Sure, I’m not doing so well in my bet with Lady Blaga, but, it might be skewing my way a little. Lamar Alexander, one of the nine Republicans who supported Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, is no fan of Elana Kagan’s: In a statement, Alexander focused on Kagan’s role in limiting military recruiters’ access to Harvard Law School’s career services office while she was dean. “In denying military recruiters equal access to Harvard Law students, Ms. Kagan ignored Harvard’s obligations under federal law. Instead, she acted based upon what she thought the law should be,” Alexander...
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Sharron Angle finally talks to reporters, runs away
You can imagine that reporters were delighted to finally get to cover a Sharron Angle press function. As we’ve noted before, she’s been pretty shy about talking to reporters at all (unless she can get some fund-raising coin out of it). Of course, this could be because she tends to say ridiculous things when put in front of anything that could record her. So, when she invited some reporters to a press function, the last thing you’d picture happening is her avoiding the press, right? Well… U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle invited local media to attend a...
Continue reading...In defense of an admittedly terrible argument
As you probably already heard from this post, Lady Blaga and I have a little wager going on concerning how many votes Elena Kagan’s nomination manages to wrangle in the Senate. Based on some pretty terrible and Friday-night-related maths, I predicted she’d be confirmed, and that it would be by the slimmest of margins: 60 votes. No more, no less. Of course, I didn’t quite expect Lindsey Graham to pull a…Lindsey Graham and not be a hypocrite. So, I’m changing my prediction to 63-64 (Lady Blaga predicts 65), but I do hold to my word and will...
Continue reading...Lindsey Graham's Mavericky Vote for Kagan
Today the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Elena Kagan’s nomination, approving it in a 13-6 vote. Predictably, the vote went along party lines, with one notable exception. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham not only voted for Kagan, he explained at length why he did so, espousing his view of how the confirmation process ought to work: No one spent more time trying to beat President Obama than I did…But I understood we lost. President Obama won and I’ve got a lot of opportunity to disagree with him. But the Constitution in my view puts a requirement on me...
Continue reading...Finally, doing nothing might actually be a good idea
As has probably been made far more obvious lately, it’s far easier for the Senate to do nothing than anything. They haven’t even been able to pass an unemployment benefits extension for the past three weeks, depriving long-time victims of the shitty economy of at least a modicum of support. Ezra Klein points out that with President Bush’s hallmark tax cuts set to expire this year, it might be better, at least in the long-term, for the Senate to do nothing and let them expire: For the deficit hawks in Congress, the next few months are going...
Continue reading...Senator Inouye likely to be next president pro tempore of the Senate
The New York Times Caucus Blog reports that with the passing of Senator Byrd, Senator Daniel Inouye is next in line to become the president pro tempore of the Senate. Just want to point out that this makes the presidential line of succession the following: an African-American, an Irish-American, an Italian-American, and, finally, a Japanese-American. Somewhere, Strom Thurmond is turning over in his grave.
Continue reading...Primary Colors
There are several pretty important party primaries (and one special election) tomorrow around the country. Well, not important insofar as they’ll have any real impact, but important because they’ll guide the narrative leading to election day in November. Each party will see what messages worked, where the mood of the country is and is heading, and, probably less importantly, how big of a role the tea partiers can have in the election. I’ve been paying attention to most of the races since at least earlier this year, if not earlier, and have seen a stupid amount of...
Continue reading...Florida Governor Charlie Crist to run for Senate as independent
It’s been expected, but now it’s all but official: Aides confirm that Florida Governor Charlie Crist will, indeed, announce tomorrow that he will run for the U.S. Senate as an independent. Crist has been a Republican his entire career, but a run from former state House speaker Marco Rubio on his right has pushed him both out of the party primary and into the center. This, in effect, both blows up this race, as well as solidifying it earlier than the primary would have. Rubio now has a longer time to move center to try and court...
Continue reading...Meet the next Senator from Nevada and learn about her Chickens for Health Care initiative
Sue Lowden, one of the Republican candidates for the Nevada Senate seat currently held by Sen. Reid, currently holds a substantial advantage in polling, and will likely become the next senator from the Silver State. And, she has quite a novel approach to health care reform. Namely, she wants to take health care back to the “good old days,” when our forebears bartered or haggled for care. Here’s what she said: Let’s change the system and talk about what the possibilities are. I’m telling you that this works. You know, before we all started having health care,...
Continue reading...This isn't over
With the Senate passing the House’s bill with fixes to the health care reform package, and the House ready to take it up tonight (and likely pass it tonight as well), it almost feels like this long, national nightmare is over. It’s not. Not by a long shot. You see, while this health care bill does not take over one-sixth of the economy, as its critics may speciously claim, it is gigantic, and it does touch a great number of sections of the U.S. budget. If you remember your civics correctly, you\’ll note that the Congress votes...
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