The Buffett Rule-- Do Democrats Really Care?

Republicans, as Chris Hayes and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse discuss in the MSNBC clip above, had several reasons-- none of them good-- to fly in the face of public opinion and filibuster the Buffett Rule to death on Monday. As Miss McConnell lisped menacingly right after President Obama was elected, the number one job of Republicans would be the make him a one term president. They have done this by betraying the interests of their own constituents, by obstructing every effort the president has made, no matter how conservative those efforts-- and almost everything Obama has tried since being elected has been based on traditional mainstream Republican policies-- to rescue the American economy from the morass created by Bush and the Republicans in Congress... like Miss McConnell. But forget these foul, treasonous Republicans for a moment. There was one Democrat who crossed the aisle to vote with them Monday afternoon.

You may remember the hapless idiot from Arkansas who had a shocking and disgraceful cameo in Bill Maher's film Religulous. No, not Blanche Lincoln-- another senatorial jerk cut from the exact same WalMart cloth though: Mark Pryor, who inherited his (much more worthy) father's Senate seat. As he giggled, on camera, for all the world to hear, "You don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate." Apparently not-- and certainly not from Arkansas. Tom Coburn (R-OK) may be one of the Senate's most closed-minded morons but in his just released book, The Debt Bomb he was certainly correct when he said that the Senate is “heavily sedated” and that "Congress today is a stagnant pond that needs to be drained and refilled with a steady stream of new public servants." He said 90% should be fired. And I doubt there is anyone in the Senate or anyone who observes the Senate who would exclude Mark Pryor.

Apparently Pryor didn't learn any lessons when Arkansas Democrats abandoned Blanche Lincoln last cycle for the same kind of perfidy he regularly engages in. Right after the vote, Guy Cecil of the DSCC sent out a fundraising letter excoriating the Republicans for filibustering the Buffett Rule. Maybe he should have included a paragraph about how no contributions would be used to save Mark Pryor's worthless neck. But that would have been a lie because a huge part of the DSCC budget will be used for exactly that purpose. So... contribute to the DSCC to punish Republicans who voted against the Buffett Rule so they can save the seta of a right-wing Democrat who voted against the Buffett Rule. I might add that, according to ProgressivePunch, in the 2011-12 session, Pryor has voted with the GOP about a third of the time on crucial roll calls, like the one Monday-- worse than Lieberman. The only Democrats who have voted more frequently with Miss McConnell are Claire McCaskill, Joe Manchin and, of course, Ben Nelson.

Let me skip away from the Senate now and get to a feature in yesterday's Scranton Times-Tribune by my old friend Borys Krawczeniuk about a very different kind of Democrat than Mark Pryor. Matt Cartwright is six days away from possibly doing something that is almost never accomplished in American politics-- displacing an entrenched incumbent in a primary, in this case corrupt Blue Dog Tim Holden. Polls show Cartwright with a significant and growing lead. Borys reported on his meeting with the Times-Tribune editorial board last week.

In unflinching terms, Democratic congressional candidate Matt Cartwright said tea party members serving in Congress "are hurting this country" and said he will "expose them" if elected.
Tea party members are intent only on "gumming up the works" of the federal government, Mr. Cartwright told the Times-Tribune editorial board.

"These are people who signed pledges never to do anything to enact revenue legislation no matter what," Mr. Cartwright said. "You can't compromise with people like that because all you ever end up doing is giving in to them because they refuse to give you anything. ... We have to blow the lid off these people."

Mr. Cartwright said people who send tea party members to Congress "aren't really thinking it through, because you're sending people into government who don't believe in government.

"My plan is not to go compromising with tea partiers; my plan is to go expose them for what they are, people who are hurting this country," he said.

Mr. Cartwright called for raising the income tax on the wealthiest Americans from the current 35 percent to the 39 percent level under President Bill Clinton, whose final years in office produced budget surpluses.

"Warren Buffett thinks that would be a good idea. Bill Gates thinks that would be a good idea," he said. "It's not much to them. To this nation, it's a fortune, a boatload of money that we don't need to be going into debt for to give an extra 3 percent to the wealthiest Americans."

Mr. Cartwright said Democrats have for too long allowed Republicans to win the war to "spin" the effects of legislation under President Barack Obama. "Spin" means creating perceptions-- correct or incorrect-- about a subject through a coordinated public relations campaign.

He said Republicans won the "spin" war over health care reform by calling it "Obamacare" at a time when many Americans were still suspicious of the new president.

"So let's call it Obamacare because that makes it scary," Mr. Cartwright said. "And then let's have people like Sarah Palin talk about death panels. Death panels. Nonsense. And that's all spin. We Democrats ... have to do a better job of spinning the message. We've been getting beaten in the court of public opinion."

Mr. Cartwright, 50, of Moosic, is seeking his party's nomination for the 17th Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, who holds the seat now. The district will begin to include Scranton and surrounding parts of Lackawanna County next January.

Mr. Cartwright ripped Mr. Holden for voting against the health care reform bill, which allows children to remain on their parents' insurance policies until age 26 and outlaws discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions; for voting for a watered-down bankruptcy reform bill that hurts consumers; and an energy act that forbids regulation of pollution caused by hydraulic fracturing used in natural gas drilling.

Mr. Holden is "not a fighter" and has passed just two bills-- both naming post offices-- in his 10 terms in office, Mr. Cartwright said.

Good government isn't going to fall out of the sky and land on our heads. We-- the people-- have to make it happen or the corporations will continue buying off corrupt whores like Eric Cantor and Steny Hoyer to enact legislation that oppresses the 99% on behalf of the 1%. So far no one has emerged to challenge Mark Pryor in Arkansas in 2014. We have time to work on that. But next Tuesday, Democratic voters in northeast Pennsylvania have an opportunity to make history by replacing a corrupt and reactionary Blue Dog careerist with a progressive public servant. It's not too late to help Matt win this one.

