Midday Open Thread

Republicans Block DREAM Act, Another Old Media Lie
The Old Media is up to its old tricks again, this time making the GOP the fall guy for the failure of the latest Immigration Bill. Nearly every news outlet is reporting that the Republicans have blocked the DREAM Act, many of these reports even say so right in the headline. The truth, however, is not that the GOP blocked it, but that the Democrats didn't get all its own members to vote for it. In fact, if the Democrats could have gotten five more of their own members to vote "yea" the bill woul...

GOP Blocks Citizenship For Illegal Aliens
From an outraged New York Times: Senate Blocks Bill for Young Illegal Immigrants By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN December 18, 2010 The Senate on Saturday blocked a bill that would have created a path to Citizenship for certain young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as Children, completed two years of college or Military service and met other requirements, including passing a criminal Background Check. The vote by 55-41 in favor of the bill, which is known as the DREAM Act, effectiv...

Looks Like Republicans Got Clean CR Bill By Trading Food Bill
Sunday night the Senate passed the Food Safety bill that had been determined to be dead and from the headlines this morning it is beginning to look like Republicans traded their opposition to the Food Safety bill for a clean Continuing Resolution bill to keep government running until March. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky tells CNN's "State of the Union" that he and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada have a deal on the measure. The Budget year began Oct. 1 but Congress hasn't p...

Republican criticizes addition of Pell grant provisions to short-term budget bill
Nearly $6 billion in spending for Pell grants in a proposed bill to keep the government running has raised the ire of some Republicans as Congress tries to wrap up its work.  House Appropriations Committee ranking member Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) decried the inclusion of $5.7 billion for the Pell Grant program, which will incur a shortage without additional funding, calling it "a perennial priority of the House Democrat leadership and Appropriations Committee Chairman [David] Obey [D-Wis.]." The...

Times Laments 'Painful Setback' to 'Dream Act' Amnesty for Illegals
Reporter Julia Preston’s “news analysis” on Sunday on the Senate the defeat of Legislation granting Amnesty to hundreds of thousands of Illegal Immigrants, known as the DREAM Act by supporters (“Immigration Vote Leaves Obama’s Policy in Disarray”) is a reversal of the emotion displayed in her previous celebratory coverage of even the puniest symbolic gatherings of pro-“Dream Act” Protesters involving as few as four Students. Preston seemed anguish...

DADT Signing On Wednesday
President Obama will sign the DADT Repeal bill at a White House ceremony this Wednesday. Though the schedule is being finalized, Gibbs said he expects a formal White House signing ceremony Wednesday morning to sign the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. "I think there are a lot of people who are interested in attending," Gibbs said. Gibbs said White House and Pentagon lawyers are working on "implementation and legal issues" associated with lifting the ban on gays serving openly in the Military.Wi...

The trouble with Harry
Building a bit on my last post, Harry Reid is feeling victorious. And it's true he's has some successes to point to: He ultimately won a fifth term — and a raft of legislative victories in a chamber best known recently for gridlock. Repeal over the weekend of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gay, Lesbian and Bisexual members from serving openly in the Military joined the economic stimulus package, the national Health Care Legislation, new Financial Regulations and

Kyl: "Don't ask, don't tell" repeal could cost lives (but I won't un-repeal it)
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl explained on Fox yesterday that allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the Armed Forces " is not a Constitutional Right as was the issue of Racial Segregation," and he went on to argue that repealing the policy that bars them "could disrupt unit cohesion... and cost lives." That's right: Repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" could kill Soldiers. Considering that this may very well kill people, the next Congress should probably Repeal the repeal, right? I mean, it'...

Quiet deal on Obama's judge nominees in the Senate (AP)
WASHINGTON – After a monthslong Blockade, Senate Republicans have agreed to let at least 19 of President Barack Obama's non-controversial judicial nominees win confirmation in the waning days of the congressional session in exchange for a commitment by Democrats not to seek votes on four others, according to officials familiar with the deal. Among the four is Goodwin Liu, a Law School dean seen as a potential future Supreme Court pick, whose current nomination to the 9th U.S. Circuit Cou...

Top Democrat predicts Senate will OK arms treaty
WASHINGTON – A top Democrat predicted Monday that the Senate will approve a new Arms Control treaty with Russia, but conceded that it will take "house by house combat" to collect enough votes from recalcitrant Republicans to prevail. The comments by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., came a day after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would oppose the accord, complicating President Barack Obama's prospects for achieving his top Foreign Policy priority. Schumer said Democra...

Lame Duck doesn't suck
In a move that surprised just about everyone, the Senate passed the Food Safety bill on a voice vote yesterday. I'm not sure it's that good a bill since I've seen some small buzz about provisions that could potentially hurt small and organic farmers. But the larger point is our broken Senate can get things done, if they want to. In fact, DDay points out the Lame Duck Senate session has been rather productive: So far in the lame duck, Congress has passed: the Tax Cut bill which includes a 13-...

No More Mister Nice Blog
A BIT TOO SOON TO RELAX Paul Waldman at Tapped declares victory prematurely: Jonathan Bernstein makes an excellent point about the Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell: [T]his issue will now promptly go away, entirely. Oh, we'll have a bit of reporting on implementation, but seriously: does anyone think that Republicans are going to run in 2012 on re-instating DADT? Or, even less plausibly, on re-instating the ban that DADT replaced? Forget it. It's possible to believe that a DADT vote could be used...

