Aww, poor babies. Someone get them a binky:
Republicans have caught the Democrats in a midnight “stimulus” power play that seeks to cut Republican conferees out of the House-Senate negotiations to resolve a final version of the Obama “stimulus” package. Staff members from the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) met last night to put together the “stimulus” conference report.
***Some Republicans reportedly were in the late-night conference. But — at least from the Senate — the official Republican conferees were excluded. HUMAN EVENTS has received e-mail confirmations from the staffs of both Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and John Thune (R-S.D.) saying that they had no participation in the conference.
***The deal was Snowe’s and Collins’s, according to a Senate source. Sen. Specter, who had been in Harry Reid’s office for an earlier meeting on the compromise, left at about 7 p.m. At 8:45 p.m., there was another meeting at which Sens. Snowe and Collins were the only Republicans present. They made the deal, and Specter signed on to it later. He had given an indication of the deal earlier that evening in an MSNBC interview.
I guess next time you want a final say in the shaping of a piece of legislation (and you already had a ginormous say in the current legislation) in the conference committee, you probably should bring more than three votes to the table in both houses. Kind of funny how that works, as all the people who voted for the bill on the GOP side are right there working with the Democrats to finalize the bill.
You WATB’s demagogued, lied, whined, and had a hissy fit about the bill, then voted against it en masse even though it contained a number of provisions you wanted and you had inserted in the bill, and then took to the air waves pleased as punch with yourselves. The adults watched you and then decided you needed a timeout. This is bad and wrong, why?
You can whine about this, or you can make sure it doesn’t happen again. Any guesses which path the GOP takes?
*** Update ***
Two quick things. Bush’s signature issue in 2000, a tax cut bill a bill designed to deal with the surplus from the Clinton years, was passed in 2001 with 12 Democratic votes in the Senate, 28 in the house, all in the aftermath of a very contentious election and basically written precisely as the Republicans wanted it (with a few concessions, such as sunset provisions).
By comparison, on the heels of an enormous victory, with large majorities in the House and Senate, facing economic collapse, the Republicans were able to provide a whopping three (3) votes to a bill that before it even was introduced was loaded with tax cuts designed to appease Republicans, and then went through a huge revision to remove things that many republicans found offensive to their delicate sensibilities. Three. Votes. The entire Republican party, in both houses, voted overwhelmingly against tax cuts for the middle class because it was beneficial to them politically. Country first, or something.
Also, this:
Obama: Hey guys, we could really use your help.
Wingnuts: Go jump in a lake, Messiah!
Pelosi: This isn’t about party, it’s about people.
Wingnuts: Did you guys hear something? A cackling noise?
Reid: We’ve got 3 votes! Can I get four? Bueller? Bueller?
Snowe: It’s no use, guys. Why don’t we go ahead and get this done tonight.
Wingnuts: Tough talk, but you’ll come crawling back to us tomorrow.
(The next day)
Wingnuts: Why weren’t we consulted? This is an outrage!! Wait ‘until Rush hears about this!!
Pretty much.
TheHatOnMyCat
Love it.
This is going to be a long four years for the Do Nothing Party.
And may I say, fuck them very much.
linda
i’ll be damned … harry and nancy getting it done.
Zifnab
Likely both. Buying a congressman can get kinda expensive. If he’s just dead weight, why lobby him at all? The GOP will get in line, bitching all the way. Eventually they’ll remember that its easier to sabotage legislation when you’re not on the outside looking in.
Palooza
Seriously, has there ever been such a lack of self-awareness in a political party? Does the GOP think that people don’t notice and can’t compare the way they acted while in power with the way (the exact opposite) they are acting now.
The GOP went out of their way to freeze out and basically humiliate the Democrats while they enjoyed majorities in Congress. Even when the Democrats gained the House and a slim majority in the Senate, the GOP simply obstructed and delayed (via filibuster/filibuster threats) a record number of bills. Yet now they want to pretend they believe in bipartisanship? And they expect people to buy it?
They DOUBLED the deficit from $5 trillion to $10 trillion in 8 short years. Yet now they want to pretend they believe in balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility? And they expect people to buy it?
It pisses me off that we have such a$$hats in the minority — we actually could use some smart people working together to solve these huge problems (that they created). Instead, the idiots think that by going against this stimulus bill and hoping for its failure (and the failure of the USA) they will be in power again in 2010. No problem if the country is in ruins.
Stuck
From a cspan junkie, I remember well the hijinks from wingnuts involving conference committees. Probably the most infamous was this one from the diaper dandy House Wingnuts. Actually, I don’t think it was a conference committee.
