The problem-makers caucus sure wants some dumb stuff:
Another major criticism of the Problem Solvers’ proposed changes, coming from both liberal commentators and fellow Democratic representatives, is that they amount to a sort of unilateral disarmament. Republican leadership ran a partisan House of Representatives for eight years, and now, the minute Democrats get control, some of them want to dilute the strength of Democratic leadership and link legislative arms with Republican moderates instead? […]
I wonder why: [warning Intercept link]
The caucus was born out of meetings of congresspeople organized by No Labels, which was founded in 2010 as a bipartisan group, backed by wealthy donors, ostensibly dedicated to civility and good government. Nancy Jacobson, [Mark] Penn’s wife, is the No Labels CEO, and Penn is also closely involved with the group. Gottheimer was elected to Congress in 2016 and co-founded the caucus, with Rep. Tom Reed, D-N.Y., shortly thereafter.
If you want to barf up your breakfast, you can read Penn’s summer emission in the Hill, titled “To the middle, not the mattresses“.
The only audience for this white boy rebellion is corporate money and their shills like Penn.
(For the New Yorkers in the audience, the presence of Tom Reed kinda-sorta explains why otherwise reasonable Brian Higgins signed the letter. Higgins was one of the first to drop out as soon as Pelosi made a couple of nothingburger promises. The other explanation for Higgins acting like a dolt is the death of Louise Slaughter, who would have taken him to the woodshed for even thinking about signing the letter if she were still alive.)
wasabi gasp
Thanks for the Intercept warning. Might’ve had my fee fees broken.
MattF
Just bear in mind that Republicans will do and say anything to maintain a vestige of control. “Yeah, yeah, we’ll be bipartisan. Sure. Really. Absolutely. No kidding. Pinky promise.”
A Ghost To Most
C&L: For secure elections, ditch the machines and vote by mail
Just sayin’.
Kraux Pas
I mean I like bipartisanship in theory, but when I hear it from Republicans or this No Labels group, but I repeat myself, it usually comes across as “capitulate to us and we will let you keep the government open another week.”
Duane
It’s a pleasure to watch Rep. Pelosi kick their dumbasses around. They need to sit down, shut up, and try to learn something.
Jeffro
It’s odd how the calls for ‘bipartisanship’ only seem to pop up whenever Democrats take power…truly odd.
Patricia Kayden
Democrats need to investigate Trump to the hilt. We already know he’s sleazy. We just don’t know how sleazy and corrupt he really is. And no, I will not be reading Penn before, during or after breakfast. He needs to go away.
FlipYrWhig
For the future, let’s try to remember that some of the people who advocate a Democratic Party whose positions are based on “class” rather than “identity politics,” and who rail against the “Democratic Establishment,” have politics like Tim Ryan’s and Seth Moulton’s.
Ceci n est mon nym
I don’t know what Nancy Smash does behind the scenes to herd these cats, but she does whatever it is damned well and I can’t wait till Jan 4. (New Congress starts Jan. 3 so I figure there will be some major legislative accomplishments by the 4th. Though I’m willing to wait till Monday the 7th for my pony if I have to.)
Uh-oh. Temporary Eeyore moment. While fact-checking the start date, I came across the Wikipedia article for the 116th Congress, which says the time and date are set by the lame ducks. How bad a wrench could they throw in that machinery on their way out the door?
Cermet
Notice when the thugs won the House, never heard a word about b-partisanship. Just crickets both by them and the whore media but that is redundant. We did hear that the people spoke and that the dems should be willing to work with the thugs – i.e. cave to all their demands.
Our goal should be to take out the orange fart cloud come 2020, win a few senate seats (yes, will likely lose a few seats), and both hold to new seats as well as add to the House.
Then, come 2022, win the Senate and with control of the House, Senate and Presidency, add seats to the house, add DC and Puerto Rico (gaining 4 new dem Senate seats) then expand the inferior court so dems get back both stolen seats and and extra to make the court Supreme again. Finally, create a national holiday for voting (for mid terms, too), kill gerrymander by States but use independent commissions (not controlled by parties but judges), and create national voting rights so no one needs any ID. All can use mail even if they have a PO Box.
WE must drive the thugs political establishment to the slaughter and listen to their woman’s lamentations! OK, their men’s lamentations since they cry like babies all the time.
bjacques
@Jeffro: Oddly enough, I have an acquaintance who believes the Executive and Legislative branches should be held by different parties…when a Democrat sits in the White House. Haven’t heard from him lately…
boatboy_srq
@bjacques: It was an appealing philosophical construct (regardless of which party held which branch), when there were two functioning political parties. Today, with one party and one death/cargo cult, it’s not so attractive a proposition.
