’)Senate Democratic leaders plan to cut Republican committee seats to reflect the new balance of power in the upper chamber, according to Democratic aides.
Republicans will lose at least one seat on most committees and may lose as many as two on some of the larger panels, such as the powerful Appropriations committee.
That’s the way the system works.
Of course, the system is also supposed to trigger the “Stan Lee effect” — “with great power comes great responsibility.” The more power the Democrats take for themselves away from the Republicans, the more they will “own” pretty much everything that comes out of Washington. They won’t be able to hide behind the “it’s the Republicans’ fault!” excuses for very long.
I thought that the whole Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac would explode in the Democrats’ faces, considering their fingerprints were all over it top to bottom, but somehow they managed to pull a Jedi Mind Trick on the American people and make them forget the efforts by Republicans to regulate those two — and how the Democrats blocked every single measure.
Yup, the Democrats have the authority to do this — and they have the right to be held accountable for what consequently happens.
Oughta be quite entertaining…
J.
I feel for him, guys. It was so much more fun for Jay to blame Democrats for everything when they weren’t actually in charge.
“Oughta be quite entertaining…”
The phrase, “Small minds, simple pleasures” comes to mind.
Since the Republicans have been trying to blame everything on the Democrats for the past two years, even as they made damn sure nothing was getting out of the Senate, hearing them complain for the next four years will matter little. Hell, it will take at least that long to begin fixing all of the problems Bush caused. We are very likely in the middle of a recession right now.
And by the way, Jay, what if the Democrats turn things around? What then?
Then, Strowbridge, I will be pleasantly surprised and relieved to have been wrong. And I will say so publicly.
But I have faith. I have faith in Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd and Barney Frank and the rest of the Democratic leadership in Congress to completely and utterly screw things up.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst…
J.
That’s ok JT, the republicans still control the filibuster committee and will look to set new records in obstructionism.
We’ll have to wait and see, midder… but filibustering doesn’t mean that the filibusterers (man, what an awkward word) take any responsibility. Look at the Democrats who killed the aforementioned Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac reforms earlier in this decade…
J.
Yes, when the Republicans ran everything, it was clearly the Democrats’ fault.
Also, this line about “you’re going to regret kicking our ass in elections because then you get responsibility” has the unique positioning of being both stupid and inane at the same time. You guys are far better shutting the hell up rather than sounding like this. Go work on de-marginalizing yourselves rather than still pretending as if you have all the answers.
JT: But I have faith. I have faith in Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd and Barney Frank and the rest of the Democratic leadership in Congress to completely and utterly screw things up.
I can’t fully disagree. After watching the power shift in 2006 and the repeated failures to rein in Bush at all afterwards, I never underestimate the ability of the Dems to crumble. I am hopeful that, with Obama as President, they will both stand stronger against the Repubs but not swing too far in the opposite direction and misuse their power. Time will tell.
JT: but filibustering doesn’t mean that the filibusterers (man, what an awkward word) take any responsibility.
Awkward phrasing to go with the awkward words. That sounds like you’re saying those who filibuster bear no responsibility for doing so. A position I’m sure many Repub will take in coming months, but one I hope is not what you intended to say.
“We’ll have to wait and see, midder…”
You know what, just shut the fuck up, Jay Tea. You are a fucking hypocrite, and nothing you say matters. Don’t pretend like you are going to be reasonable now.
but filibustering doesn’t mean that the filibusterers (man, what an awkward word) take any responsibility. Look at the Democrats who killed the aforementioned Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac reforms earlier in this decade…
I wasn’t aware that the Democrats had filibustered S. 190, the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 (the one McCain belatedly jumped onto, not the 2007 version that he ignored) of the 109th Congress, when the Republican still had control. Is there any contemporaneous account of this?
But I have faith. I have faith in Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd and Barney Frank and the rest of the Democratic leadership in Congress to completely and utterly screw things up.
Reid, Pelosi, and Obama stand over the smoldering remains of the economy, foreign policy, and global reputation of the US after 8 years of Republican rule, 8 years that you tirelessly defended, and you’re imagining that THEY are going to screw things up? What’s left to screw up?! Your party has already ruined it all. There is, as they say, no where to go but up.
And you can continue to shovel that Freddie/Frannie canard as if anyone is actually listening to you or cares anymore what Republican-apologists think. They were a small part of a much, much bigger financial mess.
filibustering doesn’t mean that the filibusterers (man, what an awkward word) take any responsibility. Look at the Democrats who killed the aforementioned Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac reforms earlier in this decade…
The Dems filibustered on FM/FM reforms? I do hope you have a link for that assertion, Mr. Tea.
Yup, the Democrats have the authority to do this — and they have the right to be held accountable for what consequently happens.