Incertus
@linda: Yeah, that might be the most amazing thing about this whole deal. They’ve moved some other stuff through already–Lilly Ledbetter and SCHIP–but this is really big and they’re getting the deal done.
dm
The Democrats learned this trick from the Republicans when they controlled Congress. Bills would get stripped of all Democrat-friendly provisions in conference.
It was okay then, I’m sure it will be a Constitutional crisis now that it’s happening to the Republicans.
Indylib
Some more good news in Obamaland. Looks like Solis is going to get confirmed – finally.
Rome Again
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Dave
Break out the whambulance.
You reap what you sow. The GOP ran Congress with unrivaled arrogance for six years. Funny how much that sucks when you find yourself in the minority.
Stuck
@Dave:
They threw a major hissy fit at the beginning of this congress when new rules were put in place requiring any amendments they put on a bill to be serious and not a wedge issue vote for a 30 second campaign ad. Dems let them do these PR campaign votes a number of times after 2006, something that would have been verbotten for dems when wingnuts ran things.
Joshua Norton
I hope they learned other Repub tricks as well. Like the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Dem. silence implies acceptance of a so-called shift toward the right.
If this trend continues and wingers/neocons continue to choke off significant change, it’s possible that public disappointment, frustration and anger will quickly attach to Obama and the Democrats, and the chance for major policy reforms in this country will come and go – with a whimper. What might follow a rudderless Obama leadership vacuum is scary to contemplate.
To get this mess cleaned up, it’s squeaky-wheel time for the Dems. Big time.
El Cid
No they didn’t. They never really had any power. It was all Barney Frank. Bill Clinton ruined the military and made teenagers have oral sex, then Al Gore tried to steal Florida’s votes, and then George W. Bush was President for a few months after September 11th, 2001 when Bill Clinton let terrorists attack us but then George W. Bush kept us safe after that; and then Barney Frank ran everything, and then George W. Bush came back when Imperial Leader Petraeus saved U.S. troops with the Surge, and then Nancy Pelosi took over and Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi plunged the world into a recession after Barack Hussein Muslim Kenyan Obama made fun of Bristol Palin.
What you are remembering never happened. If you think it did, then read my history above again until you agree.
Shawn in ShowMe
Obama: Hey guys, we could really use your help.
Wingnuts: Go jump in a lake, Messiah!
Pelosi: This isn’t about party, it’s about people.
Wingnuts: Did you guys hear something? A cackling noise?
Reid: We’ve got 3 votes! Can I get four? Bueller? Bueller?
Snowe: It’s no use, guys. Why don’t we go ahead and get this done tonight.
Wingnuts: Tough talk, but you’ll come crawling back to us tomorrow.
(The next day)
Wingnuts: Why weren’t we consulted? This is an outrage!! Wait ‘until Rush hears about this!!
demkat620
Suck it wingnuts.
I think I may OD on popcorn and margaritas.
Xel
It’s a bit intoxicating to see people you used to rate between "annoyingly flawed" and "This is what happens if you fertilize a dead dog’s womb with tumor cells and wrap it all in cognitive dissonance and papier mache made out of pages of Ayn Rand books" actually be this loathsome.
I’ll never have to worry that I am being just a bit too generalizing or exaggerating – I can say whatever the fuck I want about these people and their actions, and I’ll be going baby-powder easy on them.
I can go "They’re making their own bible where Jesus has two big dicks so he can cock-slap multiple uppity gays and mack with multiple ladies and then he rips on stimulus bills that aren’t mainly tax cuts" and the person I adress will go "Uh no actually it’s been two weeks they have edited that part of the Neo-bible for being ‘willy-nilly relativist sodomite-socialist-agenda-appeazing anti-Limbaugh moonbattery ."
This is it. I think this is actually it – everything is so bad right now there is no distinction between the levels of misery and it becomes as valid to constantly grin maniacally as it is to blubber so hard spittle flies from your bottom lip.
SpotWeld
It’ll be a bit of test to see how much the Dems decide to say "Screw you" to the GOP. Hypothically they could really reset the bill back to what the hard-line left wanted in the first place.
Or they could come to a reasonable compromise between what had been already passed in the House and Senate.
