Senate GOP Likely to Filibuster Obama Nominee

Hopefully, this will spur the democrats into growing a backbone and going to war with the republicans. Bipartisanship isn’t working and it’s time to just steamroll the opposition. Who knows? Maybe if we make them mad enough they’ll say something stupid. Or stupider. I have enormous faith in them and their inate ability to look foolish.

I’m with sacredh…
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its Reid’s job to force the GOP into actually filibustering this nomination–and the media’s job to consistently use the word “obstructionist” to describe how the GOP filibuster of Hayes is preventing the Senate from getting crucial legislation and other appointment passed.

pluk—there is no such thing as an actual filibuster. Just endless quorum count requests. The modern Senate is a creature of supermajority action, or inaction. Nothing in between.

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“up or down vote! nuclear option! up or down vote!”
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oh, wait…wrong administration…was flashing back to 2005…

Another “But, I don’t have 60 votes” failure of Reid. This is yet another example of why the democratic leadership will always be easily protrayed and perceived as weak..
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I actually have more respect for the republican leadership in this instance because they are exploiting the weakness of Reid and the Obama adminstration as they should. This might not be the right time to do this, but they are proving that they can when it counts.

I want to see Bob Bennett on CSPAN reading Harry Potter during his Filibuster stint!
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Anyway isn’t Senate oversight of the DoI the jurisdiction of the Energy Committee? Why isn’t Murkowski lobbying Bingaman for a hearing, where Sec. Salazar explains his rationale. Filibustering is just going to make the GOP look cranky and mean.

sadly, what Hammerlock said. But that doesn’t mean that the Dems shouldn’t force the obstructionist fillibustering a$$holes meme at every opportunity. And no reason why Reid should allow any member of the Dem caucus to support that fillibuster.

“Filibustering is just going to make the GOP look cranky and mean”
That’s still a step up from crazy and ignorant.

Guys, Obama tried to filibuster Alito. He cannot complain now, and neither can Dems. This is how you roll, and it’s biting you.

“The Obama administration announced today that federal agencies will once again be required to undergo an independent scientific review if they embark on projects that might affect threatened or endangered species, marking yet another reversal of a last-minute Bush administration environmental regulation”.
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Another example of our “Government out of control”. The special interest groups have taken control of our legislatures, and put pressure on Administrations to change “rules” and “regs” to suit their specific political action groups. Yes indeed, “Change we can believe in”.
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Global Warming interest groups, Environmental extremism, and so-called “Healthcare Crisis” hens who cackle (Karen Tumulty) will be the downfall of the United States. Whatever happened to “if its not broken, why try to fix it”?
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It is time people, time to take back our country from the special interest groups on both sides of the aisle.
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For the past 10 years, our “Global Climate” has shown a decrease in temperature, not the greenhouse effects that the likes of Global Warming Al Gore shout out as the “End of the World” senarios.
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One day Karen Tumulty writes about the so-called “Healthcare Crisis”, and then writes another blog on how “Medicare will be non-viable and bankrupt” in the next 10 years. Stating “I’ll probably be dead by then anyways” so cynically. Sorry Karen, your journalistic talents in my opinion are already dead. Move on to bigger and better things.
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And now we get more “Save the Whales” fights. When does the maddness end? It ends when we elect rational, and sane people to government positions who have the majority of American’s fate as their concern rather than the few extremists who have PAC money to donate to their campaigns.
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I predict that soon Americans will see through the sham of liberal facist groups with only their self-interests at heart. Those who protray everything as the “end of the world” in order to make a fast million or two off of the tax payers backs. Enough is enough. It is time that the States take back their State rights and throw all of the bums out of Washington for good. We are already seeing the demise of the dead tree newspapers and magazines. Now we need to see the end of the corrupt politicians who have their special interest groups in their back pockets. They need to be on the endangered “species” list, not some poor toad in Washington State.

Hayes was voted down 57-39.
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no, Hayes was not voted down, rather his nomination is not being voted on because the GOP refuses to allow it to come to a vote (HUGE difference).
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Reid should make the GOP stay on the floor, and continue the debate, and make a point of their obstruction…

rusty, yes independant scientific review of Federal Government policy really is the lash of the dictator!

