This will get a ton less attention than Jim Bunning’s freak-out did, but the unemployment benefits bill (which included some other important provisions) did actually pass last night. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
In addition to the arm-twisting and pleading that will be necessary to get the Senate health care bill through the House, there’s another thing that will have to be endured: the painfully lame explanations we’ll hear from people in marginal seats as to why they won’t vote for it. Some always opposed and for pretty straightforward reasons. But some have themselves in a considerably tighter bind: they voted ‘yes’ last year for the considerably more liberal House bill and now need to explain their reason for flipping and voting ‘no’ for the more conservative Senate bill.
This morning TPM Reader NB sent me this article about Rep. Michael Arcuri (D) from Utica. He voted yes the first time but now says that without “dramatic changes” he’ll vote no. Why? Read More
Some real star power at the White House ceremony awarding the National Humanities and National Arts medals, like Elie Wiesel:
How one GOP political consultant wannabe became a de facto national spokesperson for the Tea Party movement.
One of the truly galling Republican political maneuvers over the last 10 years is to go from squandering a huge budget surplus, racking up trillions in debt, ballooning the deficit, and leaving the next Democratic administration with an economy in shambles — then as soon as the Democrats are in charge refashioning themselves as budget hawks. You might even think they’re setting the Democrats up to fail. I know, hard to believe.
Why Republicans aren’t simply laughed off the stage at this point when they try to argue against budget deficits says a lot about Democratic ineptness, media collusion, and short political memories. But I still find it amazing.
Here’s an example of the maneuvering and how — as should be abundantly clear by now — it’s a concerted, well-planned, Republican effort to hamstring Democratic policy objectives: A former Bush administration flack launches what seems to be a very well-funded not-for-profit dedicated to warning of the perils of excessive government spending, and refuses to divulge who is funding the outfit.
I couldn’t even get past the lede on this post without chucking: “Rod Blagojevich was the guest of honor at a Northwestern University panel on ethics in politics last night …”
But it actually gets better from there, with Blago comparing Harry Reid and Dick Durbin to Southern segregationist governors and telling a heckler, “I’ve got nothing but love in my heart for you.”
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) was on Fox News this morning and called reconciliation a way to “railroad the American people and the Congress.” This is the same Judd Gregg who took to the Senate floor in 2005 to defend reconciliation as merely a “rule of the Senate” that allows for a simple majority vote. Video after the jump. Read More
What a difference five days makes. During her press conference last Friday, Nancy Pelosi defended Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) from ethics charges but in doing so she completely mischaracterized the findings of the House Ethics Committee at least once when she said that the committee concluded that her Ways and Means chairman had not broken any House rules. That’s simply not true.
In fairness, she hedged later in the press conference by saying that Rangel hadn’t “willfully” broken any rules (which isn’t quite what the committee said, but she was headed in the right direction) and then saying, accurately, that Rangel hadn’t “knowingly” violated House rules. Considering she accepted his request today for a leave of absence as chairman, it’s an interesting bit of video to watch: Read More
NYDN is reporting that Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) will announce he’s not running again. This is his first term.