obstructionist

It took the President himself going after Mitch McConnell, but finally he has some of his nominees confirmed:

The Senate confirmed a huge group of administration nominees on Thursday, following a tense exchange between President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

At a White House meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders on Tuesday, Obama warned that he would make recess appointments if the logjam over nominees wasn’t broken before the Senate left for the Presidents’ Day break.

“Mitch, this is unprecedented,” the president said, gesturing forcefully on the Cabinet Room table, according to aides. “If you don’t move any, I’m going to do some [recess] appointments.”

The Senate GOP’s obstructionist games they have played over the past year have been unprecedented. You wouldn’t know that listening to the mainstream media though. They try to portray it as “politics as usual”. That’s a big difference from a few years ago when Democrats were blocking one Bush nominee and the Republicans got all the face time in the world to blast the Democrats as obstructionists.

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.

With President Obama’s first pick for a Supreme Court justice looming, I am sitting here wondering if the GOP will try to block his pick.

There is an interesting timing here. On the same week Arlen Specter switched parties, Souter announces his retirement. Specter was the ranking member of the judiciary committee and the friendliest Republican towards Democrats. Now the Republicans can reorganize the committee a little bit and maybe filibuster an Obama pick at the committee level.

But how would this work out?

We have a President who has an approval rating in the upper 60s and a likeable rating over 80%. We are still on the heels of a historic election where the American people undeniably sounded the alarm for change. And then we have the Republicans, with their dismal approval ratings, who has been resoundingly the party of “no”.

This pick will play out into the summer – that’s a given. Everyday it plays out will put us a little bit closer to the next primary and mid-term election. Considering the power of liberal interest groups like MoveOn, if President Obama makes a choice that appeases our side and the GOP tries every move to block them, we can use this strong arsenal to fire back at the Republicans, putting them on the defense even more. This can even have an effect on House races, even though they have no part in the selection process.

Another thing we have on our side is plenty of footage of the Republicans throwing tantrums over the “up or down vote”. Remember the whole “nuclear option” thing when Alito was nominated? Republicans threatened to get rid of the filibuster if Democrats used it against a Bush pick. I don’t believe that should be done, but it would be a great tool to have on the table to fight back against the Grand Obstructionist Party.

Not really, but the owner of a firm hired by the California GOP has been arrested for it. This is a very important story because it plays right into the ACORN story. It was an outsider employed by an organization who violated the law, not the organization. Sure the right will dismiss it, but they live in such a bubble that they can't understand the simple concept that this country is fed up with the Republicans and their obstructionist and negative views that have lead this country down a dark path.

Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, had this to say yesterday:

WORST CONGRESS EVER: "Remember when only 14% approved of the job Congress is doing? A year later, only 9% do." The Pelosi/Reid leadership team is taking Congress places it's never been before!

UPDATE: So why are the Republicans running scared, and why aren't they going after the "new Democratic Congress" hammer-and-tongs? Beats me. Because they're idiots, I guess.

Really? So it's all the Democrats fault? Well let's look at the actual Rasmussen poll they are talking about. The poll is located here, but apparently Reynolds, along with others on the right ignored a key fact from the poll:

Despite these negative attitudes towards Congress, Democrats continue to enjoy a double digit lead on the Generic Congressional Ballot. Also, Barack Obama holds a modest lead over John McCain in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. Other key stats on Election 2008 can be found at Obama-McCain: By the Numbers.

All the polls that have come out giving Congress very poor ratings have had one thing in common - the Republicans rank far worse than the Democrats. The people seem to realize that the Republicans have been playing obstructionist non-stop, despite the media's attempt to downplay the record number of filibusters they have engaged in.

Senate leaders have reached an agreement to extend the Patriot Act for 6
months so it can be examined more and possible have further protections of civil
liberties added in. The extension is twice as long as Democrats were asking for
but it is a Democrat victory none the less. It is also a victory for our civil
rights.

An interesting exchange happened during today's press briefing when Scott
McClellan was asked about the three month extension:

Q Scott, would the President veto a three-month extension of the Patriot
Act? Is that something you can accept?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think we need to talk about what's going on here.
What's going on here is pure obstructionist politics. A minority in the
Senate, led by Senate Democrats, are putting politics above our nation's
security. This bill has been thoroughly debated. It enjoys majority support.
They need to give it an up or down vote and quit playing politics with our
nation's security.

Q So would the President veto a three-month extension?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the President has already made his views known on
that -- I expressed his views last week -- and nothing has changed in terms
of our views. That's why it's important for them to go ahead and get this
passed now.

Q So you would veto a three-month extension?

MR. McCLELLAN: I expressed our view last week; nothing has changed.

Q Can you tell me what that was again?

MR. McCLELLAN: You can see what I expressed last week. You know very well
what it was.

Q Sounds like you're backing down from that.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, nothing has changed in terms of what I said last week.

Q So just say it. Just say --

Q Will you use the word "veto"? Why are you not using the word "veto"?

MR. McCLELLAN: I expressed our views on that last week --