Tom Coburn Flips Out Again-- But In A Good Way

Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is, at best, a crackpot. Usually his reactionary core is more powerful than his crackpot nature. But not always; sometimes the crackpot in him wins out and, on rare occasion, he strays from the GOP corporate line and goes wandering off on his own. That just happened again. You may recall he got into a tiff with Grover Norquist a couple months ago over the no taxes pledge the Republicans all sign every two years. Now Coburn, who doesn't face the nation's most ignorant electorate for another 3 years, is borrowing a line of attack from progressives to whine about tax breaks his party has championed for millionaires. He issued a report for the SuperCommittee detailing unfair tax breaks to the SuperRich.

The report found millionaires enjoy about $30 billion worth of “tax giveaways” and federal grants every year-- almost twice NASA’s budget, the report notes.

“From tax write-offs for gambling losses, vacation homes and luxury yachts to subsidies for their ranches and estates, the government is subsidizing the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Multimillionaires are even receiving government checks for not working,” Coburn said in a statement Monday. 
 
The report is significant because Coburn is one of the Senate’s outspoken conservatives and has spent over a year working intensely on a bipartisan grand bargain to reduce the deficit.

...Coburn has identified billions of dollars in tax breaks reaped by millionaires that Democrats could be quick to target, as Republicans might suffer political damage by defending these special breaks. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has centered the 2012 Democratic campaign message on the theme that Republicans favor the interests of millionaires and billionaires over the middle class.
 
It also could set off another clash between Coburn and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, who argues that Congress should not raise taxes unless they are offset by other tax cuts.

Among Coburn's findings were some doozies: "millionaires received $74 million worth of unemployment checks from 2005 to 2009; $316 million in farm subsidies from 2003 to 2009; $89 million for the preservation of lands on ranches and estates in 2009 and 2010; and $7.5 million to compensate for property damages caused by disaster. And 1,500 millionaires who didn't pay any income tax at all. There were also 18 folks earning more than $10 million a year who received around $12,000 in unemployment benefits and 74 people earning between $5 million and $10 million received $18,000 in benefits. In all 2,840 millionaires received unemployment benefits.

“This welfare for the well-off — costing billions of dollars a year — is being paid for with the taxes of the less fortunate, many who are working two jobs just to make ends meet, and IOUs to be paid off by future generations. We should never demonize those who are successful. Nor should we pamper them with unnecessary welfare to create an appearance everyone is benefiting from federal programs,” Coburn said.
 
Coburn’s report found that from 2006 to 2009, millionaires claimed $27.7 billion in mortgage interest tax deductions, $64.3 billion in rental expense deductions and $21 billion in deductions for gambling losses. During that time, millionaires also deducted $607.7 million for business entertainment expenses, according to Coburn.
 
The average annual amount of tax breaks claimed by millionaires is $28.5 billion, Corburn’s report found.

Predictably, Norquist went after Coburn yesterday for targeting “legitimate business expenses,” such as rental expense deductions, in his report. He said it “seems” as though Coburn is “trying to get on [President] Obama’s losing class-warfare argument.”

But not to worry-- if you're a millionaire, ole John Boehner took care of you by putting the heir to the Whirlpool fortune on the SuperCommittee, Michigan plutocrat Fred Upton, whose sole function in Congress has been to protect the interests of the self-styled American "aristocracy." He'll never let anything pass that takes even a nickel from the 1%. Blue America is seeking to right that travesty this cycle by helping blue collar Democrat John Waltz -- a firm advocate of the New Deal-- defeat Upton for the seat he's treated as a feudal estate. Chip in? You can do it here at the Blue America ActBlue page. Defeating Fred Upton is nearly as important to progress in our country as defeating Paul Ryan. And Obama won both of their congressional districts. These two races are winnable.

Has Miss McConnell Clamped Down On Some Of The Senate GOP's Obstructionist Excesses?

Supposedly there was an agreement to proceed in the Senate as though what matters is what's good for he American people, not what's best for the narrow partisan strategies for the political parties. The "agreement" was put to a test last week when votes for aid to the victims of Hurricane Irene came up. At first the Republicans blocked it with their use of the pocket filibuster last Friday, followed a day later-- as they came under increasing pressure from the public-- with a grudging acquiescence. Half a dozen Republican joined all the Democrats in shutting down the filibuster, including even one of the Senate's worst obstructionists, David Diapers Vitter, understanding that hurricane aid is something Louisiana voters pay attention to. This Thursday the Senate then rejected Kentucky crackpot Rand Paul's amendment to take the disaster relief money from foreign aid. Only 19 Republicans (+ deranged Nebraska multimillionaire reactionary Ben Nelson) voted for this latest nihilistic spasm. All the regular suspects were on board-- the die-hard extremists McConnell has virtually no sway with: Jim DeMint (SC), Ron Johnson (WI), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Richard Burr (NC), Jeff Sessions (AL), Vitter (LA), Rand Paul, of course, the 2 degenerate Oklahomans, Coburn and Inhofe...

And then came the votes on H.R. 2887, the Surface and Air Transportation extension which the GOP was determined to use as a vehicle for some anti-union action at the FAA. Rand Paul was on a role Thursday so he offered a poison pill amendment which was promptly rejected 36-61, 10 Republicans lining up with every Democrat in a bit of a kabuki show that appeared to turn back the barbarians making a last stand for their lunacy for the bloodthirsty extremists in the base. In the end, though-- like 10 minutes later-- the bill passed, as it had to, with a resounding 92-6. Rubio down in Miami, it was only the 6 worst die-hard extremists who voted NO: Coburn (OK), DeMint (SC), Johnson (WI), Lee (UT), Paul (KY) and Toomey (PA), the Senate teabaggers.

Chuck Schumer pointed out that the extremism of arch-obstructionists like Paul and Coburn was starting to make an impression on the public-- and that Republicans see the danger it poses to themselves.

