Tax deal displays Obama's backbone (Politico)

Senate Democrats not backing down on filibuster reform despite expected losses
Despite expected losses this fall, Senate Democrats are not backing down on their commitment to Filibuster reform. In the wake of two failed procedural votes last week, some Democrats in the upper chamber say reform is necessary. However, obstacles remain in the form of Democratic Centrists and election-year politics. Tuesdays failed 53-46 vote for Cloture on a defense authorization bill came after intense lobbying from liberal Lobbyists for a provision it contained a Repeal of the...

School Pension Reform Stalls in Senate [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
A Plan to Reform Public School Pensions and set them more in line with Private-sector Retirement standards — and thus save Michigan Taxpayers an estimated $3.5 Billion over the next 10 years — stalled in the Michigan Senate as that chamber prepared to leave for its Spring Break. Although GOP senators cast blame for the failure at Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Democrats, Republican sources said that only 18 votes could be mustered for the measure, leaving it two votes shy of passage...

Senate Dems to donors: House is lost already
In a shortage economy, Rationing forces some hard choices. Democrats running for Congress in both chambers have discovered this as Donors have begun closing their pocketbooks or tapping out, and the desperation for dollars has them competing not against Republicans but each other. Politico reports that a dwindling pool of patrons are being pitched by Senate campaigns to skip sending any money to House Candidates as Republicans will take control in the next Congress anyway: House and...

Institutions
Ezra Klein surveys the legislative scene in America: In the few days remaining before the Senate recesses for the election, the Democrats have decided to pull off a bad policy twofer: They'll fight for one policy that doesn't make sense, and in doing, make success less likely on a policy that does make sense. They're doing this because they think the politics of it are better -- but are they? The policies they're fighting for is the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act . ...

Founding Fathers would be horrified at today's Senate
Wow. Last night, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina sent a message to his fellow senators, informing them that between now and Election Day, he intended to block votes on any Legislation that he did not personally approve beforehand. And under the arcane, archaic and anarchic “rules” of the Senate, one solo senator actually has the power to do so. Those rules are artifacts of a collegial Senate that disappeared long ago and is never returning, especially if DeMint and others...

Daily Kos: Chancellor DeMint dissolves the Senate
Roll Call (subscription): Traditionally, the Senate passes noncontroversial measures by unanimous consent at the end of most workdays, a process known as hot-lining. DeMint, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and others have fought against the practice for years and have dedicated staff members to reviewing bills that are to be hot-lined. As a result, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have generally given DeMint, Coburn and others time to review...

Chancellor DeMint dissolves the Senate
Roll Call (subscription): Traditionally, the Senate passes noncontroversial measures by unanimous consent at the end of most workdays, a process known as hot-lining. DeMint, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and others have fought against the practice for years and have dedicated staff members to reviewing bills that are to be hot-lined. As a result, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have generally given DeMint, Coburn and others time to review...

Jim DeMint Plans To Grind Senate To A Halt
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is telling members that he plans to grind the already lethargic Senate to a complete halt at the end of the day. DeMint's staff informed all Senate offices yesterday that he plans to hold all Legislation that hasn't been "hot lined" by the end of business on Tuesday, forcing each piece of Legislation the Democrats hope to address before the election to overcome days' worth of procedural obstacles. "The Executive Committee of the Senate Steering Committee has asked the...

The Senate Rules Need to Change
Yes , it ought to go without saying that it is pretty rare in modern times for one party to control as many as sixty seats in the U.S. Senate. And that means that progressive solutions are impossible most of the time. A lot of what has passed during the Obama Administration had progressive elements , but none of it was passed on progressive terms. The best bill was the Credit Card Bill of 2009 , which I consider to be a very solid piece of progressive Legislation. The Stimulus Bill was...

Sen, Webb criticizes Pentagon for 'stiff-arming' Virginia delegation on JFCOM
Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) accused senior Pentagon officials of stiff-arming him and the Virginia delegation on the decision to close the U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM). Webb put Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Lynn, in particular, on the hot seat during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. Virginia houses JFCOM, and Webb has been trying to get information from the Pentagon on the data and rationale behind the decision to close the combatant Command, which employs about...

Blame conservatives and Obama, not all the Dems
But to market a product, it's best if you have a good product to sell. And in November this means: did the Democrats deliver good Legislation -- or at least try? For sure, a lot of the blame for the Dems' failures to pass progressive Legislation lies with the intransigence, venality, and evil skill of Republicans. They've blocked most Bills in the Senate. Moreover, they've been masterful at misleading the public about political choices, making it very difficult for Democrats to market their...

Connecticut Senate Race Moves to the Margin of Error. Democrat’s Lead Cut to 3 points in Q-Poll.
This may be the day that muted fear exploded into panic among Connecticut Democrats watching Attorney General Richard Blumenthal turn a sure thing into a dead heat. The 5 term Democrat has seen the vast lead he enjoyed in January melt into a 3 point contest against wrestling mogul Linda McMahon. The Greenwich Democrat leads the Greenwich Republican 49%-46% in a contest Democrats had thought the had secured in January when beleaguered Incumbent Senator Christopher J. Dodd took a powder from the...

