I'm supporting whoever runs against McCain. Primary or re-election. Dude has completely lost it.
Sen. John McCain spent the weekend negotiating with Majority Leader Harry Reid on a deal to avert Reid's threatened use of the "nuclear option" to change Senate rules to eliminate filibusters on Presidential nominations. Through his efforts, McCain was able to secure a complete GOP capitulation on 7 pending nominations. Reid secured all the benefits of exercising the "nuclear option" without the political cost of actually using it.
Q: What helped trigger the filibuster showdown in the Senate?
ReplyDeleteA: Obama sent to the Senate a full slate of five nominees to the NLRB, including the two recess appointees, Sharon Block and Richard Griffin. A fully functioning NLRB was a priority for his union allies, and the agency faced the prospect of having too few members to do business after Chairman Mark Pearce's term expires on Aug. 27. But Republicans said the appointments of Block and Griffin were sullied by the appeals court ruling and refused to consider the group of NLRB nominees as long as they remained part of it.
Q: How did Senate Democrats react?
A: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid insisted that if Republicans didn't stop blocking confirmation of Block, Griffin, Pearce and four other stalled nominees for other agencies, he would change Senate procedures to strip them of their ability to delay votes.
Q; What was the final agreement that averted a Democratic threat to overturn historic rules that protect minority-party rights?
A: Under the final agreement, Democrats agreed that Griffin and Block would be replaced by new selections and steered toward speedy consideration by the Senate. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the final agreement makes clear that the president "cannot thumb his nose at the Senate's constitutional role in our system of checks and balances." AP News
Soooooo, we replace the two union toadies with two other union toadies.
DeleteIn the meantime Reid simply has to threaten the rules chage whenever he needs something in the future.
McCain should be at the dog track.
He is not the only one....
ReplyDeleteThe Tuesday Senate deal cut by Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday to avoid the “nuclear option” just keeps getting better and better…for union bosses.
ReplyDeleteYou may recall that on Tuesday, the only “victory” that Republicans could lay claim to (in exchange for their giving Harry Reid nearly everything Democrats wanted) was that two of Barack Obama’s constitutionally-challenged “recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board would be let go.
Well, as it turns out, while Operating Engineers’ chief counsel Richard Griffin is being tossed from his seat on the NLRB as a member, he is now being offered the position of the NLRB’s General Counsel.
As importantly, it appears that Democrats (if not Republicans, as well) knew that Griffin would be nominated for the General Counsel job.
SO NOTHING WAS ACCOMPLISHED BY MCCAIN OTHER THAN ENSURE EXTREMISTS WERE GIVEN POSITIONS OF POWER AND THE NUCLEAR OPTION IS STILL ON THE TABLE.