Tag: GOP senate

‘The man who sold America’: McConnell’s mountain of political sins catalogued in devastating new profile

AlterNet logoMitch McConnell finally has the power he’s longed for since he was a 22-year-old intern for Sen. John Sherman, but his ruthless march to become Senate majority leader has seen him abandon almost all of his stated principles — and earned him a lot of enemies.

The Kentucky Republican has been unpopular in his home state for years, but this summer has seen his approval rating plunge to 18 percent after MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough tarred and feathered him with the nickname “Moscow Mitch,” and he’s increasingly seen as “the man who sold America,” reported Rolling Stone.

“For so many years, McConnell has seemed maddeningly invincible,” wrote Bob Moser in a lengthy magazine profile. “But now, just a few years after achieving his lifelong goal of becoming Senate majority leader, it appears that every political sin the man has committed on his relentless march to power is coming back to haunt him at once.”

View the complete September 17 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Prospects for Trump gun deal grow dimmer

The Hill logoProspects for a bipartisan deal on gun control legislation have dimmed significantly as President Trump and Democratic leaders appear to be far apart on the key issue of expanding background checks.

Republicans expect Trump to put forward a proposal addressing gun violence later this week, but Democrats predict it is likely to fall far short of what is needed and that they may not vote for it.

Democrats are pressing Trump to agree to a gun control bill already approved by the House, but the president has yet to even signal support for a scaled-down background check bill sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

View the complete September 16 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

House committee launches investigation into Transportation Secretary Chao

The Hill logoThe House Oversight and Reform Committee on Monday launched an investigation into Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao over whether she is using her office to benefit herself and her family.

The investigation follows a series of reports alleging that Chao used her role in the Trump administration to boost Foremost Group, a shipping company founded by her father, and initially didn’t divest from stock in a major construction company.

“The Committee is examining your misstatements of fact, your actions that may have benefitted the company in which you continued to hold shares, and your compliance with ethics and financial disclosure requirements,” Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chairman of the Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, wrote in a letter to Chao requesting documents.

View the complete September 16 article by Chris Mills Rodrigo and Cristina Marcos on The Hill website here.

Senate panel backs special $1 billion military ‘readiness’ fund

NOTE:  The Trump administration’s military budget already gave them more money than the military requested.

Some experts are skeptical that the Defense Department will spend the funds effectively.

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s new Defense spending bill would create a $1.1 billion fund for yet-to-be-determined programs that build military “readiness,” a word that has come to mean just about anything in the Pentagon budget.

The fund, created at a time when military preparedness levels are on the rise after nearly two decades at war, would come with very few strings or stipulations, an unusual move for appropriators who typically guard their power of the purse.

The Pentagon must proportionately divide this money among the military’s active and reservist components’ operations accounts. And Defense Department officials would have to notify Congress about how they’ll spend the money no less than 30 days before they do so. The money could then be spent as planned unless an appropriator objects.

View the complete September 16 article by John M. Donnelly on The Roll Call website here.

Sen. Chris Coons told FBI last year about Kavanaugh allegation in NYT

Axios logoSen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told the FBI last year about a sexual misconduct allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh that was at the heart of a New York Times piece published over the weekend, reports the Washington Post.

Why it matters: Coons’ letter to FBI director Christopher Wray described an account from Kavanaugh’s Yale classmate Max Stier and was dated Oct. 2, 2018 — days before Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate on Oct. 6. The FBI, despite conducting a supplemental background investigation into Kavanaugh after multiple allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, did not investigate the allegation in Coons’ letter.

What he said: Coons told Wray that he had “several individuals” contact him to levy allegations against Kavanaugh, but he singled out the Stier allegation as “one individual whom I would like to specifically refer to you for appropriate follow up,” per the Post.

View the complete September 16 article on the Axios website here.

Trump rallies to Kavanaugh’s defense after new sexual misconduct allegation surfaces

WASHINGTON — President Trump vigorously defended Brett Kavanaugh on Sunday following a new allegation of sexual misconduct during the Supreme Court justice’s college years, as some leading Democratic presidential contenders raised fresh suspicions that Kavanaugh was untruthful during last year’s Senate hearings leading to his confirmation to the high court.

