All Entries in the "Politics" Category

Self-Styled Budget Hawk Mike Pence Defends Spending $560 Million On Unnecessary Weapons Program

Recognizing the need to cut spending in light of record budget deficits, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced major cuts to a number of big-ticket weapons programs last year that the Pentagon concluded it no longer needed. Gates — who was first appointed by President Bush — is so serious about the need to eliminate these programs that he has called on President Obama to veto any defense spending bill that contains funding for further development of these wasteful, unnecessary systems. Chief among the cuts is an extra engine for the F-35 fighter jet, of which Gates has said, “Every dollar additional to the budget that we have to put into the F-35 is a dollar taken from something else that the troops may need.”

One would think that self-styled budget hawks like Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) would herald Gates’ proposed cuts. He has said “if we are going to put our fiscal house in order, everything has to be on the table. We have to be willing to look at domestic spending, we have to be able to look at entitlements, and we have to look at defense.”

But in an interview with Bloomberg’s Al Hunt yesterday, Pence defended spending hundreds of millions more on an extra engine, despite having said moments earlier that one of his top priorities is “to get federal spending under control.” Pence attempts to make a national security argument for the engine, before quickly revealing his true motives:

Full Story: Think Progress » Self-Styled Budget Hawk Mike Pence Defends Spending $560 Million On Unnecessary Weapons Program.

Anthony Weiner Goes Ballistic At GOP For Killing 9/11 Responders Health Care Bill (VIDEO)

House Republicans late Thursday were able to corral enough votes to defeat a bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to those sickened by toxins resulting from the 9/11 attacks.

In the process, they set off a host of fiery speeches and denunciations from their Democratic colleagues and produced a veritable YouTube moment from Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y), whose district includes many of the affected.

At the heart of the debate was a procedural maneuver made by Democrats to suspend the rules before consideration of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. The move allowed leadership to block potential GOP amendments to the measure (there was worry that Republicans would attach something overtly partisan in hopes that it could pass on the otherwise widely-popular measure). It also meant that the party needed a two-thirds majority vote.

Full Story: Anthony Weiner Goes Ballistic At GOP For Killing 9/11 Responders Health Care Bill (VIDEO).

House Republicans Block Bill To Pay The Healthcare For Ill 9/11 Responders

More common to the Senate, GOP obstruction spread to the House Thursday as Republicans blocked legislation to pay to care for those who have fallen ill due to their exposure to debris during the clean-up after the nation’s worst terrorist attack.

The House voted 255 to 159 for H.R. 847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, short of the two-thirds margin needed for passage for this bill. Some 155 Republicans voted against the legislation, which would provide medical monitoring and treatment to World Trade Center responders and survivors who were exposed to the toxins at Ground Zero following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Nearly 16,000 responders and 2,700 others are currently sick and receiving treatment, according to estimates released by the lawmakers who introduced the measure. More than 40,000 responders are in medical monitoring and 71,000 individuals are enrolled in a World Trade Center health registry.

Full Story: On The Hill: House Republicans Block Bill To Pay The Healthcare For Ill 9/11 Responders.

Biden tags economy ‘Bush recession’

Vice President Biden trotted out a new line of attack against Republicans, terming the nation’s economic difficulties the “Bush recession.”

Vice President Joe Biden trotted out a new line of attack against Republicans on Thursday, terming the nation’s economic difficulties the “Bush recession.”

The vice president sought to explicitly link the recession plaguing many Americans to President George W. Bush as Democrats ramp up their attacks on the previous administration.

“There’s never enough until we’ve restored the 8 million jobs lost in the Bush recession,” Biden said on NBC’s “Today” show when asked if the administration had done enough to address unemployment. “Until that happens it doesn’t matter — it matters, but it’s not enough.”

Full Story: Biden tags economy ‘Bush recession’ – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

OPS: He’s a year late, but better late than never I guess

Lindsey Graham considering overturning the 14th amendment to end ‘birthright citizenship.’

Politico reports that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who many previously thought would co-sponsor comprehensive immigration reform this year, is considering radically changing the 14th amendment. Graham may introduce a constitutional amendment that would overturn the portion of the Constitution which states “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” In other words, Graham wants to end the practice of granting citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants born on U.S. soil. Politico reports:

“I may introduce a constitutional amendment that changes the rules if you have a child here,” Graham said during an interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. “Birthright citizenship I think is a mistake, that we should change our Constitution and say if you come here illegally and you have a child, that child’s automatically not a citizen.” [...]

“I’m a practical guy, but when you go forward, I don’t want 20 million more 20 years from now,” he said. “I want to be fair. I want to be humane. We need immigration policy, but it should be on our terms, not someone else’s. I don’t know how to fix it all. But I do know what makes people mad, that 12 million people came here and there seems to be no system to deal with stopping 20 million 20 years from now.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Lindsey Graham considering overturning the 14th amendment to end ‘birthright citizenship.’.

ANALYSIS: Both Regular And ‘Shadow’ RNCs Brought To You By Big Oil

Following scandal after scandal, many donors have abandoned the Michael Steele-led Republican National Committee in favor of other right-wing groups preparing to attack Democratic candidates in this fall’s elections. The two biggest beneficiaries of the RNC’s woes appear to be American Crossroads, the “shadow RNC” setup by Bush operatives Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, and the Republican Governors Association, currently chaired by Mississippi Governor and former RNC Chairman Haley Barbour. Despite their apparent strategic differences, these three groups still have one thing in common: massive infusions of cash from Big Oil. Over $4 million of oil-related cash has spewed into the three groups in the second quarter alone.

AMERICAN CROSSROADS: American Crossroads, the shadowy 527 group setup by Rove and Gillespie as a supposed “grassroots” alternative to the RNC, and whose stated goal is to distort the facts in order to brand the BP oil disaster as “Obama’s Katrina,” has received 97 percent of its funding from just four right-wing billionaires. Of these, two made their fortunes in the oil and gas industry, according to a report by Salon. The two Dallas-based oil billionaires, Trevor Rees-Jones and Robert Rowling, each contributed $1 million to the group, which recently began airing misleading attack ads against Senator Harry Reid. Rove and Gillespie have also explicitly taken advantage of the recent Citizens United Supreme Court decision to setup a related 501(c)4 organization, American Crossroads GPS, in order to conceal the identity of some of their donors. The public will likely never know where the $5.1 million the group raised in June came from because of “the value of confidentiality to some donors,” but it could have come from other right-wing oil billionaires like tea party-funder David Koch to major corporations like BP America and Goldman Sachs.

RGA: Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has moved aggressively to promote the RGA as an alternative to the RNC. In addition to setting up “victory funds” across the country that have long been “the province of the RNC,” Barbour recently told a private audience that “[he] had to raise the RGA budget by $10 million because the RNC is in such bad shape.” Barbour, who has made something of a recent career out of downplaying the severity of the BP oil disaster, has indeed driven RGA fundraising to new heights during his tenure as chairman. As we previously reported, the oil and gas industry appears to have shown its appreciation for Barbour’s Big Oil apologism by contributing more than $2 million to the RGA’s coffers in the last quarter alone.

Full Story: Think Progress » ANALYSIS: Both Regular And ‘Shadow’ RNCs Brought To You By Big Oil.

Rendell: Obama Could Face Primary Challenge Over Afghanistan (VIDEO)

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell predicted on Tuesday that if the president escalates America’s military involvement in Afghanistan he could very well face a primary challenger in 2012.

In an overlooked “Morning Joe” segment on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Democrat offered his distinct brand of eccentric, conversation-driving political foresight. He couched his statement about the possibility of a primary challenge by stressing that if Obama sticks to his current plans for Afghanistan — a reduced military presence beginning in July of 2011 — there would not be political insurrection within the party.

But Rendell clearly opened up the conversation as to how much capital Obama is working with when it comes to foreign wars. And for perhaps the first time in the course of the Afghanistan debate, the specter was raised that Democrats will really take the president to task for a military commitment that is too long, too costly, or too heavy.

Full Story: Rendell: Obama Could Face Primary Challenge Over Afghanistan (VIDEO).

War Bill PASSES Congress

Democrats Fail To Strike Down War Funding Bill

Antiwar Democrats have a rare opportunity to knock down a war funding bill, just days after Wikileaks released more than 90,000 documents confirming their worst fears about the direction of the conflict.

The House is bringing the bill up under a suspension of the rules, which require a two-thirds vote. Only 144 votes would be needed to to stop the war funding. The vote is expected to occur mid-afternoon. [UPDATE: So much for that. Only 102 Democrats joined a dozen Republicans and the war money passed, 308-114.]

The most recent vote on war money came July 1 and included an amendment to create a timetable for withdrawal. That measure drew 162 votes of support. A tougher amendment — to fund the occupation only for the purpose of withdrawing — garnered but a hundred votes.

Full Story: War Bill PASSES Congress.

Momentum Builds In Congress To Overhaul U.S. Chemicals Regulation

Paralleling a process begun in the Senate, two senior House Democrats have introduced legislation to update a federal law dating to 1976 that governs the use of potentially hazardous chemicals in consumer products.

Reps. Bobby Rush, of Illinois, and Rep. Henry Waxman, of California, introduced H.R. 5820, the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010, aimed at strengthening and updating the decades-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the primary statute regulating chemical safety.

Waxman is the powerful chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, while Rush chairs the committee’s Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection subcommittee.

Full Story: On The Hill: Momentum Builds In Congress To Overhaul U.S. Chemicals Regulation.

Polls: Americans Are Progressive On Most Issues

Note: Sources for the polling data include Pew Research Center, Gallup, and several other respected groups.

PDF: Non-Partisan Polling Data 1

PDF: Non-Partisan Polling Data 2

Momentum For Senate Filibuster Reform Builds

Momentum is building to reform Senate rules that allow silent filibusters and force a 60-vote requirement for virtually any action, interviews with Democratic candidates and sitting senators indicate.

Democratic candidates said that they hear regularly from voters about abuse of the parliamentary tactic, which is likely to come up as the first vote new senators face in 2011. The supermajority requirement in the Senate has become such an obstacle to reform that it infiltrates policy discussions at every step. Last week at the Netroots Nation political conference, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) gathered environmental writers to discuss energy legislation; the first few questions were related to energy, the rest of the conversation was dominated by the filibuster.

“The use of the filibuster and the way it’s led to backroom deals has created the impression in the heartland that the Senate is dysfunctional,” said Jack Conway, a Democratic candidate facing Republican Rand Paul in Kentucky. “They don’t understand why Washington can’t address the issues people care about. People in Kentucky wanted people focused on jobs — 14 months [of the health care debate] laid bare how broken the system was.”

Full Story: Momentum For Senate Filibuster Reform Builds.

Franken: Republicans ‘Don’t Want People To Get Jobs Before The Election’

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) fired up progressive activists as the closing speaker at the fifth annual Netroots Nation conference on Saturday evening. He jokingly called the gathering “the most exciting political gathering of the year without guns” and told the gathering to keep fighting and pushing elected officials.

