U.S. Senate News

The Grand Crap Sandwich

7:36 am EST August 1st, 2011 | Democrats, Economy, Liberals | 101 Comments

ObamaThe Republican Party was able to enact more conservative cuts on the government with a Democratic President and Democratic Senate than they were with a Republican President, House, and Senate. That’s how much of a massive failure the debt ceiling “deal” is.

It is a massive failure, not only of progressive politics, but of American politics. The legislation will hobble the economic recovery while hurting the poor and middle class. Anybody who believes in progress for America should loudly vote against this monstrosity.

Everybody should share the blame here.

The Republican Party, for its dogged dedication to policies that enrich the already rich at the expense of ordinary Americans.

Congressional Democrats, for being listless and directionless and spineless at practically every opportunity. Given the reigns of power by the American people, they dithered and dithered and watered legislation down. While in the majority, they allowed the GOP to wield far too much influence, while also making the party’s own conservative wing overly influential. Those choices helped lead to a loss of power in 2010, and even weaker leadership in 2011.

President Obama, who has now shown himself to be a terrible negotiator of epic proportions. With just the House, he gave the Republicans the least terrible of their demands. The right demanded no revenue and all-cuts, and Obama gave them just what they wanted. Sure, they would have rather had even deeper cuts — but Obama played the entire game on GOP territory.

I wish someone would show the President a thesaurus and explain that “capitulation” is not a synonym of “compromise.”

In 2010, Democrats ran on a platform of “the Republicans are worse” and as a result suffered at the midterm elections. You cannot run a strong campaign on that kind of message. People need a reason to vote for you, not just against the other guy.

Democrats have now compounded their 2010 problem. If the bill passes, a Democratic president, along with a Democratic senate, will be enshrining conservative policy as law. While overall it’s still better to have Democrats in power — the Democrats themselves have undercut progressive policy. That’s a crappy way to motivate your progressive base.

And again, besides the politics and the optics, the deal is just bad for America. It is wrong for our country. It hurts an already bleeding nation. And the Democrats helped.

In the past progressives like myself said we needed “more and better” Democrats, please. Now we truly realize that its far better to get better Democrats because a majority with a Democratic president simply unwilling to push forward and do the right thing clearly isn’t getting the job done.

This is a massive failure.

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VIDEO: Senate Dems Attack The Private Jet Exemptions

1:58 pm EST June 30th, 2011 | Democrats, Economy | 28 Comments

Granted, I’m sure at the end of the day the Senate Dems will disappoint me and capitulate, they’re at least saying something about it now.

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Ensign Report Highlights

4:16 pm EST May 12th, 2011 | Republicans | 7 Comments

Some interesting bits from the Senate report on John Ensign (which so far Fox News appears to have largely missed):

* “As will be developed below, it is Special Counsel s determination that substantial credible evidence exists that gives substantial cause to conclude that Senator Ensign engaged in violations of law and of Senate Rules within the Committee s jurisdiction under S. Res. 338, as amended, including improper conduct which reflects upon the Senate under Section 2(a)(1) of S. Res. 338. Had Senator Ensign not resigned the Special Counsel would have recommended that the Committee initiate an adjudicatory review for the purpose of considering the appropriateness of disciplinary action against the Senator. The Special Counsel is confident that the evidence that would have been presented in an adjudicatory hearing would have been substantial and sufficient to warrant the consideration of the sanction of expulsion.”

* “the Special Counsel respectfully submits that there is substantial credible evidence that provides substantial cause to conclude that Senator Ensign violated Senate Rules and federal civil and criminal laws, and engaged in improper conduct reflecting upon the Senate, thus betraying the public trust and bringing discredit to the Senate”

* “Senator Ensign facilitated Mr. Hampton s unlawful post-employment lobbying by pressuring contributors and constituents to hire Mr. Hampton even though he had no public policy experience or value as a lobbyist other than access to the Senator and his office”

* “A $96,000 payment to Mr. Hampton, Ms. Hampton, and two of their three children from the Ensign Family Trust Fund, made at the time the Hamptons were terminated from the Senator s employ, constituted a severance payment, and Senator Ensign s affidavit to the Federal Election Commission ( FEC ) that the payment was not severance is false.”

* “The part of the payment that was severance to Ms. Hampton constitutes an excessive and illegal campaign contribution pursuant to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 ( FECA ) because it exceeded the $2,000 limit for authorized political committees and the $5,000 limit for other political committees. The payment, as well as the failure to report the payment, are violations of federal civil and criminal law.”

* “Senator Ensign deleted relevant documents and files after he knew they were likely to be subject to a legal claim and before and after formal notices to retain all documents relevant to the Preliminary Inquiry were issued.”

* “According to Ms. Hampton, the affair caused her considerable emotional distress, she repeatedly sought to end it, and she repeatedly expressed concern to Senator Ensign about losing her job. Senator Ensign nonetheless persisted in seeking to continue the affair, initiating constant and even relentless contacts after promising to end the affair multiple times.”

* “Senator Ensign also created email accounts with fictitious names in order to email Ms. Hampton, including fredschwartz72@yahoo.com, mariaschwartz@yahoo.com, and maryholland82@yahoo.com. Senator Ensign called Ms. Hampton multiple times during this period from various locations at the Capitol, the Senate gym, and from New York while on a fund-raising trip. “

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Criminal Referral Made In John Ensign Case

3:08 pm EST May 12th, 2011 | Republicans | 5 Comments

John EnsignAnd now you know why he resigned so quickly.

