Sen. Leahy grills DOJ official on the missing emails. Watch.
Ben Nelson, do you feel vindicated about the Cornhusker Kickback: “In a word, I do.”
Former DOJers express skepticism that John Yoo’s missing emails could be unrecoverable.
New York’s guv announces he’s not running for full term.
Is Ronald Reagan the Great Grand-Daddy of Reconciliation?
That was TPM Reader and former congressional staffer BP says …
As a Senate Committee staffer in the early 1980’s, I participated in the first major use of reconciliation, and I would like to recount my experience. I understand that CRS has documented significant instances of reconciliation, but I would like to provide some personal flavor.
First, reconciliation was a little noticed provision of the Congressional Budget Control and Impoundment Act of 1974, a significant attempt by Congress to establish a disciplined process for getting a handle on the burgeoning federal budget in the waning years of the guns and butter policy of the Johnson Administration, which carried out both the Great Society and the Viet Nam War simultaneously. I believe reconciliation was first used in 1978 to “reconcile” budgetary problems in the National School Lunch Program.
Over the last year, Senate Republicans have threatened that if the Democrats resort to the nuclear / armageddon / mass murder (reconciliation) option, they’ll flood the senate with tons of motions and awkward amendments and basically just shut the senate down. So should Democrats be worried? Brian Beutler gives us the low-down.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ): Abortion harder on blacks than slavery.
I’m having a good-natured taunt match with TPM Reader SJ over whether Illinois is corrupt enough to take on the combined combination of the Tri-State area (New York, New Jersey & Connecticut). And she may have a point. But before anybody gets too cocky, there are a lot of sleeper contestants out there that most people don’t even think of. Like another state I used to live in: Rhode Island. On a per capita basis, Rhode Island might easily be the most corrupt state in the union.
So let’s throw it open and really find out who’s got what it takes. What’s the most corrupt state in the union?
And don’t just assert it. Talk is cheap. Gimme an argument why your state of choice really deserves to be called the most corrupt state in the union..
Bring it on!
If you follow polls closely I’d like to give you a sneak preview of a new app we’re about to release. Take a look and let us know your thoughts.