senate

If you think that Republican leadership listened to voters in November, then you would be mistaken. Yesterday Mitch McConnell proved that by engaging in one of his own silly games:

A move to embarrass Democrats backfired on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Thursday as the Kentucky Republican proposed a vote on raising the nation's debt ceiling -- then filibustered it when the Democrats tried to take him up on the offer.

On Thursday morning McConnell had made a motion for the vote on legislation that would let the president extend the country's borrowing limit on his own. Congress would then have the option to disapprove such hikes, in a fashion similar to one that McConnell first suggested during last year's standoff over the debt ceiling.

The minority leader apparently did not think Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would take him up on his offer, which would have allowed McConnell to portray President Barack Obama's desire for such authority as something even Democrats opposed.

Reid objected at first, but told McConnell he thought it might be a good idea. After Senate staff reviewed the proposal, Reid came back to the floor and proposed a straight up-or-down vote on the idea.

McConnell was forced to say no.

"What we're talking about here is a perpetual debt ceiling grant, in effect, to the president, " McConnell said. "Matters of this level of controversy always require 60 votes."

So instead of using the time in the Senate to work towards a solution, the minority leader decided to just play a silly little game and it backfired big time.

This was also really poor timing given talk of filibuster reform:

Sen. Scott Brown's staff has been caught on tape ridiculing Elizabeth Warren's Indian heritage:

Staffers for Sen. Scott Brown chanted Indian "war whoops" and made "tomahawk chops" during a rally for the Republican senator this week in Boston.

n a video posted on YouTube, Brown's staffers are seen holding campaign signs near the Erie Pub, chanting and making tomahawk chops, presumably in reference to Elizabeth Warren's claims of Cherokee heritage.

Brown's Deputy Chief of Staff Greg Casey and Constituent Service Counsel Jack Richard, State Director Jerry McDermott, special assistant Jennifer Franks and GOP operative Brad Garnett are pictured in the video, NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu confirmed.

"It is certainly something that I don't condone," said Brown when asked about the video. "The real offense is that (Warren) said she was white and then checked the box saying she is Native American, and then she changed her profile in the law directory once she made her tenure."

No Scott. The real offense is the questioning of anyone's heritage. I have an American Indian grandfather and that does make me American Indian.

But is also goes beyond that. Warren hasn't been using her heritage to try and influence her campaign. Instead Brown made an issue of it because of what her form said. It's the Republicans who want to make skin color, heritage and even religion a litmus test for candidates.

Just received a breaking news alert that Olympia Snowe of Maine won't be seeking re-election to the Senate this year. This could turn into a possible pick-up for the Democrats.

So the party of “financial responsibility” is going to spend about $1.1 million just on reading the Constitution on the House floor:

The amount I get is nearly $1.1 million. $1,071,872.87, to be exact, though of course this is more back-of-the-envelope than exact.

When one chamber of Congress is in session but not working, we the people still have to pay for members’ salaries and expenses, and for their police protection, and for keeping their lights and phones and coffee machines on. Even Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Mike Pence (R-IN) combined don’t blow enough hot air to heat the Capitol in January.

To get this estimate, I took the total FY 2011 costs for House salaries and expenses and House office buildings, then added half the costs of joint House-Senate expenses, the CBO, the Capitol Police and the Capitol power plant. Then I divided that sum by 205, the number of days the House was in session last year, then divided again by 24 (the number of hours in a day) and multiplied by 3 (the estimated length in hours of members reading the Constitution). It might not take three hours to read the document, but on the other hand, Congress is usually in session for considerably less than 205 days a year. Also, I didn’t include staff costs, since most aides will probably be working through the reading. But not all will be, so overall I think this is a conservative estimate.

Of course the wingnuts are already in full defense of this, just the same way they defended Bush and the GOP’s runaway spending during the last decade.

I just love hearing Republicans talk about “cutting the budget”, yet when asked for specifics they never can. That’s what happened with teabagger darlings Rand Paul and Jim DeMint yesterday:

DeMint came the closest to naming specifics, but I would expect more from someone who has been in the Senate since 2005 and proclaims to be some ultra fiscal conservative.

What it all boils down to is that people voted for talking points last Tuesday and not action. Take Rand Paul. He said that he wants a “5% cut across the board”. Does that include defense? What Republicans are going to vote for defense cuts?

Really people, just wake up. Come 2012 we will see that our nation’s budget is in the same boat as it is now, if not worse. I say worse because the one thing Republicans agree on cutting is the one thing that is projected to reduce the deficit – health care reform.

Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and George LeMieux of Florida sided with Democrats to break a GOP filibuster on the small business bill. Remember when the GOP was all about reducing taxes, especially on small business? Yeah...neither do I.

The Senate's longest serving member, Robert Byrd, died this morning at the age of 92. This really isn't a big shocker. Byrd's health has been deteriorating for years and given his age, it was pretty much expected that this was coming after the news of his serious condition yesterday.

As far as a replacement for Byrd, well Nate Silver points out the timing on this. It looks like there will be a special election. If Byrd would have held on one more week, then the governor would have been able to appoint a replacement.

And then there's the big question - the fate of financial reform. That's pretty much uncertain now that the Democrats have one less vote. My guess is that it will be gutted even further to bring on Snowe or Collins.

There has been non-stop talk this week about Joe Sestak's job offer by the Obama administration if he wouldn't run against Arlen Specter. Now we have some answers:

Senior White House advisers asked former President Bill Clinton to talk to Joe Sestak about whether he was serious about running for Senate, and to feel out whether he'd be open to other alternatives, according to sources familiar with the situation.

But the White House maintains that the Clinton-Sestak discussions were informal, according to the sources. The White House, under pressure to divulge the specifics of its interactions with Sestak, will release a formal statement later today outlining their version of events, including Clinton's involvement.

As Gregg points out, the fact that Clinton was actually involved in this shows how much the White House didn't want Specter to have to face Sestak in the primary. Regardless, I still don't see anything illegal, or even unethical in this. These are the type of games that happen in Washington all the time. Sure the people are tired of it, but Democratic and Republican administrations have both engaged in the same practices for decades. The Republicans calling for a special prosecutor is nothing more than a grand stand, but given that Clinton is involved now, I'm sure they will push it even more.

UPDATE:

Per a breaking news alert from AP, Clinton suggested an "unpaid, advisory role" to Sestak. So it wasn't even an actual "job", but rather letting Sestak stay in the House and also act as an advisor. Nothing wrong with that.