Planetjanet
@A Ghost To Most: mail gets lost
WaterGirl
Why don’t all stories about this lead with he fact that the Problem Solver’s group is funded by republicans?
wasabi gasp
Even more infuriating than the bipartisanship drone is the recurring bizarre concern for a better opposition party. Spear the rafts. Feed the fish. Fidget your spinner.
SFAW
@Jeffro:
I expect you’ll next try to tell us that deficits only seem to matter when there’s a Democrat in the White House.
WereBear
I started paying attention to politics around the age of 14, and tried to be fair about evaluating differing political philosophies on their merits. Of course, I gave that up, especially this century, but it’s still a bit astounding to me that not one of their promises or proposals has ever panned out.
Make you wonder if they are ideologically empty or something…
SFAW
@WaterGirl:
They’ll get to that shortly after the last “Lost his job and home due to Shitgibbon’s policies, but still supporting him” and “Why won’t Democrats try harder to win over racist shitheel voters?” articles are written.
So it might be a few years.
Mary G
No Labels endorsed only Republicans, so no. The clueless white boys plus Kathleen Rice can STFU.
Belafon
The thing these “Problem Solvers” people need to think about is that you think McConnell has trouble going out to dinner, these guys won’t be able to step out of their houses if a Republican ends up as speaker. People are far worse on those who should be on their side than those who they know are on the opposite side.
cmorenc
@Cermet: trying to regain a majority on SCOTUS by expanding the number of Justices e.g. from 9 to 11 is a fool’s game, because there’s no barrier preventing the GOP, next time they have control of the Presidency + Senate, from upping it to 13 (or whatever number they need to regain control). A better way to address the issue would be to instead change the term of Justices from life to the shorter of e.g. 20 years or life.
hueyplong
@Jeffro: It’s possible only Google knows whether the word “overreach” has ever been applied to a Republican.
Despite, you know, the last two years being nothing but.
Butter Emails!!!
@SFAW:
The current deficits are going to matter. They’re on par with the deficits were ran during the Great Recession even though the economy has rebounded. We’re going to hit a rough patch and they’re going to balloon further due to revenue decreases and automatic stablizers. It remains to be seen whether we’ll be able to borrow enough to deal with an economic downturn. We will be in deep trouble if we can’t.
Randalms
@A Ghost To Most: voting by mail has problems as well, and can allow voter suppression of different kinds. We saw that this cycle with signature validation being used
Villago Delenda Est
“No Labels” = Rethuglican scum who think we don’t know they’re attempting, very poorly, to fly under partisan labels.
In the words of the immortal efgoldman, fuck ’em.
p.a.
@WaterGirl: Also too, look where No Label’s $ goes. Big rethug (&fellow traveller/useful idiot) scam.
Villago Delenda Est
@Randalms: The entire process depends on people acting in good faith. We don’t have this problem in Oregon, for example. In the South, that simply does not happen.
Jeffro
@SFAW:
OMG THEY TOTALLY DO!! But only then.
I see that the IC is leaking away…”prepping the battlefield”, as it were.
Manafort held secret talks with Assange post-DNC-hacking, pre-Wikileaks dumping
Oh Mr. Trumpov, your “collusion” is calling…it would prefer to be called “conspiracy against the United States” from here forward.
WereBear
@cmorenc: The way to handle the Supreme Court is to impeach someone who breaks laws and won’t recuse themselves when appropriate.
That would take care of it.
p.a.
@WereBear: racism/sexism in the 21st century Republican Party: the grift that keeps on grifting.
Villago Delenda Est
@WereBear: “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” – John Kenneth Galbraith.
Mike R
@Villago Delenda Est: The once and future perfect description of the conservative philosophy.
gene108
@A Ghost To Most:
I have a sloppy signature. Even I don’t think it looks exactly the same twice.
Also, my street address gets written differently from time to time. I live at 1234A Street Drive or 1234-A Street Drive or 1234 Street Drive Apt A or just 1234 Street Drive depending on whose posting me something.
My mail-in ballot would be tossed in many states.
Baud
@Butter Emails!!!:
Foreign buyers find U.S. Treasuries less appealing
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-bonds-foreign-graphic/foreign-buyers-find-u-s-treasuries-less-appealing-idUSKCN1NV27V
Barbara
@wasabi gasp: The best way to get a better opposition party is to beat them soundly again and again. There are some things that will not be given up voluntarily and there is NO POINT asking for.
Major Major Major Major
Oh lord, and here I thought No Labels was basically dead.
