The Only Way to End Gridlock

The GOP has abused the Supermajority rule by making everything a filibuster.  It's the Tea Partyfication of the Senate.  The tyranny of the minority.

Ezra Klein says...it's unconstitutional:

In 1806, the Senate, on the advice of Aaron Burr, tried to clean up its rule book, which was thought to be needlessly complicated and redundant. One change it made was to delete something called “the previous question” motion. That was the motion senators used to end debate on whatever they were talking about and move to the next topic. Burr recommended axing it because it was hardly ever used. Senators were gentlemen. They knew when to stop talking. 

That was the moment the Senate created the filibuster. But nobody knew it at the time. It would be three more decades before the first filibuster was mounted — which meant it was five decades after the ratification of the Constitution. “Far from being a matter of high principle, the filibuster appears to be nothing more than an unforeseen and unintended consequence of the elimination of the previous question motion from the rules of the Senate,” Bondurant writes. 

And even then, filibusters were a rare annoyance. Between 1840 and 1900, there were 16 filibusters. Between 2009 and 2010, there were more than 130. But that’s changed. Today, Majority Leader Harry Reid says that “60 votes are required for just about everything.”
At the core of Bondurant’s argument is a very simple claim: This isn’t what the Founders intended. The historical record is clear on that fact. The framers debated requiring a supermajority in Congress to pass anything. But they rejected that idea.

He goes on to talk about how the Framers were against a supermajority being used just to humiliate the President and block all his initiatives.  Sound familiar.

Somebody take this to the Supreme Court...ASAP.

Flail

While his television ads may be bringing up his polling in his "home state" of Michigan, and Rick Santorum's eruptions of religiosity and stupidity may be making a difference as well, Willard Mitt Romney has had to spend three times what he raised in January just to keep afloat. Crazy, crazy amounts of money, spent both by his own campaign and his "independent" PAC:

Financial reports filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission indicate that Romney's campaign spent $19 million in January -- nearly three times as much as it raised -- as the former Massachusetts governor defeated Newt Gingrich in New Hampshire, lost to him in South Carolina and then topped him in Florida.

Restore Our Future, meanwhile, raised $6.6 million and spent $13.5 million, mostly on ads attacking Gingrich that helped Romney win the Florida primary. By the end of January, Romney's campaign had $7.7 million on hand and the pro-Romney PAC had $16.3 million.

And it's not even close to General Election time yet. The Obama campaign must be loving this.

Why the need to spend so much? It's not the brilliant competitive field -- it's the candidate. Over the past few days this video, of Romney speaking at a campaign event in Michigan, has become the emblem of the flailing candidate, utterly adrift, unable to summon authenticity, speaking in what appears to be a panic:

The trees are the right height...not just the Great Lakes but the inland lakes...I love car, I love American cars...WTF, Willard?

If you want to do some local pandering, you need to be prepped with the names of local restaurants, local products, local anything specific. Normally there's front people to do this but the better candidates don't fake it, they actually know. The fact is, Romney hasn't lived in Michigan for more than half a century, but he's trying to rely on biography yet again to score points...total disconnect from any kind of reality -- or vision.

Look, at a human level, I might feel sorry for Mitt that he has to actually compete and could quite possibly still lose his so-called "home state" to Rick the Theocrat. But I just can't feel sorry for a candidate who has consistently lied through his teeth in smearing President Obama ever since his campaign began.

He's a wealthy man, so no pity there, and he's smart enough (on paper) that he should know better. He should have studied up on Presidential leadership, not rightwing talking points. He should have taken a chance by leading on issues his party might not be in sync with him on, and shown real intelligence and grit.

Instead, he reaps the whirlwind. Just keep spending, Mitt. Your combined $32.5 million spend in January did more to boost the economy than anything your GOP Congressional party-mates have done in four years.

Oink

You'd think the age of the male chauvinist pig is long over, but then you wouldn't be taking into account House Republicans or Santorum supporter Foster Friess.

First, the contraception hearings run by Congressional committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) featured, exactly, zero women:

Three Democrats walked out of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on religious liberty and the birth control rule on Thursday to protest Chairman Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) refusal to allow a progressive woman to testify in favor of the Obama administration's contraception rule. The morning panel at the hearing consisted exclusively of men from conservative religious organizations.

"What I want to know is, where are the women?" Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) asked Issa before walking out of the hearing after the first panel. "I look at this panel, and I don't see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventative health care services, including family planning. Where are the women?"

And then there's this wealthy Santorum campaign surrogate recommending the inexpensive birth control method of his use:

How refreshingly 19th Century of Issa and Friess. Way to help Obama with the female vote!

