Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

T R E 4 5 O N

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Everybody saw this coming.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Infrastructure week. at last.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Bark louder, little dog.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Come on, man.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

After roe, women are no longer free.

I really should read my own blog.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You are here: Home / Politics / Alan Frumin, Come on Down!

Alan Frumin, Come on Down!

by | 54 Comments

This post is in: 

This poor SOB is about to become the next target of the right-wing flash mob of hate, joining Graeme Frost, Judge George Greer, and most recently, Marcelas Owens:

You probably couldn’t pick him out of a lineup of two, and for years, he has toiled in obscurity. But this week’s Senate debate over a health care reconciliation bill is likely to come down to one mustachioed man — Parliamentarian Alan Frumin.

He is the go-to guy for rulings on whether the bill and any provision in it can pass with just a simple 51-vote majority or will need a 60-vote supermajority for success, and no one in either party, it seems, wants to upset him.

If Frumin says any part of the bill violates strict reconciliation rules, it will likely be stricken, because Senate Democrats do not have the 60 votes needed to retain it.

I wouldn’t take that job for any amount of money- they’re probably already camped outside his house waiting to check out his countertops.

Reader Interactions

54Comments

  2. 2.

    atlliberal

    Republicans fired the last guy when they didn’t like his rulings. They can’t do that this time, so they’ll have to get creative.

  6. 6.

    dmsilev

    He’s apparently serving his second term, so to speak, in the job. Wiki:

    The current parliamentarian is Alan Frumin, who succeeded Robert Dove, who was Parliamentarian in the mid-to-late 1990s. Frumin also preceded him in the late-1980s as Parliamentarian, insofar as they switched positions as the Parliamentarian and the second most senior parliamentarian due to changes in partisan control over the Senate.

    And just on the off chance that the GOP has forgotten, here’s what they did to Frumin’ s predecessor when they were in charge:

    In 2001, Dove ruled to remove a Republican provision to allocate over $5 billion in the 2002 budget for natural disasters.[3] Following Republican anger about these rulings, he was dismissed by Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott. [5] Both times Dove was dismissed, he was replaced by Alan Frumin.

    -dms

  7. 7.

    Max

    I posted this down below, but it’s too good not to repost…

    From the Twitter…

    Sen Landrieu on the floor just now to McCain: I’ve explained 2 the Sen from AZ that just b/c he didn’t know about it doesn’t make it a secret.

    Dems appear to be Fired Up and Ready to Go!

  8. 8.

    JoshA

    Frumin became Parliamentarian in 2001, after the GOP fired the previous Parliamentarian because he made a couple rulings they didn’t lie.

    That Parliamentarian, Robert Dove (who prior to being parliamentarian had worked for Sen. Dole) had come into the job in 1995, when the Republicans had fired the previous Parliamentarian…who was, strangely, Alan Frumin.

  10. 10.

    Susan Kitchens

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    The linked article’s headline:

    “Working The Ref: Republicans Prepare To Blame Parliamentarian For Dems’ Health Care Success” (emphasis mine)

    I just love love love the party of personal responsibility. They’re in one massive blame-war.

    What (or whom) will they blame next?

  12. 12.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    @Susan Kitchens:

    What (or whom) will they blame next?

    We can be certain not themselves. That would cause the universe to vibrate, or something.

  13. 13.

    Susan Kitchens

    Hmmm… is “blame-war” remotely lexicon-worthy?

    Seems it might be, with some snappier snark attached to it.

    Edited to add: Yes, yes, that’s an invitation!

  15. 15.

    Zifnab

    @JoshA: That, sir, is job security.

    And besides, didn’t Dove already come out and say he supported the reconciliation measure? :-p I guess it’s time to send someone through the Parliamentarian revolving door one more time.

  16. 16.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    @Max:

    I now Landrieu gets a lot of guff around here, and some of it likely is deserved, though she is the dem senator from whacka doodle Louisiana.

    But I like her, always have. And a few years ago during Bush when all the drama over filibustering wingnut judges was going down in the senate, one night on the senate floor, she ripped Orrin Hatch a new ahole for suggesting she (Landrieu) didn’t really care that much about women’s issues. It was a thing of beauty, and I tried to find a you tube of it, but couldn’t. She stalked back and forth across the floor ranting and raving and waving her arms at what a doofus Hatch was for suggesting such a thing.

  18. 18.

    Susan Kitchens

    OMG, how could I have forgotten… blame game?

    It’s like Republican Twister.

    Right Foot : _______!
    Left Hand : ________!

    Okay, peeps! Name the dots of blame on the plastic (ooh! blood for oil-based products!) mat of Republican Twister, brought to you by Hasbeen(tm).

    (in other news, here’s what the great google says: “Results 1 – 10 of about 6,860,000 for republican blame”)

  21. 21.