A few hours before the event, ThinkProgress sat down with Franken and asked him about the public’s frustration with the Senate’s gridlock. Franken told us that the new Senate will likely take up filibuster reform next year, an effort that he supports. He also discussed the need for other procedural reforms:

TP: Is there any other ideas that aren’t being talked about as much that you think would help the Senate be more productive?

FRANKEN: Well, I think there are, you know, a lot of this is procedural reform on how you offer amendments, and again, obviously, on cloture, and filibusters, and how many hours you have to have of debate even after cloture. One easy idea is, you have to wait 30 hours after a cloture vote to vote, because there’s supposedly 30 hours of debate. Well, sometimes they’ve had cloture votes where it’s — we’ve had to vote cloture on something that isn’t controversial at all, like a nominee who ends up passing 98-nothing. There’s no debate over the next 30 hours. So, you could say, I mean, one easy reform would be, say, either side or both sides can give up 15 hours. So, instead of it being 30 hours, it’s 15 hours. I mean, a lot of all of this was just to slow-foot, to slow things down.

Full Story: Think Progress » Franken: Republicans ‘Don’t Want People To Get Jobs Before The Election’.

Senator Asks: Why Should We Trust BP’s Damage Assessment?

The federal government is relying too heavily on BP to help assess the damage the company itself has caused during the monster oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to to a Senate subcommittee chairman.

Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) expressed his concern in a letter last week in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar ahead of a hearing the lawmaker intends to hold Tuesday within the Senate Environment and Public Work Committee’s water and wildlife subcommittee which he chairs.

Specifically, Cardin worries about the role BP will play in the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), a legal process that begins the process of holding BP responsible for the scope of the clean-up for three months of crude that have flooded the Gulf of Mexico that began in April with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Full Story: On The Hill: Senator Asks: Why Should We Trust BP’s Damage Assessment?.

House Democrats Rip Senate Colleagues: Their Lethargy Is Going To Cost Us Seats In 2010

A trio of progressive House members took direct aim at their colleagues in the Senate on Saturday, declaring that the upper chamber “sucks,” has a “toxic effect” on the legislative process, and would cost House Democrats seats in the 2010 election.

Appearing at a panel discussion at Netroots Nation , the lawmakers argued that the public was not discriminating in its anger with Congress’ legislative inertia. And while a fair chunk of the Senate was immune from direct, electoral blowback, every member of the House would have to deal with the taint.

“They say the senate has a luxury of time, six-year cycles for elections,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus. “But these last 18 months have, in memory, have not only been the most frustrating but the inertia created in the Senate is what is jeopardizing Democrats and progressives’ opportunities in the midterms. It is not our lack of action. It has been their lack of action.”

Full Story: House Democrats Rip Senate Colleagues: Their Lethargy Is Going To Cost Us Seats In 2010.

Democrats are betting that ending tax cuts for the rich will play in their favor

President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are setting the stage for a high-stakes battle over taxes in the final weeks before the November congressional elections, betting that their plan to eliminate tax breaks for the wealthy will resonate with voters who have lost houses and jobs to what many see as an era of Wall Street greed.

Raising taxes is usually a perilous move. But Democrats, facing the potential loss of their majorities on Capitol Hill, believe that the strategy will both force Republicans to defend tax breaks for a tiny, wealthy minority and expose GOP hypocrisy on budget deficits.

The cuts, enacted under President George W. Bush, are set to expire in January. Given partisan gridlock in the Senate, congressional aides and administration officials acknowledge that lawmakers could run out of time, leaving virtually every American taxpayer with a significantly higher bill in 2011.

Full Story: Democrats are betting that ending tax cuts for the rich will play in their favor.

Grijalva: Deficit hawks against public option are ‘hypocrites,’ ‘phonies’ | Raw Story

Progressive caucus co-chair Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) on Saturday issued an ultimatum to opponents of a public option who invoke deficit concerns: get behind this program, or you’re hypocrites.

In an exclusive interview with Raw Story at Netroots Nation, a large conference for progressive activists and media, Grijalva lamented how “one of the most important mechanisms [to cut the deficit] was left out of the [health reform] bill.”

But he and more than 120 other members of Congress revived the idea in legislation introduced Thursday, which is projected to slash the federal deficit. And they’re using that to challenge the GOP and conservative Democrats, who have claimed it’ll be too costly, to get behind it.

Full Story: Grijalva: Deficit hawks against public option are ‘hypocrites,’ ‘phonies’ | Raw Story.

Rep. Paul Hodes: GOP Deficit Hawks Are ‘Extremist Obstructionist Lying Hypocrites’

When Democrats in the House of Representatives stumbled attempting to reauthorize unemployment insurance in May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) observed that the unforeseen wave of Democratic deficit hysteria had organic roots: It came from members who represented districts with low unemployment rates.

New Hampshire Democrat Paul Hodes, a musician who campaigned in 2004 on a “Rock and Roll Back the Deficit Tour” and who represents a state with unemployment well below the national average, did not join in the calls for deficit reduction. Hodes, who is running for Senate, would prefer to differentiate himself from the Republicans who ultimately filibustered jobless aid for nearly two months.

“We are dealing with extremist, obstructionist, lying hypocrites who think you don’t have to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest but are holding up help for the neediest,” Hodes told HuffPost during an interview at the Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas. “Believe me, I understand the long-term deficit crisis. We gotta get to address it. To get there, we have to focus on the short-term jobs crisis we’ve got and support the fragile economic recovery we’re in.”

Full Story: Rep. Paul Hodes: GOP Deficit Hawks Are ‘Extremist Obstructionist Lying Hypocrites’.

Legislation Incentivizing Repatriation of Jobs Soon to Be Introduced | Economy In Crisis

Hoping to reverse the ongoing trend of outsourcing Americans jobs to low wage nations to save on production costs, Republican Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia plans to introduce legislation next week that would incentivize domestic multinationals to repatriate those jobs that they have shipped overseas.

Hoping to reverse the ongoing trend of outsourcing Americans jobs to low wage nations to save on production costs, a lawmaker plans to introduce legislation next week that would incentivize domestic multinationals to repatriate those jobs that they have shipped overseas.

Republican Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia will introduce the Strategic Manufacturing and Job Repatriation Act to “develop a national strategy to bolster our manufacturing base and create American jobs.”

“If you’re an American company with, say, a call center in India, why not put that in the Shenandoah Valley?” Wolf asks, according to the Northern Virginia Daily.

Full Story: Legislation Incentivizing Repatriation of Jobs Soon to Be Introduced | Economy In Crisis.

Rep. Alan Grayson: “I Won’t Back Down”

Congressman Grayson responds to a death threat, and criticizes right wing leaders for their lack of leadership in quelling the hatred. From MSNBC’s The Ed Show on July 23, 2010.

“Reclaiming the Democratic Majority” – Progressive Activists Organize to Change Democrats in Congress

Many progressives helped to elect Democratic majorities in Congress in 2006 and 2008 and helped Obama win the presidency. But with the Democrats in power, the feeling now among many grassroots activists is that most Democratic lawmakers have not acted on behalf of their progressive constituencies. We speak with two progressive activists: Ilyse Hogue of MoveOn.Org, and Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Transcript and:

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Full Story: “Reclaiming the Democratic Majority” – Progressive Activists Organize to Change Democrats in Congress.

House Dems Pressured To Drop Funding For Schools, Students To Pay For Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan

After a take-it-or-leave-it vote by the Senate, House Democrats face little choice but to drop billions in aid for schools, college students and others that they had hoped could ride on legislation paying for President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan.

The Senate rejected the House measure, passed earlier this month, by a 46-51 vote that fell short of a majority, much less the 60 votes required to defeat a filibuster.

Instead, the Senate on Thursday stripped out the $20 billion in House add-ons and returned to the House an almost $60 billion measure passed by a bipartisan vote in May. The Senate measure is limited chiefly to war funding, foreign aid, medical care for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange, and replenishing almost empty disaster aid accounts.

Full Story: House Dems Pressured To Drop Funding For Schools, Students To Pay For Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan.

Secretary LaHood: Republicans Tell Me In Private The Stimulus Is Working

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on Wednesday that despite all their public criticism, Republican lawmakers tell him in private that they think the administration’s stimulus package has been a success.

“I believe the economic recovery plan has worked,” LaHood said, in an interview with the Huffington Post, “and I’ve had Republican members tell me that when I’ve gone in and done projects or been with them or visited them in their offices… They know that we have dollars that have put people to work.”

Speaking days before he was set to address a conference of progressive activists, LaHood’s remarks were offered as part of a broader defense of the president’s economic recovery agenda. The Transportation Secretary has been one of the administration’s main pitchmen and administrators for the stimulus package, overseeing the roughly $50 billion that has been set aside for infrastructure projects. But his unique expertise comes from having served — prior to his current post — as a Republican member of the House of Representatives.

Full Story: Secretary LaHood: Republicans Tell Me In Private The Stimulus Is Working.

Rep. Rangel’s Ethics Wrangle: Get the Rundown

The House Ethics Committee has finally come out from behind its veil of secrecy and announced that after a two-year investigation, it has found Rep. Charlie Rangel, D.-N.Y., likely violated ethics rules.

As we reported in March, the ethics committee “admonished” Rangel for violating ethics rules against accepting gifts when he attended conferences in the Carribbean in 2007 and 2008, but the investigation into Rangel’s other alleged violations continued.What were those other violations? The committee didn’t disclose the details of what they found, but we’ve kept a full rundown of Rangel’s ethics record.

The House Ethics Committee also announced the creation of a subcommittee to hear the case against Rangel and make a final judgment. It’ll be the first time such a hearing has happened since 2002, pointed out The New York Times. In that 2002 case, former Rep. James Traficant Jr., ended up being expelled from Congress for bribery and served seven years in prison.

Full Story: On The Hill: Rep. Rangel’s Ethics Wrangle: Get the Rundown.

The Case for Elizabeth Warren

Sen. Sanders took part in a Capitol Hill press conference on to call for the appointment of Prof. Elizabeth Warren to lead the new consumer financial protection bureau.

Why Does Fox News Have More Power Than Any Progressive in the Country?

Cenk Uygur:

As we can all see now, when Fox says jump, the Obama administration asks how high? (Then jumps one inch less and considers it a progressive victory). Is there anyone Obama won’t fire or throw under the bus if Fox asks him to? What if they ask Obama to fire himself? Would he do it? Or would he just fire Biden and say he met them halfway?

If the firing of Shirley Sherrod was the first time they had done this, then all of the criticism they have received might be a bit much. But as we have learned from this incident (which the rest of us already knew, with the apparent exception of Fox News and Andrew Breitbart), context matters. We’ve seen the rest of the tape on the Obama administration and it isn’t pretty.