The Senate ethics committee has made a criminal referral to the Justice Department in its investigation into former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.)

“We had reason to believe Senator Ensign violated laws,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the chairman of the panel, said Thursday afternoon.

The Senate Ethics Committee is unveiling its findings from its nearly two-year investigation into the actions following then-Sen. Ensign’s affair with a political aide, in a rare set of public speeches on the chamber floor.

The Republican Culture Of Corruption: A feature, not a bug for them.

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Avoiding The Shutdown Of The Government Was Good… For John McCain!

4:00 am EST April 9th, 2011 | Politics | 66 Comments

ObamaPresident Obama has brokered a deal between the Democratic-run Senate and the Republican-run House that avoids a shutdown of the federal government, while also stripping the bill of issues such as Planned Parenthood funding and decisions about the EPA’s authority.

Yet somehow, I’m seeing from some – particularly Ezra Klein, who should honestly know better – that this was a bad deal for the President.

On policy, of course these budget cuts targeted at programs that assist the poor and middle class suck. But they were always going to suck. The minute the House of Representatives flipped from Democratic to Republican, anyone without giant stores of money had a target at their back. The Republicans negotiated their way to a $39 billion cut.

But let us remember that these are the same Republicans who campaigned on cutting $100 billion from the budget. Just a couple months ago, conservative blogs were despairing that the cuts had been sliced down to $78 billion.

And John Boehner, wily trickster that he is, has made an agreement – which probably does not have the support of his caucus, possibly needing Democratic help – that cuts that ransom demand in half. I can only imagine that being described as a victory for Boehner at a Beltway party and nowhere else outside of the 495 loop.

What did the polls show that Democrats and Independents wanted out of these negotiations? A compromise that kept the doors open on our government. And that’s what we got. Faced with a fundamentally flawed budget process thanks to the outcome of the November elections, President Obama presided over a bipartisan result that avoided the attempt to scuttle women’s health issues and environmental concerns. From a political perspective, he will have signed into law a cut in spending the year before his re-election as the unemployment rate decreases.

It was enough to prompt Tea Party Nation to claim they will primary Boehner, while base conservatives on the depraved Free Republic gnashed their teeth and made the following statements: “GOP sells out all GOP sucker voters!,” “Cowards, more interested in keeping their jobs then doing what’s right for the country.,” and “The GOP are the modern day Whigs.”

This sentiment goes on for quite a few pages.

This was a negotiating process in which voices of the far right such as Allan West and Michele Bachmann advised retreat for the GOP.

Obama and Reid were operating in an environment infected by the Tea Party House, and secured a deal that averted shutdown and showed the President to be the adult here. Yet a few people seem to think this is the kind of thing that is good news for the right.

As a failed vice-presidential candidate once asked: In what respect, Charlie?

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Claire McCaskill Is In Epic Fail Mode

12:34 pm EST March 22nd, 2011 | Democrats | 5 Comments

Absolutely none of this makes sense, and is 100% stupid. I don’t care what party she’s in. Dumb.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) said Monday she will sell her private plane and pay back $287,273 in four years of back taxes, the latest chapter in a politically embarrassing saga for the moderate Democrat facing a tough reelection battle in 2012.

McCaskill has been answering questions about the plane since POLITICO recently reported that she billed taxpayers for a political trip around Missouri. POLITICO also reported that McCaskill spent $76,000 from her Senate budget on trips on the aircraft over the past four years, prompting the senator to refund the Treasury Department more than $88,000 for the cost of the trips plus pilot fees.

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Shock Poll: Americans Still Hate Congress

9:41 am EST March 11th, 2011 | Politics | 17 Comments

This is not surprising in any possible way.

Congress’ approval rating is down to 18% after being in the 20% range the first two months of the year, and is essentially back to where it was just after last November’s midterm elections.

It certainly can’t help that the GOP ran on the economy and proceeded to launch attacks on women’s rights, Muslims, and education.

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John Ensign To Resign

2:27 pm EST March 7th, 2011 | Republicans | Comments Off

Reports indicate that John Ensign is going to resign – not out of shame for the affair he covered up, but most likely because he was polling badly in the Republican primary. Pathetic.

Previously: Family devastated by Ensign scandal — mistress and cuckolded husband — in default on home

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The Return Of Macaca

9:14 pm EST January 23rd, 2011 | Politics, Republicans | 26 Comments

George Allen, racial terrorist (background), once again seeks to infect the U.S. Senate with his particular brand of ignorance.

Former Sen. George Allen will end weeks of speculation and formally declare his candidacy for U.S. Senate in Virginia on Monday, two Republican advisers tell POLITICO.

Allen, who has been making all the moves of a candidate in recent weeks, is expected to blast an e-mail to supporters with a video message before alerting the media.

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Obama Aces The Lame Duck Session

12:45 pm EST December 23rd, 2010 | National Security, Politics | 80 Comments

Obama In The Oval Office

Sure, there were defeats that affect our long-term economic structure, particularly the tax cut deal and the inability of congress to pass the budget. But at least the tax cut deal has help for the unemployed in addition to its sop to mulit-milion and billionaires.

They passed START. Don’t ask, don’t tell was repealed. 9/11 aid was passed (while also exposing the GOP’s use of 9/11 as a political fig leaf yet again). Like kids scrambling to get their science fair project done the night before it’s due, congress did something.

The overall legislative agenda has been about 60% of the progressive way I’d personally like to see, and I’ll always be pushing for that 100%. But still, pretty good show considering the situation.

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