Jim DeMint

Now it looks like the Republicans have found a loophole that will let them block items in reconciliation:

Republicans say they have found a loophole in the budget reconciliation process that could allow them to offer an indefinite number of amendments.

Though it has never been done, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) says he’s prepared to test the Senate’s stamina to block the Democrats from using the process to expedite changes to the healthcare bill.

Experts on Senate procedural rules, from both parties, note that such a filibuster is possible. While reconciliation rules limit debate to 20 hours, senators lack similiar constraints on amendments and could conceivably continue offering them until 60 members agree to cut the process off.

The Republican platform – screw governing and do nothing but block, block, block. There is a way around this though:

Or  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could use a tactic similar to the so-called nuclear option to quash the GOP tactics.

Yeah like that would happen with King Useless the majority leader.

Citing the continued blocking of his nomination by Jim DeMint, the man nominated to head the TSA has now withdrawn his name from the nomination. What a wonderful thing in a post-9/11 world. Way to go Republicans!

Jim DeMint is on the losing end of an argument and instead of saying “oops, sorry”, he is down right determined to dig in and continue his crusade to keep this country less safe:

A Republican senator who has been blocking President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration complains that Democrats are trying to rush a vote on the nominee without adequate debate.

Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina has placed a hold on the nomination of former FBI agent and police detective Erroll Southers.

DeMint said Wednesday that he is concerned that Southers would let TSA screeners join a labor union.

To keep the record straight on the details about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, I want to do a quick recap:

• In 2007, under Bush, two of Abdulmutallab co-conspirators were released from Gitmo and sent to Saudi Arabia. (source)
• Abdulmutallab was given a visa to the United States in June 2008, despite being on the terrorist watch list because he “attended a reputable school” and “had money” (source).
• This past summer House Republicans kept stalling a bill to give more money to the TSA for extra screening and bomb detecting devices. (source)
• Currently the appointed head of the TSA is held up in Senate by Republican Jim DeMint (source)

And somehow all of this is Obama’s fault.

I want to clear this up right now. I called for Janet Napolitano to either resign or be fired today and I still stand by that. Her comments yesterday showed an individual afraid to take any responsibility and we can not tolerate that. Will any of the blogs on the right try to hold Republicans accountable for their contributions to this? Any at all?

If we want to be serious about fighting terrorism we must stop using it as a political tool. If we don’t do that then al Qaeda will continue to have victories. It’s enough of these childish “it’s his fault” games. Both parties and administrations have some fault in this, and to deny that is to treat terrorism like a childish game.

As Republicans take to the airwaves to lay all the blame on President Obama for the Christmas day attempted terrorist attack, Ben Smith points out that Republicans also can take some of the blame:

As Republicans seek to put the blame for the widespread perception of ineptness at the Transportation Security Administration on the Obama administration, Democrats are arguing that Republican legislators bear part of the blame, and that they're politically vulnerable on the subject.

Perhaps the largest impediment to change at the agency: South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint has a hold on the appointment of a TSA chief, over his concern that the new administration could allow security screeners to unionize.

DeMint is showing the exact behavior I have been saying about Republicans – politics trump safety in this time of terrorism.

But this doesn’t stop with DeMint. The Republican caucus as a whole deserves some of the blame:

Republicans have cast votes against the key TSA funding measure, the 2010 appropriation bill for the Department of Homeland Security contained, which included funding for the TSA, including for explosives detection systems and other aviation security measures. In the June 24 vote in the House, leading Republicans including John Boehner, Pete Hoekstra, Mike Pence and Paul Ryan voted against the bill, amid a procedural dispute over the appropriations process, a Democrat points out. A full 108 Republicans voted against the conference version, including Boehner, Boehner, Hoekstra, Pence, Michelle Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Darrell Issa, and Joe Wilson.

The conference bill included more than $4 billion for "screening operations," including $1.1 billion in funding for explosives detection systems, including $778 million for buying and installing the systems.

Pete Hoekstra, the man taking point for the GOP war against Obama on the failed attack.

President Obama should take a page from the Bush playbook on this and blast Republicans for their obstructing our national security by blocking key nominees and trying to prevent funding for the very program that could have prevented someone from getting on a plane with explosives. The question should also be raised why President Bush never sought to increase screening operations and expand explosive detection systems.

We are in a time of polarized politics, in which the other side does nothing more than point fingers. In this case the only way to prevail is to fight fire with fire. Let Americans know that the GOP is the one fighting our methods to improve airport security and put them on the defensive. This isn’t “playing politics”, it is simply stating the facts.

Dave Waldman has a great rundown of what lies ahead for the health care bill as both chambers of Congress attempt to merge two very different bills into one. Sadly the quickest path is once again meeting Republican obstructionism, this time by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) objecting to the appointment of conferees and forcing a longer path to making two bills into one.

This is a rather interesting move given President Obama saying his first of the year priority is getting a jobs bill through Congress. Instead of being able to focus on getting Americans back to work, now the Senate could face up to 3 more cloture votes to finish up health care, just because Jim DeMint wants to play obstructionist. This move isn’t going to “kill the bill”, it’s just going to slow down the Senate. Way to screw American workers over Jim! Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if Firedoglake backs you for re-election this year.