Van Jones, ACORN, Dawn Johnsen, Shirley Sherrod. First sign of trouble, throw someone overboard. When they fired Van Jones, I said they were only encouraging Fox. But that wasn’t some genius prediction; it was only the most obvious thing in the world. Do you think the bully won’t take your lunch money tomorrow if you give it to him today?

Full Story: Cenk Uygur: Why Does Fox News Have More Power Than Any Progressive in the Country?.

Pelosi rejects extending Bush tax cuts for wealthy

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday rejected extending tax cuts for the wealthiest tax bracket that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Pelosi took off the table a short-term extension of those cuts floated by some lawmakers in her own party.

“No,” the speaker said at her weekly press conference when asked if the cuts for the highest bracket should be extended. “Our position has been that we support middle-class tax cuts.”

Full Story: Pelosi rejects extending Bush tax cuts for wealthy – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

House panel charges Rangel with ethics misdeeds

A House investigative committee on Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, dealing a serious blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and complicating Democrats’ election-year outlook.

The panel did not immediately specify the charges against the Democrat, who has served in the House for some 40 years and is fourth in seniority. The charges by a four-member panel of the House ethics committee sends the case to a House trial, where a separate eight-member panel of Republicans and Democrats will decide whether the violations can be proved by clear and convincing evidence.

The timing of the announcement ensures that a public airing of Rangel’s ethical woes will stretch into the fall campaign, and Republicans are certain to make it an issue as they try to capture majority control of the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi had once promised to “drain the swamp” of ethical misdeeds by lawmakers in arguing that Democrats should be in charge.

Full Story: House panel charges Rangel with ethics misdeeds – Yahoo! News.

Unless You’re a Shill for Banks and Big Business, The Washington Elites Will Call You Controversial

Tim Geithner and Chris Dodd’s opposition to Elizabeth Warren stems from the fact that she wasn’t a puppet for big banks.

Over the last few days, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have made the case that Harvard professor and Congressional Oversight Panel chairwoman Elizabeth Warren is too controversial a figure to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This, then, raises the revealing question of how Washington defines “controversial”?

Recall that the charge of “too controversial” was not made by Senate Democrats (or at least not at the volume they are being made against Warren) against Gary Gensler, the former Goldman Sachs executive appointed by President Obama to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It was not made by most Senate Democrats against Larry Summers, a hedge fund executive subsequently appointed to a top economic position in the administration. It was not made against Citigroup executive Jack Lew when last week he was appointed to head the Office of Management and Budget. And it wasn’t made against Tim Geithner, who orchestrated massive taxpayer giveaways to major banks during his time at the New York Fed.

Full Story: Unless You’re a Shill for Banks and Big Business, The Washington Elites Will Call You Controversial | Economy | AlterNet.

Treasurer accuses GOP chairman of hiding debt

The Republican National Committee’s treasurer has accused chairman Michael Steele of hiding more than $7 million in debt to inflate the party’s finances and mislead donors.

Two lawyers working for the committee insisted the RNC never had that kind of debt and has been honest in reporting its finances.

The accusations, made in a memo to RNC budget committee members on Tuesday, were the latest challenge to the embattled Steele and his stewardship of the committee. RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen amended Federal Election Commission reports to show some $3.3 million in debt for April and $3.8 million for May. The RNC, which had crowed about having zero debt, had more than $2 million in debt at the end of June, according to FEC reports filed Tuesday.

Full Story: Treasurer accuses GOP chairman of hiding debt.

Elizabeth Warren Could Head CFPB Without Senate Confirmation

Elizabeth Warren could lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without ever having to face a Senate confirmation hearing.

The Harvard Law professor and bailout watchdog, beloved by the left and reviled by big banks, is one of three candidates the White House identified Friday as potential picks to lead the new consumer agency. Created as part of the financial reform bill President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law on Wednesday, the agency is supposed to protect borrowers from predatory lenders and centralize the federal government’s role when it comes to extending credit to consumers. Warren conceived of the agency in 2007 and since last year has served as the public face of the campaign to enact it into law.

But some have speculated Warren may face an uphill battle to become its inaugural chief. Lenders fear her — particularly given her strong advocacy on behalf of the debt-strapped middle class — and are furiously fighting her potential nomination as she’s viewed as the most consumer-friendly of the candidates. Their friends in the Senate may take up their cause.

Full Story: Elizabeth Warren Could Head CFPB Without Senate Confirmation.

Halliburton Continues to Flood Lawmakers With Contributions After Oil Spill

Halliburton, the company once headed by former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, contributed $15,500 to federal candidates during June, according to a Center for Responsive Politics review of their political action committee’s most recent campaign finance filing.

That amount represents the third largest month of donations by the PAC this election cycle.

The giving comes at a time when the Texas-based company is weathering a political storm for its involvement on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded on April 20 and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a massive amount oil to spill into the surrounding waters. Investigations are currently underway to determine how and why the spill occurred — and who should be held responsible — by Congress and the Department of Justice.

Full Story: Halliburton Continues to Flood Lawmakers With Contributions After Oil Spill – OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets.

Democratic Party Chairman Pounces On ‘Frightening’ Televised GOP Comments

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee seized on televised comments made over the weekend by two top Republican lawmakers which appear to advocate a return to policies from George W. Bush.

“The men in charge of Republican campaigns made it crystal clear what Republican candidates plan to do if elected — take us backward,” says DNC Chairman Tim Kaine.

The chairmen of the Republicans’ congressional campaign committees each appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press program, where Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) is quoted as saying, “We need to go back to the exact same agenda that is empowering the free enterprise system rather than diminishing it.

Full Story: On The Hill: Democratic Party Chairman Pounces On ‘Frightening’ Televised GOP Comments.

Another Senate Charade

Matt Taibbi:

This note comes courtesy of my friend David Sirota out in Colorado. This is a classic example of how the Senate works. If the public understood better how rigged this game is, and how few issues are actually left to an honest vote in the legislature, I’m pretty sure the pitchfork factor would be twice even what it is now.

The short version of this story: Bernie Sanders had put forth a proposal in the Senate to put a 15 percent cap on credit-card interest. Who isn’t in favor of this kind of legislation? The only difference between credit card companies and loan sharks at this point is that you can choose to not patronize a loan shark. As an adult professional in this country one has to have a credit card – it’s impossible to rent a car, buy a hotel room, shop online or do countless other things without one.

But all the credit card companies use the same insane formulae based on FICO scores to charge exorbitant interest rates for anyone who slips up – and they don’t exactly make it easy to not slip up. (I’m doing research on this subject so anyone who has a particularly egregious story about being ripped off by credit card companies, please write in). Almost everyone has horror stories about consumer credit and my guess is that if put to a national referendum, something like the Sanders 15% cap would pass pretty easily.

Full Story: Another Senate Charade — RollingStone.com.

Financial Reform Vote-Buying, Chapter 1

Matt Taibbi: -

Just a quick note on the passage of the financial reform bill, about which I have a piece coming out in the print version of Rolling Stone soon.

An analysis by a group called Maplight.org uncovered an interesting fact about the vote. The 38 Senators who opposed the bill in the cloture vote this afternoon received an average of $103,266 in campaign contributions from commercial banks. The 60 Senators who were yea votes took an average of $76,759.

Obviously this is just part of the puzzle, but it’s worth noting. The pull Wall Street exerts on a bill like this comes via several different avenues — campaign contributions are one, the potential for future employment (a big factor for staffers, and for retiring members like certain Democratic Party committee chairs) is another, the proximity of the lobbyist community (one staffer I know grumbled about the “literal intermarriage” factor, i.e. members married to lobbyists) is another. These cash-rich industries just keep hurling money and personnel at the Hill and even when they lose, like today, they do okay — the final product is much weaker than it would have been without all the lobbying and the cash.

Full Story: Financial Reform Vote-Buying, Chapter 1 — RollingStone.com.

White House Failure To Appoint Elizabeth Warren Would Be The Last Straw

Treasury Makes A Mistake – Claiming They Are Not Blocking Elizabeth Warren

It’s one thing to block Elizabeth Warren from heading the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

It’s quite another thing to deny in public, for the record, that any such blocking is going on (e.g., see this report; Michael Barr apparently said something quite similar today).

There is a strong groundswell of opinion on this issue from the left – see the BoldProgressives petition. But the center also feels strongly that, given everything Treasury has said and done over the past few months, it would be a complete travesty not to put the strongest possible regulator in change of protecting consumers. (See Ted Kaufman on the NYT’s DealBook, giving appropriate credit to the SEC, and apply the same points to broader customer issues going forward.)

This can now go only one of two ways.

1. Elizabeth Warren gets the job. Bridges are mended and the White House regains some political capital. Secretary Geithner is weakened slightly but he’ll recover.

2. Someone else gets the job, despite Treasury’s claims that Elizabeth Warren was not blocked. The deception in this scenario would be nauseating – and completely blatant. “Everyone was considered on their merits” and “the best candidate won” will convince who exactly?

Full Story: Treasury Makes A Mistake – Claiming They Are Not Blocking Elizabeth Warren « The Baseline Scenario.

Obama SLAMS Republicans For Obstructing Economic Progress In Weekly Address (VIDEO)

President Barack Obama is taking aim at Senate Republicans, accusing them of playing politics with measures that would extend benefits to the unemployed and increase lending to small businesses.

Striking a deeply partisan tone in his weekly Saturday radio and online address, Obama said the GOP leadership has chosen to “filibuster our recovery and obstruct our progress” by blocking votes on agenda items the president says would breath life into the economic recovery.

“These steps aren’t just the right thing to do for those hardest hit by the recession,” Obama said. “They’re the right thing to do for all of us.”

The address was recorded at the White House before Obama flew to Maine on Friday for a weekend family vacation.

Full Story: Obama SLAMS Republicans For Obstructing Economic Progress In Weekly Address (VIDEO).

The New Finance Bill: A Mountain of Legislative Paper, a Molehill of Reform

Robert Reich:

Thursday the President pronounced that “because of this [financial reform] bill the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes.”

As if to prove him wrong, Goldman Sachs simultaneously announced it had struck a deal with federal prosecutors to pay $550 million to settle federal claims it misled investor — a sum representing a mere 15 days profit for the firm based on its 2009 earnings. Goldman’s share price immediately jumped 4.3 percent, and the Street proclaimed its chair and CEO, Lloyd (“Goldman is doing God’s work”) Blankfein, a winner. Financial analysts rushed to affirm a glowing outlook for Goldman stock.

Blankfein, you may recall, was at the meeting in late 2008 when Tim Geithner and Hank Paulson decided to bail out AIG, and thereby deliver through AIG a $13 billion no-strings-attached taxpayer windfall to Goldman. In a world where money is the measure of everything, Blankfein’s power and influence have grown. Presumably, Goldman can expect more windfalls in future years.

Full Story: Robert Reich.

Rangel again calls for military draft

Rangel again calls for military draft to highlight disparities in service

Rep. Charles Rangel is again calling for a military draft to highlight the fact that relatively few families are bearing a disproportionate burden in fighting the nation’s wars.