In the name of equity I would hope for the latter case, but given how much the GOP is going to have a hissyfit regardless of what comes out of committee it might as well be the former.
torrentprime
i think what’s really surprising me is how much the D’s are letting that magic 60 matter. I didn’t think it would matter this much, but are Snowe and Collins and Spectre really going to run the Senate? Or, once Franken is in, all Spectre? Perhaps some sort of rotating king-maker on the R-side? I know, I know, assuming D unity is silly by itself, but there are equally big battles coming up (health care, EFCA, and oh my god can you imagine FOCA?). Are the Ds constantly going to live and die by this stupid procedural-and-not real filibuster? When do they start to educate America that it doesn’t take 60 votes in the Senate to do something?
Litlebritdifrnt
Personally I say fuck em. I mean really. They lost, the American public told them to go to hell, why should not the Democratic majority tell them the same thing? I just don’t get this trying to be bipartisan thing. I understand that Obama is trying to be inclusive but if they are going to sit in the corner like petulant five year olds sucking their thumbs and grasping their ears then is it not time to tell them that they are going to stay in time out until they learn to grow the fuck up and act like adults? (and I say this from a position of being a former republican like John) Fuck em with a big stick, twice.
John Cole
I have no idea what Xel was talking about, but I am going to guess it was an awesome Happy Hour(s).
Stuck
@John Cole:
Made perfect sense to me. Call it Liberal Shock Poetry. Maybe that’s what threw ya.
"This is what happens if you fertilize a dead dog’s womb with tumor cells and wrap it all in cognitive dissonance and papier mache made out of pages of Ayn Rand books" actually be this loathsome.
Better than Dylan
Martin
And the Dems did as well back in the 70s. Meh. That’s how Congress works. At least pre-94, I generally had the sense that regardless of the heavy handed tactics, they were well intentioned. It was nation over party. After 94 – less so with Gingrich than DeLay – that seemed to change. Maybe it was just seeing it in person more often due to CSPAN and better news reporting, but tactics often seemed far more vindictive than productive.
I don’t see any vindictiveness here. The GOP didn’t participate and they got cut out. The Dems gave as good as they got on this one.
gnomedad
Ha ha, "deal with the surplus from the Clinton years."
EX-TER-MIN-ATE, EX-TER-MIN-ATE.
Laura W
Does anyone know what is up with Howard Fineman’s hair?
Is the coloring on purpose?
Rome Again
@SpotWeld:
This is a good point. If they are going to wrangle their fingers to get amendments into the bill and then not vote for it, those amendments should not stand.
@John Cole:
I don’t think that was a result of imbibing, perhaps smoking crack.
Rome Again
@Laura W:
Yeah, it’s called getting old. My hair does that too.
Fencedude
So how long till this skit ends up on Maddow’s show?
Martin
In this case it sorta did. The GOP did set up a filibuster. Now, you could argue that the Dems should have let the GOP do it (I think they should have, personally) but it was actually in play this time.
60 is the only leverage the GOP has, so they’re gonna pull it out on all the big stuff. Collins, Snowe, and Specter are practically gonna run the place for the next 2 years.
Rome Again
@Martin:
Sorry, I disagree. $400b in tax cuts is not cut out.
Rome Again
And Lieberman is going to spend the next four years saying "that night I went on television at the RNC convention and said lots of bad things about you Democrats didn’t really happen – remember, I’m actually an Independent Democrat."
Haha! Yeah, right!
Incertus
@Martin: I like imagining that Obama went to Reid and asked him to go along this time, because this package is too important to let the Republicans hold up, even for show. Then I put down the crack pipe. I don’t think we’ll see an actual filibuster as long as Reid is the Majority Leader.
Tsulagi
Of course you could have just added a period after “You can whine about this” to save time. I look forward to Cantor calling a press conference to announce that really they would have contributed in good faith if only that mean Pelosi had let them in.
But to be fair and not discount them too much as only whiners, likely the wingnut rapid reaction forces are already mounting an operation. Or just mounting. Given the traitors Snowe, Collins, and Specter, can a surge in RSSF ball buying be far behind?
Incertus
@Rome Again: There were always going to be tax cuts–Obama promised them on the campaign trail, after all. The only question was how much, and yeah, the Blue Dogs and Republicans got more than they probably should have. But they didn’t get all they wanted, and they’re going to have to eat it on a lot of the spending they didn’t want.
JenJen
There’s also the 2003 Bush tax cuts, which were more damaging. They came at precisely the time they were not needed (we had just weathered the recession, and oh by the way embarked on a war in Iraq), and served as nothing (especially in retrospect) but profligacy.
That one came down to a 50-50 Senate vote, with Ben Nelson (whassup, Ben!) and Zell Miller (there are no words) blue-doggin’ with the Republicans.