Guys, Obama tried to filibuster Alito. He cannot complain now, and neither can Dems. This is how you roll, and it’s biting you.
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no, Obama voted against cloture knowing that cloture would be achieved.
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I have no problem with filibusters — as long as the party doing the filibuster is actually forced to bear the consequences of their actions. Filibusters should allow those of strong convictions the opportunity to make their case to the American people — and if the American people don’t buy what the obstructionists are selling, they’ll pay a political price for it.

Jay Newton-Small:
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Needless to say, Democrats are outraged.
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Are they, really?
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Is it actually roleplaying in the theater of professional political “outrage”, or is it “What? They firebombed that church with the little black girls still in it? Those bastards –their kind will never stop us” kind of outrage?
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One of the problems with this sort of reporting is that there doesn’t seem to be a way for readers to really know what constitutes real outrage, and what constitutes spin merely for your consumption. When we can’t tell what’s really going on, we don’t know who is acting on our behalf –who’s connected enough to our concerns to feel genuine outrage– and who is posturing for legislative positioning reasons.
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For example, the article to which you’ve linked states:

Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office signaled late Tuesday that Republican opposition would prevent Senate Democrats from securing the 60 votes needed to move forward with the nomination of David Hayes as deputy secretary of Interior.
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The Senate will vote Wednesday morning to invoke cloture and limit debate on the nomination. If the chamber can’t muster 60 votes, as expected, Hayes’ nomination will stall.

…but we all know that Harry Reid’s filibuster-preventative “60 vote consideration rule” is the reason why 60 votes are needed to accomplish anything in the Senate. Of course it takes a super majority (60 votes) to overcome a filibuster, but that has nothing to do with Reid’s own personal rule requiring a super majority to be “established” (voted on in back-rooms in secret, instead of publicly) that he motions (suggests) before anything comes up for a vote –and thus the threat of a Republican filibuster acquires the force of a real filibuster.
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But whenever Harry Reid wants to, as in the case of FISA Immunity legislation, he can easily do away with that rule.

…when the FISA bill comes up for a vote in the Senate. Our Leader and Deputy Leader really like the bill that came out of the Intelligence Committee, because it gives them the ability to spy on people who might be disloyal to the party without any oversight.They don’t like the Judiciary Committee bill, because it requires a justification to spy.
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Hero Reid said he will allow votes on both bills, and offered helpful advice to the Republicans, telling them they should consider tabling the Judiciary Committee Bill in order to kill it.
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He is also fiddling with the 60 vote super majority policy he’s used so effectively to help the Republican’s avoid undergoing the embarrassment of actually being forced to filibuster against things like troop withdrawals and Iraq funding. It requires a bill to have at least 60 votes lined up before it comes to a vote. The 60 votes make the vote filibuster-proof.
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He’s doing away with the 60 vote policy for the initial votes. A simple majority will be all it takes to kill the Judiciary Bill and move the Intelligence Committee Bill forward. It’s a smart move. It’s in keeping with his policy of preventing the Republicans from facing the possibility of having to filibuster. Because the Republicans want the Intelligence Committee Bill to pass, it will be the Democrats who will be forced to filibuster, instead. It should provide a bunch of great “Like all Democrats, Sen. XXX is soft on terrorism” quotes in the upcoming election.
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Hero Reid will then reinstate the 60 vote policy for the bill amendment process. This is good because one of the amendments will strip the retroactive immunity for telecoms provision from the bill. A simple majority won’t be enough to do it. It will require a super majority.

How “outraged” can the Democrats possibly be?
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Would it be safe to say that readers would know true outrage from business-as-usual theater if Reid were forced (by other Democrats) to change his rule, so that Republicans were forced to filibuster after the nomination actually got to the floor?
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If the Democrats go along with their elected Majority Leader, and don’t demand that Reid force the Republicans go on public record with an actual obstruction simply by foregoing the 60-vote rule vote he suggests before every topic comes up, then what exactly does “outrage” mean, Jay Netwon-Small?
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In lieu of being disturbed and angered enough by something to say, change how one does things, what other clues can readers look for in your reporting that would indicate genuine outrage?