The New York Democrat introduced a bill Thursday to reinstate the draft, a symbolic gesture that has no chance of becoming law. Rangel previously introduced similar legislation in 2003 and 2007.

Rangel said lawmakers who support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should require “all who enjoy the benefits of our democracy to contribute to the defense of the country.”

Rangel said he supports President Barack Obama’s efforts to eventually bring troops home, but he wants it to happen faster.

Full Story: Rangel again calls for military draft | Raw Story.

Not Dead Yet: Democratic Campaigns See 62% Increase in Online Fundraising

Democrats worried they face certain wipeout in the November elections take heart: campaign donations keep pouring in. In fact, Democrats have seen the percentage of overall contributions coming through online increase by 62 percent, comparing the second quarter of 2008 with the second quarter of 2010, according to a company that provides fundraising and compliance software for Democratic campaigns.

The rise in Internet-based donations runs counter to what has become a pervasive theme that Democrats enter the 2010 midterm elections as the decided underdogs. Defending the majority they established in the 2006 and 2008 cycles, Democrats are seen as having much more to lose by this year’s deep anti-incumbent mood among the electorate.

The difficulty of the political terrain Democrats must overcome was thrown into sharp relief this week, as White House press secretary Robert Gibbs experienced serious blowback for acknowledging House Democrats could well lose their majority this year.

Full Story: On The Hill: Not Dead Yet: Democratic Campaigns See 62% Increase in Online Fundraising.

Elizabeth Warren To Head Consumer Protection Bureau?

Once President Obama signs Wall Street reform into law, the battle will move off the front pages, but it’ll be far from over. Who the president picks to lead key agencies and commissions will determine the course and strength of those regulatory bodies, much as Joe Kennedy shaped a half century of tough financial industry regulations by setting the tone as the first head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Two positions are being watched closely by both sides: A new head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the first head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Regardless of the regulator Obama picks to run OCC, banks will be losing one of their best friends. John Dugan consistently fought to protect banks from regulation, compiling a record of fealty to Wall Street impressive even by Bush-era standards. His term expires in August

Full Story: Elizabeth Warren To Head Consumer Protection Bureau?.

Kucinich Pushes To End Tax Subsidies For Junk Food Advertising

As First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to the NAACP convention in Kansas City about childhood obesity Monday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) continued his work behind the scenes to stem junk food advertising to kids. A new bill introduced by Kucinich could raise billions of dollars in revenue to fund child nutrition and anti-obesity initiatives by preventing companies from writing off advertising of junk food targeted at kids.

Taxpayers are effectively subsidizing the spread of the obesity epidemic, Kucinich says, since under current federal law marketing expenses for the junk- and fast-food industries are tax-deductible. The legislation offers an easy win for increasingly hysterical deficit hawks, and would provide much-needed funds for Democrats looking to pass more aid programs, such as renewed unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.

“I commend the First Lady for her dedication to stopping the epidemic of childhood obesity and for shedding light on the problem of food marketing to children,” Kucinich wrote in a letter to colleagues. His measure, HR 4310, would prohibit any company from claiming a tax deduction for expenses derived from advertising to children any fast food or food of limited nutritional value. He cites a study suggesting that eliminating the federal subsidies of food advertising directed at youth could significantly reduce obesity rates.

Full Story: Kucinich Pushes To End Tax Subsidies For Junk Food Advertising.

Olympia Snowe Says She’ll Vote For Financial Reform

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Scott Brown pushed sweeping financial legislation to the edge of final passage Monday, both announcing they intend to support the regulatory overhaul despite initial misgivings.

Snowe of Maine and Brown of Massachusetts join Susan Collins of Maine as three crucial Republican votes for the legislation.

“While not perfect, the legislation takes necessary steps to implement meaningful regulatory reforms, create strong consumer protections and restore confidence in the American financial system,” Snowe said in a statement Monday evening.

Full Story: Olympia Snowe Says She’ll Vote For Financial Reform.

Obama officially throws Democrats under the bus

Robert Gibbs, Obama’s White House press secretary went on Meet the Press on Sunday and said blithely that ” there is no doubt that Republicans could take control of the House”.

For both Democratic members of the House up for re-election and those charged with raising money for Democratic candidates, if this isn’t the last straw in supporting Obama it should be.

Gibbs statement was not just politically inept,but coming from the spokesman for the president about his own party, undermines everything the Democrats need to do in order to retain control of congress. If they thought they were sounding “honest” a trait sorely missing from Obama’s lifetime political resume, they were mistaken. They just sounded stupid.

Full Story: Tom In Paine: Obama officially throws Democrats under the bus.

2010 midterms will be most expensive in history with more than $1 billion in play

More than $1 billion has already been spent on the 2010 battle for Congress, which is expected to be the most expensive midterm election in history.

Interest groups riled up by the Obama administration’s far-reaching legislative agenda of healthcare and Wall Street reform are pledging massive expenditures. Democratic strategists have been circulating a four-page memo that chronicles how Republican-leaning independent groups are set to spent $301.5 million this cycle.

Rich candidates are also fueling the political spending spree. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (R) has already funneled $5.5 million from her personal fortune into her Senate campaign and in Florida billionaire Jeff Greene (D) is expected to do the same in his race for the Democratic Senate nomination

Full Story: 2010 midterms will be most expensive in history with more than $1 billion in play – The Hill’s Ballot Box.

Liberals analyze their Obama ‘despair

‘Time of Reckoning’? Liberals Assess ‘Disappointing’ Obama Presidency

For many liberals, this is the summer of their discontent.

Already disappointed with President Barack Obama’s ability to deliver on campaign promises, they now contemplate a slowing economic recovery and a good chance of Republican gains in November — two developments that could make enacting Obama’s agenda even more difficult.

Two recent essays framed the debate raging within the progressive community over why the promise of Obama’s candidacy has not lived up to their expectations — and how liberals should proceed in what they fear will be difficult months ahead.

In a 17,000-plus-word piece published in The Nation on Thursday, journalist Eric Alterman calls the Obama presidency “a big disappointment” for progressives and blames a broken system in Washington that he says allows the minority party to rule with impunity — and special interests and big money to dictate legislative policy.

Full Story: Liberals analyze their Obama ‘despair’ – Abby Phillip – POLITICO.com.

Superdelegates’ Clout CURBED? Democrats Propose Less Influence For VIP Delegates

Democrats have taken an initial step toward limiting the influence of so-called independent superdelegates in choosing the party’s presidential nominee in 2012.

A Democratic National Committee panel is recommending a reduction in the number of superdelegates, from 20 percent of the total number of delegates to 15 percent.

The full DNC must approve the change at a meeting later this summer.

Full Story: Superdelegates’ Clout CURBED? Democrats Propose Less Influence For VIP Delegates.

What Eisenhower Could Teach Obama

No president since Eisenhower has fully understood the Pentagon’s dominant position in military and security policy.

Fifty years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told his senior advisers in the Oval Office of the White House, “God help this country when someone sits in this chair who doesn’t know the military as well as I do.” Several months later, he issued his famous warning about the military-industrial complex.

Now the United States finds itself in a cul-de-sac, with no way out of increased military deployments and expenditures, and no evidence that President Obama has a firm hand on the national security tiller.

A central problem for the nation is the increased power and influence of the Pentagon over the foreign and national security policies of the United States.

No president since Eisenhower has fully understood the Pentagon’s dominant position in military and security policy.  Armed with his knowledge and experience as World War II’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Eisenhower made sure that he could not be outmaneuvered by his military advisers, particularly on such key issues as the Vietnam War and tensions with the Soviet Union.

Full Story: Consortiumnews.com.

‘Shadow RNC’ chairman Ed Gillespie still owns the deed to the RNC.

Republican insiders and donors have, for months, tried to diminish Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele to a mere figurehead. Afters a months of gaffes and other missteps, Republicans like Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie formulated a plan to establish what has been called a “shadow RNC” of Republican attack groups, policy centers, and state outreach organizations to work around the normal RNC. Facing mounting criticism and a drain of resources to the RNC, Steele has harshly rebuked his detractors, declaring again, “I ain’t going anywhere.” But according to property disclosures filed with the D.C. government, the RNC building is still registered to Gillespie, a former RNC chair. View a screenshot below:

Full Story: Think Progress » ‘Shadow RNC’ chairman Ed Gillespie still owns the deed to the RNC..

OPS:  The White guys put a Black guy on the box for promotional reasons. Whoda Thunk?

Alan Grayson To The Fed: ‘We’ll Be Back’

The Wall Street reform package currently awaiting the return of Congress from the Fourth of July recess is packed with provisions that will remake the financial landscape. One element, though, which has gotten relatively little attention in the media, is a wild card: the authorization of a far-reaching audit of the Federal Reserve for the first time in the central bank’s history.

The audit measure is retroactive — it requires unprecedented disclosure of the identity of businesses, banks, hedge funds, foreign central banks or any other entity that was on the receiving end of Fed largess, and will reveal how much they got and on what terms. The information is required to be posted online within 30 days of the law’s enactment.

Depending on what the audit turns up, the Fed could find itself back in the public eye and could face growing calls for reform. “I think once people see what the first audit discloses, they’re going to want to see more,” said Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), who, along with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), shepherded the audit bill through the House. “We’ll be back.”

Full Story: Alan Grayson To The Fed: ‘We’ll Be Back’.

Republicans Incite Class Warfare—Within the Middle Class

Matthew Rothschild,

The Republicans have found a new scapegoat for the economy, in addition to illegal immigrants.

The new scapegoat is public sector workers.

Unwilling to blame Bush for the budget deficit, unable to blame Wall Street for wrecking the economy, and incapable of blaming a lack of regulation or capitalism itself for the morass we’re in, Republicans are pointing their fingers now at public sector workers.

The teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and other government employees are just making too much money, the Republicans say, regardless of the fact that public sector workers in state after state have been laid off or put on unpaid furloughs.

Full Story: Republicans Incite Class Warfare—Within the Middle Class | The Progressive.

A Damning New Report on George W. Bush

George W. Bush is among the five least accomplished U.S. presidents, according to a new survey by the U.S.’s top 238 leading presidential scholars. They have been polled by the Siena College Research Institute’s (SRI) annually for the last 28 years. While president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led the country from 1933 until his death in 1945, ranked first in overall accomplishments, former President Bush ranked worst among modern presidents –and the fifth worst in history.

According to the Survey of U.S. Presidents the top five, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, are Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

The presidential scholars ranked the U.S. Presidents on six personal attributes (background, imagination, integrity, intelligence, luck and willingness to take risks); five forms of ability (compromising, executive, leadership, communication and overall abilities); and eight areas of accomplishment including domestic affairs, economic, working with Congress and their party, appointing supreme court justices and members of the executive branch, avoiding mistakes and foreign policy.

Full Story: A Damning New Report on George W. Bush | CommonDreams.org.