Upside Down

Wow, what a difference 1/8 of a primary makes. And that's a rough estimate. Here's the crazy news that has completely flipped whatever conventional wisdom existed three months ago:

• President Obama now leads all GOP challengers in national polling. And his approval rating is now official "above water" -- higher approval than disapproval percentages.
• The GOP Congress just folded without a fight on the Payroll Tax Cut Extension, and isn't even trying to balance it - going for more deficit rather than raising taxes on their precious rich.
• Mitt Romney can no longer claim electability as his Primary advantage -- Independents have gone upside-down and no longer favor him over President Obama.
• Rick Santorum now leads Romney nationally in GOP Presidential Primary polling and, even worse for Mitt, his firewall state of Michigan is now firmly for Santorum.
• Mitt can only win, it seems, by buying or stealing, and in Maine his win may be a loss to Ron Paul.
• Just as a Google search for "Santorum" yields and embarrassing definition, a search for "Romney" now means "to defecate in terror." Sounds about right.

With the contraception issue turning into a GOP albatross and Obama's new budget (unlikely to pass the GOP Congress) setting the populist tone for the campaign...my only fear is that the best finisher in national politics today may be peaking just a little early!

Too Moving

It isn't a huge surprise that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is stepping down from her Congressional seat to focus on recovery from the gunshot wound that nearly took her life a year ago this week. It does seem like a shame, and it is difficult not to be moved by the video she created to announce her decision:

The nature of her recovery is on display for all to see. Lots of cuts, possibly due to aphasia. Gotta hope that her seat stays blue in the special election and again in the Fall, that she has a magnificent recovery however long it takes, and that we get her back in public work again no matter how far into the future.

Back on the Job

Happy New Year, and while the GOP scramble themselves into three different constituencies in Iowa, President Barack Hussein Obama is back to work in Ohio with the latest mother of all Congressional recess appointments, hung up in the Senate by silent hold since June, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

This is the Bureau architected by Elizabeth Warren, the now highly popular Massachusetts Senate candidate -- made a star by the very Republican House members who treated her so rudely in committee hearings (karma kickback). Even current Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is bucking his party in fear of Warren and coming out in favor of Obama's recess appointment, which has outraged Republicans by coming during their "pro forma" sessions that technically prevent recess appointments without fulfilling the intent of the law.

And that's not all -- Obama's adding recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board that have been held up by the same silent, unaccountable Senate hold. Romney calls all this "Chicago-style politics at its worst," which is a Conservative meme used whenever Obama is assertive, as opposed to when they call him weak or unfocused. But procedure is generally a losing argument against policy, especially a popular one, and the GOP can only win with it amongst their own. Who in this video is actually doing his job?:



Obama's 2012 was greeted with an initial up day in the stock market, and the day after he set the fall election stage by clearly declared the intractable GOP Congress as his foil. He's not even bothering with Mitt. The fly is batting his wings furiously in his web.

By the time the spider turns to him, the fly's buzzing will seem tiring.

GOP Disarray

The payroll tax holiday debacle in the House of Representatives is tearing the GOP apart and smashing to pieces their "anti-tax" brand. The meme is becoming clear: the Republican Party is only interested in political wins and protecting the wealthy.

Here's how they looked today on the House floor when Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) tries to bring up a vote on the Senate compromise bill passed by nearly 90% of the Senate:

Embarrassing optics for the House leadership, where Speaker Boehner kowtows to the Teapublicans to try and keep his job. Per Dana Milbank, the GOP is now in damage control mode. And supposed "leader" of the GOP Presidential pack, Willard Mitt Romney, is too chicken to take a position on the payroll tax holiday at all. Nice leadership skills, Willard.

It's not just this issue -- the GOP are in trouble everywhere with their Teapublicans, like the Major of Troy, Michigan:

Janice Daniels, led a coalition of like-minded tea partiers to kill off a transit center project that was a decade in the making, kissing off $8.4 million in federal investment funds to help make the project happen.

Well, Troy is now going to pay the price for this type of mindless ideological dogma: investors are being advised to look elsewhere rather than Troy, Michigan.

As for the idea of taxing millionaires, an anathema to the GOP:

Six in ten Americans believe Congress should raise taxes on Americans earning more than $1 million per year, according to a new CBS News poll, while only 35 percent oppose such an increase.

A narrow majority of Republican primary voters say those making more than $1 million per year should not see an increase -- but they are nearly split on the question. Forty-three percent want to see taxes on millionaires increased, and 51 percent do not.

Most GOP primary voters - 55 percent - don't think such a tax increase would have a negative impact on job creation. Twenty-nine percent say such a tax hike would hurt job creation.

Yep, as The Wall Street Journal said today:

After a year of the tea party House, Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats have had to make no major policy concessions beyond extending the Bush tax rates for two years. Mr. Obama is in a stronger re-election position today than he was a year ago, and the chances of Mr. McConnell becoming Majority Leader in 2013 are declining.

