Recently in Congress Category

Dear President Obama and Senator Reid, This is what happens when you make a deal with a snake. Sooner or later you're very likely to get bitten. November 17, 2008: "Senate Democrats appear willing to let Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, keep his powerful Homeland Security Committee chairmanship, even though he campaigned vigorously for Sen. John McCain's White House bid...Several lawmakers involved in the discussions over Lieberman's fate credited President-elect Barack Obama's desire to keep Lieberman...

In the bass-ackwards world of health care reform, I guess this shouldn't be surprising, but the Senate yesterday refused to put an amendment, which would allow drug importation from Canada, up for a vote because they were afraid it might pass. "Debating an overhaul of the health care system, the Senate found itself tied in knots on Thursday over a bipartisan proposal to allow people to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and certain other...

Those of you that recall the 1992 election well remember the famous line from James Carville. In many ways, that line is true and always will be true. For the Democrats in 2010, that line holds more importance than they could ever guess. People focus on health care reform and they should. The Senate removed the public option, but it doesn't mean that it's dead. Consider the public option as the knee replacement you've needed...

Although the details of the "compromise" (aka sellout) on the public option reached by the Senate yesterday have yet to be released, here's my take on what I've seen so far. This is what we get when we have a malfunctioning body known as the United States Senate which is in reality a wholly-owned subsidiary of the big insurance companies.  We get a Medicare buy-in that's not really Medicare and not really a buy-in, is...

Speaking of Republican amnesia, how about our very own Kay Clueless Bailey Hutchison? When asked by David Shuster about where Republicans, who are complaining about President Obama taking too long to act on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, were when George W. Bush didn't act at all on a request for more forces by General McKiernan last summer, Hutchison's response was Palinesque. In other words, unrelated, non-responsive, gibberish. From Crooks and Liars: 　 Would it...

Senator Orrin Hatch on the floor of the Senate, speaking about the health care reform bill. From Think Progress: "This will become one more example of the arrogance of power being exerted since the Democrats secured a 60-vote majority in the United States Senate and took over the House and the White House. I dream some day of having the Republicans have 60 votes. I'll tell you one thing, I think we would finally have...

Some odds and ends from around the intertoobs before I head out in search of the perfect snow shovel in preparation for the Great Texas Blizzard of '09:Someone put the G-nO-P on suicide watch, unemployment is coming down. What a shocker, Sarah Palin is a birther. Speaking of Sarah, she's set to be the keynote speaker at the 2010 International Bowl Expo. Gutter ball, anyone?WWJD? Cut the estate tax. So says Louie Gohmert.  Health care...

With President Obama expected to announce a troop increase in Afghanistan somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 in a prime-time address to the nation on Tuesday night, I'll be interested in hearing the response of the deficit hypocrites in Congress, particularly the Senate. Let's see if those who rant and rave about the cost of health care reform hold the cost of war to the same standard, that it not add to the deficit. I'm...

"The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law."Those were the words of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Boumediene v. Bush decision in June of 2008, in which the Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo had habeas corpus rights, and words which were confirmed again yesterday when Attorney...

The AWRA (Angry White Republican Astroturfers) held their "press conference" on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. yesterday, so named because they didn't have a permit for a "rally." The speakers at this event planned and coordinated by Americans for Prosperity spontaneous gathering of concerned Americans who aren't about party, just happened to all be Republicans, and also all white (with the exception of George Hamilton John Boehner), but I'm being redundant. Here's...