Republicans: a party of unemployment

Dean Baker:

It may seem bad taste to accuse Republicans of wanting a rise in unemployment but their actions leave no other explanation

From now until 2 November, the Republican party will be the party of unemployment. The logic is straightforward: the more people who are unemployed on election day, the better the prospects for Republicans in the fall election. They expect, with good cause, that voters will hold the Democrats responsible for the state of the economy. Therefore, anything that the Republicans can do to make the economy worse between now and then will help their election prospects.

While it may be bad taste to accuse a major national political party of deliberately wanting to throw people out of jobs, there is no other plausible explanation for the Republicans’ behaviour. They have balked at supporting nearly every bill that had any serious hope of creating or keeping jobs, most recently filibustering on bills that provided aid to state and local governments and extending unemployment benefits. The result of the Republicans’ actions, unless they are reversed quickly, is that hundreds of thousands more workers will be thrown out of work by the mid-terms.

The story is straightforward. Nearly every state and local government across the country is looking at large budget shortfalls for their 2011 fiscal years, most of which begin on 1 July 2010. Since they are generally required by state constitutions or local charters to balance their budgets, they will have no choice except to raise taxes and/or make large cutbacks and lay off workers to bring spending and revenue into line

Full Story: Republicans: a party of unemployment | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

Reid Republishes Angle’s Old Website, Defying Cease And Desist Order

Less than 24 hours after removing a version of Sharron Angle’s original unvarnished campaign website, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is defying a cease and desist order from his Tea Party opponent and republishing the site.

The Nevada Democrat’s re-election campaign unveiled (for the second time) its website The Real Sharron Angle on Tuesday afternoon. The site is basically the same platform Angle used when running in the Nevada Republican primary, though Reid’s staff tinkered with its presentation to ensure it could withstand a legal challenge from the Angle campaign.

The move is a show of defiance from the Majority Leader. Hours after launching her new website — in which many of her more provocative positions have been scrubbed — Angle filed a legal objection to Reid’s publishing of her old campaign website material, claiming misuse of copyrighted materials. The Tea Party favorite was able to win temporary relief, with Reid agreeing to pull down the old site over the July 4th weekend. But the Senate Majority Leader’s legal team clearly feels there is no standing for Angle’s objections. At the very least, the advantages of highlighting Angle’s now- former positions and statements outweighs the potential cost in legal fees from the back-and-forth sparring over copyright law.

Full Story: Reid Republishes Angle’s Old Website, Defying Cease And Desist Order.

Bad news for Obama: Conservative Justice Kennedy tells pals he’s in no rush to leave Supreme Court

President Obama may get liberal Elena Kagan on the Supreme Court, but conservative swing-voter Anthony Kennedy says he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Justice Kennedy, who turns 74 this month, has told relatives and friends he plans to stay on the high court for at least three more years – through the end of Obama’s first term, sources said.

That means Kennedy will be around to provide a fifth vote for the court’s conservative bloc through the 2012 presidential election. If Obama loses, Kennedy could retire and expect a Republican President to choose a conservative justice.

Full Story: Bad news for Obama: Conservative Justice Kennedy tells pals he’s in no rush to leave Supreme Court.

CA Gov: $91 Mil Later, 3 Months Before Vote, GOP’s Whitman Trails Jerry Brown in Polls

She’s in ‘Deep, Deep Trouble,’ Says Brown

To win the Republican primary for California governor this year, former eBay exec Meg Whitman burned through at least $80 million of her own money. After a particularly nasty primary campaign against State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, however, voters were so turned off that turnout was only 25 percent — the lowest in 96 years — which meant that winning the nomination ended up costing Whitman $90 per vote.

Meanwhile, Jerry Brown, the state’s attorney general and former two-term governor, ran virtually unopposed in the Democratic Party, and spent next to nothing on his campaign.

In the month or so since the primary, Whitman has spent another $11 million, including $6 million on the sort of bloody buzz-saw negative advertising against Brown that is usually reserved for the final weeks of a campaign. And again, the Brown campaign has spent next to nothing on advertising (although a union group has anti-Whitman ads up).

Full Story: Pensito Review » CA Gov: $91 Mil Later, 3 Months Before Vote, GOP’s Whitman Trails Jerry Brown in Polls.

Teachers’ Union Shuns Obama Aides at Convention

For two years as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama addressed educators gathered for the summer conventions of the two national teachers’ unions, and last year both groups rolled out the welcome mat for Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

But in a sign of the Obama administration’s strained relations with two of its most powerful political allies, no federal official was scheduled to speak at either convention this month, partly because union officials feared that administration speakers would face heckling.

The largest union’s meeting opened here on Saturday to a drumbeat of heated rhetoric, with several speakers calling for Mr. Duncan’s resignation, hooting delegates voting for a resolution criticizing federal programs for “undermining public education,” and the union’s president summing up 18 months of Obama education policies by saying, “This is not the change I hoped for.”

Full Story: Teachers’ Union Shuns Obama Aides at Convention – NYTimes.com.

Senior Republicans Question Steele’s Ability to Lead

Three prominent Republican lawmakers on Sunday questioned whether Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, can effectively lead the party after he called the conflict in Afghanistan a misguided “war of Obama’s choosing.”

Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, both senior Republicans on the Armed Services Committee, denounced Mr. Steele’s comments, joining a chorus of Republican criticism.

Mr. McCain of Arizona said that Mr. Steele’s remarks, made at an event last week, were “wildly inaccurate, and there’s no excuse for them,” adding that Mr. Steele had later told him in an e-mail message that his comments were misconstrued.

Full Story: Senior Republicans Question Steele’s Ability to Lead – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com.

Reagan Raised Taxes At Least 7 Times, Including the Biggest Corporate Tax Hike Ever

Republican former Sen. Alan Simpson — who was a friend of Pres. Ronald Reagan and who was conservative enough to be elected to the Senate three times by voters in Wyoming, Dick Cheney’s home state — is fed up by what the called the “myths and misconceptions and the distortions” about Reagan’s record on raising taxes.

Simpson, who serves on the federal commission charged with finding solutions to lowering the national debt, spoke out during a recent public hearing.

Transcript:

SEN. SIMPSON: Now if we’re going to work through the myths and misconceptions and the distortions, and as one president said, “plain damn lies.” I forget what president — I think it was Harry [Truman]. Uh, I’m going to say one.

Full Story: Pensito Review » Reagan Raised Taxes At Least 7 Times, Including the Biggest Corporate Tax Hike Ever.

Pelosi: End The Filibuster

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has some advice for her Senate counterparts: Try majority rule for a change. Pelosi, in an interview with the Huffington Post, called for an end to the filibuster, which she labeled “the 60-vote stranglehold on the future.”

Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that “the Senate has to go to 51 votes, and not 60 votes.”

The filibuster, which was not an original element of the Senate, has evolved over the body’s history and has only recently become the upper chamber’s standard operating procedure. The Senate was designed as a majority-rule institution that allowed for extended debate. Under the Constitution, the vice president is empowered to break 50-50 ties. Such a clause would be wildly out of place if the framers intended for a 60-percent majority to be required

Full Story: Pelosi: End The Filibuster.

Presidential scholars: Bush is the worst president of the modern era, bottom five of all time.

Since 1982, the Siena Research Institute has polled presidential scholars on whom they view to be best and worst presidents in American history, based on a variety of issues from “integrity” to economic stewardship. This year’s poll of 238 scholars found that President Franklin Roosevelt was once again ranked on top, joined by Presidents Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, and Teddy Roosevelt to complete the top five. However, President George W. Bush did not fare well since the last poll was conducted in 2002. He dropped 16 places to 39th, making him the worst president since Warren Harding died in office in 1923, and one of the bottom five of all time, according to the experts:

Today, just one year after leaving office, the former president has found himself in the bottom five at 39th rated especially poorly in handling the economy, communication, ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments and intelligence. Rounding out the bottom five are four presidents that have held that dubious distinction each time the survey has been conducted: Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin Pierce.

Full Story: Think Progress » Presidential scholars: Bush is the worst president of the modern era, bottom five of all time..

Top Democrat drafting plan to deny BP new offshore drilling leases

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that he’s drafting legislation to deny BP new offshore oil-and-gas leases for up to seven years due to the oil giant’s pattern of safety and environmental problems.

“British Petroleum has a flagrant history of taking risks to boost profits that has resulted in deaths of workers, destruction of the environment, and economic chaos in local communities,” Miller said in a prepared statement about BP, which is struggling to contain oil from its blown-out Gulf of Mexico well.

Miller, a top ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), hopes to offer his plan as an amendment to drilling safety legislation under construction in the House Natural Resources Committee. He once headed that panel and currently chairs the Education and Labor Committee.

Full Story: Top Democrat drafting plan to deny BP new offshore drilling leases – The Hill’s E2-Wire.

Feingold: ‘Standing Up to the Unholy Alliance Between Washington and Wall Street’

by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)

WASHINGTON – Wall Street and its allies have been calling the shots in Congress for decades, so they must be glad to see how things are shaping up on financial regulatory reform. Congress is about to vote on a final bill that fails to fix the key flaws in the bills passed by both the House and Senate. At the start of this process I made clear that I had a simple test for financial reform — will it stop another financial meltdown? This bill fails that test, and I won’t support legislation that fails to protect the people of Wisconsin from the pain of another economic disaster. And I don’t need to be lectured about this issue by people who supported the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which paved the way for this terrible recession.

I had hoped I would be able to support the legislation, given the clear need for strong reform. I cosponsored a number of critical amendments during Senate consideration of the bill including a Cantwell-McCain amendment to restore Glass-Steagall safeguards, Senator Dorgan’s amendment that addressed the problem of “too big to fail” financial institutions, and another “too big to fail” reform offered by Senators Brown and Kaufman that proposed strict limits on the size of those institutions. Each of those amendments would have improved the bill significantly, and each of them either failed or was blocked from even getting a vote

Full Story: Feingold: ‘Standing Up to the Unholy Alliance Between Washington and Wall Street’ | CommonDreams.org.

Pelosi To Boehner: You’re Not Taking My Gavel

Nancy Pelosi On The 2010 Elections: The GOP Isn’t A Threat

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cali.) said last Friday that she fully expects to hold on to her gavel even as Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) finishes every campaign-related speech by predicting he will be the next Speaker.

“Of course that’s what he says,” said Pelosi, in an exclusive interview with the Huffington Post. “Of course he does. But we are very confident we will [remain in power] because we don’t take anything for granted. We run every race one race at a time, and I make it really clear to my colleagues that my responsibility is to reelect our incumbents, to win our Democratic open seats and then to go after some of their seats.”

In a quick detour into the world of electoral politics, Pelosi predicted with gusto that Democrats will retain control of the House even during the likely tumultuous midterm elections. Part of the reason, she said, is that the slate of House Democrats in close races has already “fought the fight” with respect to health care reform, and has the time and confidence to win over their constituents before the election. The main factor, however, is that the GOP has yet to present itself as a threat.