SZ: Thanks for the post. As usual, interesting reading material. I truly detest Harry Reid.

rusty, I think a little more polish with respect to KT is in order. I personally think that she tries to be informative without slant. Calling her a “hen” isn’t right. She doesn’t take potshots (like Amy), so ad hominem with her is, in my view, in order.
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Some posters and commenters deserve invective–KT is not one of them.

OT: But that cheeto eating Marcy Wheeler won a blog award.
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http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/pages/honorees/2009.html

Most every Bush nominee was confirmed eventually, and those Dem filibuster attempts where almost always based on the nominee’s qualifications; see John Bolton.

Bhttp://www.political-buzz.com/

She doesn’t take potshots (like Amy)
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Karen Tumulty is also not perpetually self-unaware, not intellectually lazy, not habitually strawman-constructing, not grotesquely self-righteous and not unworthy of serious commentary (like Amy Sullivan).

Does anyone know if Robert E. Lee has a facepage? Please tell spob and rustyreturns. They want to contact him.
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“Oh I wish I was in the land of cotten,
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old times there are not forgotten,
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look away, look away, look away, GOP”

centfan, go f*** yourself. I am from the North you twit and thus have no nostalgia for a bunch of people who started a war that killed more Americans than any other we’ve fought.
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And Matt, John Bolton was not about qualifications, but politics. Get that right, ideologue.

Shoot, maybe cotten in N’olens but it’s cotton everywheres else, I reckon…

sacredh:
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I truly detest Harry Reid.
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Even the elderly dunce David Broder detests Harry Reid, although it’s because he views Reid’s language as “too partisan” for the Senator to be effective in a Majority Leader role –as if that somehow were in any way related to reality.
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Here’s the esteemed Nate Silver on Harry Reid’s performance:

On Making Mitch McConnell Wet His Pants
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…Harry Reid has been exceptionally ineffective as the Democrats’ majority leader.
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The number of cloture votes skyrocketed in the 110th Congress following the Democratic takeover of the Senate and Reid’s assumption of the majority leader position. The Senate voted on 112 cloture motions in the 110th, exactly double the number (56) of cloture votes in the 109th Congress, and two-and-a-half times as many as the average number of cloture votes (44) over the previous nine Congresses. Of these cloture motions, 51 were rejected (meaning that opponents of a bill succeeded in blocking an up-or-down vote) and 61 were passed.
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Not all of these cloture motions, it should be noted, were necessitated by obstructionist Republicans. In some cases, such as on FISA and on certain resolutions related to the Iraq War, a minority of Democrats were seeking to prevent a vote. Undoubtedly, however, a majority of these cloture motions were in fact triggered by Republican floor action, and the vast majority of them were also procedural filibusters — the actual filibuster, in which Mitch McConnell wets his pants while reading from the phone book for 19 hours, is now exceedingly rare.
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There are basically two mechanisms that a majority leader can employ to limit filibusters: firstly, he can threaten to block votes on certain of the opposition party’s legislation (or alternatively, present carrots to them for allowing a vote to proceed), and secondly, he can publicly shame them. Reid managed to do neither, and the Senate Republicans did fairly well for themselves considering that they were in a minority and were burdened by a President with negative political capital.
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I don’t imagine the culture of the Senate changing in the new Congress so long as it’s under Reid’s direction, and Reid is highly unlikely to be replaced. There is some chance, however, that Obama rather than Reid will dictate the tone, particularly if Joe Biden is dispatched to Capitol Hill fairly often.
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The bottom line, however, is that the Republicans are filibustering more and more often because they can get away with it. If Reid can’t get them to pay a greater public price, then the Democrats ought to find somebody else who can.

The obvious problem with Nate’s conjecture regarding Obama or Biden stepping into the fray is that this is a debate over appointments, and so it is (rightly viewed as) purely the Senate’s job to advise and consent, and so the executive has no place publicly arm-twisting.
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…And so Harry Reid’s failure as a national public leader is of that much more significance. Reid’s not just “ineffective”, he’s exceptionally ineffective –unless one were to consider the idea that Harry Reid doesn’t believe in the same sorts of ideas that you and I have about democracy and representation, in which case he’s done a fantastic job.