Thanks for the Intercept warning btw.
Patricia Kayden
@MattF: Paul Ryan refused to hold votes unless he had a Republican majority. That’s how much Republicans value bipartisanship when they’re in control. We should behave accordingly.
oldster
What the hell is this?
“…Rep. Tom Reed, D-N.Y…”
Reed is no D; Reed is as Republican as they come. One of Trump’s staunchest die-hards. A guy who made his millions by suing people who had been left bankrupt by medical bills–and has devoted his career to depriving people of health insurance so that he can have more bankrupts to sue.
When Trump was voted in, this guy decided to be as ugly as possible, pushing for a huge tax-break for the wealthy, and gleefully voting to gut health-care, despite his constituents’ repeated pleas.
When he gets out into the sticks of his district, where there are more gun-lovers and fewer prying microphones, he’ll tell his supporters that he is really more of a libertarian than a Republican, and they eat that shit up.
But then the ACA repeal came crashing to earth, he started getting worried about a Blue Wave, and created this “Problem-Solvers” bullshit as a tissue-thin fig-leaf. Only suckers listened–oh, and people like Moulton who want to help Republicans
The Intercept *really* should do better. *Reed* might want us to believe he is a Democrat. But he is as right-wing, as Trumpist, and as ugly a Republican as there is in Congress.
gene108
@WereBear:
I don’t think there is any legal standard for when a justice must recuse his- or herself.
It is pretty much on the honor system.
Dan B
@Planetjanet: Mail gets most? Really is an excuse?
States that have vote by mail have the greatest participation and th smallest voter suppression. Look it up.
gene108
@Patricia Kayden:
Boenher and Ryan were/are worse than that.
They wanted to pass legislation with only Republican votes, thus totally freezing Democrats out of the legislative process.
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
Ah, yes, the so-called “Child Molester’s Rule,” used by every Rethug Speaker — since Dennis “Child Molester” Hastert came up with it — to justify ramming through non-bipartisan legislation that fucks over most of America. As those motherfuckers have proved time and again, they would rather a beneficial bill failed than work with Dems to get it passed.
Just kidding — a bill beneficial to the non-wealthy would never even get proposed by Rethugs. But you get the point.
TaMara (HFG)
Yeah, screw that shit. To the mattresses.
boatboy_srq
@Baud: That’ll show Jyna. No more pwning the US for its debt.
/s
WaterGirl
@SFAW: I laughed at what you wrote and then I cried because it’s so true.
Cermet
Enlarging the inferior court is a good idea. First off, the chances the thugs take all three branches are getting less likely; second, let them expand it in retaliation if they do manage that again. Then we will again get the upper hand and hit them harder still (but with our extra senate seats, unlikely they will be able to do it again), We do this as often as needed until they stop – they started the war but we need to finish it. Letting them win with the criminal actions is being a typical demorat. When they bring a knife, we bring a gun. We need to be Sherman and march them into the sea. We have both numbers and time on our side and will need to show them the consequences of being complete criminal assholes. We will destroy them as a party and these midterms is the start of the real, second civil war. This time, we finish it and destroy those types of low life’s in our society. Further, we need to be on our guard and not let those low life’s infiltrate into our party like the current so-called dems that are attacking Pelosi.
Planetjanet
@Dan B: Ballots were rejected in this last election because of the lack of a postmark. Some post offices no longer do postmark. Absentee ballots in Georgia were rejected because signatures did not match. The process for voting by mail can get corrupted. Try reading the news.
boatboy_srq
@WereBear: When they stopped being about industry and productivity, and started being about Gun-Totin’ Capitalist White Jeebus and h8ing on Those Other People™, a lot of their policy planks warped beyond recognition.
Yarrow
No Labels, huh? Jon Huntsman was a former co-chair of that organization and is now the Ambassador to Russia. Weird.
boatboy_srq
@Yarrow: Wait. HUNTSMAN got the embassy in Moscow?
Kraux Pas
Damn, I forgot about this thread. Then when I saw the title on the tab later I was expecting it to be something else I left open.
burnspbesq
Even when he dabbles in this kind of stupidity, Gottheimer is still miles better than the R he replaced (Scott Garrett).
Yarrow
@boatboy_srq: He’s been our Ambassador to Russia since October 2017.
tobie
@Dan B: State that vote by mail exclusively have little voter suppression because they are all blue states (Oregon, Washington) with governors and secretaries of state who believe in good governance. Florida votes overwhelmingly by mail and has used that as a vehicle for disenfranchising voters. No system is full-proof against Republican shenanigans as this last election showed.