Full Story: Pelosi To Boehner: You’re Not Taking My Gavel.

MSNBC’s Scarborough: ‘Every Republican I Talk To On The Hill’ Tells Me John Boehner ‘Is Not A Hard Worker’

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough made a damning accusation against House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), with whom he used to work in the House of Representatives. Scarborough said that the rap on Boehner amongst people who know him best is that he’s lazy:

SCARBOROUGH: I hear it on the Hill, I’m sure you hear it on the Hill all the time, it’s not reported but so many Republicans tell me this is a guy that is not the hardest worker in the world. After 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock at night, he is disengaged at best. You can see him around town. He does not have, let’s say, the work hours of Newt Gingrich. … Every Republican I talk to says John Boehner by 5 or 6 o’clock at night, you can see him at bars. He is not a hard worker.

Politico’s co-founder and executive director Jim VandeHei, doing his best to defend Boehner from Scarborough’s accusations, first tried to dodge the discussion but then said, “Well, a lot of those bars are fundraisers for Republicans, his people might say.”

Scarborough retorted that his accusation about Boehner’s work ethic “comes from every Republican I talk to on the Hill.” VandeHei, again defending Boehner, said that’s “not the biggest knock” on him and added that he didn’t know if John Boehner is a hard worker.

Full Story: Think Progress » MSNBC’s Scarborough: ‘Every Republican I Talk To On The Hill’ Tells Me John Boehner ‘Is Not A Hard Worker’.

Sen. Bennett (R-UT): ‘I find plenty of slogans on the Republican side, but not very many ideas.’

Last month, Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) came in a distant third behind two other GOP candidates vying for the three-term senator’s seat at the Utah Republican Party’s nominating convention in Salt Lake City. His defeat was heralded as a Tea Party victory and prompted Utah’s other GOP U.S. senator, Orrin Hatch, to say tea partiers “don’t have an open mind” and “won’t listen.” Yesterday, Bennett had some harsh words for his party and its future:

“As I look out at the political landscape now, I find plenty of slogans on the Republican side, but not very many ideas,” Bennett told The Ripon Society.

“Indeed, if you raise specific ideas and solutions, as I’ve tried to do on health care with [Oregon Democratic Sen.] Ron Wyden, you are attacked with the same vigor as we’ve seen in American politics all the way back to slavery and polygamy; you are attacked as being a wimp, insufficiently pure, and unreliable.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Sen. Bennett: ‘I find plenty of slogans on the Republican side, but not very many ideas.’.

The Ugly Party vs. the Grown-Up Party

My political friendships and sympathies are increasingly determined not by ideology but by methodology. One of the most significant divisions in American public life is not between the Democrats and the Republicans; it is between the Ugly Party and the Grown-Up Party.

This distinction came to mind in the case of Washington Post blogger David Weigel, who resigned last week after the leak of messages he wrote disparaging figures he covered. Weigel is, by most accounts, a bright, hardworking young man whose private communications should have been kept private. But the tone of the e-mails he posted on a liberal e-mail list is instructive. When Rush Limbaugh went to the hospital with chest pain, Weigel wrote, “I hope he fails.” Matt Drudge is an “amoral shut-in” who should “set himself on fire.” Opponents are referred to as “ratf — -ers” and “[expletive] moronic.”

This type of discourse is an odd combination between the snideness of the cool, mean kids in high school and the pettiness of Richard Nixon rambling on his tapes. Weigel did not intend his words to be public. But they display the defining characteristic of ugly politics — the dehumanization of political opponents.

Full Story: Michael Gerson – The Ugly Party vs. the Grown-Up Party.

Conyers co-sponsors ‘War is Making You Poor Act’; would make first $35k of every American’s annual income tax free

It seems that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) would agree, perpetual war is making you poor.

To begin rectifying the situation, he’s joined with Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) in co-sponsoring the “War is Making You Poor Act,” which would limit defense spending to $548.9 billion: the exact figure alloted in the fiscal year 2011 budget.

The act also seeks to utilize an additional $159.3 billion set aside for “discretionary” operations abroad to relieve the full federal income tax burden on every American’s first $35,000 earned per year, or up to $70,000 per year for married couples.

According to Detroit publication MLive, Conyers, who chairs the powerful House Committee on the Judiciary, is adding his name to the roster of support.

Full Story: Conyers throws in with Grayson, co-sponsors ‘War is Making You Poor Act’ | Raw Story.

House GOP threatens ‘no’ on war bill

House Republicans are warning that they may vote against the Afghanistan war funding bill if additional spending projects are added.

California Republicans Jerry Lewis, the top Republican on the Appropriations committee, and Buck McKeon, the top Republican on Armed Services, sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Monday, urging her to act on the bill this week to avoid “compromising budget decisions due to the lack of adequate funding.”

They are calling for a clean bill — one with no non-defense spending projects — saying they may oppose any legislative maneuvering that would split the bill into two parts: one part that deals with funding the war and another with unrelated spending. The purpose of such a bifurcation would allow Republicans to vote for funding, while allowing anti-war lawmakers to oppose it while maintaining a chance that the bill will pass.

Full Story: House GOP threatens ‘no’ on war bill – Jake Sherman and Simmi Aujla – POLITICO.com.

Speaker Pelosi, More War Funding Next Week Is No “Emergency”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is committed to passing an emergency war supplemental before the July Fourth recess, Roll Call reports.

Let us be perfectly clear, as President Obama might say. There is no “emergency” requiring the House to throw another $33 billion into our increasingly bloody and pointless occupation of Afghanistan before we all go off to celebrate the anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from foreign occupation.

This fact – that there is no emergency requiring an immediate appropriation – is absolutely critical, because the claim that there is some “emergency” requiring an immediate infusion of cash, otherwise there will be some new apocalyptic catastrophe, is the means by which the Pentagon and the White House hope to dodge two sets of questions about the war supplemental urgently being asked for by Democratic leaders in the House.

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Speaker Pelosi, More War Funding Next Week Is No “Emergency”.

The 36 Hours That Shook Washington

Frank Rich:

THE moment he pulled the trigger, there was near-universal agreement that President Obama had done the inevitable thing, the right thing and, best of all, the bold thing. But before we get carried away with relief and elation, let’s not forget what we saw in the tense 36 hours that fell between late Monday night, when word spread of Rolling Stone’s blockbuster article, and high noon Wednesday, when Obama MacArthured his general. That frenzied interlude revealed much about the state of Washington, the Afghanistan war and the Obama presidency — little of it cheering and none of it resolved by the ingenious replacement of Gen. Stanley McChrystal with Gen. David Petraeus, the only militarily and politically bullet-proof alternative.

What we saw was this: 1) Much of the Beltway establishment was blindsided by Michael Hastings’s scoop, an impressive feat of journalism by a Washington outsider who seemed to know more about what was going on in Washington than most insiders did; 2) Obama’s failure to fire McChrystal months ago for both his arrogance and incompetence was a grievous mistake that illuminates a wider management shortfall at the White House; 3) The present strategy has produced no progress in this nearly nine-year-old war, even as the monthly coalition body count has just reached a new high.

If we and the president don’t absorb these revelations and learn from them, the salutary effects of the drama’s denouement, however triumphant for Obama in the short run, will be for naught.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – The 36 Hours That Shook Washington – NYTimes.com.

Time to Give Wall Street the Axe, Say Progressive Groups

As heads of state from the Group of 20 (G20) most developed and economically powerful emerging nations meet in Toronto, Canada this weekend, some activists at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit are urging a more realistic look at the roots of the global economic crisis – and an end to the free-wheeling capitalist model embodied by Wall Street.

While U.S. President Barack Obama travels to Canada Friday to press the G20 to not to scale back on their economic stimulus commitments, activists complain that the bloc excludes the majority of the world's nations from its ranks and decision-making process. Tanya Dawkins, who co-chairs the Social Watch Working Group on Global Finance, Economy and Development, stopped in Canada before heading to Detroit.

“The G20 has advanced the idea that its agenda is narrow and relates exclusively to economics and finance. Yet our experience with the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the IMF and World Bank has taught us that finance and economics touches every aspect of human and community endeavor and therefore determines who in the world will eat, beg, work and have access to life itself, including water, food and shelter,” Dawkins said.

Full Story: Time to Give Wall Street the Axe, Say Progressive Groups – IPS ipsnews.net.

Do Republicans actually want America to fail?

Tomorrow, more than a million people who’ve been out of work for six months or more will lose unemployment benefits, because Senate Republicans and theoretical Democrat Ben Nelson joined together to block an already too-small package of half-measures designed to provide some modicum of help for the nation’s millions of jobless people.

The vote was 57-41. Oddly, the side with 41 votes actually won. Because that is how the Founders wanted things to not work in this god-blessed nation.

Hundreds of thousands of public- and private-sector employees will also soon to joint he ranks of the unemployed (and hope they don’t become the long-term unemployed, because no one much seems to care about them), because the bill could not be made quite weak and ineffective enough to win the support of the only two “moderate” Republicans alive (two women from Maine who never actually act on their “moderate” beliefs).

Full Story: Do Republicans actually want America to fail? – War Room – Salon.com.

Pr. Obamas Massive Achievements

Rachel Maddow -

Sanders Bill Restores Estate Tax on Billionaires – Newsroom: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced legislation to restore the estate tax on the wealthiest Americans. The proposal would bring in at least $264 billion over a decade to help lower the national debt.

“This legislation would ensure that the wealthiest Americans in our country, millionaires and billionaires, pay their fair share while exempting 99.7 percent of Americans from paying any estate tax whatsoever,” Sanders said.

The estate tax was abolished this year as a result of tax law changes signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2001. For the first time since 1916, heirs to multi-million and billion dollar fortunes may receive their entire inheritance free of any federal taxes, a giveaway that will cost the U.S. treasury at least $14.8 billion in lost revenue this year alone.

Full Story: Release: Sanders Bill Restores Estate Tax on Billionaires – Newsroom: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont).

House passes campaign-disclosure bill

Corporate CEOs would have to appear in campaign ads they fund, under a political disclosure bill the House just passed by a narrow margin.

Democrats, hoping to rein in special-interest spending before November’s midterm elections, pushed the measure, which would impose broad new disclosure rules on political spending.

The bill, approved by a 219-206 vote, was opposed by Republicans who cast it as violating free-speech protections and filled with exemptions for powerful groups, such as the National Rifle Association and labor unions. The measure was crafted by Democrats “to help their friends, while silencing their political opponents,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said during floor debate today.

Full Story: House passes campaign-disclosure bill – On Politics: Covering the US Congress, Governors, and the 2010 Election – USATODAY.com.

Enter, Real Populists

by Jim Hightower :

Few people today call themselves populists, but I think most are. I’m not talking about the recent political outbursts by confused, used and abused tea-bag ranters who’ve been organized by corporate front groups to spread a hatred of government.

