Elizabeth Warren stands her ground

Go read Charlie Pierce for the elegant analogies on Elizabeth Warren's inspiring appearance on CNBC. All I'm going to add is: every time I see her do this stuff, I really wish she was our POTUS.

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Reid threatens to go nuclear

Yes I know we've heard this all before, but this time Harry Reid sounds serious on filibuster reform.

After a tense exchange on the floor with his Republican counterpart, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, planned to recommend to his fellow Democrats at a private lunch meeting that they should vote to take the exceptional step of barring the minority party from filibustering presidential appointees.

The step that Mr. Reid will endorse, which drew strong objections from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, would not affect filibusters of legislation or judicial nominees. But it would prevent Republicans from being able to require a supermajority of 60 votes for the confirmation of people the president appoints to cabinet level posts or other executive-branch positions.

Greg Sargent has the details on the nuclear trigger:

“We’re going to file cloture on a bunch of nominations, and those votes will occur next week when we schedule them,” Reid said, adding later that if no movement occurred on them, “we know what’s going to happen.”

According to a senior Senate Democratic aide, this means that Reid will file cloture on the following nominations today: Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Gina McCarthy as head of the Environmental Protection Agency; Obama’s picks to the National Labor Relations Board; and possibly Thomas Perez as Labor Secretary.

These are the appointments the GOPers most want to block in order to subvert the will of the majority. So a real test of the laughable "gentlemen's agreement" Reid and McConnell made at the beginning of the session. Remains to be seen if any of the old geezers have the guts to see it through. As the NYT reports, "Senators in both parties also say they fear it could irrevocably change the nature of the Senate."

One could argue we're long overdue for an irrevocable change in that moribund body.

Predictably, Reid's threat left McConnell spitting out his own threats of revenge on the floor, should the tables be turned in the future. (Warning HuffPo link.) As if that's not exactly what Republicans would do anyway if they ever regain the majority, regardless of whether Reid screws up the courage to make a bold move now while there's still time to pass some useful legislation.

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Mitch McConnell threatens Harry Reid

In a facedown between the two old geezers who both have held on to their seats of power for far too long, Mitch McConnell warns Harry Reid about the consequences of shutting down the GOP's obstruction function.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday starkly warned Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) not to eliminate the filibuster on presidential nominations, threatening to end the 60-vote threshold for everything, including bills, if he becomes the majority leader.

“There not a doubt in my mind that if the majority breaks the rules of the Senate to change the rules of the Senate with regard to nominations, the next majority will do it for everything,” McConnell said on the floor.

As if that's not exactly what McConnell would do on the very first day if the electorate is stupid enough to put these crackpot cretins back into the majority. Harry's only and obvious response should be, screw that noise you pompous windbag. Harry should do exactly that to the GOPers now, so at least the Senate can pass some useful policy before the electorate loses it mind again.

Sadly, I doubt Harry Reid, Man of Infinite Indecision, has the balls to do it.

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Kill the filibuster before it kills us

I'm one of the last holdouts on this. I've argued for years that we should keep the filibuster to protect the Senate minority. But that was before the entire Republican party's brains melted before our eyes. Now convinced Paul Waldman is right.

The crackpots have taken over the GOP. When they manage to take the majority again, and they will, they will kill the filibuster. My only quibble with Paul is I don't think they'll wait a hot minute. They'll kill it preemptively on the first day of the session. So Harry Reid should just let it die with dignity now, while we still have a chance to get some sane legislation passed.

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Give 'em heck Harry

Well here we go again. Harry Reid is kinda, sorta, thinking hard about cracking down on GOP obstruction.

“I’m not going to do anything now, precipitously,” he said. “But I’m looking at this very closely…. We’re going to fill that job. Cordray is there now. He’s going to get a vote.”

Corday you'll recall is the long being held in limbo nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. You'll also remember the GOPers are refusing to allow a vote unless the Dems agree to render the agency completely toothless, unable to enforce any actual consumer protection against predatory banksters.

Harry claims he's going to force a vote next week. Willing to bet it won't go well. [photo via The Moderate Voice]

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GOP blocks environmental protection

We continue to see the fruits of Harry Reid's handshake agreement with Mitch McConnell that derailed filibuster reform. Today Senate GOPers prevented a vote on a new EPA chief by refusing to show up, thus denying the committee a quorum:

Today, the eight Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee will not attend the nomination vote of Gina McCarthy to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On April 25, 2013 the Committee Republicans asked Chairman Barbara Boxer to postpone the nomination vote because they had not received answers to their questions.