A truly despicable one:

DeMint famously said this year that healthcare will be Obama’s “Waterloo”. Well lack of affordable coverage has been the literal Waterloo to more then 2,200 veterans last year alone. They couldn’t afford coverage and ended up dying. If Jim DeMint truly wants to honor our veterans then he will do so by helping to provide them, as well as millions of other Americans, with affordable and accessible healthcare.

Sen. Jim W. DeMint (R) Website http://demint.senate.gov/public/ Phone 202-224-6121 Fax 202-228-5143 Contact http://demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Hom Additional Information

This is really amazing and really stupid:

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) has announced that he is heading down to Honduras to encourage those who helped fund and supported the coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to resist American pressure to return Zelaya to office.

The US Department of State has begun to revoke the visas of wealthy supporters of the military coup.

In other words, Jim DeMint is acting on behalf of, in cahoots with, and against the foreign policy of the United States of America in encouraging post-coup Honduran government officials defy the United States. He is encouraging a political leadership which has no legitimacy and which not recognized by other democracies in the region -- while the ousted President makes cell phone UN General Assembly statements from a couch-bed in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.

John Kerry and the Obama administration has grounded DeMint’s trip, but he appears poised to fight it.

This has me thinking back to when Speaker Pelosi traveled to Syria. She wasn’t there as opposition to U.S. foreign policy, but rather to help reinforce it, yet the right was screaming and demanding she be prosecuted for it. Here’s a reminder from the WSJ in 2007:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may well have committed a felony in traveling to Damascus this week, against the wishes of the president, to communicate on foreign-policy issues with Syrian President Bashar Assad. The administration isn't going to want to touch this political hot potato, nor should it become a partisan issue. Maybe special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, whose aggressive prosecution of Lewis Libby establishes his independence from White House influence, should be called back.

The Logan Act makes it a felony and provides for a prison sentence of up to three years for any American, "without authority of the United States," to communicate with a foreign government in an effort to influence that government's behavior on any "disputes or controversies with the United States." Some background on this statute helps to understand why Ms. Pelosi may be in serious trouble.

Again – Pelosi was there to reinforce the foreign policy of the United States, not to undermine it, which appears to be the motivation behind DeMint’s trip.

The entire purpose of DeMint’s trip was to undermine the foreign policy of the United States. This would constitute a clear violation of the Logan Act, and if he does end up going through with it he should be charged. If anything the Republican Leadership should call DeMint into the office and tell him that if he goes through with his plans they will not support him. Of course that would never happen. Playing politics trumps everything else when it comes to the Republicans.

The GOP is still going through their post-mortem and trying to figure out just how they became so insignificant, which is leading to even more problems:

During a closed-door Republican Conference meeting on Tuesday, DeMint offered proposals to impose term limits on the Republican leader and to restrict how long members can serve on the Appropriations Committee. The resolutions were soundly defeated, but not without bitter exchanges among the Republicans present for the meeting.

Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida said the meeting was “terrible” and “caused consternation” among his colleagues because of the dispute over DeMint’s proposals.

Not sounding too hopeful for the party that just four years ago was going to be the “permanent majority”. Shockingly, one of the voices of reason seems to be coming from DeMint in this:

“We think the whole problem is George Bush and not us, and we’re part of the problem,” added Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

One solid first step would be to stop acting as the party of smears. The American people aren’t buying onto the old GOP catch phrases they try to paint their opponent with. Just four years ago, Liberal was considered an insult by many. Now more people are associating themselves with that name. Instead of engaging in the policy of pettiness, try to engage in actual policy. Forget being the “obstructionist” party, something even the GOP leaders applaud, instead learn to work with the controlling party.

The GOP has simply become a party of hypocrisy. Look at all the ethics problems that have plagued them over the past several years. They damn near want to have you executed for being an adulterer, yet they circle the wagons when one of their own is caught. And can switch adulterer out with other words like “gay”, “lesbian” or “drug user”.

Now the GOP infighting really gets interesting. In one corner we have former presidential nominee John McCain, and in the other corner – Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina:

"McCain, who is proponent of campaign finance reform that weakened party organizations and basically put George Soros in the driver's seat," DeMint said. "His proposal for amnesty for illegals. His support of global warming, cap-and-trade programs that will put another burden on our economy. And of course, his embrace of the bailout right before the election was probably the nail in our coffin this last election. And he has been an opponent of drilling in ANWR, at a time when energy is so important. It really didn't fit the label, but he was our package."

I have been waiting for something like this to happen. The head of the RNC announced this week that he was filing suit to get rid of the legislation McCain helped create and is so proud of – campaign finance reform. Now we have the battle heating up even more.

But let’s stop and think for a minute. We are approaching the two week mark since the Republicans were sent packing by the American people. So far they have blamed the following for their defeat:

• John McCain
• George Bush
• Election Finance Laws
• The Economy
• The “Liberal Media”

What’s missing from that list? How about a little self blame. This has been a continuous problem of the GOP for years now. They refuse to give themselves any blame for anything. It reminds me of when Mark Foley was busted. It wasn’t Foley’s fault, but rather those evil children he was going after. Perhaps if the GOP wants to be taken as a serious party and be able to compete in our political system in the future, then they need to really examine themselves and engage in some self criticism. If they don’t do that then they have changed nothing.