Category: US Senate

Presidential historian calls ‘baloney’ on Joe Manchin claim filibuster stance is about ‘protecting the Senate’

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Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley literally called “baloney” on Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) for his excuse for supporting the filibuster.

Manchin has drawn criticism from his own party, civil rights leaders, and historians with knowledge of the last centuries of Senate function. Everyone, other than his Republican allies, has spoken out against Manchin’s confused understanding of the process. Manchin, however, isn’t the only Democrat parroting right-wing talking points on the filibuster crafted from historic lies. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) has also bought into the fake history. 

“You have to strong-arm them,” Brinkley encouraged President Joe Biden. “Lyndon Johnson would do the lean-in treatment and stare you down, make your life miserable for you. You have to have discipline. Manchin has become a media star as being the guy who holds the Democratic Party in the balance. It’s unfortunate.” Continue reading.

There are already 19 QAnon candidates

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For the time being, congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have effectively cornered the market of QAnon conspiracy loons in this year’s congressional class. But their monopoly on the “we believe there’s a secret cabal of satanist, child eating elites running this country” strain of Republicanism may be nearing an end, as a new and expanded crop of QAnon adherents ready themselves for a congressional run in next year’s midterm elections.

According to a new analysis from Media Matters for America, there are a whopping 17 new QAnon supporters running for Congress next year — the vast majority of them Republicans from Florida, Arizona, Ohio, and Nevada — alongside Greene and Boebert, who will both be up for re-election

Like QAnon itself, with its sprawling mythology and amorphic ability to incorporate any number of contradictory iterations and sub-genres, the roster of would-be QAnon representatives is as varied as you might expect from a group of people inclined to believe in a worldview predicated on baby cannibalization and devil worship. Some, like Arizona GOP candidate Josh Barnett, have attempted to explain away past social media posts that featured QAnon slogans and narratives by claiming he was just “retweeting the article.” Continue reading.

Sen. Klobuchar Statement on the For the People Act

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) issued the following statement on the For the People Act:

“While I am disappointed by Senator Manchin’s announcement, I will not give up the fight for voting rights reform. The For the People Act includes many broadly popular provisions that both Democrats and Republicans across the country support, including setting basic national standards to make sure all Americans can vote in the way that works best for them. This fight is not over, and I will continue to work with my colleagues to get critical voting, ethics, and campaign finance reforms passed in the Senate.”

After hitting pause, PACs begin to press play again

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Businesses reviewed donation policies after Jan. 6 riot

Business PACs, many of which paused donations earlier this year amid fallout from the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, have begun to send more money to lawmakers, including to the 147 Republicans who voted against certifying the presidential election results of some states.

Political action committees from defense, agriculture and other business sectors have led in donations to such lawmakers, including to House GOP leaders and rank-and-file members on committees that regulate their industries, a CQ Roll Call analysis of campaign finance data shows.

Still, PAC money is down. Donations to both parties’ House and Senate campaign arms dropped significantly in the first four months of this year when compared with the same period in the previous two election cycles, federal election records show. Continue reading.

Republican circular firing squad in full swing because their attacks on Biden are ineffective

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On Saturday, writing for Business Insider, columnist Eoin Higgins analyzed the fragmenting of the GOP caucus as Republicans fail to come up with a damaging line of attack against President Joe Biden and his agenda.

“Biden, a 78-year-old moderate Democrat, has a job approval rating hovering around 60% of Americans. He’s been buoyed by his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a resurgent economy, and a sense — earned or not — from voters that the new president has a firmer hand on the tiller than his chaotic predecessor,” wrote Higgins. “The result is a floundering GOP as the right-wing party tries to draw a contrast with a president who isn’t nearly as liberal as they try to make it seem. Lacking that contrast, Republicans are lost.”

With Republicans unable to either damage Biden or move on from their support of former President Donald Trump, many of them have been reduced to infighting and purges of their own for perceived disloyalty — including the exile of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from the caucus leadership and censure of Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach the former president for his role in the Capitol riot. Continue reading.

Trump and his allies try to rewrite, distort history of pandemic while casting Fauci as public enemy No. 1

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Donald Trump and his Republican allies have spent the past few weeks trying to rewrite or distort the history of the pandemic, attempting with renewed vigor to villainize Anthony S. Fauci while lionizing the former president for what they portray as heroic foresight and underappreciated efforts to combat the deadly virus.