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@spod: John Bolton was not about qualifications, but politics.
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Yes. A person whose politics precludes the notion of a United Nations should not be the US ambassador to said organization.

CG’s question to Harry Reid:
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I have one question for the great fighter-leader, Harry Reid: during Reid’s tenure as Majority Leader, Michael Mukasey was confirmed as Bush’s Attorney General with a grand total of 53 Senate votes. How come Dawn Johnsen “needs 60 votes” or else she’ll be rejected?
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/?source=rss

brother spob
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Small, weak, central government, States rights, them thats gots gets more… Modern conservative (and Confederate) principles all.
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The South shall rise again… or at least that’s where most of the Republicans chased off too. The southern Republicans still fondly remember the hope and glory of the lines of soldiers marching to their doom to keep the ngrs on the plantation and the power in the hands of the rich land owners.
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That is the modern identity of the conservatives you defend, or haven’t you figured out why your “ideals” lost so big?

I continue to be utterly baffled and confused as to the reason why, even with a Democratic President and Democratic Majority across Congress, that still in the Senate anything Republicans want requires a simple majority vote, yet anything Democrats want requires 60.

As SZ and others have pointed out, this has nothing to do with the small and getting smaller republican party and everything to do with Reid and the Democratic senate.
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KT has told us that Reid keeps his job because the Democrats have increased their numbers in the Senate.
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Service to country just isn’t in the job description for a Democratic majority leader. Not even something as crass as service to party.
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Service to The Most Exclusive Club on Earth trumps all.

centfan Says:
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 12:59 pm
“That is the modern identity of the conservatives you defend, or haven’t you figured out why your “ideals” lost so big?”
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Lost so big? You mean, two elections in the past 29 years. It is not only laughable, but delusional to believe a democrat President who is held up as being the new “savior” and Christ-like messiah for the far left liberal extremists does not somehow spell the demise of the Republican Party.
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Please review your medication list, and I would recommend that you check out Abilify. Abilify not only will help with your delusional thought processes, but also aide in combating the Bipolar Disorder that you evidently have as well.

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Then again, ‘tho Bolton’s resume shows all the duty stops you’d like to see in a nominee to a diplomatic position, it’s what he did on those stops that puts his ‘qualifications’ into question. For example:

Bolton worked as the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, sworn in to this position on May 11, 2001. In this role, a key area of his responsibility was the prevention of proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction…
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…Bolton was instrumental in derailing a 2001 biological weapons conference in Geneva convened to endorse a UN proposal to enforce the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention…
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…He also pushed for reduced funding for the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program to halt the proliferation of nuclear materials.

Back on topic..on the surface, it looks like the GnOP is holding Hayes’ nomination hostage over Big Oil interests…how shocking is that?
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Not very, I know.

You mean, two elections in the past 29 years…
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Yes indeed. The Republicans have indeed been getting their way for the majority of my lifetime. The fact that the actual policies they’ve been advocating and the theories they’ve been using to justify those policies have been utterly discredited by their failure to operate as promised is precisely how Obama managed to convince the country to try something different.
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I don’t have anything against any Republicans. I simply think that they have erroneous beleifs and a startling unwillingness to consider the possibility that they may be mistaken.