Mnemosyne
@Dan B:
The election authorities fucked with mail-in ballots in both GA and FL this year and thousands of people had their votes voided for things like a signature mismatch.
Like any ballot, mail-in ballots are only as safe as the people who do the counting. They are not a panacea against existing voter suppression efforts.
VOR
@gene108: IIRC, there are written standards for the lower courts but the Supreme Court allows each member to determine for themselves. This came up when Scalia refused to recuse himself from cases where he had potential conflicts of interest.
Dev Null
@WaterGirl: @oldster:
It’s an Intercept story, but it’s the deepest colonoscopy on No Labels (vis-a-vis the challenge to Pelosi) I’ve seen anywhere. More informative than Daily Beast, more informative than Slate, more informative than The Atlantic (which last is worth reading for anecdata about the close relationship between Problem Solvers and No Labels.)
I’ve been grousing on my email lists that the articles about the challenge to Pelosi all describe No Labels and Problem Solvers as “centrist”, and Dems like Lipinski as “centrist”, when they are nothing of the sort.
No Labels, I pontificated, is a Republican astroturf group …
Well, seems that I was wrong: the connections Grim uncovers reveal No Labels to be a Mark Penn corporatist shill group, which is almost but not quite the same. (In practical terms, OK … sam ting.)
Worth a read, the venue notwithstanding.
From the Atlantic article:
I will contribute in 2020 to every Dem who mounts a primary challenge to a member of the Problem Solvers’ Caucus.
WRT “Tom Reed isn’t a Democrat”, yep, quite the blooper, but AFAICT the rest of the article is solid.
Incidentally, Grim connects Hilary Rosen with Mark Penn. Rosen was head of the RIAA back in the 90s – which is to say, a corporatist shill, just like Mark Penn. Quelle surprise.
Wiki:
The DMCA is one of the reasons we can’t have nice things. It was (and is) a grab bag of goodies for the recording industry coupled with draconian punishments for copyright violators. As a copyright lawyer told me almost 20 years ago, if you’re dealing with recordings, you’re probably in violation of the DMCA. It’s that poorly written.
Neldob
Where was this noisy group when the Rs had the majority? Dems need to stand up for labor not corporations. We need to “kick ass for the working class”. God speed to Pelosi.
Dev Null
@Dev Null: oops, sorry, that quote (Trump, the Problem Solver) is from the Intercept, not from the Atlantic. I copied and pasted from a mail I sent to my lists, which I misremembered as referencing the Atlantic.
My bad.
J R in WV
@WereBear:
Well, first we need a Judicial Ethics Act to define conflicts of interest for members of the Judiciary, and to define when recusal is necessary, and methods of determining when failure to recuse is a felony. For the Supreme Court, in particular, which assumes that all those justices are too ethical and moral to ever fail to recuse themselves when appropriate.
Like Clarence sitting on the bench for cases involving his wife’s large Republican salary, like other Republican judges sitting in judgement on cases involving their children’s large (Republican) income sources. It happened a lot, is why we need a formal method to deal with it. I’m not going to look up all the actual names, but several of them have broken ethics “norms” since being appointed to look after big business’s business and protecting the power of the fascist party of America, the Republicans.
TenguPhule
The problem can be solved by removing approximately 8 inches of head from the “Problem Solvers” necks.
J R in WV
@Dan B:
I quite accept the truth of this statement. I believe it is because the states that have adopted mail-in ballots are also states that have great voter rights protection, clear and enforceable protections, and honest administrators of the voting process.By coincidence they also have honest and efficient postal service.
This is not true in Jim Crow states, or states that have developed racist policies since the Jim Crow era, states which will make every ruling in order to lessen voting by liberals and people of color, immigrants, college students, etc.
Surely this is obvious to you!
And locating and involving Postal Service employees who are fellow Jim Crow racists to set aside ballots from certain precincts for non-delivery would be one more tool in their set of voter participation molding, along with broken voting machines, missing power cords, lack of parking or bus service, closed ID offices, exact match voter data policies, and so many more old tried and true methods of shaping the voter participation of their population to their preferences.
We have already seen that exact method used when return addresses were “misprinted” on mail-in absentee ballots for some voters in this election just past!!! So easy to implement, even without a fellow conspirator within the Postal Service. Pretty obvious when discovered, but they have no shame, and given that those ballots were found after the deadline for ballots to be delivered for counting, who cares? Besides Democrats, I mean?
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
Exactly, its not the process that makes it so secure, its that the people who run the elections are honest and worthy of trust.
AnonPhenom
…that would be Federal, not State, law…