In an early-morning tweet, Trump called on the Justice Department to “come to [Kavanaugh’s] rescue,” and accused critics of trying to deter the justice from rulings favorable to the administration. The president’s angry ripostes came a day after the New York Times reportedthat a male former classmate at Yale had told the FBI about witnessing an episode similar to, but separate from, an already publicized account by a female classmate, Deborah Ramirez, who said an inebriated Kavanaugh had thrust his penis in her face during a Yale party in the 1980s.

The authors of the New York Times story said Kavanaugh did not speak to them about the newly reported allegation.

View the complete September 15 article by Laura King on The Los Angeles Times website here.

Calls for Justice Kavanaugh’s impeachment are mounting. Here’s how it could work.

Washington Post logoOne year ago, a bitterly divided Senate voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to a lifetime appointment on the nation’s highest court; the vote was 50 to 48.

Now, as the Oct. 8 anniversary of his confirmation nears, the New York Times reports that it has uncovered a previously unreported claim of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh and that it found the FBI interviewed none of the potential witnesses. The story, published Saturday evening, compelled several Democrats to demand a new investigation into the Supreme Court justice.

Even before the recent spate of sexual misconduct allegations, murmurs among Kavanaugh opponents fixated on whether he had lied under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Saturday’s story from the Times quickly raised new questions about whether Kavanaugh perjured himself and reignited calls for his impeachment.<

View the complete September 16 article by Deanna Paul on The Washington Post website here.

‘The Education of Brett Kavanaugh’ Takes a Hard Look at the Supreme Court Justice and His Accusers

New York Times logoTHE EDUCATION OF BRETT KAVANAUGH
An Investigation
By Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly

Nearly a year after the fateful Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh have become martyrs in separate and hostile galaxies — one for #believeallwomen and the other for those who believe Democrats will use any means necessary to take down good and honorable men. So there is a weird satisfaction in rewinding the story more than 30 years, back to the moment when the two lived in suburban Maryland and coexisted as part of a small social circle of teenagers who hung out at country club pools all summer and whose pressing concern was which parents were out of town for the weekend.

“The Education of Brett Kavanaugh,” by Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, two experienced New York Times reporters who helped cover the confirmation hearings, comes with an expectation of bombshells (the galleys are stamped “EMBARGOED” on every page). And the authors do in fact turn up a few new revelations about the assault accusations against Kavanaugh. But their real work is to smooth out the main story, create a fuller picture of Kavanaugh himself, place him in relation to Blasey Ford and put the minor players in motion, so that the confirmation showdown has a kind of cinematic inevitability. Continue reading “‘The Education of Brett Kavanaugh’ Takes a Hard Look at the Supreme Court Justice and His Accusers”

145 CEOs implore Senate leaders to act on gun violence, saying doing nothing is ‘simply unacceptable’

Washington Post logoThe chief executives of Levi Strauss, Twitter, Reddit, Dick’s Sporting Goods and others urged lawmakers to expand background checks to all firearms sales and implement stronger “red flag” laws, marking the latest attempt by corporate America to pressure Congress for meaningful action on gun violence.

“As leaders of some of America’s most respected companies and those with significant business interests in the United States, we are writing to you because we have a responsibility and obligation to stand up for the safety of our employees, customers and all Americans in the communities we serve across the country,” the executives wrote. “Doing nothing about America’s gun violence crisis is simply unacceptable and it is time to stand with the American public on gun safety.”

View the complete September 12 article by the Washington Post Staff on The Washington Post website here.

Senate appropriations process continues to devolve

Labor-HHS-Education and State-Foreign Operations spending bills mired in abortion dispute

Senate appropriators have abandoned plans to mark up two spending bills Thursday that have become mired in a partisan dispute over abortion policy.

The Appropriations Committee announced it will postpone consideration of its fiscal 2020 Labor-HHS-Education bill and its State-Foreign Operations bill. As of Wednesday evening, the panel still planned to take up its Defense and Energy-Water bills at a full committee markup, along with a measure that would divvy up total discretionary spending among the 12 subcommittees.

The decision to scale back the committee’s Thursday agenda marked the latest blow to a delayed appropriations process as lawmakers scramble to avoid a government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. None of the 12 annual spending bills have reached the Senate floor and a stopgap funding measure is being prepared to keep the government operating.

View the complete September 11 article by David Lerman and Jennifer Shutt on The Roll Call website here.