    Bob L

    @Susan Kitchens:

    Hmmm… is “blame-war” remotely lexicon-worthy?Seems it might be, with some snappier snark attached to it.

    How about “blamestorming” ?

  22. 22.

    zmullls

    I hope the point will be made, and made often, that Reid has probably been checking things out with the parliamentarian *in advance* while the House was negotiating last week. He would have been stupid not to.

    I suspect when Pelosi was considering what to put in to the reconciliation package, and what to leave out, she would call Reid, Reid would run it by the Parliamentarian, and Reid would call Pelosi back to let her know whether they could pass it or not. If it looked like it wouldn’t pass Parliamentary muster, they’d leave it out.

    This is not cheating. This is being prepared. It would be very surprising indeed if they had something in there that wouldn’t get past the Byrd rule.

  28. 28.

    Martin

    He should come to work tomorrow wearing a scarf from the Rachel Ray Keffiyeh Kollection from Target.

  30. 30.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    Don’t know if anyone else has written about it, but I got this email from Jane:

    Congress passed its health insurance reform bill last night. It’s an admirable first step, but the task of providing affordable health care to every American is still before us.
    —
    This week, the Senate will pass a series of fixes to the bill. This is the moment for a leader in the Senate to make the first step towards actual health care reform: putting the public option up for a vote.
    —
    Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado led others in the Senate in showing that a public option can pass. Now it’s up to Bennet to show it he’s a real leader and force a vote on the public option.
    —
    More than 22,000 people have already signed our petition to Michael Bennet to force a vote on the public option. We’re going to deliver the petition to his office in Denver on Wednesday. Can you add your name now?
    —
    Click here to tell Michael Bennet to show leadership and put the public option up for a vote. Sign our petition now.
    —
    Senator Michael Bennet led the fight to, in his words, “save the public option.” Bennet said adding a public option will make health reform “far more effective” in providing “real choices for working families” who need health insurance. Bennet concluded, “we need to take the final step to include a public option.”
    —
    Bennet’s primary challenger for his Senate seat, Andrew Romanoff, has already called on the Senate to “allow an up-or-down vote on the public option.” The only question that remains is if Michael Bennet really meant to “save the public option,” or if it was all for cheap political points.
    —
    Let’s be clear: health insurance reform has already passed. President Obama will sign the legislation into law at any time. Anything that’s done in Congress during this next stage will simply fix what will already be the law.
    —
    Adding a public option to these fixes won’t endanger passage of reform in the House, because that’s already over. A majority of the Senate has said they’d vote for a public option. There’s no reason not to force a vote on the issue.
    —
    This week we can hold an up or down, majority rules vote on a public option. This is the moment. Really, this is our only chance. Will Michael Bennet step up and force a vote?
    —
    Sign our petition to Michael Bennet: show you meant it when you said you want to “save the public option.” Force a vote by introducing the public option in the Senate this week.
    —
    Click here to sign: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/bennetPO
    —
    Thanks for all you’ve done with us throughout this health care fight. We have a long way to go before we can truly reform health care, but we couldn’t have come as far as we did without your support and dedication.
    —
    Thank you again.
    —
    Jane Hamsher

    (I’m having block quote issues, and the dashes were meant to separate the paragraphs.)

    Yeah, adding amendments to the reconciliation bill would just do wonders. She seems to have totally missed the fact that amending the reconciliation bill would send it back to the House to vote on again.

  31. 31.

    Redshift

    @Little Dreamer: I think it’s a good illustration that they’ve been completely uncooperative on substantive matters, so the only way to go further is to throw tantrums on completely everyday business. I don’t know if it will do them much harm (the American people not being big on understanding the importance of the everyday business of their government), but it certainly won’t help them.

    Their base may love them for pointlessly sticking it to the hated libruls, but their base already loves them, and the all-important independents will just see “you’re bragging about shutting down a hearing on what?”

    We’re getting perilously close to Gingrich-shuts-down-the-government territory, and it didn’t turn out well for them in ’95.

  33. 33.

    ds

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    Yeah, Landrieu is my favorite (shudder) conserva-Dem.

    Her voting record gets dramatically more liberal in years furthest from elections and then turns conservative once an election nears, which she then wins in a squeaker.

    We know she’s the most liberal we can possibly get out of Louisiana, so there’s no use griping at her.

  34. 34.

    Martin

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):

    Yeah, adding amendments to the reconciliation bill would just do wonders. She seems to have totally missed the fact that amending the reconciliation bill would send it back to the House to vote on again.

    Um, she hasn’t missed anything. She’s working to kill the fixes.

  35. 35.

    jacy

    We should send the guy a muffin basket, and a taste-tester so he’s not afraid to eat it.