"The public sent a message after the debt-ceiling debate. They said they didn't want brinksmanship. We're beginning to see that," Schumer said, noting that the House sent the FAA and highway bills over without adding any poison pills or dramatic cuts.

"The American public has said stop fighting all the time," Schumer said before the vote. "This is a classic example of what they don't like."

Although Coburn backed down, Schumer argued that GOP leaders need to do a better job reining in lawmakers like Coburn and Tea Party leaders like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).

"If the Republican leader were to say to Tom Coburn, 'I am not giving you the votes, you don't have 40 other colleagues to go with you,' he would stop doing these things," Schumer said. "But every time a Sen. Coburn or a Sen. DeMint wants to hold everything up, they have the tacit backing of his party and his leadership, so they're all holding this up in a certain sense."

"The brinksmanship that they exercised on the debt ceiling and the negative reaction to it seems to have given them second thoughts," he added.

And now, about those dilapidated bridges that connect Ohio to Kentucky-- Boehner's area to Miss McConnell's state. Watch the interview with Rep. John Yarmuth in the clip above. In about a week President Obama will be in Cincinnati and he'll no doubt be talking about these bridges and asking why the Republicans are blocking the funds to repair them-- and hundreds of similar situations around the country. Cincinnati is represented by one of Boehner's unpopular cronies, Steve Chabot. Rather than work on solving the economic and infrastructure problems plaguing his constituents, the GOP solution to Chabot's problems was to add an extreme right-wing county, Warren County, onto his district. The bridge is still shut down, but they hope that their are enough lockstep, clueless Fox listeners in Warren so that Chabot won't be thrown out of office again, the way he was in 2008. Thursday, though, The Hill reported that Obama will be discussing the Brent Spence Bridge when he's in town next week.

The 48-year-old bridge, which spans the Ohio River between Ohio and Kentucky, has been under review by transportation officials in the two states for massive repair or replacement. The double-decker inter-state bridge has been described as “functionally obsolete.”

Obama also used the bridge as an example of necessary infrastructure repair in his jobs speech to Congress, prompting both Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to respond that while the bridge is an important priority for their constituents, they would not support funding repairs through earmarks or another stimulus.

Obama’s trip to this particular bridge will likely serve to put additional pressure on the GOP leaders. According to Carney, the choice is a result of Obama’s focus on jobs, not politics.

“It’s not a coincidence in that the bridge is one we can get to and highlight from the White House on a day trip that absolutely illustrates the problems that we have with infrastructure in this country,” he said in Thursday’s press briefing.

Obama’s campaign to pass his jobs bill has included a strong push for mending bridges. In North Carolina on Wednesday, Obama said his bill needed to be passed before any state faced another tragic bridge collapse. “Why would we wait to act until another bridge falls?” he asked.

Obama promised the bill would provide 19,000 construction jobs that would improve public safety. It is his second trip to Ohio within a two-week span. He was in Columbus on Tuesday to promote his jobs bill.

Streams of Consciousness, Dec. 23

A couple days ago we reported on the smoldering controversy over hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6, seeping into most cities' drinking water in serious enough quantities to make the water carcinogenic. Yesterday California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein asked the EPA to set national safety standards for chromium-6.

Meanwhile, concern is mounting across the country that drinking tap water regularly will increase the chances of getting stomach cancer and leukemia, while also increasing the risk of potentially fatal liver and kidney damage. The chemical industry and their Republican allies have vowed to fight any attempts to pass legislation taking away the freedom to pollute and the liberty of water consumers to poison themselves and their families if they decide to. That kind of Freedom and Liberty is very important to Republicans. In their universe, it's the heart and soul of the free market. You see, in GOP-land, those who can't afford bottled water deserve to die anyway-- and if enough people do die from drinking tap water, the survivors will drink something else instead... like Coca-Cola, beer... even urine is less toxic. Industries say it would be too expensive for them to keep chromium-6 out of the drinking water and they need it for tanning leather and making some stainless-steel products. You know what they say about the bottom line!

Let's take rubber-stamp Republican Congressman Lee Terry of Omaha, for example. Terry almost never varies from John Boehner. Their voting records are nearly indistinguishable, and both are committed to defending the freedom of chemical companies to poison the population. Omaha, alas, is one of the cities badly hit by the chromium-6 disaster. While the proposed limit in the state of California is .06 parts per billion, Omaha's water tested at 1.07 ppb-- not nearly as bad as Norman, Oklahoma's 12.90 ppb, but enough to kill plenty of Omaha's poor people in a variety of very unpleasant ways.

The chemical industry has given Rep. Terry $36,000 in thinly veiled bribes to keep him on the reservation and not have him do anything crazy-- like look out for his constituents back in Nebraska. In 2008, his constituents nearly threw him out of office; he beat Democrat Jim Esch by a mere 10,000 votes out of over 273,000 cast-- 52-48%. This year he did much better against Tom White, whom he beat 61-39%. Terry isn't doing anything about safe drinking water standards at all. Perhaps he thinks his seat will be safer if more working people just die.


Arsonists Prosecuting Firefighters

Krugman was talking about the fact that the the rating agencies, in sucking up to the pooh-bahs of finance, brought the current financial crisis on the world. He makes a great point, but I jumped right to Tom Coburn and his crazy right-wing Republican allies, particularly Mike Enzi (R-WY), selfishly and obstinately blocking health care for 9-11 first responders. Most of the Senate just stared at Coburn like the freak he is and then voted to pass the widely popular legislation. In fact, by the end of the day support was so overwhelming that Coburn was pressured by relatively saner Republicans to just back down and let it pass by unanimous consent.

The increasingly deranged and stubborn Coburn insisted the reimbursements for the firefighters and other first responders are "an entitlement," a bad word, not related in his mind to the fact that they actually are entitled to this help from society for the job they did on the front lines after the 9-11 disaster that Coburn did nothing to prevent. Coburn is also pissed off that the costs of the bill are being covered by closing foreign corporate tax loopholes, loopholes that Coburn favors.

