Fill it, Buster
I have about a thousand things I want to get to today, so I think I'll be posting short items.
First, the bloodbath continues (who ever thought that would be a good thing?) with the news that Ken Mehlman (RNC chair and always smiling guy) is on his way out. They claim that he's been planning this for months. And John Bolton is not going to be at the UN for very much longer. And seriously, hurrah for that because he is an asshole. Three days and we're already on our way to having the rest of the world hate us a little bit less.
In case it slipped by you, George "Bi-partisanship is my middle name as of November 8th" Bush re-nominated Bolton yesterday. Lincoln Chafee, outgoing R-RI and member of the Senate foreign Relations Committee (which must approve Bolton) was like, not so fast. In a move that precipitates his probable departure from the GOP (and an all-around cool thing to do), he blocked the Bolton nomination and said, "The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy... And at this late stage in my term, I'm not going to endorse something the American people have spoke out against."
So we'll win that one I think. But it brings up an important point, which is that Bush is going to try to ram down every nasty or controversial piece of legislation he can in this last month and a half before the new congress is seated. Now last week, this would have been terrible news. You will recall that during recent judiciary battles the republican Senate leadership threatened to eliminate the filibuster with the so-called "nuclear option," a tactic that was defused by the infamous Gang of 14. Basically the Dems promised not to filibuster unless it was really important, and the GOP promised not to take it away unless they really wanted to.
Now the tables have turned.
There is no reason I can think of (and if you can think of one, the comment section is open!) why the Democrats shouldn't filibuster every damn thing they want for the rest of the session. What are the Republicans going to do about it? Eliminate the filibuster? Not likely - they're about to be the minority. So get out your phonebooks and start reading!
Karma's a bitch, ain't it?
First, the bloodbath continues (who ever thought that would be a good thing?) with the news that Ken Mehlman (RNC chair and always smiling guy) is on his way out. They claim that he's been planning this for months. And John Bolton is not going to be at the UN for very much longer. And seriously, hurrah for that because he is an asshole. Three days and we're already on our way to having the rest of the world hate us a little bit less.
In case it slipped by you, George "Bi-partisanship is my middle name as of November 8th" Bush re-nominated Bolton yesterday. Lincoln Chafee, outgoing R-RI and member of the Senate foreign Relations Committee (which must approve Bolton) was like, not so fast. In a move that precipitates his probable departure from the GOP (and an all-around cool thing to do), he blocked the Bolton nomination and said, "The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy... And at this late stage in my term, I'm not going to endorse something the American people have spoke out against."
So we'll win that one I think. But it brings up an important point, which is that Bush is going to try to ram down every nasty or controversial piece of legislation he can in this last month and a half before the new congress is seated. Now last week, this would have been terrible news. You will recall that during recent judiciary battles the republican Senate leadership threatened to eliminate the filibuster with the so-called "nuclear option," a tactic that was defused by the infamous Gang of 14. Basically the Dems promised not to filibuster unless it was really important, and the GOP promised not to take it away unless they really wanted to.
Now the tables have turned.
There is no reason I can think of (and if you can think of one, the comment section is open!) why the Democrats shouldn't filibuster every damn thing they want for the rest of the session. What are the Republicans going to do about it? Eliminate the filibuster? Not likely - they're about to be the minority. So get out your phonebooks and start reading!
Karma's a bitch, ain't it?
posted by chiniqua at 11:38 AM
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