Rather, I mean the millions of ordinary Americans in every state who’re battling the real power that’s running roughshod over us: out-of-control corporations. With their oceans of money and their hired armies of lobbyists and lawyers, these self-serving, autocratic entities operate from faraway executives suites and Washington backrooms to rig the economic and governmental rules so that they can capture an ever-bigger share of America’s money and power.

You can yell yourself red-faced at Congress critters you don’t like and demand a government so small that it’d fit in the backroom of Billy Bob’s Bait Shop and Sushi Stand, but you won’t be touching the corporate and financial powers behind the throne. In fact, weak government is the political wet dream of corporate chieftains, which is why they’re so ecstatic to have the tea party out front for them. But the real issue isn’t small government, it’s good government. (Can I get an amen from Gulf Coast fishing families on that!?)
Full Story: Enter, Real Populists by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.

Dems won’t pass budget in 2010

House Democrats will not pass a budget blueprint in 2010, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) will confirm in a speech on Tuesday.

But Hoyer will vow to crack down on government spending, saying Democrats will enforce spending limits that are lower than what President Barack Obama has called for.

In the scheduled address to the progressive think tank The Third Way, Hoyer will acknowledge that the lower chamber will do things differently this election year.

“It isn’t possible to debate and pass a realistic, long-term budget until we’ve considered the bipartisan commission’s deficit-reduction plan, which is expected in December,” according to Hoyer’s prepared remarks that were provided to The Hill.

The House has never failed to pass an annual budget resolution since the current budget rules were put into place in 1974. Hoyer this spring noted that the GOP-led Congress didn’t pass a final resolution in 1998, 2004 and 2006.

Full Story: Dems won’t pass budget in 2010 – TheHill.com.

Democrats Seeking to Weaken Financial Reform Bill Have Received Far More Industry Campaign Contributions

New Democrat Coalition Members Who Signed Letter in Support of Weaker House Regulations Have Received an Average of $55,000 More This Cycle

The 43 members of the New Democrat Coalition who last week sent a letter urging U.S. House of Representatives and Senate negotiators to weaken the financial reform bill’s regulation of derivatives have received an average of 44 percent more in campaign contributions from the financial services sector than the 25 coalition members who did not sign the letter.

Signatories of the letter have received an average of $180,001 from the financial services sector this election cycle, compared with $124,937 for those who did not sign, according to Public Citizen’s analysis of data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org). As in Public Citizen’s past analyses of financial sector data in the context of the financial reform bill, contributions from the health insurance industry were excluded from the calculations even though it is categorized as part of the financial services sector.

Signatories have received an average of $203,506 from the financial services sector for each campaign cycle, since 1998, compared with $140,738 for non-signers.

Full Story: Public Citizen Press Room.

Questions Persist About Alvin Greene’s Mysterious Military Discharges

A week ago in the living room of South Carolina’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, I asked Alvin Greene if there was anything that had not yet been written about by the press that he wanted to get out. “Bring the Air Force discharge up,” Greene replied. “Y’all go and get that.”

This was not the response I had expected. Greene has based his candidacy, in large part, on his military service—a total of 13 years in the South Carolina Air National Guard, U.S. Air Force, Army National Guard and U.S. Army. Tarnishing this record are the mysterious circumstances around what he calls his “involuntary” discharges from the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army. In both cases, he has refused to detail the reasons for his dismissal.

Earlier in the same interview, I had asked Greene about his dismissal from the Air Force. His answer was, somewhat typically, cryptic. “I left the Air Force in September ’05,” he said. “I ran through some problems, dealing with rank. It’s a long story. I guess that will be the next thing they will be focusing on.” I asked him repeatedly to clarify further, and he declined to do so.

Full Story: Questions Persist About Alvin Greene’s Mysterious Military Discharges – Swampland – TIME.com.

Joe Barton: The Vultures Circle

Joe Barton’s fate rests with the voters, though they don’t have to wait until November to weigh in. Republican leadership aides say that Barton’s ability to remain the senior-ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee depends on what GOP members hear from constituents back in their districts about Barton’s apology to BP on Thursday, according to House Republican leadership aides.

Those members will report back Tuesday evening, when the House returns to business.

At the end of the 2010 legislative session, Barton will have been ranking Republican on the committee for three terms. According to House GOP term limits, his time would be up, preventing him from becoming chairman. But Barton, said GOP aides, had planned on asking for an extension, arguing that years spent as ranking member and years spent as chairman aren’t equal.

Full Story: Joe Barton: The Vultures Circle.

White House says Jon Kyl story not true

The White House on Monday denied Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl’s claim that President Barack Obama told him privately that he would not work to secure the border unless it was part of a comprehensive immigration reform package.

In a video that started circulating among conservative blogs over the weekend, the Arizona Republican is seen telling supporters in North Phoenix that in a private meeting in the Oval Office, Obama said “the problem” with border enforcement measures is that “if we secure the border then [Republicans] won’t have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform.”

Kyl said the president’s supposed statement is proof that Democrats “don’t want to secure the border unless or until it is combined with comprehensive immigration reform.”

Full Story: White House says Jon Kyl story not true – Andy Barr – POLITICO.com.

Rahm Emanuel expected to quit White House

Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave his job later this year after growing tired of the “idealism” of Barack Obama’s inner circle.

Full Story: Rahm Emanuel expected to quit White House – Telegraph.

Rahm Emanuel: Joe Barton’s BP Apology Represents Difference Between Democrats And Republicans (VIDEO)

President Barack Obama’s chief of staff is warning about what might happen if Republicans — who have defended BP over the Gulf oil spill — were to run Congress after the fall election.

Rahm Emanuel says the GOP philosophy is to paint BP as the victim, pointing to Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP for what the congressman called a White House “shakedown.”

“That’s not a political gaffe, those are prepared remarks. That is a philosophy. That is an approach to what they see. They see the aggrieved party here as BP, not the fishermen,” Emanuel said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Barton and Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul, who recently called Obama’s criticism of BP “un-American,” are a reflection of the Republican party’s governing philosophy, Emanuel said. “They think that the government’s the problem.”

Full Story: Rahm Emanuel: Joe Barton’s BP Apology Represents Difference Between Democrats And Republicans (VIDEO).

Fox News: GOP in Congress Has Lowest Approval of D.C. Politicians – Even Among Republicans

Democrats in Congress continue to garner better ratings than Republicans. Some 37 percent of voters approve of the job Democrats in Congress are doing, little changed from 36 percent about six months ago. For Congressional Republicans, 31 percent approve, up slightly from 29 percent.

Fully 70 percent of Democrats approve of the job their representatives are doing on Capitol Hill, compared to 52 percent of Republicans who approve of theirs. About twice as many Republicans (40 percent) disapprove of the job their party is doing in Congress as Democrats disapprove of their party (19 percent).

A majority of independents disapproves of Democrats (60 percent) and Republicans in Congress (66 percent).

The same poll found that Pres. Obama has a 53 percent favorable rating overall, including a 91 percent favorability among Democrats.

Full Story: Pensito Review » Fox News: GOP in Congress Has Lowest Approval of D.C. Politicians – Even Among Republicans.

Gulf Spill Highlights Republicans Who Are ‘Owned, Bought And Paid By The Oil Industry’

Pivoting off Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward for what he called a “shakedown” from the White House, the Washington Post noted yesterday that “the episode showed the uncomfortable spot in which some Republicans find themselves”:

[S]ome Republicans are having trouble bringing themselves to say anything bad about an industry that has been so good to them. It was notable that in their statement distancing themselves from Barton, House Republican leaders John A. Boehner (Ohio), Eric Cantor (Va.) and Mike Pence (Ind.) referred to the spill — caused by the explosion of an oil rig — as a “natural” disaster.

The oil industry “has deep pockets, and they have a long history of supporting Republicans,” said political consultant John Weaver, a former strategist for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “Like any kind of addiction, it’s a terribly difficult thing to break.”

Indeed, Weaver’s comments are perfectly illustrated on the GOP side in a U.S. Senate campaign in Kansas. As the Kansas City Star reports, the “state’s next senator is widely expected to be either Rep. Todd Tiahrt or Rep. Jerry Moran,” Republicans who have each “been a consistent vote for oil and gas industry interests — supporting oil exploration subsidies and expansion while opposing Democratic plans to subsidize alternative energy sources.” And for their efforts, the two have been handsomely rewarded:

Full Story: Think Progress » Gulf Spill Highlights Republicans Who Are ‘Owned, Bought And Paid By The Oil Industry’.

OPS: We are seeing some ‘bought and paid for’ Democrats highlighted also

Clean the Gulf, Clean House, Clean Their Clock

Frank Rich:  The president must come clean and clean house not just because it’s right. He must rebuild confidence in his government for that inevitable day when the next crisis hits the fan.

PRESIDENT Obama is not known for wild pronouncements, so it was startling to hear him liken the gulf oil spill to 9/11. Alas, this bold analogy, made in an interview with Roger Simon of Politico, proved a misleading trailer for the main event. In the president’s prime-time address a few days later, there was still talk of war, but the ammunition was sanded down to bullet points: “a clean energy future,” “a long-term gulf coast restoration plan” and, that most dreaded of perennials, “a national commission.” Such generic placeholders, unanimated by details or deadlines, are Washingtonese for “The buck stops elsewhere.”

The speech’s pans were inevitable, but in truth it was doomed no matter what the words or how cool or faux angry the performance. The president had it right the first time — this is a 9/11 crisis — and only action will do. The sole sentence that really counted on Tuesday night was his prediction that “in the coming weeks and days, these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well.” He will be judged on whether that’s true. The sole event that mattered last week was his jawboning of BP for a $20 billion down payment of blood money — to be overseen, appropriately enough, by Kenneth Feinberg of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

That action could be a turning point for Obama if he builds on it. And he must. In this 9/11, it’s not just the future of the gulf coast, energy policy or his presidency that’s in jeopardy. What’s also being tarred daily by the gushing oil is the very notion that government can accomplish anything. The current crisis in that faith predates this disaster. In the short history of the Obama White House, two of its most urgent projects, reducing unemployment and pacifying Afghanistan, have yet to yield persuasive results. The dividends on the third, health care reform, won’t be in the mail for years.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Clean the Gulf, Clean House, Clean Their Clock – NYTimes.com.

Poll: Bad News for GOP, Rep. Barton – 82% Approve of BP’s $20 Bil Victims’ Fund

If you were surprised that House Speaker-to-Be John Boehner and other top Republicans went into a full-bore panic over Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP on Thursday — normally they’d be high-fivin’ over Barton’s smearing the $20 billion victims’ fund the president brokered with BP as a “shakedown” — the answer may lie in a poll that came out the same day:

The poll’s Thursday release comes as top BP executives testify in front of Congress. At the hearing, Rep. Joe Barton, ranking Republican on the House Energy Committee, defended BP and slammed the White House for insisting that BP place $20 billion in an escrow fund to help compensate those affected by the oil disaster.