I continue to be utterly baffled and confused…
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Look at it this way:
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Up-or-down votes are made in public.
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“Negotiations” regarding how Senators would vote (if a vote ever came up) are secret.
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The system of Democrats “requiring” 60 votes depends on insiders knowing beforehand what the Senate has secretly voted on before exposure of these pre-determined outcomes can be made public.
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In this way Senators’ voting records can be made to seem (hopefully for the Senators) the most palatable to public Democratic constituencies, whilst the secret votes accommodates the interests of the Senators’ private constituencies.
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Or, in other words, one secret vote expressing the Senators’ interests (requires a working majority in good faith), one show vote expressing the Senators’ public personae (requires a super majority).
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As it happens, this system of “negotiation” works to benefit not only the Senators themselves, who enjoy acting largely free of the consequences of public scrutiny, but the rest of the “insiders” who rely on their positions of access to these back-room deals for gainful employment, social prestige or any number of the other benefits of a fundamentally unfair, closed playing field, stacked-deck, public-denied system of insider-trading –for example, “insiders” like political reporters and their editors.
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Everybody benefits…except us, of course. But who the heck are we, anyway? We’re just marks at a carnival; Big Mac-buying, Bud Light-drinking, sleep-walking collections of marketing buttons to be pushed for predictable political outcomes. We’re not really who legislation or the legislative process is actually for, we’re just the unaware recipients of whatever decisions are made by the sentient –like the ubiquitously scattered rocks, busy insect colonies or gradually leaning plants.
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Make sense now?

Make sense now?
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stuart,
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Wish it didn’t . . . unfortunately, it does. Way too much, in fact.

[...] Jay Newton-Small at The Swampland: [...]

“As SZ and others have pointed out, this has nothing to do with the small and getting smaller republican party and everything to do with Reid and the Democratic senate.”
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And, really, the continuing, raging war between “conservatives” and liberals. (Hint: Harry Reid, Steney Hoyer and a whole host of powerful Democrats in Congress are not liberals).

Wow, Harry Reid sucks. The Democrats should have worked out a deal that made Hillary Clinton Senate Majority leader back when she was delaying the inevitable in the primaries.
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Centfan, those states you’re referring to were Democrat states during that time. I think it’s more prudent to look at how the states were at the time, than say, 150 years later and somehow try to make a connection.
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So was this guy voted down or filibustered or what? JNS said he was voted down but someone up there said he wasn’t.

apollyon07, it was a cloture vote. So the Democrats needed 60 vote thus it failed 57-39.

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http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/republicans-filibuster-obama-interior-department-nominee.php?ref=fp3

Thanks Paul!

Just heard on NPR that Reid is going to bring up again since Kerry, Mukulski and one other Dem were absent.

Ivy, if I understand correctly, Reid voted against too for procedural reasons which allows him to bring it up again.
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apollyon07, you are welcome.

It’s also less than 3 weeks until Franken gets seated. I’d like to see the dems start getting serious with Snowe and see if a deal can be worked out to bring her into the fold. The republicans are down. Now is the perfect time to start kicking the corpse around.

Also per Washington Monthly, Reid voted no because that enables him “for procedural reasons” to bring up the vote again.
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http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018159.php
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“Voted down” was somewhat sloppy wording.

“It’s also less than 3 weeks until Franken gets seated.”
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From your keyboard to God’s ears, sacredh. I would guess closer to July.

Dear sacredh,

You beat me to the comment!!!

“Where’s Al Franken when we really need him.”

Between Cheney’s talking himself and his cronies into a jail cell, and Al Franken having a forum for his material, the next 7 years of CSPAN should be a blast to watch.

They may have to move Stewart and Colbert up to prime time like they did Jay Leno.

Wow, Harry Reid sucks.
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apollyon07,
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Many here would agree with you. KT thinks he’s doing the best he can in a difficult job. My take is that he’s just a functionary, someone who has served their time and believe that, regardless of ability or performance, TIME has entitled them to the position.
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Hope he gets someone to put some heat on him in the primaries or, barring that, the rank-and-file in the Senate will decide that being ineffectual and weak is NOT an high-visibility requirement for the Senate leader position.
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We need someone with some “fire in their belly” for that position. And he ain’t it.

PNNTO: I hope it’s sooner than July. I’m hoping the case is dismissed. Pawlenty is throwing what political capital he has left on the fire and it’s hard to imagine him p!ssing off the Minnesota voters anymore than he already has by refusing to sign the election certification once the state appeals are exhausted. His hoped for presidential run is going to go the way of the dinosaurs if he can’t even win re-election to the governorship. Public support for him in Minnesota has been falling and if it comes down to him saving his own ass or making the national party happy, I think his own butt is going to win that duel.