They blocked the vote essentially over only five unanswered queries, after the nominee Gina McCarthy, had already answered over 1,000 questions. Moreover McCarthy has been head of the Clean Air division for several years and had been easily confirmed to that position in 2009.

She's highly qualified for the job, had in saner times been lauded by Republicans for her work and has the support of the business and science community. Apparently the real problem is she believes in climate disruption or refuses to buy into climate change denialism or something. And besides, the GOP base hates the EPA, hates science and this grotesque grandstanding will piss off liberals.

The rubes love that crap, so no-brainer for the GOPers. Or more like the brainless Republicans still rule our world thanks to Harry Reid's apparently endless supply of patience.

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Break up the Too Big To Fail banks

Don't want to get too excited about this just yet, but it's the best shot at killing the Too Big To Fail beast I've seen so far.

Last week, on April 24th, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Louisiana Republican David Vitter introduced legislation called the "Terminating Bailouts for Taxpayer Fairness Act of 2013 Act," or the "Brown-Vitter TBTF Act" for short. The bill is a gun aimed directly at the head of the Too-Big-To-Fail beast.

Who knows if they'll get anywhere with it. Big Finance will be throwing around a lot of big money to stop them. But there are quite a few surprise supporters including some Republicans and The Independent Community Bankers of America. The latter have been reluctant to take sides until now. And it surely sounds like a real fix in this telling.

Studies have shown that these banks borrow money at about 0.8 percent more cheaply than other banks, and that this implicit government subsidy is worth about $83 billion a year just to the top 10 banks in America. This bill would essentially wipe out that hidden subsidy and make the banks bailout-proof.

If it worked it would be a big step in restoring some balance to the national, and international, economy.

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Hardly working

There are millions of Americans who have been out of work for so long they stopped even looking for a job. There are millions more who are barely employed in jobs that don't pay a living wage. I've heard that there are fast food joints that now require a bachelor's degree to apply for a position as an assistant manager. Against that backdrop, this was the scene at a Joint Economic Committee in the Senate hearing on long term unemployment.



The hearing started with only one out of 20 members of the committee in attendance. Eventually three others managed to show up. Shortly thereafter, they passed a sequester fix to eliminate waiting times for airline flights by unanimous consent at lightning speed. Of course, they have a job. For now.

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Don't let the door hit you in the Baucus on the way out

The tears being shed over that miserable excuse for a Democrat, Max Baucus, announcing his long overdue retirement wouldn't fill a shot glass. Me, I'm suppressing the urge to dance on the table out of long ingrained imperative to be polite.

Everybody seems to be excited by the idea of replacing him with this guy I don't really remember. But if a Senator Schweitzer makes Charlie Pierce this happy, I'm all in for a string-tie Democrat.

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It's only just begun

Our broken Senate managed to prevent any reform of gun safety regulations yesterday. In a way it's almost a good thing because there were more amendments than just the watered down expansion of background checks that failed to break the perpetual filibuster requirement of 60 votes. In fact, the GOP's Cornyn amendment to further weaken interstate gun safety laws got more votes than Manchin-Toomey, though it also failed to reach the magic number.

While many were angered and disappointed by this complete failure of good governance, few have more reason to be angry than Gabby Giffords whose op-ed ran in the NYT last night. A powerful piece but these passages get to the heart of her remarks:

Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on. [...]

They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.

They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony.

As Gabby and the parents of the Newtown dead and so many others have vowed, this is not over. If anything this blazing display of political cowardice has only hardened the determination to change the status quo. And as Gabby said in the op-ed, if we can't reform the laws with this Congress, then we'll change the Congress members. In the end, anger may bring more change than hope ever could.

Meanwhile, while the vote was going on, many victims of gun violence were in the gallery. One of them was Patricia Maisch who shouted, “Shame on you!”

You may remember her from when Gabby Giffords was shot on that horrible day in 2011. "Maisch was hailed as a hero for disarming Tucson shooter Jared Loughner by preventing him from reloading a fresh magazine." As she was leaving the gallery, she was detained by security. They held her for two hours, which is "approximately 115 minutes longer than a background check at a federal gun dealer," in order to run a criminal background check because she dared to briefly disrupt the proceedings -- with three words. The irony is lost on no one.