Quiet Deal On Obama Judicial Nominees Unfolds In Senate After Prolonged GOP Blockade
WASHINGTON — After a monthslong Blockade, Senate Republicans have agreed to let at least 19 of President Barack Obama's non-controversial judicial nominees win confirmation in the waning days of the congressional session in exchange for a commitment by Democrats not to seek votes on four others, according to officials familiar with the deal. Among the four is Goodwin Liu, a Law School dean seen as a potential future Supreme Court pick, whose current nomination to the 9th U.S. Circuit Cou...

Obama plans to sign repeal of gay ban Wednesday
Source: Washington Post The Associated Press Monday, December 20, 2010; 1:44 PM WASHINGTON -- The White House says President Barack Obama plans to sign the Repeal of the Military's ban on Openly Gay service members on Wednesday, four days after the Senate voted to abolish the policy. Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20... Count on someone to say that tonight's lunar eclipse is an example of some supreme deity's wrath at this turn of events. ...

Obama plans to sign repeal of gay ban Wednesday
WASHINGTON -- The White House says President Barack Obama plans to sign the Repeal of the Military's ban on Openly Gay service members on Wednesday, four days after the Senate voted to abolish the policy. Obama's signature would end the Pentagon's 17-year, "don't-ask, don't tell" policy and fulfill a 2008 Presidential Campaign promise. The policy has allowed gays and Lesbians to serve, but only if they were silent about their Sexual Orientation. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs would ...

Quote of the Day (So far)
"It, in fact, was not possible for the President to do this through Executive action. This is something that had to happen legislatively if it was really going to happen in a definitive way. The President did not waver. He DID work on the Senate to get this to happen. He insisted that this was possible against a lot of people, including me, saying it was not possible. This is a difficult promise kept. It's not just a promise that was kept. It was one that was hard to keep, that cost a lot of po...

Spending Bill Freezes Pay for Federal Workers
The latest on President Obama, the new Congress and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion. The bill would protect Student Pell grants, Veteran's benefits and a program that helps low-income families pay their heating bills. A Small Business loan program would be extended. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled a procedural vote on the bill for Tuesday morning. The Senate could pass it as early as Tuesday, sending it to the House, which delayed i...

Harry Reid's No Grinch
Like most working Americans, I'll probably be working right up through Christmas Eve. And, like most, I'll be expected back at work on the following Monday. Any time I take off aside from the days designated for Christmas and New Year's, I'll be expected to use my designated days off like any other Vacation time. I suspect that's also the way it will be for most Americans working this Holiday Season, which is why not only do Republican complaints about working around the holidays ring hollow &...

E-Mail Sent To Servicemen And Women Reveals How Military Is Handling DADT Repeal
With Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell finally meeting its demise this past weekend, many have been curious to see how our Armed Forces would handle the change. Prior to the historic vote on Saturday, some people made rather condescending theories that our Military would be thrown into utter chaos. Others predicted that the Soldiers and superiors would react with class and professionalism. A Redditor who happens to also be in the Air Force, uploaded a screen shot of an email he or she received a...

No Labels Hails Tax Cut Vote
Cleaning out my in-box, I came across this e-mail from the “No Labels” co-founders, Nancy Jacobson and Mark Mckinnon, who cited the Bipartisan passage last week of President Obama’s Tax Cut deal as proof that the area between the “warring factions” on the left and the right is “where we can find common ground.” “(F)or the first time in a long time, Democrats and Republicans came together to pass a new package of tax cuts and benefits for those faci...

The 111th Congress, Looking Backward
By Patrick O'Connor The end of the year always yields new lists, and Senate Democrats just published a long one that tallies all the Legislation they approved over the last two years – often without help from Republicans. Everyone remembers the health overhaul, the stimulus and the Dodd-Frank financial-regulation overhaul. And Congress just approved measures repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on Gays in the Military and extended Bush-era Tax Cuts for two more years.

Johnson recount request denied
The Court of Appeals has denied a petition by Sen. Craig Johnson for a manual Recount of votes. All options appear to be over for Johnson, D-Port Washington, who as of now trails Jack Martins by 451 votes. “There is no such legal error where, as here, the discrepancy rate is significantly below the margin of victory, such that there is no substantial likelihood that the result of the election would be altered by the conduct of a full manual audit,” the Court wrote in a unanimous de...

President Obama Could Sign 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal Wednesday
President Barack Obama is "likely" to sign the historic Repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law on Wednesday, spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday. At the daily White House briefing, Gibbs said no specific time has been set for the ceremony that will end the policy banning gays from serving openly in the Military. But he added the Repeal "would be signed by the president likely on Wednesday morning." Gibbs said it was still unclear who would attend the signing. "I don't know the size of the ev...

GOP senators concede arms treaty will secure enough votes to pass
Republican senators say privately they expect the Senate to ratify the New START Treaty this week, which would hand President Obama his third major victory of the lame-duck session.   GOP senators — including those who plan to vote for the treaty and those who say they’ll oppose it — have told The Hill they expect it to pass easily. At least eight Republican senators have announced they either will vote to ratify the treaty or are leaning strongly toward doing so. Two-thirds of th

Another Dem weighing run for Lieberman's Senate seat
Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is the latest Democrat to express an interest in running for Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-Conn.) seat in 2012.  Murphy told the Danbury News Times Monday that he's considering a Senate bid, but offered no timetable for a decision.  "It's something I'll be talking about with my family and the people I trust,'' said Murphy, who called the upper chamber a "pretty broken place" that might benefit from a new voice.  Last week, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) said he's also con