![“[W]e believe you must be willing to take any lawful steps to ensure that America does not break its promises and trigger a global economic crisis — without Congressional approval, if necessary.” So reads a letter sent to the president today by top Senate Democrats. It’s not every day that members of congress explicitly voice their willingness to be circumvented by the president, but Harry Reid and company clearly believe that the threat of default is a real possibility. Later on in the letter, the Democrats call for “a broad, bipartisan agreement” to reduce the long-term deficit - but only one that puts “the entire budget on the table,” as opposed to policy that only cuts “earned benefits for seniors and middle-class families.” (Photo credit: AP) source](http://24.media.tumblr.com/57435ab51f07e2b184fbf35fee819b29/tumblr_mghnz8UOyU1qas8z9o1_500.jpg)
“[W]e believe you must be willing to take any lawful steps to ensure that America does not break its promises and trigger a global economic crisis — without Congressional approval, if necessary.” So reads a letter sent to the president today by top Senate Democrats. It’s not every day that members of congress explicitly voice their willingness to be circumvented by the president, but Harry Reid and company clearly believe that the threat of default is a real possibility. Later on in the letter, the Democrats call for “a broad, bipartisan agreement” to reduce the long-term deficit - but only one that puts “the entire budget on the table,” as opposed to policy that only cuts “earned benefits for seniors and middle-class families.” (Photo credit: AP) source
The talking filibuster movement picked up a little steam a couple days ago, with Democratic Sens. Udall, Merkley and Harkin presenting a resolution to establish the reform. The “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” ideal of the filibuster is, in fact, not how business is conducted in the Senate these days — Senators can block legislation from being brought for a vote without holding or talking from the floor, and as a consequence bear far less public accountability for the decision than advocates of reform say there would be under the new rule. What do you guys think?
AP: Early Tuesday morning the US Senate passed a deal to avert the ‘fiscal cliff.’ The legislation will now move to the House of Representatives where a vote is expected before Wednesday.
The White House-backed deal raises taxes on incomes of more than $400,000 for individuals and on incomes of more than $450,000 for couples. The measure also temporarily blocks spending cuts for two months.
Who wants to bet the House finds a way to screw this up?
First, with the exception of a dozen or so Republicans in the House and Maine’s Susan Collins in the Senate, the number of GOP members of the 113th Congress who see cutting a deal with the president — in the fiscal cliff or, frankly, anything else — as politically advantageous is close to zero.
Second, while House Democrats are equally de-incentivized to working across the aisle, there is a large-ish group of Senate Democrats who must find ways of showing their bipartisan spirit if they want to win reelection in states that didn’t favor their party — or even come close to doing so — in the 2012 election.
Those twin political realities make the ground on which the fiscal cliff fight — and future scuffles over gun control measures, etc. — less heavily tilted toward Democrats than you might think.
Cillizza’s argument is based on the fact that few of the Republicans currently in office reside in districts or states where Obama won. Meanwhile, a number of Democrats (especially in the Senate) are in districts or states where Obama lost, big time. Will be interesting to see if this “what’s in it for me” analysis holds up.
I’m not saying I was always right. I’ll leave that to God and history. But I believed I was doing what I thought was right and people didn’t just disagree with me. There was hatred. But I’m not alone in that. You can take the last three presidents — Clinton, Bush, Obama — and people haven’t just disagreed with them, they’ve hated them. And to me, that’s really terrible. That’s a cancer that’s eating at our politics.Joe Lieberman • Discussing the hatred he’s seen during his time in the Senate, especially in recent years. He should know, he was there, hated by many of the same folks that hated any (or all) of the above presidents. Lieberman, who entered the Senate a Democrat but leaves an Independent, spent 24 years representing Connecticut, and even got thisclose to being a vice president in 2000. No matter your feelings on Joe, he’s probably right on this point.
One mistake does not erase an otherwise honorable career. It’s a good guess that the embarrassment anybody might feel for him is nothing compared with the embarrassment he feels for himself. It’s bad enough that Crapo has to explain himself to his wife and family. It’s worse when he has to explain himself to 1.6 million constituents, many of whom have viewed Crapo as an example of what American politics should be about.The Idaho Statesman editorial board • Offering a little Christmas cheer in the direction of Sen. Mike Crapo, who was arrested for a DUI over the weekend. It feels like we’re watching the plot to a Frank Capra film happen in real life, and our heart just grew three sizes as we were writing this post. We’re headed to the urgent care facility right now to get this enlarged heart checked out. (ht Ben Smith)
Ben Affleck is not running for Congress, so evidently my letter to Santa Claus got lost in transit.
Screw it. There is nothing left to live for.
Senator arrested for DUI charges: In what was already not looking like a great holiday for Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo (he’s stuck in D.C. negotiating the fiscal cliff), the senator was arrested in Virginia on Saturday night after failing a series of field sobriety tests. Crapo, by the way, is a Mormon, which means that it could put him in trouble in another sense, as the religion eschews alcohol. (AP photo)
UPDATE: Crapo has released a statement to Politico. “I will also undertake measures to ensure that this circumstance is never repeated. I accept total responsibility and will deal with whatever penalty comes my way in this matter,” he said.
Did you know our president pro tempore is fucking badass? I didn’t.
If you’re thinking “Wow, it sure looks like he’s missing an arm in that last picture” maybe you should just skip to here.
:( Was. Rest in peace, Sen. Daniel Inouye.
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
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Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye has died at age 88, his office confirmed Monday night.
His last words, according to a statement released by his staff, were “Aloha”.
Inouye has been hospitalized since early December due to respiratory problems. His cause of death was “respiratory complications”.
Talk show host Stephen Colbert is South Carolina voters’ preferred candidate to replace Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), according to a new poll by the Democratic Public Policy Polling.
The Comedy Central host, who’s openly lobbied for the seat, leads a field where the rest of the names are Republicans: 20 percent of voters want South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) to appoint him to DeMint’s seat when the senator resigns from Congress.
Some of the other names that Colbert was up against include Rep. Trey Gowdy (14%), former South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford (11%), former South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster (8%) and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (8%). Don’t get us wrong. We know that Stephen has a snowball’s chance in hell of actually being tapped by Gov. Haley. This certainly won’t do anything to end rumors that the comedian is considering a run for the Senate seat in 2014 though.
Conservative Sen. Jim DeMint is resigning, and Stephen Colbert wants the job. All he wants us to do is tweet #SenatorColbert at Gov. Nikki Haley.
Want to help make #SenatorColbert a reality? Check out Colbert’s pitch here.Reblog/share/like this if you want Senator Colbert to happen.
“Tweet @nikkihaley & tell her why I belong in the US Senate. For one, I wouldn’t just block legislation, I’d body-check it! #SenatorColbert”
For our money, we want Alvin Greene back in. Here’s why:
South Carolina U.S. Senator Jim DeMint will replace Ed Feulner as president of the Heritage Foundation. Mr. DeMint will leave his post as South Carolina’s junior senator in early January to take control of the Washington think tank, which has an annual budget of about $80 million.
Sen. DeMint’s departure means that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican, will name a successor, who will have to run in a special election in 2014. In that year, both Mr. DeMint’s replacement and Sen. Lindsey Graham will be running for reelection in South Carolina.
Mr. DeMint was reelected to a second term in 2010. The 61-year-old senator had announced earlier that he would not seek a third term.
WTF? WTF? (ht @ethanklapper)
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