So in other words, you got nothing.
Thanks for playing this latest edition of American Election 08. We look forward to your next contestant in 09. In the meantime, don’t call us, we’ll call you.
Man, talk about sore WINNERS…
I’m just shrugging and saying “OK, your guys won, you’re in charge.” I’m sure there’s an old curse that covers this — “may you get everything you ever wanted” or some such thing. I’m saying that instead of fighting tooth and nail over every single issue, I’m content to sit back for a bit and enjoy my obvious moral and intellectual and political superiors demonstrate what they’ve been claiming for so long — that if THEY were running things, it’d be a lot better for all concerned.
As I said, it oughta be quite the show…
J.
Mandate.
No problem with you wanting to do that, Jaim. But if you wanna go past man-date, it won’t happen in California.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Jaim, you claim your side has a mandate. Well, let’s see what you do with it. It’s “put up or shut up” time.
As I said, it ought to be tremendously entertaining. And for me, it’s a win-win: either I’m proven right, or the country benefits.
Let’s see what you got.
J.
JT: I’m just shrugging and saying “OK, your guys won, you’re in charge.”
No you’re not.
You’re not “just shrugging” at anything. You are, instead, continuing to repeat lies which you can’t support (“considering [Democrat] fingerprints were all over it top to bottom,… the efforts by Republicans to regulate those two — and how the Democrats blocked every single measure.”) and your usual hypocrisies (“They won’t be able to hide behind the “it’s the Republicans’ fault!” excuses”).
You’ve been the most reasonable of the various “J”’s at times, and looked like you were headed that way here with your initial acknowledgment that the Dems can cut Repub committee seats. But you keep pulling out Repub talking points instead of thinking for yourself. I don’t get that.
“As I said, it oughta be quite the show…”
Please, Jay Tea, no talking during the performance.
Sean, I’m no financial expert, but I know that at least twice in the past few years Republican senators (including Elizabeth Dole, John E. Sununu, and John McCain) filed legislation to tighten regulation of Fannie/Freddie. In both cases the Democrats united in lockstep to oppose the bill unanimously, and in the House Barney Frank was declaring as recently as this summer that they were fundamentally sound.
I know that two former CEOs of Fannie, including one who barely beat an indictment, advised the Obama campaign.
I know that Obama’s new chief of staff was on Fannie’s Board of Directors when Franklin Raines was overseeing fraud that would make ENRON’s scandal look mild.
I know that longtime Democratic hack Jamie Gorelick (who had NO BUSINESS on the 9/11 panel) also made a hefty fortune working for Fannie.
I know that Fannie and Freddie were pushing, hard, for banks to make more and more loans to underqualified buyers in response to pressure from the Clinton administration.
I know that longtime Democratic allies and constituents like ACORN were threatening to sue banks if they didn’t make those loans.
I know that in 2003, in response to one Republican plan to regulate Fannie and Freddie, Barney Frank said “These two entities—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
I know that Barney Frank was also romantically involved with a high-level official at Fannie Mae. (No, NOT gonna go there, NOT gonna go there…)
I know that nearly all the “Friends Of Angelo’s” who got sweetheart mortgages from Countrywide were Democrats — among them Chris Dodd, Kent Conrad, and the aforementioned Fannie Mae CEOs James Johnson and Franklin Raines.
But apparently that wasn’t enough to keep decent senators like Dole and Sununu in office, and it isn’t enough to get rid of scumbags like Frank out of office.
So be it.
I hope this isn’t a preview of the new Democratic government in action.
J.
JT: either I’m proven right, or the country benefits.
You’ve got it from the horse’s mouth right there folks. When JT is right, the country does not benefit.
“Sean, I’m no financial expert ,,,”
And that’s where I stopped reading. Thank you for putting that upfront, Jay Tea. It looks like you saved me a lot of time and brain cells. Much appreciated.
“Man, talk about sore WINNERS…”
Fuck you. The Republicans have been calling Liberals anti-American for years and you want to call us sore winners? You can just fuck off and die.
“Sean, I’m no financial expert…”
So shut the fuck up already.
“I know that…”
You know nothing, Jay Tea. If you think Fannie/Freddie caused this financial meltdown, then you know less than nothing.
For, what, 4 or 5 of the Bush years, the GOP controlled all branches of government, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are all the obstructionist democrats fault…
Riiiiight.
For eight years, I’ve heard that “dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” Guess that’s all gone, with the new “Hope and Change” agenda…
Guess I’ll just have to practice the New Patriotism and work on cheerfully parroting the latest talking points from the Obama administration…
That’s gonna take a LOT of work.
J.
For eight years, I’ve heard that “dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”
Yes, it is, and even though you’ve spent the last eight years saying the opposite, it still applies to you.