Sorry, what would the seating of Franken accomplish, again?

apollyon07
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Right, Democrat and Republican definitions mean little after 150 years. It has more to do with today’s ideology and what group wants to own it. That’s where we are now.
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So we’ll all pull together under a great common military and a powerful local police force while staying in our own camps, independent, self sufficient, ready to crush the poor saps that didn’t pull themselves up by there own boot straps, and commerce will always boom and nobody will think to dump mercury on your lawn and we don’t need Big Government laws for anything like that.
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Is that pretty much the true conservative fantasy? Sounds like 1861 to me… at least in “Gone With the Wind”.

Sorry, what would the seating of Franken accomplish, again?
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stuart,
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Zip. Zilch. Nada. The rationale for inaction by Reid would just shift to something else.
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But the phrasing of your question told me that you already knew the answer to that anyway . . .

SZ: Another vote for the cloture party. There were a couple of democrats absnet from the voting.

Would somebody PLEASE give Reid a blowjob so we can get him out of there!

yeah centfan, you nailed it right on the head. *rolls eyes*

The only way to change things to to bombard, Democratic Senators with your displeasure over Reid’s ineffectiveness. The netroots have the backing of the American voters in supporting a Obama nominee.
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Congressional approval is at 37%. Obama’s approval is 67%. Only 21% of the voters identify as Republican. Despite Cheney’s cheerleading “only” 19% of the public supports waterboarding.
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While this nomination may be a small thing, given the whole host of issues, Senatorial Democrats have to show that they will put up a fight.

I hope Harry knows that if the GOP could find a credible opponent they would take him out in 2010 despite his bending over backwards to make sure they as a minority party are still in the game.
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The GOP would not be wrong for doing this as a matter of fact they would be stupid not to. Here’s hoping they find somebody.

Gunny that has always confused me. First Daschle from SoDak and now Reid from Nev. You would think that the Democrats would pick someone from a safer state to be their “leader”.

I don’t disagee about Reid, but from the Washington Monthly post:
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It would have been 58, but Majority Leader Harry Reid switched for procedural reasons (by voting “nay,” he can bring the nomination back to the floor at another time). It would have been 59, but John Kerry was in Massachusetts attending a funeral for a soldier killed in Iraq. It would have been 60, but Barbara Mikulski of Maryland wasn’t in the chamber at the time.
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Sounds like they’ll have the 60 votes w/out invoking the “nuclear option.”

Reid is a dinosaur. He is in the same category as the management of the Philadelphia Inquirer who hired John Woo so that the paper would not be labeled “left-wing”
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CNN attempted an appeasement policy in striving for a mythical “middle course” in news coverage. CNN found that balancing the views of hundreds of climatologists withe the few of some guys who don’t believe in climate change resulted in dwindling ratings. The public rejected the false equivalence being viewed on their television screens. As a bonus, CNN is still viewed as a left-wing network by Conservatives.
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Reid has to realize that there is no one to bargain with on the other side of the aisle. CNN should also take note. The Philadelphia Inquirer probably just put another nail in it’s own coffin with the John Yoo controversy.

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…same category as the management of the Philadelphia Inquirer who hired John Woo…
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They did? His Hard Boiled was a great action flick. Good director.

Elections have consequences and if Republicans are going to do everything in their power to obstruct then Obama needs to get serious about using the executive branch to punish states that voted in Republican Senators. I know Republicans act as if they don’t need government, but I don’t think that’s true, threaten to close some bases in South Carolina and see if Lyndsey Graham doesn’t capitulate and if that doesn’t work raise grazing fees in Wyoming unless they cut this crap out. Sometimes you need to swing the stick before people notice that you carry a big one.

sacredh, he’d also have to commit an impeachable offense first

Dee: I don’t think President Obama would even consider that. He swung 9 states from red to blue in 2008 and I’d bet he has plans to pick off more in 2012. Punitive punishment for red states would also punish the voters who may have voted for the democrats. The changing demographics are swinging our way and he isn’t going to take any actions that would alienate a growing democratic base. Punishing the innocent because of the actions of the wicked (republicans) isn’t his style at all. I understand the sentiment though.

maybe some good ol’ fashioned obstruction of justice. hmmm…

Philadelphia Inquirer who hired John Woo so that the paper would not be labeled “left-wing”
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John Woo is a stone-cold conservative. All killing welfare queens with dual Berettas, all engaging in prolonged gun battles with Greenpeace in milk crate factories.

apollyon07: Ok, maybe it’ll have to be a really good looking blabbermouth transvestite with a cellphone camera. Now see what YOU made me think?