Once again: Gobama.

Pass. This. Bill.

He said is something like 22 times either verbatim or in related, close form. He's proven he's committed to bipartisanship and hasn't given up, but he's taken it hard to the other side to let them know where he stands now, after all the do-nothing and debt ceiling shenanigans. He's working on being the sheriff again.

Here he is, pts 1 and 2. My favorite section in this starts 5:55 and goes through 7:20. Notice the GOP side of Congress doesn't stand up and applaud improving public education to keep us competitive against China and the rest of the globe, and save the Republic:

The GOP sheep finally stand, dutifully, at 10:20 when Obama talks about the veterans. Because they have to pretend to appreciate the working military as well.

In this one I love him at 11:20 -- "We shouldn't be in a race to the bottom, we should be in a race to the top...":

From 12:30 to the end he gives the full-throated case for the common good through good government supporting the building and advancement of America, and not just be shirking responsibilities and leaving it all up to the Libertarians. Then he calls on Congress and himself to not shirk their responsibilities.

Towards the ending -- the shaming of the GOP Congress:

Every proposal I’ve laid out tonight is the kind that’s been supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past. Every proposal I’ve laid out tonight will be paid for. And every proposal is designed to meet the urgent needs of our people and our communities.

Now, I know there’s been a lot of skepticism about whether the politics of the moment will allow us to pass this jobs plan -- or any jobs plan. Already, we’re seeing the same old press releases and tweets flying back and forth. Already, the media has proclaimed that it’s impossible to bridge our differences. And maybe some of you have decided that those differences are so great that we can only resolve them at the ballot box.

But know this: The next election is 14 months away. And the people who sent us here -- the people who hired us to work for them -- they don’t have the luxury of waiting 14 months. (Applause.) Some of them are living week to week, paycheck to paycheck, even day to day. They need help, and they need it now.

They need it now.

Pass it, bitches.

Citizens

Love this video, hope it's a harbinger of things to come:

Tax. The. Rich.

More Hostage Taking

If someone dies over the next month due to a failed FAA safety inspection, you have your Republican Congress to thank, once again:

Earlier Wednesday, Democrats decried what they saw as Republican "hostage-taking" -- since the situation had forced 4,000 agency employees out of work and airport safety inspectors to continue working without pay.

Democrats blame Republicans for the partial FAA shutdown, accusing them of reneging on their promise to put Americans back to work because the stand-off has prevented tens of thousands of construction workers to continue building airport projects.

"The FAA is in limbo. Airports are the economic engine of the small communities around the country, and that economic engine is now stuck in neutral," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters Wednesday. "Under the cover of the debt ceiling crisis, they are holding these aviation workers hostage until they get everything they want...they have taken brinksmanship again one step too far."

If the FAA impasse continues through Labor Day, the IRS stands to lose an estimated $1 billion in tax revenues on airline ticket sales because when the FAA financing expired last month the agency lost its ability to collect the taxes.

Looks like the GOP is -- again -- unionbusting:

The dispute centers on the House GOP’s insistence that the reauthorization of the FAA make it harder for unions to organize. The House passed an FAA reauthorization bill that would reverse an earlier policy that would allow union efforts to organize airlines to be decided by simple majority vote. Unions have pressed Democrats hard not to pass the House bill, and so far, they have agreed; this, plus other sticking points, led to the impasse over reauthorization.

A big GOP favor for Delta Air Lines?:

Delta, one of the few large airlines that is largely nonunion, has beaten back recent efforts by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers to organize 13,000 Delta baggage handlers and other fleet service workers and 15,000 ticket agents and other passenger service workers. In November, the Association of Flight Attendants failed in its effort to be recognized as the union representing 20,000 flight attendants at Delta.

That effort failed even though the National Mediation Board, which oversees airline and railroad labor matters, a few months earlier changed a 76-year-old rule, making it easier for unions to win a representation election. Under the old rule, workers who did not vote were counted as “no” votes; under the new rule, only those casting ballots count.

...

Delta has spent $1.6 million this year lobbying on airline issues, including a bill that includes a Republican-proposed change in the voting rule. Gina Laughlin, a Delta spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview, “We’ve been consistent in our opposition to the rule change since it was proposed back in 2009.” She noted that JetBlue, SkyWest and FedEx have also opposed the rule change.

Good luck, all of you who are flying this summer.

Just be sure to pack your own parachute.

Gabby Shows

I guess if Rep. Gabrielle Giffords can make it back to the House of Representatives to vote for the debt deal seven months after being shot in the head by a raging asshole lunatic, I can chill out about the deal itself.



Keep hope alive.