Pot, kettle
I don’t see another explanation for what Tom Friedman was doing when he wrote this column : The Tea Party that has gotten all the attention, the amorphous, self-generated Protest against the growth in government and the Deficit, is what I’d actually call the “Tea Kettle movement” — because all it’s doing is letting off steam. [.....] The important Tea Party movement, which stretches from Centrist Republicans to Independents right through to Centrist...

Your Government, Held Hostage
High School civics textbooks teach kids that there are three branches of government: The executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. Now it turns out there is a fourth: Jim DeMint. On Tuesday, word got out that the Republican senator from South Carolina intends to block all Senate business until after the November Elections . How can DeMint do this? The short, simple version is that each individual senator has the ability to slow down Debates to the point where the Senate basically ceases...

GOP Blocks Bill to Punish Moving Jobs Abroad
Republicans, with help from a handful of Democrats, used a Filibuster to block a measure that would have used the tax code to punish big companies that shut U.S. Manufacturing plants and move the jobs overseas. The Senate voted 53-45 in favor of the procedural motion, but Democratic leaders needed 60 to take the bill up. Current tax law allows companies to benefit in a variety of ways when they move jobs overseas, including deducting the costs of closing American plants. The proposed bill would...

Filibuster pictures from news photos on webshots
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Patrick: $400M spending bill is urgent
G ov. Deval Patrick says the state will probably have to close some Prisons and cut programs for the developmentally disabled if a $400 million spending bill is not passed soon. Patrick told reporters today that he would even support a full formal session to get the spending proposal passed. That would also allow lawmakers to take up other matters, including casino gambling. Democrats hoped to pass the Legislation in the House Monday, but Republicans said they had not seen the bill and...

GOP groups overwhelm Dems with political ads
Washington — In one way at least, the fight for control of Congress is grossly one-sided. Just five weeks from Midterm Elections, groups allied with the Republican Party and financed in part by corporations and Millionaires have amassed a crushing 6-1 advantage in Television spending, and now are dominating the airwaves in closely contested Districts and States across the country. The extra firepower on the conservative side comes as some key Democratic-leaning organizations are...

Hamptons Institute: Soros, Warren and Greenberger on FinReg
Hamptons Institute: Soros, Warren and Greenberger on FinReg Monday, 09/27/2010 - 2:15 pm by Bryce Covert | One Comment --> Monday, 09/27/2010 - 2:15 pm by Bryce Covert | One Comment You may know that over the summer, the Roosevelt Institute partnered with Guild Hall to put on The Hamptons Institute, a gathering of prominent thought leaders in politics, economics, media, and the arts. In case you missed out on the event, full footage of the panels is now online . The first panel...

Net Neutrality and the DISCLOSE Act
The first is called the DISCLOSE Act , and it’s being championed by Senators Patrick Leahy and Chuck Schumer. The bill, which would require corporations to report all election expenditures, passed the House in June, and it’s up for a re-vote in the Senate tomorrow. If you have an opportunity, please consider calling your Senators and asking them to support the Legislation. Here, in hopes of convincing you, is a letter from Leahy and Schumer. We need your help right now. When the ...

Cenk Uygur: Howard Dean vs. Rahm Emanuel
It has always been thus. Now comes round two. In the first round, Rahm Emanuel and Howard Dean butted heads on what strategy was best in regaining House seats in 2006 (also to some degree in 2008). Emanuel was chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Howard Dean was chair of the Democratic National Committee. Dean's path was the famous 50 state strategy. Emanuel thought that was foolish and that the Democratic Party would be much better served spending more money in...

Senators' use of 'anonymous hold' contributes to backlog of stalled judicial nominations
Monday, September 27, 2010 Three nominees for federal Courts based in the District of Columbia were among the seven approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday as part of its final push to send Judicial Nominations to the Senate floor before Congress recesses until after the election. But whether senators will have an opportunity to vote on Federal Circuit nominee Kathleen O'Malley and District Court nominees Beryl Howell and Robert Wilkins depends largely on whether any single...

What Would Don Draper Say?
Yesterday, I caught a new spot for Campbell's soup that boasts of the company's "farm-grown ingredients." I did a double take. "Farm-grown ingredients"? As opposed to what? Test-tube carrots? Magically conjured potatoes? I imagined Peggy on Mad Man presenting the idea to Don Draper. The scene did not end well. I mention this only as a way of saying that not all copy is written equal. Take this new ad for Democrat Jack Conway, who is running for Senate against Republican Rand Paul in...

How Fees Fuel Big Government
When Michigan Government's outsized waistline fails to shrink, there's often very definitive actions and votes that tell the tale. Just two of many recent examples include 2007's Billion-plus-dollar Tax hikes and politicians too timid to make modest reforms last fall that would have saved hundreds of millions of Dollars in K-12 Spending. But it isn't always so clear. Outside of those "big meals," there are other high-fat morsels that keep the State from adopting a sensible diet. ...

NRSC Off Air In KY This Week
By Jeremy P. Jacobs The NRSC has pulled its ads attacking Attorney General Jack Conway (D) in the Kentucky Senate race. The Republican committee cancelled its media buy for this week, a source who monitors media buying told Hotline On Call . As with all ad cancellations in tight races, there are 2 ways of looking at the significance of the NRSC's move. Democrats say it's a sign that Republicans are increasingly nervous about ophthalmologist Rand Paul 's (R) chances against Conway. They...