And The Senate Ratifies START By A Landslide

After all that sturm und drang from Kyl and his cronies looking for another Waterloo for Obama, the Senate overwhelmingly ignored the dominant obstructionist faction of the Senate GOP caucus and approved the nonpartisan treaty between the U.S. and Russia that mandates new reductions in both nations' deployed strategic nuclear weapons. The final vote was 71-26, with 13 Republicans ignoring McConnell, McCain and DeMint and their hysterical politicization of national security. All the adult types among the Republicans voted for ratification.

And that was the end of the 111th Congress. Both houses adjourned. Here's a video montage of some of what was accomplished, although that Obama bullshit about Afghanistan and his and McConnell's tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires kind of spoils the whole thing:



GOP Front Groups Still Hope To Milk Homophobia For Donations

Yesterday President Obama signed the repeal of DADT, which passed by a wider margin in the Senate than anyone expected, even far right Republicans like Richard Burr (NC) and John Ensign (NV) abandoning Miss McConnell and the Mean Sisters, McCain and Graham-- two closet queens and a bitter, nasty old man-- to be party to history instead of getting run over by it.

But as Right Wing Watch pointed out, the Family Research Council, a Republican Party hate group, is already threatening to sue to prevent repeal from being enacted. They're in cahoots with McCain in trying to undermine implementation of the new law. And then there's this:



President Obama, after signing the bill yesterday, had something very different to say, something that will probably resonate more forcefully with normal Americans:

Sixty-six years ago, in the dense, snow-covered forests of Western Europe, Allied Forces were beating back a massive assault in what would become known as the Battle of the Bulge. And in the final days of fighting, a regiment in the 80th Division of Patton’s Third Army came under fire. The men were traveling along a narrow trail. They were exposed and they were vulnerable. Hundreds of soldiers were cut down by the enemy.

And during the firefight, a private named Lloyd Corwin tumbled 40 feet down the deep side of a ravine. And dazed and trapped, he was as good as dead. But one soldier, a friend, turned back. And with shells landing around him, amid smoke and chaos and the screams of wounded men, this soldier, this friend, scaled down the icy slope, risking his own life to bring Private Corwin to safer ground.

For the rest of his years, Lloyd credited this soldier, this friend, named Andy Lee, with saving his life, knowing he would never have made it out alone. It was a full four decades after the war, when the two friends reunited in their golden years, that Lloyd learned that the man who saved his life, his friend Andy, was gay. He had no idea. And he didn’t much care. Lloyd knew what mattered. He knew what had kept him alive; what made it possible for him to come home and start a family and live the rest of his life. It was his friend.

And Lloyd’s son is with us today. And he knew that valor and sacrifice are no more limited by sexual orientation than they are by race or by gender or by religion or by creed; that what made it possible for him to survive the battlefields of Europe is the reason that we are here today. That's the reason we are here today.

So this morning, I am proud to sign a law that will bring an end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” It is a law-- this law I’m about to sign will strengthen our national security and uphold the ideals that our fighting men and women risk their lives to defend.

No longer will our country be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans who were forced to leave the military-- regardless of their skills, no matter their bravery or their zeal, no matter their years of exemplary performance-- because they happen to be gay. No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie, or look over their shoulder, in order to serve the country that they love.

As Admiral Mike Mullen has said, “Our people sacrifice a lot for their country, including their lives. None of them should have to sacrifice their integrity as well.”

Has Tom Coburn (R-OK) Lost His Mind?

I guess in single-party states like Cuba, Syria, Laos, Turkmenistan, Liberia, Vietnam and Oklahoma, there's no sense among the political class that there's any real accountability from voters. The Democrats actually did have someone run against Tom Coburn last month, though you probably never heard of him. Jim Rogers, who also ran for president (of the United States) in 2008, managed to snag 265,519 votes (26%) against Coburn, just about half the number of votes that Andrew Rice got in 2008 when he ran for the state's other Senate seat (against Jim Inhofe). Rogers lost every single county and was even trounced in Oklahoma City with less than a third of the vote.

When the Oklahoma City firefighters' association urged Coburn to cease his "tactics of delay" and stop blocking the bill to compensate the 9-11 first responders, Coburn thumbed his nose at... well, the world. He has nothing to worry about. Unless someone has been holding back some photos of him screwing underage boys with Mark Foley, Mark Kirk, Lindsey Graham and Miss McConnell.

We lived through the horror in Oklahoma City in April 1995, and many of our members responded to Ground Zero during 9/11. Fire fighters are always there for our country, and we need Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe to be there for our FDNY brothers and sisters! The Oklahoma Fire Fighters urge our two Senators to stand tall with America's first responders. Instead of employing procedural tactics of delay, vote to give the hero's of 9/11 the protection and benefits they have earned.

Coburn instead attacked Harry Reid-- who is pushing the bill-- for not pushing it strongly enough.

Coburn's spokesman John Hart told Huffington Post that Reid has not asked for unanimous consent to move forward with the bill. "[Y]ou can't hold a bill that hasn't been brought up. Reid hasn't even tried to hotline the bill. This is the same game he's been playing for years, going back to the 'Coburn Omnibus' and before," said Hart. "Why did Senator Reid fail to bring this bill to the floor this entire Congress? Supporters say the bill has been around for years, yet the Majority Leader has prioritized hundreds of other initiatives ahead of this one. For instance, the Senate invested more energy into passing an omnibus bill with 6,700 earmarks than this bill. We're not responsible for the Majority Leader's failure to manage the Senate schedule."

A Reid aide noted that the majority leader hasn't asked for unanimous consent because he doesn't have an agreement yet with Republicans that would allow it. Coburn, late in the day, posted a list of concerns with the 9/11 bill, though Dem aides believe they can be overcome.