However, you’ll need to wait until the Obama administration pulls off a fuckup like Iraq or Katrina or the Gonzo DOJ for your dissent to sound like anything besides sour grapes on crack.
Wilbur, care to cite a few examples of me saying otherwise?
You can find plenty of examples of me saying that dissenters are wrong-headed and stupid and inviting disaster, but saying that they are treasonous? I toss that around very, very carefully. And I’ve mocked and derided and scorned those who do use it casually.
J.
There is dissent wisely applied and then there is the slash and burn obstruction perpetrated by the republicans of the last congress. It was amazing how they went from saying blocking anything was tantamount to treason to blocking everything was a-ok. Look into it. The democrats only blocked the very worst of things, they are a fractured caucus, peeling off a few on any vote was not only possible but likely. Republicans are a closer group much more in lockstep. They blocked far more in one congress than democrats did in two.
Just wanted to share this in case you haven’t seen it. Bill Ayers finally speaks
You can find plenty of examples of me saying that dissenters are wrong-headed and stupid and inviting disaster
And we may return the favor when you criticize something that the Obama administration and the dem-dominated congress actually _does_. As long as you’re dyspeptically imagining what they _might_ do we’ll just call you what you are: a sorehead.
Also, as long as you continue to wail on the Fannie Mae mote in the democrats’ eye while ignoring the great deregulation beam in the republicans’, we’ll call you what you are: a real wanker of a tool.
But credit where it is due: J.T. is far from the worst of the bunch. For a real hard-on look at preemptive O.D.S. just take a gander at what’s going on at The Corner or Michelle Malkin.
Thanks for the link, Roschelle. So the republicans distorted both Ayers’ views and his ties to Obama? Who could have guessed?!
I for one hope the democrats don’t overreach, because I don’t want to get pasted to the wall in ‘10. A little circumspection might be in order. Not a lot, but enough to let those blue dog districts know we’re not eeeeevil commie France just yet.
Then again there’s a fine line between circumspection and ‘bending over.’
In both cases the Democrats united in lockstep to oppose the bill unanimously
Jay Tea, again, do you have any contemporaneous documentation of a filibuster? Do you know what a filibuster is? It is an action taken in the Senate to preclude a vote. A unanimous vote by Democrats against a bill (with the exception of Hollings, what the Dems did on Gramm-Leach-Bliley, for example) is NOT A FILIBUSTER. Please come back when you learn how to use the English language accurately. Also, if you realize that you have made an assertion that you cannot back up, please have the balls to admit that you said something that you have heard from other right-wingers but cannot actually document factually and therefore will get called on in a non-rightwing forum.
PG, did I say “filibuster?” The Democrats made it clear that they were united in opposing the bill, and that meant that the bill would fall short of the 60 votes it needed to survive a filibuster threat.
J.
“You can find plenty of examples of me saying that dissenters are wrong-headed and stupid and inviting disaster…”
And you’ve been wrong, so shut the fuck up.
“For eight years, I’ve heard that ‘dissent is the highest form of patriotism.’ Guess that’s all gone, with the new ‘Hope and Change’ agenda…”
There’s dissent, and then there’s stupidity. Your bleatings fall under the latter category. If you have something intelligent to say, say it. Otherwise shut the fuck up.
Someone wake me when Strowbridge says something that doesn’t involve some variant of “shut the fuck up.” I think his needle’s stuck.
(Damn, I’m dating myself there…)
J.
Jay Tea,
You said, We’ll have to wait and see, midder… but filibustering doesn’t mean that the filibusterers (man, what an awkward word) take any responsibility. Look at the Democrats who killed the aforementioned Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac reforms earlier in this decade…
I made the mistake of thinking that two sentences, one right after the other in the same paragraph, had some relevance to each other. Sorry to assume that about your writing.
Contemporaneous evidence of Democrats threatening to filibuster the FM regulation bill, please. Democrats just saying that they didn’t like the bill =/= filibuster threat. Cf. Democratic action on Bush nominations for appellate judges, where I can find you plenty of newspaper articles where they were, in fact, articulating a threat of filibuster.
“Someone wake me when Strowbridge says something that doesn’t involve some variant of ’shut the fuck up.’ I think his needle’s stuck.”
I’ll stop telling you to shut the fuck up when you stop saying things that are stupid.
This is your fault. You are the moron here. If you were learn, I wouldn’t have to keep telling you to shut the fuck up.
And for me, it’s a win-win: either I’m proven right, or the country benefits.
Given your track record, I’d take that bet.
“Given your track record, I’d take that bet.”
You would lose that bet, because one of Jay Tea’s biggest weaknesses is figuring out when he is wrong. No matter what happens, he would think he’s won.