Harry Reid Deals With GOP Obstructionism Today-- DC Representation And Hilda Solis

America will be a better place after today

Harry Reid has two cloture votes scheduled for today. Sunday night we looked at the one he's got scheduled to get the Republican obstructionists to allow President Obama's nomination of Hilda Solis as Labor Secretary to come to a vote. Even before they get to that though, the Senate will be moving to vote on cloture for S.160, the bill that would give Washington, DC a voting member of Congress. The bill placates Republican partisans by also giving an extra vote to the most reactionary state in the Union, Utah. The KKK wing of the Republican Party doesn't care that Utah's guaranteed Republican vote will balance Washington, DC's guaranteed Democratic vote. Only 27% of DC's population is white. Enough said?

Washington has 550,000 residents-- more than Wyoming, which has a member of Congress plus two sad excuses for senators. In April 2007 the House passed this bill 241-177, with 22 Republicans joining all the Democrats except a tiny handful of racists (you know, Dan Boren, Chris Carney, Gene Taylor... the regular Blue Dogs suspects). A few months later, with Bush screeching he would veto it, the Senate only managed to round up 57 votes, not enough to defeat the de facto GOP filibuster. It died. At the time only one reactionary Democrat, Max Baucus (MT) voted with the GOP. Both the Utah Republicans plus Norm Coleman, Susan Collins (R-ME), Dick Lugar (R-IN), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Arlen Specter (R-PA) and George Voinovich (R-OH) voted for the bill.

In the ensuing election, the nay sayers lost several members who have been replaced by supporters of voting rights for DC: Mark Udall for Wayne Allard (R-CO); Kay Hagen for Elizabeth Dole (R-NC); Tom Udall for Pete Domenici (R-NM); Jeff Merkley for Gordon Smith (R-OR); Mark Begich for Ted Stevens (R-AK); Jeanne Shaheen for John Sununu (R-NH); and Mark Warner for John Warner (R-VA). If none of the Republicans who crossed the aisle change their positions, even without Coleman's vote, there are enough votes to invoke cloture and pass the bill. Co-sponsors of the bill up for a cloture vote today include Republicans George Voinovich and Orrin Hatch plus semi-Republicans Mary Landrieu and Joe Lieberman.

If I could find someone to take the bet, I'd put money on DC having an elected representative in the next session of Congress, although it is likely that Republican racists will go running to one of the right-wing courts Bush left behind to get them to declare it unconstitutional. It will be a lot harder to get them a couple of senators... like Wyoming has. Yesterday Markos over at DailyKos tried to drill some sense into Harry Reid's head about why it's crucial to make the GOP obstructionists actually filibuster and show the American people, viscerally, just what they are.


UPDATE: DEMOCRATS SUCCESSFUL IN BEATING BACK DE FACTO GOP FILIBUSTER ON DC REPRESENTATION

At 11:16 this morning 62 senators who believe all taxpaying Americans-- even African-Americans in Washington, DC, deserve to be represented in Congress-- voted to override 34 rightist loons (+ Robert Byrd) who attempted to stifle a vote. That was 32 Republican obstructionists plus their ally Max Baucus (D-MT). Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) smelled the roses and switched votes from 2007, joining fellow Republicans George Voinovich (R-OH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Dick Lugar (R-IN), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) to shut down the filibuster. The only Republican who supported the bill in 2007 and opposed it today was Robert Bennett (R-UT). All the die-hard KKK Republicans-- Vitter, Burr, Bunning, Shelby, Coburn, Isakson, etc-- voted against equal voting rights for DC residents. (Jim DeMint missed the vote.)


UPDATE #2: CONGRATULATIONS, MADAME SECRETARY!

In a straight up or down vote, the Senate overwhelmingly approved California Congresswoman Hilda Solis 80-17 to head the Department of Labor. This is a great day for working men and women and for progressives everywhere in the country. She is, by far, the best member of Obama's cabinet. She's the first Blue America endorsed candidate who has gone on to the Executive Branch. She will be the polar opposite of Miss McConnell's "wife," Elaine Chao who turned the department into the Anti-workers Department. I'm sure Hilda will be as successful there, starting by erasing all the misgovernance of Chao's disgraceful regime, as she has been in Congress. Andy Stern, head of the SEIU was overjoyed:

"Working men and women now have a Department of Labor they can count on to stand up and fight for them because Secretary Solis personally understands the challenges workers face in a global economy. For Secretary Solis this is not just another job, but the culmination of a lifetime of action serving as a voice for people who work."

So who were the 17 die-hard obstructionists? I bet you can name them yourself but this is what I caught on TV:

Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
John Thune (R-SD)
John Ensign (R-NV)
Dick Burr (R-NC)
Kit Bond (R-MO)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
David Diapers Vitter (R-LA)
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Jim Risch (R-ID)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
James Inhofe (R-OK)

You will probably notice that all of these far right extremists represent anti-working family states with lower wages than in the rest of America. I don't understand how these cretins wake up in the morning and look at themselves in the mirror. I guess the payoffs they get from Big Business soothes whatever they have instead of consciences.