Republican War Against Women Leads To More Dysfunction In The U.S. Senate

The senators had to stay up past their bedtimes Wednesday and Thurdsay because Miss McConnell is having another one of his pointless hissy fits. A career-long hater of democracy-- and someone who had pledged to obstruct everything President Obama set out to accomplish, including even the orderly functioning of government, McConnell has ramped up his now-failed agenda of blocking all presidential nominations but pointless delaying tactics. He's desperate and he's a fool and even Republicans see that now. Friday morning at 7AM Deborah Lee James was confirmed to be Secretary of the Air Force by a 79-6 vote. The GOP had held up the nomination since August 1 for no particular reason except that they hate women and block every woman Obama nominates for any job. Even McConnell himself-- as well as knee jerk obstructionists Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, John Cornyn and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III voted to confirm. Thursday night, Harry Reid defeated the silly GOP filibuster of the nominee, 58-39, the GOP clown car minus Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Orrin Hatch going through their wasteful foot dragging procedure. A journalist in New Hampshire ought to ask delusional stooge Kelly Ayotte what she accomplished by filibustering Ms. James in the evening and then voting for her in the morning.

Since December 10, after the Democrats put an end to routine, pointless obstruction of presidential nominations, the Senate took roll calls to shut down filibusters and confirm Patricia Ann Millett to the U.S. Circuit for the District of Columbia, Cornelia Pillard to the U.S. Circuit Court for DC, Chai Rachel Feldblum to be a Member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Elizabeth Wolford to be a district judge in New York, Landya McCafferty to be a district judge in New Hampshire-- the cowardly and unprincipled Ayotte knew better than to filibuster that one-- Patricia Wald, to be a Member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, Susan Watters to be a U.S. District Judge for Montana, and Heather Higginbottom to be Deputy Secretary of State. This is what the RepublicanParty War Against Women looks like-- over and above the kind of policy attack against women in the states they control-- like this outrageous bullshit in Michigan:



But the mainstream media isn't reporting on McConnell's latest obstructionism in the Senate by even mentioning the Republican War on Women. Instead, it's been covered as another "everyone's equally guilty" nonsense Inside-the-Beltway.

The U.S. Senate held a second straight all-night session as Republicans extended their protest over a rules change that ended their option of blocking President Barack Obama’s nominees.

Democrats, who control the Senate with a 55-45 majority, can now confirm most judges and all executive-branch officials with simple-majority votes, rather than the 60 votes that often were needed before Nov. 21. Senate Republicans are fighting back by using their only remaining leverage: delay.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, kept the Senate in session to complete the steps needed to process a list of nominees before the chamber can turn to the budget agreement and a defense bill. Lawmakers confirmed Deborah Lee James as secretary of the U.S. Air Force about 7:30 a.m. today.

Reid today said he would discuss revising the schedule with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican.

“I’ll meet with the Republican leader to see if there’s a way we can give relief especially for the staff over the weekend,” Reid said. “My goal would be to wind up at the same place on Monday in the evening as we would wind up if we did all this stuff over the weekend.”

Unless one side yields, the round-the-clock work will continue today and into tomorrow, and Reid has said he would attempt to advance another set of nominations next week. That group could include the confirmation of Janet Yellen to head the Federal Reserve Board.

It boggles the mind that there are still women who vote for Republicans. They must be out of their minds. I mean, even if the Democratic opponent is absolutely horrible-- and God knows there are plenty that are-- voting for a Republican is like handing the executioner a top he can use to hang you. Better to just not vote at all than vote for a Republican.