They have focused on the early moments of the coronavirus response and the origins of the virus, downplaying any role they may have played and casting others in the wrong, at times taking comments out of context and at others drawing conclusions that are unproved.

And at a time when the number of vaccinated people continues to rise and deaths are at one of their lowest levels, it has placed the coronavirus back at the center of the political debate. Trump is planning to make it a chief argument in a reputation rehabilitation effort. And Republicans are also making it a centerpiece of their midterm election campaigns, pledging to hold congressional investigations if they win back the House majority. Continue reading.

Koch Networks Using Dark Money To Kill Voting Rights Bills

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Earlier this year, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives took a stand against voter suppression when they passed House Resolution 1, a.k.a. the For the People Act — a comprehensive voting rights/election reform bill that now faces an uphill climb in the U.S. Senate under the rules of the filibuster, which requires 60 or more votes for most legislation. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and many other Senate Republicans are vehemently opposed to HR 1, and according to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, “dark money” from “the Koch network” is helping to fuel that opposition.

In an article published on May 28, CREW’s Meghan Faulkner and Miru Osuga explain, “There’s a whole lot of dark money behind the opponents of democracy reform. The Koch network alone has spent tens of millions backing many of the senators who are opposing the For the People Act, which would overhaul campaign finance rules and enforcement and make it harder for dark money groups, like those in the Koch network, to secretly influence our elections.”

Faulkner and Osuga note how much “the Koch network” has spent “backing” GOP opponents of the For the People Act, including $5.6 million spent on Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, $1.3 million on Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, $4.9 million on Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, $4.3 million on Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, $5.7 million on Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and $4.3 million on Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Continue reading.

‘Sick and twisted excuse for a human being’: Wisconsin paper slams Ron Johnson for defending Jan. 6 insurrectionists

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Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin not only voted against a bill calling for a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection — he has also downplayed the violence that occurred that day, insisting that the insurrectionists did not frighten him and claiming that the riot was mostly a “peaceful protest.” The Cap Times, based in Wisconsin’s state capitol of Madison, slams the far-right GOP senator in a blistering editorial published on June 2 — describing his actions as those of a “sick and twisted excuse for a human being.”

Gladys Sicknick, mother of Brian Sicknick — a Capitol Police Officer who died following the violence of January 6 — tried to convince Johnson and other Senate Republicans that a January 6 commission was badly needed. But Johnson was unmoved.

“Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson met last week with the mother of fallen U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died on the day that former President Trump incited an insurrectionist mob to attack the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election,” the Cap Times’ editorial board explains. “She did so despite the fact that Johnson has declared that he was not frightened by the attack on the Capitol because the seditionists were people who ‘truly respect law enforcement.’ Gladys Sicknick wanted to explain to Johnson that what happened on the day her son died was not, as the senator continues to claim, a ‘peaceful protest.'” Continue reading.

‘Raw political fear’: George Conway torches GOP lawmakers for their ‘dereliction’ on Jan 6 commission vote

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George Conway is displeased with Republican lawmakers’ handling of all things Trump, but he argues that there is one failed effort that tops all of the rest. In a new piece published by The Washington Post, Conway fired off as he voiced his frustrations about Republicans’ efforts to block the Jan. 6 commission which would have established an entity to investigate the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. 

Although they allowed Trump to slide during both impeachment trials, Conway noted that at least they had some form of excuse for their actions regardless of how futile their justifications were.

However, where the Jan. 6 commission is concerned Conway argues: “There was no excuse — none — for what they did last week.” Continue reading.

Parliamentarian guidance deals blow to reconciliation strategy

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Senate rules referee says use of special procedure to pass multiple filibuster-proof bills should be reserved for ‘extraordinary circumstances’

Using a revised budget resolution to take an extra crack at reconciliation to advance Democratic priorities through the Senate appears unlikely during this Congress, given a new opinion from the Senate parliamentarian.

The new guidance, issued to Senate staff on Friday, suggests that Democrats will get just one more try this year to pass a filibuster-proof legislative package to enact additional priorities ranging from infrastructure to immigration policy proposed by President Joe Biden and party leaders on Capitol Hill. If they want to use reconciliation yet again, they’d need to adopt a fiscal 2023 budget resolution next year, but would likely get only one shot then as well.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s four-page opinion makes clear her view that the framers of the 1974 law establishing the modern budget process didn’t intend for lawmakers to be able to use the budget reconciliation process as many times as they could jam into a given year. Continue reading.