Sometimes what happens in Vegas shouldn’t stay in Vegas.

Umm….really good points, everyone, but…ahh…the Professor’s name is…ah…”Yoo”, not “Woo”.
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John Woo is a really, really awesome director, though.
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I love Hard Boiled…but Bullet in the Head is also tops, because I love pulverizing the envelope of graphic violence in film.

sacred, ahahaha. Seems like I bring out the creative, dark side of people.

“because I love pulverizing the envelope of graphic violence in film”
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Seen this bloke’s films?
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http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0661791/
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Sympathy for Mr. V my fav

…same category as the management of the Philadelphia Inquirer who hired John Woo…
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Oops
John Yoo.
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Sorry grape_crush. As an attempt at forgiveness, I’ll suggest that you try a Coturri Chauvet Vineyards Zinfandel if you like big, fruit filled reds.

You’re right about punishing voters sacred, but maybe he should have at least gotten a few concessions before withholding those torture photos.

“because I love pulverizing the envelope of graphic violence in film”
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As opposed to the reality TV show produced by the United States Gov’t? Af-Pak/Iraq/Gitmo/Abu Ghraib & other assorted black ops’ sites around the globe.
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Andrew Sullivan today:
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“Obama, Neocon In Chief
From extending and deepening the war in Afghanistan, to suppressing evidence of rampant and widespread abuse and torture of prisoners under Bush, to thuggishly threatening the British with intelligence cut-off if they reveal the brutal torture inflicted on Binyam Mohamed, Obama now has new cheer-leaders: Bill Kristol, Michael Goldfarb and Max Boot.”
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And, of course, the McChrystal pick. It’s official, Obama is Cheney’s b!tch. Here’s hoping he delivers progressive utopia on the domestic front b/c as far as fo-po goes, 4 months in, IMO he’s already failed.

I just want to point out that instead of a QWERTY keyboard, I have a specially designed QERTWY keyboard, my finger slipped causing Yoo to come out as Woo

Dee: I’ve said it before and I still think that Barack is playing chess when others are playing checkers. He’s made a few mistakes but his overall gameplan seems to be to let the republicans self-destruct with a little nudge here and there just to keep things moving. Where most politicians devise strategies that play out fast and furious, he seems to be setting things in motion that take along time to play out and keep themselves in the news for weeks or months. Look at his Rush comment and we’re STILL talking about that.

“I’ve said it before and I still think that Barack is playing chess when others are playing checkers. He’s made a few mistakes but his overall gameplan seems to be to let the republicans self-destruct with a little nudge here and there just to keep things moving.”
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And he has to keep playing to beltway centrist types for whom “bi-partisan” (read: centrist/corporatist) politics is everything and elite accountability is downright frightening.

Hey Jay, just saw your buddy the “moderate” Lindsay Graham defending torture. I can’t believe that truly despicable human beings like him are somehow treated with respect in Washington DC. It is a sign of how corruption and moral bankruptcy is accepted behavior in DC.

shepherdwong: I agree. He has to try to appease (or at least appear to be trying to appease) so many different groups with divergent demands AND navigate his own agenda through a senate that is “blessed” with Harry Reid. The fact that he has accomplished what he has already amazes me. I realize that I’m going to be disappointed more often than I would like because he isn’t able to do what I want him to do, but if by the 2010 elections the economy is turning around and healthcare has been revamped, I’m going to be a fairly happy camper. New England has already thrown the finger to the RW with their gay marriage decisions and I think a good bit of his social agenda is going to take care of itself. Many of us had unrealistic expectations about what he could do after he was sworn in, but it’s still less than 4 months since January 20th. He’s got 44 months left in his FIRST term.