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GOP dances on the graves of the dead children of Sandy Hook

By now you've heard Senate Republicans killed the gun safety bill by filibuster today. Within minutes of the vote, even as the victims of gun violence were weeping in the gallery, Mitch McConnell posted this gloat on his facebook page:



The 90% of America who wanted better protection against allowing lethal weapons to fall into the hands of homicidal maniacs responded:



I'm too disgusted to say anything tonight and really I can't put it better than this:

"Today, the U.S. Senate decided to do the unthinkable about gun violence --- nothing at all," - Gabby Giffords

And to add insult to injury, on the same day our broken Senate refused to pass gun safety reform to protect 300million+ living Americans, they unanimously passed a resolution to pardon one man, Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight boxing champ. He deserves the pardon, but he died over 50 years ago.

These are the priorities of the so-called greatest deliberative body in the world.

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Senate does something about gun safety reform

It's not much so far. Really it's kind of pathetic that a simple cloture vote to allow debate is such big news.

The procedural vote followed a breakthrough by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, who reached a compromise on broadening background checks to include private purchases at gun shows and on the Internet.

Because of the bipartisan deal, Senate Democrats backing the legislation received support from enough Republicans to approve the cloture motion, 68-31, setting up debate on the proposals and amendments expected to last for two weeks.

Only two Democrats defected and 16 Republicans voted for cloture. One of them surprisingly being my own generally useless Richard Burr. While I'm certain he'll vote against any actual reform bill, just voting to allow it to come to the floor brought out the gun loving crackpot hordes in protest. The general drift of the commentary was how dare he give OWEbama a political victory. They will never forgive this grave betrayal of their constitutional rights and they're going to kick his RINO ass out of office. Of course they'll forget all that when he votes against the final bill.

Some milquetoast bill may yet get passed out of the Senate. Then John Boehner's House gets to further eviscerate the reforms. Unlikely to solve the problems. But DC media and the Beltway junkies have something to talk about for the next few weeks. So there's that...

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Harry Reid ready to bust out gun control bill

Our Senate Majority Leader tells us he is a patient man, but apparently he's lost his patience today. Harry Reid is forcing a cloture vote on the current Democratic gun reform bill. The kabuki is complicated on this move with the compromise bill still stuck in the back rooms and the above pictured GOPers being joined by Mitch McConnell threatening a filibuster, along a few red state Dems.

Not clear how serious they are about the filibuster. Josh says their resolve is failing. Surely, there are long term problems for the Republican party in blocking a vote on a bill that has the support of 90% of the voters at least on the background checks. Thing is with a misinformed public, blocking the vote won't hurt them with the rubes back home. It's not about screwing Obummer this time. The 2014 contenders have to choose between saving the party or their own sorry butts.

Mitch McConnell is one of the 2014ers and he's under fire from the left and the far right. He could demand party unity to block the bill but not sure he wants to risk it. He might lose. There's already several defectors including Grumpy Gramps McCain. If Harry actually follows through on this, could make for an interesting day tomorrow. [graphic via]

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Harry Reid threatens GOP with filibuster reform -- again

And this time he really means it:

“All within the sound of my voice — including my Democratic senators and the Republican senators who I serve with — should understand that we as a body have the power on any given day to change the rules with a simple majority,” Reid told Nevada Public Radio in a little-noticed interview Friday. “And I will do that if necessary.” [...]

“I’m a very patient man,” he said. “We made changes but the time will tell whether they’re big enough. I’m going to wait and build a case. If the Republicans in the Senate don’t start approving some judges, and don’t start helping get some of these nominations done, then we’re going to have to take more action.”

No Harry. The time for patience is over. Five years is long enough. And no, approving Mary Jo White to head the SEC by unanimous assent is not enough to show good faith. GOPers figure they're letting the fox in to guard the henhouse with that one. If they do the same with the nomination of Sri Srinivasan to the DC District court, and soon, then we can talk about patience. If the gun control bill comes to the floor without a filibuster, then you can give them more time. Otherwise, no deal.

Harry reminds me of the harried parent with unruly, whining kids at the supermarket. The parent threatens them with no candy because they're misbehaving through the whole shopping trip, but then they calm down in the last aisle for three minutes, the parent gives in and buys the candy bar at the checkout anyway to stop their crying. Next time you see them in the store, the whole sorry spectacle happens all over again.

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