GOP Senators "smear" Kagan...with Thurgood Marshall?

by: Jay Stevens

Tue Jun 29, 2010 at 21:15:53 PM MST

Of course, what the Republicans are accusing Marshall of - and "smearing" by association Marshall-admiring Kagan with - is their notion of "judicial activism." Yes, because Marshall said the Constitution, as originally conceived was defective. You, know, because it supported slavery.

Compare Marshall's form of "judicial activism" - belief that the Constitution was wrong in allowing people to own other people - with contemporary judicial activism, via Al Franken:

I think we've established very convincingly, we did during the Sotomayor hearing, that there is such a thing as judicial activism. There is such a thing as legislating from the bench. And it is practiced repeatedly by the Roberts court, and it has cut in only one direction, in favor of powerful corporate interests and against the rights of individual Americans.

This is a stunt, of course, a little theater to rile up the base to ensure they head to the polls in November, and a nod to those who are still upset about civil rights. I doubt they'd filibuster the nomination. That'd be pretty unreasonable, given that Kagan is hardly the most progressive choice.

Still, Thurgood Marshall? What's next, Martin Luther King?

And...well...is anyone else here kinda, sorta rooting for the GOP to derail Kagan's nomination? Maybe then Obama could nominate someone else, like Diane Wood...

GOP memo on auto bailout: the "first shot against organized labor"

by: Jay Stevens

Sat Dec 13, 2008 at 21:39:52 PM MST

This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election.  This is a precursor to card check and other items.  Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.

Whatever the merits, or lack thereof, of throwing $15 billion at the auto industry, it seems Republican Senators are missing the big picture. Instead of asking the right question -- will the loss of millions of jobs and our domestic manufacturing capacity hurt the nation on the cusp of the worst recession in a lifetime? -- they're in partisan attack mode.

More on Baucus' and Tester's support of the Republican filibuster later.

GOP kicks auto industry to the curb over union wages

by: Jay Stevens

Fri Dec 12, 2008 at 07:40:52 AM MST

Why are Senate Republicans -- and Dennis Rehberg -- killing the auto industry, when they rushed, without question, to bail out the rich executives and stock brokers of Wall Street investment firms and banks?

Union wages. The deal essentially fell apart over wages for US union workers. The filibustering Republicans wanted union wages to be slashed, now, not in 2011 when the union contract expires, to match Japanese wages.

To begin with, the disparity between the average wages of Japanese and US autoworkers is misunderstood and exagerrated. The Notorious Mark T has been over this already, noting that the difference is in part the "legacy costs," the money owed in health care benefits and pensions to retired workers, which we know is the result of US big business' antipathy towards universal health care. The wage figure also includes wages for white collar workers, and the fact that the auto industry is shrinking, so there's fewer entry-level wages being doled out. And, as John Judis points out, the Japanese wage is also the result of the industry's practice of building plants in "right to work" states and deliberate undercutting of workers' wages. That is, their wage is a result of "despicable" corporate behavior.

Would you obstruct Congress for this man?

by: Jay Stevens

Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 20:18:16 PM MST

What's the big fuss? you ask. Why are Republicans stubbornly refusing to allow an up-or-down vote on each of the four nominees?

Meet Hans Spakovsky.

If you've followed what I've written about GOP voter suppression efforts, you know his name. In fact, his degradations against voter rights as a member of the politicized Bush Department of Justice are so myriad and plentiful, that it would take days of work to paint an accurate profile of the man.

Luckily Dahlia Lithwick has already done the heavy lifting.  

Doping allegations haunt Senate Republicans' record-breaking pace

by: Jay Stevens

Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 10:47:28 AM MST

Yesterday, with a filibuster of an omnibus budget bill, marked the Republicans' 62nd procedural move to block or amend legislation, breaking the previous high-water mark set in the 107th Congress (coincidentally also with a Republican minority in the Senate).

And there's still a year to go!

I'm not going to lie to you, folks. A record-setting pace like this isn't easy. Hand it to Senate Republicans, it took not only effort, but creativity to filibuster 62 times in half of a Congressional session. If it means filibustering their own bills, then so be it.

You've got to wonder, what with Senate Republicans poised to more than double the previous effort of obtuseness, maybe, like with doped MLBers, we're witnessing the side effects of performance enhancers. Viagra rage? Should we collect urine and blood samples? Henry Waxman, take notice!

In any case, you've got to admire these Barons of Blockage, these Huns of Hampering, these Shahs of Shackledom: we'll probably never witness such superhuman efforts to frustrate again in our lifetimes.

Time for the Democrats to threaten the "nuclear option"?

by: Jay Stevens

Wed Dec 12, 2007 at 13:42:02 PM MST

*  *  *

Remember all the brouhaha about the AMT patch? Congressional Democrats wanted to increase taxes on hedge fund managers to offset the patch; Congressional Republican not only balked at the increase, but wanted to lay an additional four tax cuts on top of the patch - so a compromise was reached in the Senate: just the patch, no offsets, no tax cuts.

Only thing is, after agreeing to the compromise, Senate Republicans briefly blocked the bill anyway:

In fact, the Senate Republicans are so accustomed to blocking measures that when the Democrats finally agreed last week to their demands on a bill to repair the alternative minimum tax, the Republicans still objected, briefly blocking the version of the bill that they wanted before scrambling to approve it later.

For the Democrats, it was a perfect example of why they have taken to calling the G.O.P. the "grand obstructionist party." The Democrats send out daily tallies of the number of Republican filibusters, which the Democrats say will set a record.

I opposed the "nuclear option" - ridding the Senate of the filibuster - when Republicans proposed it: but that was before the GOP used it as a hyper partisan attack tool designed to drive down Congressional approval ratings. When Senators start using the filibuster to block bills they already agreed to, we've got a problem.

In any case, Harry Reid should at least threaten to go nuclear. That should get some Republicans' attention, and allow Congress to resume its business of passing legislation.