Expect lots more of this as the GOP attempts to create a state of anarchy in American politics in the run-up to the 2012 elections. Yesterday the two hysterical wingnuts from South Carolina tried changing the argument to how sacrilegious it is to cut the Senate's Christmas break and what a betrayal it's been that Republicans have voted across party lines and helped the Democrats pass legislation for the good of the country.

But even right-wing propagandist Shep Smith (Fox News) tried to shame Coburn about blocking the 9-11 first-responders legislation. The one-party state of Oklahoma would be impervious to this kind of thing from a legitimate news source, but Oklahoma has been almost totally zombified by Fox, and this is something that will make an impact. The zombies could even turn on him.

Playing The Racist Long Enough Will Actually Make You A Racist

Mona Charen, a third-rate right-wing hack from the '80s, reared her head last night to implore Michael Steele to go-- and go quietly. "Go quietly" means stop telling everyone that the GOP is a racist party and that no one likes you because you're black. "Now," now pontificates wealthy, Jewish Mona, "with Voyeur making all the comedians’ monologues, Michael Steele is suggesting that he, like President Obama, is held to higher standards because he is black. It’s possible that some people are more judgmental about him because he’s black, but it’s undeniable that many people are inhibited from voicing their dissatisfaction with him for the same reason... At this moment, the Republican party needs more than ever to present a sober, serious, and ethical face to the public. Voyeur was the last straw. It would be an unselfish gesture for Steele to step aside."

OK, everyone has known that the Party of Lincoln was captured by Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms and Phil Gramm-- all former segregationist Democrats-- in the 1970s. And everyone knows that upwards of 90% of African-Americans vote for Democrats. The problem is, at least in the mind of elderly Republicans, that suburban moderates don't like racism. I'm guessing most of them are also already voting for Democrats. In fact, the new post-Mona Charen era Republicans barely even make much of an effort to hide what they are. In fact it was with a degree of sadness yesterday that I read how the new Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell is reviving Confederate History Month. Supposedly the move will "strengthen his position with his conservative base."

The two previous Democratic governors had refused to issue the mostly symbolic proclamation honoring the soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War. McDonnell (R) revived a practice started by Republican governor George Allen in 1997. McDonnell left out anti-slavery language that Allen's successor, James S. Gilmore III (R), had included in his proclamation.

McDonnell said Tuesday that the move was designed to promote tourism in the state, which next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. McDonnell said he did not include a reference to slavery because "there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia."

The proclamation was condemned by the state's Legislative Black Caucus and the NAACP. Former governor L. Douglas Wilder called it "mind-boggling to say the least" that McDonnell did not reference slavery or Virginia's struggle with civil rights in his proclamation. Though a Democrat, Wilder has been supportive of McDonnell and boosted his election efforts when he declined to endorse the Republican's opponent, R. Creigh Deeds.

This made me remember something from four decades ago, something I was reminded of when reading Rick Perlstein's historical look back on that era, Nixonland. Rick starts the twenty-second chapter of his opus with a discussion of Nixon's ill-fated nomination to the Supreme Court of G. Harrold Carswell. Carswell was Nixon's second choice after his first nominee Clement Haynsworth was rejected and, ultimately he was rejected as well-- later to be arrested and convicted of groping an undercover policeman in a Florida public toilet.

On January 19, 1970, President Nixon announced his next Supreme Court nominee, G. Harrold Carswell, a good ol' boy from South Georgia. An ad that Carswell had taken out advertising his run for state legislature in 1948 was discovered: "I Am A Southerner By Ancestry, Birth, Training, Inclination, Belief, And Practices. I Believe That Segregation Of The Races Is The Proper And The ONLY Practical And Correct Way Of Life In Our States." Staffers in the civil rights division in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare took in the situation with disgust and watched their boss for a response.

Nixon made it at a press conference on January 30 when asked if he would still have nominated Carswell if he'd known. "Yes, I would," the president responded. "I am not concerned about what Judge Carswell said twenty-two years ago when he was a candidate for state legislature. I am very much concerned about his record... as a federal district judge."

The Post reported on that record the next day: an embarrassing two-thirds of his decisions had been overturned by higher courts. Then it came out that in 1956 Carswell had schemed to make a public golf course private to keep blacks out.

People like Carswell and McDonnell are entitled to their opinions and they are also entitled to associate with whomever they please. People like Carswell and McDonnell, however, have no business getting anywhere near elective office where their narrow prejudices will work towards turning their fellow citizens' lives more untenable. There was a time when the major parties were embarrassed when it was discovered they had members like Carswell and McDonnell. Often they were relegated to fringe groups like the KKK and the Know Nothings-- in today's terms, the Tea Party.

I found it interesting yesterday when one of the most obstructionist and narrow-minded reactionaries in the Senate, Tom Coburn, stumping for re-election in Oklahoma-- does he even have an opponent?-- came face to face with the ugliness he has been so instrumental in not just permitting, but in creating. His must have been shocked when he realized the joke had gotten out of hand and that it wasn't just gameplaying by McConnell, McCain and Burr but the real full-blown fascist threat. Coburn stared the teabaggers in the face and was mortified to see the gross ignorance and overblown bigotry.

After a woman in the audience railed against the possibility of being put in prison for not obtaining health insurance under the Democrat’s new law, Coburn dismissed her remark and questioned the accuracy of Fox News reports on health care reform.

“The intention is not to put any one in jail. That makes for good TV news on FOX but that isn’t the intention,” Coburn responded.

Then, the Republican Senator, who was an arch-foe of the Obama Health Care bill, defended the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi against character attacks.

While discussing his policy disagreements with Pelosi Coburn said “she’s a nice lady,” which brought hisses and hoots from the crowd. But Coburn flatly rejected the crowd's animosity towards the liberal Speaker.