  36. 36.

    joes527

    @Little Dreamer: Strange rule. (Yeah … I know … par for the course in the Senate)

    Sounds like the D’s can work around it by scheduling committees to meet @ 5:00 AM

    (Yeah … I know … there is probably some other obscure rule against THAT)

    The US Senate: The toughest job you’ll never do.

  37. 37.

    kay

    @Little Dreamer:

    It’s a full-on tantrum.

    It’s what they do when they lose.

    McCain is appalling. He gets worse every day. This country dodged an absolute bullet when they rejected that childish, petulant hot-head.

    Talk about false advertising. He was packaged and sold by media like he was a product, and the product they sold bears no relation to the man. I never bought it. He always came off as mean and small to me.

  38. 38.

    Little Dreamer

    @Redshift:

    I’m not disagreeing with you, but, it seems if they are not going to do their jobs, they shouldn’t get the full pay and benefits expected. We are in a recession and they’re going to waste more government funds?

  40. 40.

    bemused

    Sweet Jesus, does everyone that the R’s deem to be the enemy, even an 11 year old boy, now have to be worried that they need a security team around them? I despise the R’s who have unleashed the crazies & are actively encouraging them to do harm to people. They are beneath contempt.
    The R equivalency spin that D’s have done it too is crap. Dem’s tend to run away as fast as they can from any group on the left that looks even a little too exuberant, for pete’s sake.

  41. 41.

    Redshift

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): Yeah, I got it too, and had pretty much the same reaction. Grayson’s Medicare-for-All push seems like a somewhat practical approach to trying to reintroduce the public option into the debate; this email seems like another “let’s whip people up so we can tap into their anger when we add another name to the list of betrayers.”

    I think FDL’s greatest legacy from the past year is going to be training Democratic officials not to pledge to do anything specific. Which is kind of sad.

  42. 42.

    asiangrrlMN

    The hell? Can someone make up an enemy of the Republicans list and put in on a PDF file for easy downloading? Good god. We are a little over a year into the Reign of Our Dusky Overlord. I hate to think what the nutters will break out for year two.

  45. 45.

    BB

    This afternoon, Landrieu went on the Senate floor and just bitch slapped John McCain.

    I’m a C-Span junkie, and I just can’t recall seeing someone call out another senator like that. The closest was Franken last fall when he had the temerity to repeat a private conversation with John Thune, and the whole Senate dove onto its fainting couch.

    But yeah, Mary went way beyond that. She just got up there and thrashed McCain and she was not smiling as she did it. My goodness she was pissed.

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Can someone make up an enemy of the Republicans list and put in on a PDF file for easy downloading?

    The Census is working on it right now.

  47. 47.

    Alex

    I request, nay *demand*, a “flash mob of hate” tag. I guarantee you’ll get some use out of it.

  48. 48.

    HRA

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):

    “Yeah, adding amendments to the reconciliation bill would just do wonders. She seems to have totally missed the fact that amending the reconciliation bill would send it back to the House to vote on again.”

    No, this is her plan. She didn’t miss anything.

    Btw, I don’t know how I got on their mailing list. This is the second time I sent it to Spam.

  49. 49.

    Tsulagi

    probably already camped outside his house waiting to check out his countertops.

    Don’t misunderstimate them. I’m guessing the RSSF special special ops have already covertly mailed arugula to him. Once Frumin puts that on his countertops, they’ll take a photo busting him as a liberal D-elitist.

  51. 51.

    jerry 101

    At least, unlike the kids, he’s a bit older. Presumably, he has enough money to retire.

    He might want to check out Spain. I hear land’s pretty cheap these days.

    And, the scariest thing in Spain is the ETA. Probably be a lot easier to live there than in fear of violent teabaggers once Rush and Glen turn him into the #1 Enemy of the Tea.

  52. 52.

    jerry 101

    @BB: Wow, I’d never expect an ounce of fight from Mary Landrieu. Well, you know what they say about broken clocks…

    But good on her. For her next trick, maybe she can try leading on something important for once instead of kneecapping other Democrats.

  54. 54.

    joesixpack

    I don’t know what they are so upset about! There won’t be a country to fight over after the spendaholic donkey social democrats spend us to bankruptcy. Landrieu is an idiot and will go down as the best corrupt Senator ever from Louisiana. Quite an honor. Social democrats give this time to shake out and see how your reps sold out the whole idea of what America stands for. Just today Social Security officially went into the red. Idiots from both sides left the cookie jar with a bunch of worthless IOU’s. Wonderful for the baby boomer generation. Obumblers plan of collapsing from within is almost complete. However, donkeys will be in the soup lines along with the minority, so enjoy watching immigrants getting ushered into the welfare system using Americans benefits until there are no more. You should be really proud, but you don’t hear me because you are an arrogant social democrat.

Comments are closed.