Cheney broke the tie.
gbear
James Adkisson, the guy who killed two people when shooting up the Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, TN last July, was sentenced today. His (unsuccessful )suicide note was released today. Exerpts:
Go drown yourself in a bathtub, wingnuts. DIAF.
Rome Again
@Incertus:
Yes, of course, but 400 billion?
Republicans got a sweet deal here, and they’re just crybabies to not support it.
Jay B.
What the GOP didn’t expect was that Obama, either having learned from his mistake or planned for all along (I believe the former, but it doesn’t really matter), would turn the tables on their weeks of obstruction and whining in two days.
I mean every asshole pundit was going along with the GOP’s preferred spin: We WON because we didn’t vote for it, we WON because we were "conservative", we WON because stimulus support is losing steam.
Obama goes to Indiana, goes to Florida and has a press conference and the GOP got absolutely swamped while Pelosi and Reid (?!) look like leaders. Stimulus in. A massive bill is pushed through in three days. The GOP loses cloture. Loses the vote. And the measure is now strongly supported again, according to Gallup and the Democracy Corps polling, all while they are getting steamrolled on SCHIP, Solis, other labor issues, etc AND getting exposed as the moral rejects they are.
They picked the wrong fight at the wrong time. In their efforts to knock 6 points off of Obama’s massive approval ratings, they’ve opened themselves up to a simple formula for every fight to come on the economy: Democrats + Lieberman + Sanders + two Republicans from blue/purple states.
Now, Democrats can ALWAYS snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and their "centrist" caucus is a hateful bunch of ignorant assholes — but FUCK is Obama a potent corrective to their typical ineptitude. He’s so much better a communicator than any other Democrat in Washington, he single handedly turned the tide in TWO DAYS.
Now if he would just turn that righteousness on his awful "state secrets" stand…(I’m a Democrat ’til the end.)
kay
@Laura W:
I like Howard Fineman. He has a sense of humor, and twinkly eyes, with a lot of laugh lines. He doesn’t take himself, or that job, overly seriously.
It looks like has decided to stop dying his hair. Just boldly grow it out, and pretend this awkward in-between period isn’t happening. I noticed it about a week ago. I think it’s endearing.
gbear
You have to add the incoherent wimps like Nelson (D-(Bendover, NE) to that list too. And that is one of the things that really sucks about a filibuster-free senate. This is not a good thing.
Andre
Hehe, "cock slap".
Laura W
@kay: Yes. I have done my research on google and it seems this has been the subject of much discussion over the years. Apparently he has decided to "transition back to his normal color." (I wanted to read a link that said something about him being caught applying mascara to his hair last year, but the site wouldn’t load in this calender year.)
Important stuff to stay on top of, kay.
Stuck
I was going to say something hopefully witty and mocking. But I got nothin’. Nothing at all.
The Populist
Hey rightwing…yes you with the dunce hat and floods on…
Listen up. Cry it out. It won’t get better. You lost your morals and the right to own the argument. The party of fiscal responsibility? People see right through that nonsense.
Personal responsibility? Yep, whenever you get caught doing something bad, it’s a democrats fault or your wife’s fault or whatever.
Privacy? Uh huh…you are the party of wiretaps and Terri Schiavo. How fucking DARE you stick your nose in people’s personal business and then lie about that poor woman’s condition. Fuck you.
Personal freedom? Yep, so much for that. You people sure like telling us what God to pray to and what a woman can do with her body. You won’t let Oregonians end their lives if they are terminal. Funny, are you going to reimburse a family for watching a loved one rot away before dying? You people don’t even like children. Once they leave the womb, it’s society that should deal with it…as long as they don’t ask for funding!
Taxation? Yep, lower taxes for the rich sure did help the middle class. While bridges fall down and roads/buildings crumble, you insist on ignoring it because the budget should only go for supporting Israel and our ginormous war machine.
Fiscal? Yep, the party that likes to call liberals tax & spend. Yep, so much for that hmmmm borrow and spenders? What’s that? Cut spending??? How come Clinton left you the blueprints of paying down the deficit with a surplus for 10 years. Fiscal responsibility my ass you tards.
kay
@Laura W:
I can stand three pundits: David Gergen (mostly) Lawyer Toobin, and Fineman.
I have no earthly idea why people like Chuck Todd. Because he can add a series of small numbers?
tomjones
@torrentprime: I agree with your sentiment, but unlike a lot of votes in the Senate, this bill actually does require 60 votes. Not on cloture, but 60 votes to pass. Something about budget rules or something, daily kos was talking about it.
