healthcare reform bill unless the House passes that bill first:

The Senate Democrats’ top budget guy told reporters today that the Senate can’t pass a reconciliation package tweaking a comprehensive health care bill unless the House passes the Senate bill first. And if the House won’t do that, he says health care reform is “dead.”

“The only way this works is for the House to pass the Senate bill and then, depending on what the package is, the reconciliation provision that moves first through the House and then comes here,” said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) outside the upper chamber this morning. “That’s the only way that works.”

I guess that someone hurt his feelings.

Here is a message to almost everyone in the White House and Congress:
<Rant>

Get the F%$# Over Yourself!!!

</Rant>

Another Day, Another Obama Administration Capitulation

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Yep, this time it’s the CFPA:

The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system.

In hopes of quick congressional approval of a reform bill, White House officials are opening the door to compromise with lawmakers concerned about creating a new bureaucracy, according to congressional and some administration sources.

President Obama’s economic team is now open to housing the consumer regulator inside another agency, such as the Treasury Department, though they still prefer a stand-alone agency. In either case, they are insisting on a regulator with political autonomy and real teeth so it can effectively enforce rules designed to protect consumers of mortgages, credit cards and other financial products.

(emphasis mine)

Let’s be clear on this: No one has any concern about a new bureaucracy. The banks want impunity to screw consumers, and members of Congress who want campaign donations from Wall Street, and White House officials completely captured by the finance industry, **cough** Geithner and Summers **cough**, are more than willing to do this.

If the CFPA is not independent, which means that they have the ability to craft their own budget, they will be subject to the tender mercies of someone like Timothy “Eddie Haskell” Geithner or Hank “Why the f%$# isn’t he in Jail” Paulson, and so will be largely ineffective.

5 Republicans Vote for Cloture on Jobs Bill

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The one where Harry Reid stripped out all the tax breaks for special interests that Max Baucus put in to make nice with the terrorists Republicans.

Republicans voting for cloture were Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, George Voinovich, and Christopher “Kit” Bond.

Notably, Ben Nelson, who is nominally a Democrat voted against cloture.

There should be consequences for him. He has a leadership position, and he is voting for cloture.

Instead, Reid and Obama will find some other way to suck up to him.

Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) Has Cancer

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They are expecting a “full and complete recovery,” but he’s 86, and a “full and complete recovery” is frequently predicted in cases that prove terminal:

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the nation’s second oldest U.S. senator, has curable lymphoma of the stomach, his office said Friday.

Doctors for the 86-year-old Democrat found B-cell lymphoma that will require treatment over the next few months, spokesman Caley Gray said in a news release.

Mr. Lautenberg will undergo six to eight chemotherapy treatments and should make a “full and complete recovery,” said James Holland of New York City’s Mount Sinai Medical Center.

More on Bybee and Yoo, and the Lessons Learned Therein

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Courtesy of Chris Floyd:

“Children, the law is nothing but a rag smeared with blood and sh%$.

“It is only for suckers, rubes and losers.

“Claw your way to the top — by any means necessary — and the law can never touch you.

“This is the American way.”

This is the message of Barack Obama and His Evil Minions™ determination not to prosecute, nor review in the smallest way by the bar association, the contemptible actions of the worst of the wrong doers amongst Bush and His Evil Minions™.

Moron

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Chris Dodd, the senior Senator from Connecticut, is not running for reelection because he cannot win. He is too unpopular.

In fact, about the only person in the state that he might beat is Joe Lieberman, the junior Senator from Connecticut, who is currently polling behind a case of the clap.

Well, now that Dodd is not running, the new front runner in the state is Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Unfortunately, he has decided to take his cue from Joe Lieberman:

Barack Obama shouldn’t expect an invitation from fellow Democrat Dick Blumenthal anytime soon: Blumenthal said in a New Haven stop that the president “may not want to come here” to stump for his U.S. Senate campaign, given how independent he claimed he’ll be if elected.

That turnabout in partisan loyalty emerged Monday night as Blumenthal continued tacking away from his liberal roots —including through newly expanded support for military tribunals for domestic terror suspects.

(emphasis mine)

The explanation is that Massachusetts changes everything.

No, it doesn’t. The election of a Republican in Massachusetts was all about voters disgusted with Democrats not getting stuff done when they had near historic majorities.

And who prevented anything from getting done?

Well, that would be Senators like Joe Lieberman.

I will leave Mr. Blumenthal with the words of Harry S Truman, “Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, , people will vote for the real Republican all the time”

I May Have Been too Tough on Bayh

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Not that I care all that much, but the Hill is reporting that Republicans are pissed off about the timing of the announcement:

Republicans are livid about the timing of Sen. Evan Bayh’s (D-Ind.) retirement announcement.

They have at least four candidates in the upcoming primary while the Indiana Democratic Party will get to decide its nominee.

Indiana required nominating petitions to be filed by noon Tuesday. Bayh announced Monday he would not seek reelection, giving would-be candidates less than 24 hours to get on the ballot.

………

Republicans have called on Bayh to ask for an extension of the filing deadline.

“The reality and ramifications of this timing cannot, and should not, be ignored,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) said in a statement.

“Assuming there is no qualified candidate that files the appropriate documentation before the deadline, Sen. Bayh should call on the state Democratic Party to ask an Indiana court to extend the candidate filing deadline — both for this Senate candidacy and for any House candidacy that is left open by a Democrat House member who runs for the Senate nomination,” Cornyn said. “Doing so would remove any appearance of unfair gamesmanship by the Democrats while affirming their belief that voters, and not party bosses, should be the final arbiters of elections.”


Bummer of a birth mark,
Indiana Republicans

Boo-f%$#ing-hoo.

Your strongest candidates, Rep. Mike Pence, Secretary of State Todd Rokita, and Governor Mitch Daniels, didn’t want to run because of Bayh’s $13 million war chest, and now the best you can find is former Senator Dan Coats, who retired as a Senator, then moved to DC to be a lobbyist, and is on tape joking about leaving Indiana.

Bayh’s decision might not have been quite the f%$#-you to Democrats that I had previously thought.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Proposing Budget Prohibition on Enforcing DADT

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Moving to prohibit the military from spending money to enforce DADT is a good idea.

Among other things, it is a non-filibusterable measure, and when the usual crowd of Republicans start screaming, it’s an opportunity to show them up as hypocrites, since they are now ignoring the military leadership and the budget and HR needs of the military.

It also raises a question about Senator Gillibrand (D-BY).

She was, when she was the Congresswoman from New York’s 20th district a very conservative lawmaker, but now, that she’s in the Senate, far more liberal in her record.

The 20th is a conservative district, R+2 according to the Wiki, and it is understandable how a politician might find it in their best interest to represent the needs and wants of their district.

On the other hand, since being appointed by Governor Paterson to replace Hillary Clinton, she has also faced the prospect of viable primary challengers from the liberal wing of the party,* and her positioning may simply be an attempt to forestall any challengers, much in the same way that Arlen Spector is doing in Pennsylvania.

There is nothing wrong with her attempting to represent the views of her constituency, and her constituency has changed, and become significantly more liberal with the change in office.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know if this is driven by a constituent considerations, or if it is driven by primary election considerations.

If it’s the former, she should be a decent Senator. If it’s the latter, then come November, we’ll have another wanker in the Senate, at least for the next year or so, until she positions herself for the regularly scheduled election for that Senate seat.

*We’ll ignore the Harold Ford, corporatist DLC puke “candidacy” right now, because I’m not sure if it’s a serious candidacy, an attempt at extortion, or an exercise in masturbatory ego stroking.