Today at the World’s Worst Deliberative Body
A minority in the Senate is refusing to allow anyone to be confirmed to the D.C. Circuit. Because, of course, it would be bad to dilute the wingnut flavor of the current D.C. Circuit, which also has several members for whom the government not working is a feature, not a bug. If the Senate ever becomes functional enough for a non-wingnut is confirmed to the D.C. Circuit, it will be a little harder for the D.C. Circuit to make it impossible for government to function, so you can see the dilemma here.
Well, at least the citizens of DC have some say in this matter
HEY-O!
Special thanks to Harry, Chuck, Carl, and Dianne for being worthless sacks of shit in January.
Oh, come now, there’s no need for such vitriol. The original post must be patently untrue; after all, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell have a goddamn gentlemen’s agreement.
I blame the latter three more than Reid. I can’t know, but it’s certainly possible that he just didn’t have the votes, and while I still feel his rhetoric was too soft, we all know how this site feels about Green Lanternism.
I don’t think one needs to be a devout Green Lanternist to think that Reid could have and should have threatened to take away their committee chairs on something so important to the Democratic agenda.
While the chief executive has very little leverage over Senators who don’t want to play ball with him, the Majority Leader has plenty. Yes, there could be negative consequences of using these hardball tactics, and I’m sure there would be plenty of “Democrats in Disarray” headlines, but when the alternative is two more years of Susan Collins as the Senate’s median vote and a continuation of Obama’s inability to get executive branch and judicial nominees confirmed, I think you have no other choice.
If he were one or two votes short, that would be a fair criticism. I don’t think he was close.
Merkley said he had 48. Perhaps he was embellishing, but if not, that’s two short with a Biden tiebreaker.
Meanwhile, Rand Paul is on the floor doing a talking filibuster over the Brennan nomination, and Merkley is whining about the need to “revisit the rules.”
Heckuva job, Harry!
I think the College of Cardinals is meeting today to chose a new Pope. So there’s some pretty stiff competition for the title “The World’s Worst Deliberative Body.”
Fortunately the College of Cardinals has rather less power than the U.S. Senate.
This reminds me, forgot to send all that hate mail to Harry Reid.
Sometimes, it’s like Democrats are trying to lose. Then I just remember that simply being elected is winning.
Never mind actually helping the country.
Amusing fact. Halligan’s mother-in-law is (or was when I last spoke to her a few years ago — I haven’t heard that things have changed, but can’t swear they haven’t) former Times food critic Mimi Sheration. Must have made family dinners interesting.
Ditto the comment of tonycpsu re the filibuster collaborationists. La Feinstein is particularly annoying even apart from her nearly across the board mediocraty in that I’m guessing an actual Democrat could win/hold that seat.