“Come on now. She is nice-- how many of you all have met her? She’s a nice person,” Coburn said as he went on to lecture the crowd about civility.

“Just because somebody disagrees with you dodn’t (sic) mean they’re not a good person,” Coburn said. “I’ve been in the senate for five years and I’ve taken a lot of that, because I’ve been on the small side-- both in the Republican Party and the Democrat Party.”

“What we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that you can see what’s going on and make a determination yourself,” Coburn added and then again warned the crowd against the myths perpetrated on FOX News.

“So don’t catch yourself being biased by FOX News that somebody is no good. The people in Washington are good. They just don’t know what they don’t know,” Coburn said... Coburn closed the town hall by telling the crowd to read broadly and warned the mostly conservative audience about the danger of getting all their information from the same source.

George Voinovich Lashes Out Against Far Right GOP Extremists Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn

"Disgusting things you'd never anticipate"

We've asked it before-- and in the words of the B-52's-- who's to blame? Who's to blame for the downfall of the Republican Party? One might be tempted to say "the death" of the Republican Party, but history tells us that the Republicans will come back and that we'll look forward to that day as the Democrats descend into the dark bowels of the complete corruption that already dominates almost as much of it as has dominated the GOP for so long.

But respected Ohio senior Senator George Voinovich thinks he knows what has caused the temporary demise-- what and who-- at least for his own state of Ohio. He told the Columbus Dispatch “We got too many Jim DeMints (R-SC) and Tom Coburns (R-OK). It’s the southerners. They get on TV and go 'errrr, errrrr.' People hear them and say, ‘These people, they’re southerners. The party’s being taken over by southerners. What they hell they got to do with Ohio?'"

Can the same be said for GOP trouble around the country? In yesterday's NY Times, John Harwood contrasts the dwindling number of Republican moderates interested in goverance to the neo-Confederate fanatics interested in... wrecking government and preventing President Obama from having a successful presidency. Harwood askes us to behold "the slight, dour spokesman for orthodox Republicanism. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, leader of the shrunken Republican minority, will never be mistaken for a bodybuilder or a movie star"... or a moderate.

In his Southern-accented monotone, the Alabama native urges colleagues on Capitol Hill to block President Obama’s agenda and lower their sights toward incremental changes in health and energy policy. While Mr. Schwarzenegger exhorts the White House to “never give up,” Mr. McConnell criticizes the president’s push to “raise taxes in the middle of a recession” to cover those without insurance.

Six months after President George W. Bush left the stage, neither brand of Republicanism fares especially well with the public. But there is no doubt which holds more midsummer box-office appeal among the party faithful-- and it is not the Terminator’s.

Wingnut fanatics are livid, attacking Voinovich already and reminding everyone that he stopped one of Bush's most horrible appointments, clueless fascist dupe John Bolton. They much prefer slash and burn obstructionists like Coburn and DeMint, who, like them and their leader Rush Limbaugh, would rather see America fail than Obama succeed. Who's to blame? The B-52's are from Georgia, but unlike lunatic fringe politicians like Johnny Isakson, Newt Gingrich, Lynn Westmoreland, Tom Price, Jim Marshall, Jack Kingston, John Linder, John Barrow, Nathan Deal, Phil Gingrey, Saxby Chambliss and Paul Broun, they're not to blame.

We know OK's loony Jim Inhofe will still be in the Senate come the 112th Congress, but how about PA's Arlen Specter and NY's Kirsten Gillibrand?

“I didn’t mean to be disrespectful. I don’t know the guy, but … for a living he is a clown.’

-- Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe

by Ken

(1) WHEN SEN. JIM INHOFE OPENS HIS MOUTH, STAND BACK!

Under closer questioning, the Tulsa World's Jim Myers reports, Senator Inhofe acknowledged that he was referring to Minnesota's then-not-yet senator-elect, Al Franken when he said, in connection with the likely outcome of the Minnesota Senate race, "I’ll tell you what a lot of people are thinking, and that is it looks like things are going to be over and we are going to get the clown from Minnesota."

Periodically -- in periods that are far too frequent for the country's mental as well as political health -- the senator, who is Congress's leading Christian-crazy climate-change denier and, in general, sworn foe of rational scientific inquiry, opens his mouth and we are treated to the effluvia thrown off by the vortex of his dementia.

Since Oklahoma has the distinction of being represented by two U.S. senators who are certifiably insane, let's make it clear here that we're not talking about Doctortom Coburn, the wingnut loon who specializes in unilaterally stopping the Senate from advancing on any issue that catches in his vestigial brain, and delights in being called "Dr. No." Senator Inhofe is the raving wingnut loon -- OK, no difference so far -- who believes that protection of the environment is not only a scam but is actually anti-Christian because real Christians understand that we only need the earth until the imminent Rapture. This is, by the way, the man who, in one of life's most savage ironies, was until the Democrats regained control of the Senate chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Now he's merely the ranking minority member.

Senator Inhofe made his original crack about his soon-to-be Senate colleague in connection with his forecast that, despite the imminent seating of the clown, the climate-change bill just passed by the House is "dead in the water" on arrival in the Senate. But he also had to deal with the blowback from some of his other recent pronouncements. (This is itself a climate change of sorts. It used to be that he was never asked to answer for the imbecilities he spews.)

Specifically, he has had to back down from his much-publicized accusation that the EPA had suppressed a global-warming-debunking report, by one of his GW-denier cronies. Pumped up by his friends the Fox Noise liars, he was insisting that the matter warranted criminal investigation. In his Tuesday Tulsa World interview, " he said he has "no way of knowing" whether any wrongdoing was committed, and "also conceded that his own investigation into the matter has not uncovered anything that would warrant a criminal investigation."

