Category: Congress

Senate Looks Ready to Cave on Iraq

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CQ is reporting that Carl Levin, Daniel Inouye are floating a spending bill without restrictions.

This is wrong, and worse, it is a mistake.

Voting against the war is the right thing to do morally and politically, and these morons can’t seem to get it through their heads that caving to Bush hurts the country and the Democratic party.

Don’t back down, make it harder on the Republicans. Make them really filibuster. Declare on every talk show that the Republicans are filibustering money for the troops.

Not one step back.

William Jefferson Charges Mount

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Just to be clear, corruption is not a uniquely Republican activity, as is shown by way of Congressman William Jerfferson, who has two more allegations against him:

The allegations, detailed in a seven-page document filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, will not result in new charges, prosecutors said, but they plan to present them during Jefferson’s federal bribery trial as evidence of a pattern of intentional wrongdoing.

In 2002, the government alleges, Jefferson asked a lobbyist of a U.S. oil service company for $10,000 a month for a family member in exchange for Jefferson’s assisting the company in promoting business in Africa. The lobbyist turned down Jefferson’s request, the document said.

Three years later, according to the filing, Jefferson allegedly agreed to urge NASA in a letter to consider doing business with a U.S. rocket technology and rocket launch services company. In exchange, the company allegedly agreed to pay Jefferson’s family business and a relative.

Of course, when one looks at Cunningham, Ted Stevens, etc. this one guy does not seem to be all that much.

There are two reasons for the disparity:

  • From 1994-2006, the Democrats were in the minority.
  • Republicans believe that government is unmitigated evil, and as such, the path to bribery is easier, since they believe that they are already doing evil, so it’s about power and wealth to begin with.

Jefferson was found with thousands of dollars in his freezer.

FISA Bill Update: House Passes, Senate Telco Immunity Up to Harry Reid

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The house passed their, not quite so nauseating version 227-189, which sounds like an almost party line vote.

As to the senate version, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted out a version without telco immunity, but did not formally strip it from the version from the Intel Committee, so Harry Reid gets to decide which one hits the floor.

Call Harry Reid’s office: (202) 224-3542.

Report: FISA Bill Does Not Contain Telco Immunity

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This is very good news, if true. Here is the report:

Here’s a bit more detail on what happened on the Judiciary Committee today. Sources say Senator Russ Feingold offered an amendment that would have stripped telecom immunity from the bill, but it was defeated. Then Senator Arlen Specter, the ranking GOPer on the committee, offered a “compromise” amendment saying that in these lawsuits the Federal government, and not the telecoms, would be the defendants.

But because of a procedural difficulty Specter’s amendment wasn’t voted on — and Senator Patrick Leahy, the chair of the committee, essentially went around Specter’s amendment and moved to have a vote to report the bill out of committee without any telecom immunity in it. That passed along strictly party lines. And that’s where we are.

The interesting thing is that this is a fight that Bush can’t win, if the Dems show some backbone.

If nothing passes, we are back to the old FISA bill. If he vetos over this, he has to explain why.

Brkk: Dems Work to Foil White House Recess Ploys, Again

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Remember when I wrote that Harry Reid had decided to keep the senate in pro forma session to prevent recess appointments?

He backed off after cutting a deal with Bush, but it now appears to be breaking down, so it looks like the Senate will stay in pro forma session over the Thanksgiving recess.

Considering where Mukulski, Cardin and Webb live, and that you only need one of them to hold a pro forma session, why deal with the Avignon president at all?

Attorney General Calls for Veto if no Telco Immunity

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Pat Leahy has an ammendment stripping out the telco immunity from the FISA update. Michael Mukasey and DNI Michael McConnell, who believes that any discussion of intelligence will kill us all, have authored a letter to the Juciciary committee opposing the change:

“We strongly oppose the proposed substitute amendment. If the substitute is part of a bill that is presented to the president, we and the president’s other senior advisers will recommend that he veto the bill.

Who the hell cares if Bush vetos this bill?

If nothing gets passed, we go back to the old law, and the old restrictions, in a few months.

House Passes Iraq Pullout Funding Bill

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Hopefully, this will pass the senate too. It funds to the tune of $50 billion, and requires that troops start being withdrawn within 30 days with a complete withdrawal by Dec. 15, 2008.

As I’ve mentioned earlier Reid is promising a real filibuster, where the ‘Phants will have to talk, on this, so it should get interesting.

The voting is interesting, Republicans Phil English (PA), Walter Jones (NC), Christopher Shays (CT) and James Walsh (NY) supported the bill. This was the first time that either English (who once bumped me off a plane flight, not because he was a congressman, but because of the luck of the draw), and Walsh voted for such a bill, so we do have some evidence of a gradual peeling off of Republican support.

On the Democratic side, we had the following Bush Dogs: John Tanner (TN), Brian Baird (WA), Dan Boren (OK), Jim Cooper (TN), Gene Taylor (MS), John Barrow (GA), Jim Marshall (GA), Jim Matheson (UT), Nick Lampson (TX) and Vic Snyder (AR).

Will no one rid me of these turbulent Bush Dogs?

House Dems Wimp Out, Delay Contempt Vote

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Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers have refused a subpoena to testify before congress about the US Attorney scandal, and John Conyers has been asking for the House of Representatives to pass a contempt citation.

Well, it now appears, that they are again delaying the vote, this time to December:

Other top Democrats, including Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), have argued that the House should put off that fight while debates over Iraq funding and electronic eavesdropping dominate the floor. The contempt vote had been tentatively scheduled for Friday before Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) informed his colleagues that it was being delayed.

We really need some serious primary challenges for the wimp caucus, both Hoyer and Emanuel.

Driving While Lap Dancing

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Well, it looks like everyone’s favorite drunken wife beating former congressman John Sweeney is at it again. After being defeated by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, in large part due to allegations of drunkenness and spousal abuse, is at it again.

Well, after weaving, he was pulled over by the cops, and the “one-time STOP-DWI coordinator for Rensselaer County” blew a 0.18 percent, more than twice the limit.

The kicker, he had a 23 year old woman on his lap when he was pulled over.

Gotta love them Republithug values.

Senate Democrats Plan Real Filibuster

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You know, the whole Mr. Smith Goes to Washington thing, where people will actually have to hold the floor and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, AND TALK.

It would be on the Iraq withdrawal bill.

Some background: for about the past 30 years, when someone has declared the intent to filibuster, they take a cloture vote, and if it fails, the measure is pulled from the floor. No one is actually forced to do the Jimmy Stewart thing.

It was thought that this was a more efficient use of the Senate’s time, since while a filibuster is going on, nothing else can pass the floor.

The side effect of the change allowing filibusters without talking is that they have become far easier, and they are done on the small business too. Here is an illustrative graphic showing the trend:

Note that while I applaud the strategy, I feel that it does not go far enough.

The “non-filibuster filibuster” is a matter of courtesy, and it clear that part of the deal is that it not be abused. The courtesy should be completely eliminated. Require speeches for all filibusters.