Laura W
@kay: I’m pretty much in accord with you and I did like Todd a lot on the campaign/election beat. Not so much now on White House – yawn/lawn – duty.
I know he’s not a pundit, but I love Jonathan Turley. Rachel seems to as well.
Edit: + Todd’s easy on the eyes. My eyes, anyway.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Rome Again
I think it would be a good idea if JC corrected the $400 billion number on the front page. The deal as it stands is 65% spending and 35% tax cuts. And 35% of $789 billion is $276 billion, not $400 billion.
Wilson Heath
Oh noes! They didn’t consult Grassley! Wonder why. Maybe because the moron doesn’t get taxes or fiscal policy in the slightest but still manages to lecture the floor about these routinely. Pulling out discredited claptrap about the magic of tax cuts while politicing for mere tax deferral. If my printer paper was soft enough or my corn-hole more robust, I would print out the transcripts in TaxNotes for my morning constitutionals, as that’s the only conceivable purpose of his nonsense.
Prime example of "Shh — the adults are talking now."
jenniebee
@gbear:
This guy shot up a Unitarian church to strike a blow against creeping Marxism because Capitalists laid him off.
Orwell wept.
Mike in NC
Yeah, but that was before they changed it to "Country First" so it could fit better on a bumper sticker. Lovely people.
Reverend Dennis
The Republicans’ behavior is now, officially, an infringement of the Monty Python argument sketch .
TR
Aren’t these the same Republicans who held open votes that were supposed to be 15 minutes for 3 full hours until they could get the votes? Who literally locked Democrats out of committee rooms? Who bribed Nick Smith on the floor of the House and told Sen. Leahy to go fuck himself on the floor of the Senate?
Go clutch your pearls somewhere else, assclowns. No one cares.
demkat620
@Laura W: I was hoping somebody would ask that.
It’s very scary.
demkat620
@kay: No.
Richard Wolffe. Yummy!
TR
Is there a way we can make sure Bernie Goldberg hears this? Preferably on live TV after he’s done his usual schtick of whining about how mean the liberals are?
Hey Bernie? Your book inspired two murders and could have prompted many more. Sleep well, asshole.
Laura W
@demkat620: I was hoping someone would add him.
He’s very yummy!
demkat620
@Laura W: Great minds and all that…
I just love Richard Wolffe. That smile, that accent, the touch of gray. Mmmm-mmm-mmmm.
And he’s smart too!
Martin
Obama’s promise was in that range. I haven’t looked at the details closely enough (busy laying off people today – sigh) but I don’t think the cuts are terribly far removed from what Obama was seeking, relative to the overall size of the package. Personally, I’d have preferred to see the Bush cuts repealed as part of the same package to help neutralize things, but politically this is actually pretty important for the Dems. Consider how useful it will be in 2010 when every Dem challenger can campaign how their opponent voted against tax cuts. The GOP is now arguing against tax cuts. Watching them spin when the Dems seek to repeal (or just not renew) the Bush tax cuts will be wicked entertaining.
kay
@demkat620:
I think of him as a "reporter", not a "pundit". I invent these categories. I also have "experts" and "lobbyists". There’s some overlap. Pundits are never experts, but experts can be lobbyists.
J. Michael Neal
No. There was no filibuster involved in the stimulus bill. The reason it needs 60 votes is because increasing the deficit violates the pay-go rules, and they need to be waived. That requires 3/5. No filibuster. no option to make them talk.
Steeplejack
@Jay B.:
Excellent summation.
Ed Drone
Now, are those rules a law, or a Senate rule? Because, as I recall, the filibuster 60 votes were subject to the "nuclear option," because it was a Senate rule, and if the pay-go rules are also just Senate rules, then what are we waiting for??
If the 60 votes are due to a law, then that’s different.
Ed
TenguPhule
Poster Child for Taking all Republicans off the Streets.
mannemalon
@kay:
in addition to these, I also like Richard Wolffe and Jonathon Alter. After those folks it’s slim pickins. Oh, I also like Ron Brownstein. Definitely an establishment guy, but clearly sharp and definitely an obsessed politics junkie.
mannemalon
um wait. After reading subsequent comments, it seems I’ve opined on something a little different from what I initially thought was being discussed.
Nevermind the previous post ladies (and maybe gents?), carry on …
Ian
What kind of Messiah jumps in a lake? Onto a lake, yes, but not into.
Tonybrown74
@Laura W:
Oh, honey! Not him!! Ick!
My preference for cuties would be Dave Shuster and that cutie that is always a guest on Keith Olberman’s show (he is young looking with the glasses, dirty blond – Yum!).