(2) LOOKS LIKE SPECTER AND GILLIBRAND WILL
DEFINITELY (?) FACE PRIMARY CHALLENGES

As we all know, White House political operatives have been in cahoots with political heavyweights in both Pennsylvania, notably Gov. Ed Rendell, and New York, notably senior Sen. Chuck Schumer, to prevent forestall divisive and expensive primary challenges to freshly minted "Democratic" Sen. Arlen Specter and merely appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.  As Howie has been reporting, in both states this political "fix" has aroused a good deal of anger, both for the anti-democratic ("small d") high-handedness of the maneuvering and for the distinctly conservative cast of the beneficiaries, and there have been serious rumblings of "nevertheless" challenges.

In PENNSYLVANIA, where admiral-turned-congressman Joe Sestak has been sending fairly consistent signals that he's gearing up for such a race, Steve McConnell reported yesterday on the Wayne Independent's website:

In an interview with The Wayne Independent Wednesday morning, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa.,confirmed his intention to run against Specter, a long-time Republican who switched to the Democratic party earlier this year.
“I am going to get into the race against Arlen Specter ... for senator,” said Sestak in his first media interview as part of a three-week tour through all of the Commonwealth’s 67 counties.

Wayne County was his first stop where he met with local Democrats prior to his interview with The Wayne Independent.

Meanwhile in NEW YORK, despite the virtual lockdown on normally available political resources engineered by Senator Schumer and his White House coconspirators, Rep. Carolyn Maloney is reportedly mere days away from announcing formally that she will mount a Democratic primary challenge to Kirsten Gillibrand, appointed by Gov. David Paterson to replace now-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Senate until next year's special election.

The current hubbub concerns what was being described as an apparent endorsement of Maloney by former President Bill Clinton, who is scheduled to appear at a July 20 fund-raiser for the congresswoman. However, this doesn't appear to be the case. Rather, it appears that the former president is doing a Clinton-family "thank you" tour, repaying pols who supported Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, which the former candidate herself is prevented from doing by her current position.

Both challenges appear doomed, but the more important seems to me the Pennsylvania one. There is also a case to be made, and I've seen it made by one of the smartest people I know, that the New York challenge is going to cut seriously into the money and attention available for the Sestak challenge in Pennsylvania, even as the politics of a challenger to her left (though not very far to her left) drive Senator Gillibrand back toward the right (she has been seriously more liberal in her time in the Senate than she was in the House), both in the campaign and in the Senate.

This prognosticator predicts that people "on all sides" will live to regret this extremely expensive race. I would only disagree that people on all sides will be deeply unhappy but won't know what hit them, and will instead resort to the usual mutual finger-pointing.

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Today's Stimulus Adventures Inside The Beltway

Oklahoma's contribution to the next Great Depression

Just about every industrialized country in the world has gone over to the single payer system of health care. And the single payer is the government. Our economy (i.e., our products) is not competitive internationally because our businesses have to pay health care, which raises the unit price of everything we sell. Obama's not going to fix it. Fixing it means making Big Insurance and useless HMOs mad as hell. It's what Howard Dean told me we had to do when I first met him many years ago. Obama didn't pick Howard Dean; he picked a shill for the status quo, tinkering-around-the-edges shill, like most Democrats-- which may make most Democrats better than any Republican but still leaves American working families up the you-know-what creek without a paddle.

One of the ways the Democrats sought to tackle the imbalance was to re-emphasize and expand standard practices about government at least making an attempt to buy American. Contractors receiving bailout funds were expected to make a real effort to spend the money on American iron and steel-- you know, so that it would stimulate the American economy. The howling from the big multinationals and their Republican and Blue Dog whores was so loud I thought the sun and the moon and the stars would all shatter from the sheer volume. Mitch McConnell, someone who has done more damage to the American economy and to working families than anyone in the history of our nation-- and who has been well paid for the trouble-- is leading the movement, along with John McCain, to strip the Buy American provisions from the Stimulus bill.

Today I saw statements from two Democratic members of Congress addressing the Republican complaints. The first came in the form of an e-mail from progressive freshman Eric Massa (D-NY), a member of the Homeland Security Committee:

“I was sent to Washington to represent the interests of my constituents, many of whom work in the manufacturing sector. How could American elected officials not support a 'Buy American' provision in the Economic Stimulus Plan? Supporting American workers and American manufacturing is what the Stimulus Plan is supposed to be about. We need to put America first in this bill and that means expanding and strengthening the ‘Buy American’ provision, not eliminating it as Senator McConnell wants to do. I view this provision as a form of homeland economic security... America has always welcomed its role in the world and will continue to be a world leader. However, we are in a time of national crisis. Pouring American tax dollars into foreign competitors [which is what McConnell is demanding we continue to do] without giving U.S. workers a fair chance first is irresponsible. It is my duty as the Representative of the 29th Congressional District in New York to fight for and advocate for the industries and people in my district. They did not send me to Washington to send their tax dollars to foreign competitors. This is a American Economic Stimulus Plan, not a World Economic Stimulus Plan, as Senator McConnell seems to think. I hope Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will expand the 'Buy American' provision to cover all manufactured goods purchased with Stimulus dollars.”

Massa better be ready to fight on his own side of the aisle first though. The corporate-oriented Democratic Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, feeds at many of the same lobbyist and corporate troughs as McConnell and he has long since abandoned the welfare of American working families for the welfare of his own family. According to today's CongressDaily, Hoyer, a closet Blue Dog who is actively, if stealthily, encouraging reactionaries to undermine Pelosi, is certaainly rolling over on the Buy American provisions in the bill.

As currently drafted, the Senate's $884.5 billion version includes language from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), that would require the use of U.S. iron, steel and manufactured goods. That is more expansive than the $819.5 billion House version, which applies only to iron and steel as well as the textiles used in making uniforms for airport-security workers. Hoyer said today that he has discussed the matter with Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson, who said he was "very concerned about the flow of economic activity." Hoyer also said concerns raised by European Union Ambassador John Bruton were "justified." Hoyer stressed that U.S. taxpayers expect the stimulus to benefit domestic companies and workers, but he expressed sympathy for U.S. trading partners who have objected to the "Buy American" provisions: "I think the concerns are relevant. The Senate bill goes much further than the House bill, and I'm sure that will be a matter for discussion after the Senate passes the bill." Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus said today he was "somewhat concerned" about Buy American provisions but that he had not seen the final language.