“I am ashamed of what happened at the White House yesterday,” said Barton at the hearing. “I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation would be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown. In this case a $20 billion dollar shakedown.”

But according to the poll, Americans disagree with Barton. Eighty-two percent approve of the creating of a fund of billions of dollars to compensate workers and businesses affected by the spill.

Full Story: Pensito Review » Poll: Bad News for GOP, Rep. Barton – 82% Approve of BP’s $20 Bil Victims’ Fund.

When Congress Becomes a Subsidiary of Corporations, Democracy and the Free Market are Dead and Buried

There is no doubt that the biggest political disappointment this year for BuzzFlash is how a candidate who promised “change” from the corporatist stranglehold over D.C. turned into a President who believes that corporate rule is beneficial to America, even as he presides over the destruction that such corrupt corporate control of our capital leaves in its wake.

Reagan, the two Bushes and Cheney may have planted the booby traps that blew up our nation’s economy, destroyed its environment and mired us in war, but Obama continually looks to those global corporations and financial firms who have caused our catastrophic problems to resolve them. The late David Halberstram wrote about how the “best and the brightest” (Ivy League grads, primarily, but toss in the University of Chicago and Stanford types too) were the ones who steered us into the Vietnam War without an exit plan. Obama appears to believe in the elitist notion that if you are at the head of an immense enterprise, it is because of merit.

But the modern global corporations and financial firms are built on a core of corruption, of buying off D.C. so that there are no legal rules to inhibit their pillaging and gambling — and to ensure that Congress and D.C. cover their backsides with public funds when they screw up.

Full Story: When Congress Becomes a Subsidiary of Corporations, Democracy and the Free Market are Dead and Buried | BuzzFlash.org.

Obama Was Created by Our Failure to Impeach Bush

David Swanson:

I want to save most of the time we have for your questions, so I’ll be brief and I’ll start with a couple of questions for you. And then I want you to think of questions for me, because otherwise I’ll just go on and on about what I want to talk about.

Who can tell me who said this and where they said it?

“I — like any head of state — reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation.” (President Barack Obama, asserting the illegal and unconstitutional power to make war, in a Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway.)

What about this one — who and where?

Full Story: Obama Was Created by Our Failure to Impeach Bush | The Smirking Chimp.

New York Dems Standing Strong For Wall Street

House Democrats representing New York are making a last-minute push to defend the interests of the state’s most profitable industry.

On Monday night, Gary Ackerman, a Democrat who represents Queens, told his fellow caucus members that if reform is too tough on Wall Street — particularly, if it includes a tough derivatives proposal from Blanche Lincoln or a hardened Volcker Rule — the 26 members of the New York delegation may abandon the party on a final vote. He claims that reduced profits for Wall Street translates into lower tax revenue for the state and city, which hurts all New Yorkers.

That would leave Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with only a few votes to spare, with plenty of other opposition from within her caucus still left to overcome.

The conventional understanding of the congressional equation is that the Senate, with its requirement of 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, is the limiting factor. But the House is proving a more difficult obstacle.

Full Story: New York Dems Standing Strong For Wall Street.

Loopholes Grow in Bill to Offset Ruling on Campaigns

Congressional Democrats are pushing hard for legislation to rein in the power of special interests by requiring more disclosure of their roles in paying for campaign advertising — but as they struggle to find the votes they need to pass it they are carving out loopholes for, yes, special interests.

In a deal that left even architects of the legislation squirming with unease, authors of a bill intended to counter a Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations and unions to pour money directly into campaign commercials provided an exception this week for the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington.

The resulting uproar over special treatment for the pro-gun group led Democrats on Thursday to expand the exception to cover even more interest groups as they tried to secure votes for the measure, which is opposed by most Republicans. But with other powerful groups also weighing in and no assurance that Democrats had the votes they need, House leaders decided late Thursday to put off a planned Friday vote on the campaign bill, increasing doubts about whether Congress can enact it in time for this year’s elections.

Full Story: Loopholes Grow in Bill to Offset Ruling on Campaigns – NYTimes.com.

Al Franken Slams Supreme Court For Dismantling Legal Protections (VIDEO)

Franken:  it’s the conservatives who have become activist judges.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) railed against the Supreme Court in a speech to progressive legal scholars Thursday night, declaring that “the Roberts Court has systematically dismantled the legal protections that help ordinary people find justice when wronged by the economically powerful.”

Franken in particular decried the way conservative legal scholars have changed the popular perception of what Supreme Court justices do — and what justice is.

They’ve distorted our constitutional discourse to make it sound like the Court’s rulings don’t matter to ordinary people, but only to the undeserving riff-raff at the margins of society.

So unless you want to get a late-term abortion, burn a flag in the town square, or get federal funding for your pornographic artwork, you really don’t need to worry about what the Supreme Court is up to.

The ACLU has a long and proud history of defending the First Amendment, and while I haven’t seen polling on this, I’d bet that most Americans are fairly pro-First Amendment. But, thanks to a generation of conservative activism, the ACLU is now best known as “those guys who hate Christmas.”

By defining the terms of constitutional debate such that it doesn’t involve the lives of ordinary people, conservatives have disconnected Americans from their legal system. And that leaves room for lots of shenanigans.

Full Story: Al Franken Slams Supreme Court For Dismantling Legal Protections (VIDEO).

Dawn Johnsen Advises Progressives To Stick By Their Principles: ‘I Have No Regrets’

In April, Dawn Johnsen withdrew from consideration to be the next Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). The progressive community had applauded Johnsen as one of President Obama’s best nominees, but Republicans ended up blocking her nomination twice. In a Washington Post op-ed last week, Johnsen suggested that the reason the GOP opposed her was simply that she opposed torture:

There is no simple answer to why my nomination failed. But I have no doubt that the OLC torture memo — and my profoundly negative reaction to it — was a critical factor behind the substantial Republican opposition that sustained a filibuster threat. Paradoxically, prominent Republicans earlier had offered criticisms strikingly similar to my own. A bipartisan acceptance of those criticisms is key to moving forward. The Senate should not confirm anyone who defends that memo as acceptable legal advice.

Speaking to the American Constitution Society’s National Convention yesterday, Johnsen used her first public appearance since her unsuccessful nomination to advise progressives to nevertheless stay true to their principles:

Full Story: Think Progress » Dawn Johnsen Advises Progressives To Stick By Their Principles: ‘I Have No Regrets’.

Stewart Takes On America’s Oil Dependence (VIDEO)

With Obama promising a plan to move America toward a non-petroleum based future, Jon Stewart took the time to give a little history lesson on the show last night. As he pointed out, Obama is certainly not the first President to come on TV and talk about a plan for energy-independence. No, no. It seems that going as far back as Nixon, every President has broadcast the same, if not similar, pledge.

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me eight times, I must be a f–king idiot.”

The strikingly similar footage of each of the last eight presidents painted a bleak picture of our reliance on oil, but also served as a platform for Stewart to mock our nation’s leaders dating back to 1974. The latter, as you can imagine, was quite funny.

Video at link

Full Story: Stewart Takes On America’s Oil Dependence (VIDEO).

Rig Owner’s Avoidance Of U.S. Jurisdiction Angers House Panel

The Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling rig was registered in the Marshall Islands and its owners paid taxes in Switzerland — but when the rig blew up and sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, who came to the rescue? And who is suffering the economic and environmental damages caused by the ongoing spill?

Those were among the combative question raised by members of a House committee on Thursday at a hearing about foreign-flagged vessels operating in the Gulf.

Mississippi Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor was particularly irritated. “I'm just curious, how long did it take the Marshall Islands Coast Guard to show up when that rig caught on fire?” he asked rhetorically.

Pointing out that the rig was built in Korea, he asked: “And how long did it take the Korean Coast Guard to show up?”

Full Story: Gulf Oil Spill: Rig Owner’s Avoidance Of U.S. Jurisdiction Angers House Panel.

Labor Board Hobbled By Senate Obstruction Has Hundreds Of Cases Invalidated By Supreme Court

Today, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court invalidated more than 500 cases decided by the National Labor Relations Board. For more than two years, the five person board only had two sitting members, due to Congressional obstruction of its nominees, and the Court decided that the two-person board did not have legal authority to issue rulings.

The Board, which is responsible for overseeing labor-management relations under the National Labor Relations Act, realized in late 2007 that it was not going to have a full complement of members for the upcoming year, so delegated its authority to three members, of which two constitute a quorum. Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said this procedural move doesn’t grant a two-person board the ability to do anything:

If Congress wishes to allow the Board to decide cases with only two members, it can easily do so. But until it does, Congress’ decision to require that the Board’s full power be delegated to no fewer than three members,and to provide for a Board quorum of three, must be given practical effect rather than swept aside in the face of admittedly difficult circumstances. Section 3(b), as it currently exists, does not authorize the Board to create a tail that would not only wag the dog, but would continue to wag after the dog died.

Full Story: Think Progress » Labor Board Hobbled By Senate Obstruction Has Hundreds Of Cases Invalidated By Supreme Court.

President’s speech – How’s that hopey changey thing going for us?

Thom Hartmann

Video

Obama’s Speech: Not The Turning Point He Had In Mind

The most depressing thing about President Obama’s profoundly underwhelming speech Tuesday night was that the White House thought it would change everything, when there was no good reason to think it would change anything.

White House aides had excitedly announced that the speech — his first from the Oval Office — would be an “inflection point,” somehow turning eight weeks of growing anxiety about the disaster in the Gulf and the government’s response in a positive new direction.

But vague generalities and empty, convictionless rhetoric just don’t have that effect — certainly not in the midst of a real, concrete national emergency.

Full Story: Obama’s Speech: Not The Turning Point He Had In Mind.

Senate Accepts Expanded Fed Audit

The Senate will accept an expanded Federal Reserve audit proposal from the House as part of Wall Street conference committee deliberations, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told the panel Wednesday evening.

The House proposal allows repeated future audits of discount window and open market transactions, whereas the Senate proposal had only allowed a one-time audit.

The Senate’s provision had already been stronger than what the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department had previously been willing to accept.

Full Story: Senate Accepts Expanded Fed Audit.

ACLU asks South Carolina: Don’t erase voting machine records

The American Civil Liberties Union has waded into the controversy over South Carolina’s bizarre Democratic primaries last week, which ended with the Senate nomination going to an unknown, unemployed candidate who won more votes than were cast in some counties.

The ACLU has sent a letter (PDF) to the South Carolina State Election Commission asking it not to allow the state’s counties to erase the voting records from the June 8 primary, which saw favored candidate Vic Rawl lose the Senate nomination to unknown Alvin Greene by a 59-to-41 margin.

“We take no position on whether there were irregularities sufficient to place the outcome of the election in doubt but believe the voters in South Carolina are entitled to know that their votes were properly counted,” the ACLU letter states. “That assurance can only be given if the information on the flash cards is preserved and audited.”

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