The Dorgan provision would apply to products used for the "construction, alteration, maintenance or repair of a public building or public work." That includes "airports, bridges, canals, dams, dikes, pipelines, railroads, multiline mass transit systems, roads, tunnels, harbors and piers." Some domestic manufacturers, particularly steelmakers such as Nucor Corp. and AK Steel, are backing the "Buy American" provisions. But major U.S. exporters, including General Electric Co. and Caterpillar Inc., are lobbying hard to kill the proposals, arguing that other countries are beginning to threaten retaliatory measures.

In an interview today, Business Roundtable President John Castellani said he had heard concerns not only from the European Union but also from countries that have free trade pacts with the United States, such as Canada, Australia and Chile. "I'm hearing from my counterparts around the world; they believe their governments will take similar actions," he said. The language "will send a strong signal to the rest of the world that isolationism and protectionism is the path that the U.S. is going down," Castellani said. "This is a classic example of shooting ourselves in the foot. It ignores that this economy has been struggling for some time and the only thing propping it up has been our exports." Senate Minority Leader McConnell has promised debate on the provision this week. The position of the Obama administration is unclear at this point. Vice President Biden has expressed support for the inclusion of "Buy American" provisions, although official White House statements have said only that the administration is studying the matter. Although labor unions that backed Obama during the campaign, such as the United Steelworkers, are lobbying to keep the language in the bill, some of the president's economic advisers may not support the provision.

You can always count on Republicans and Blue Dogs to put their corporate paymasters first and American working families last. Always. And you can count on the corporate media shills to turn voters away from their own best interests. Which side you think Obama came down on?

Today the Republican obstructionists in the Senate got rolling In earnest; the rest of us can get ready for a Greater Depression. They started debating-- and voting on-- amendments to the Stimulus Bill, the one that's supposed to save us from all inevitable results of the policies they've foisted on us from the past decade. The first one they took up was an amendment by Patty Murray to strengthen the infrastructure investments made by the bill. Sounds pretty cut and dry, right? Most Americans are behind the Stimulus Package that the reactionaries and obstructionists are trying to kill. And indeed every single Democrat except reactionary Louisiana corporate shill Mary Landrieu, who habitually sides with Republicans against working families and for her corporate patrons, voted for the amendment. They were joined by Republicans Kit Bond and Arlen Specter. So it got 58 votes. Kennedy was absent and the Republicans have refused to allow Al Franken to take his seat. So 39 obstructionists defeated the amendment that would have added $25 billion for infrastructure projects. It proposed increasing transportation infrastructure funding to $63.5 billion from $45.5 billion and boosting highway project spending to $40 billion from $27 billion, creating 655,000 new jobs. The Chief Obstructionist was Oklahoma kook James Inhofe.

And while we're on Oklahoma kooks, the other one, Tom Coburn, who may-- please God-- be the next GOP senatorial retiree, proposed an anti-Hollywood Amendment to remove $246 million that was designed to stave off the further collapse of one of the few profitable American exporters left. All but two Republicans were joined by 13 mostly conservative Democrats (plus the film industry-hating Lieberman) to pass Coburn's amendment. I hope you enjoy Bollywood films.

IS HILLARY'S CAMPAIGN ALL ABOUT DEFENDING LOBBYISTS NOW?

We knew. You didn't?

Remember that wingnut windbag-- not Inhofe the other lunatic senator from Oklahoma... ah, yes, Coburn, what a kook!-- saying he absolutely, guaranteed he would not run again if ethics reform passed? I'm not sure if that was the incentive or not, but the bill passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, Coburn joined by only 13 diehard ethics haters to oppose it. Anyway, this weekend Coburn was backing off his promise to not seek re-election. Gosh, what a surprise!

Of course, some people say the law is so weak and filled with loopholes that Coburn and the 13 other the corrupt, ultra-reactionary, Republican senators who voted against it don't have much to fear. On CNN this morning when I woke up, around 4am, they were babbling about how it's just as corrupt under the Democrats as it is under the Republicans. I think they're missing something-- the systemic nature of the way DeLay and Frist had organized the nature of corruption, but CNN couldn't see passed the earmarks.

I had a hard time seeing past Senator Hillary's pro-lobbyist comments at YKos-- defended again tonight, somewhat more obliquely-- at the AFL-CIO debate. The lobbyists certainly ate her comments up-- even if she was totally disingenuous... or maybe because she was.

Brian Pallasch, who heads the American League of Lobbyists, said he was so thrilled with Clinton's unexpected defense of the profession, he sent news accounts of her remarks to his group's board.

"It's true!" Pallasch said of Clinton's "real Americans" rejoinder. "She's absolutely dead on."

Pallasch said the lobbying profession has taken it on the chin in the days since the Jack Abramoff scandal sunk into the public consciousness. When Obama and Edwards announced they would avoid money from Washington lobbyists (though at times accept the money from the special interests those lobbyists represent), Pallasch said his inclination was to stay out of it. "Our folks just decided to lay low."

Here, watch what we're going to be buying into:



Gag me; I don't need a spoon. I just can't see voting for her. "Nurses," "regular people," "real Americans"... She has as much contempt for the American voter as Bush does."Regular real Americans" don't hire lobbyists to bribe legislators; billionaires and huge corporations do. Not only should any politician who takes these bribes not be voted for; they should be thrown in prison. I'd start with the entire Republican Party and then move to both senators from New York, Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer, and a good hefty chunk of Inside the Beltway Democrats. Would that cure the ills that ail this country fast!