‘Senator’ capitalized because the insecure often require that special little emphasis. In this case, SENATOR Boxer is demonstrating same by making a fairly pointless gesture that’s apparently fueled by pique:

Barbara Boxer may not only force her climate bill through the Environment and Public Works Committee without any Republican votes; aides say she could also do it without any Republicans in the room at all.

Boxer (D-Calif.) could exploit a loophole in committee rules that will allow her to approve the bill with a simple majority of the 12 Democrats on the committee, even if no Republicans are present. Republicans have vowed to boycott the proceeding.

This end run around Republicans — ignoring the usual rules that require at least two Republicans to be present for a quorum — could further hinder the chances for an already troubled cap-and-trade bill.

The problem here is that Senate Republicans are tired of Democrats forcing through legislation without analysis, deliberation, or in some cases, an opportunity to even read it; so they’re going to boycott the markup until they get a full EPA analysis. No attendance, no quorum, no markup. But SENATOR Boxer wants a bill to impress all those sophisticated Europeans at Copenhagen in December, so she’s going to alter the rules so as to force her version of the bill out via a rump committee.  As the Politico article notes, this has other Democrats swearing, because: a, there was little likelihood of cap-and-trade being passed in a SENATOR Boxer-friendly form to begin with; b, there was not previously much chance of any version of cap-and-trade being passed by December anyway; and c, there is now effectively zero chance of either happening before the New Year.  It’s trivially easy to slow legislation down to a crawl in the Senate, and there are now several motivated Republicans to demonstrate how to do that.

Marvelous work, SENATOR Boxer.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

One must wonder what Mitch McConnell paid or did to have the Washington Post’s Perry Bacon, Jr. write this total fluff piece on Mitch McConnell.

When he was fighting campaign finance reform a decade ago,  Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was dubbed Darth Vader by his critics. He embraced the nickname, even announcing “Darth Vader has arrived” at a news conference.

Well, when the article starts out with a gross distortion of the facts, we can only conclude that McConnell is desperate to hang on to power and distract from his failures as the Senate Republican Leader.

What gross distortion?

“Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was dubbed Darth Vader by his critics,” writes Perry Bacon, Jr. today.

“The Kentucky curmudgeon who dubbed himself the Darth Vader of campaign-finance reform is whipped, and he knows it,” wrote Jonathan Alter in Newsweek on April 9, 2001.

“Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who aptly describes himself as the “Darth Vader” of the campaign finance debate,” wrote the Kansas City Star on April 8, 2001.

“The antipathy is well known between Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the self-described Darth Vader of campaign finance reform, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who recently likened his presidential campaign to the adventures of Luke Skywalker,” wrote Mary Lynn Jones in the Hill on February 16, 2000.

Yes, Common Cause gave Mitch McConnell the designation once, but it says more about McConnell that he had to embrace and recycle the nickname for anyone to pick it up and use it “against” him.

Now Perry Bacon, Jr. in his fluff piece, recycles it to make McConnell seem more than the limp wristed leader he has been lately.

Read More →

The Senate Republicans are out-gaming themselves on the stimulus bill. No wonder the Democrats are sitting on their hands right now.

The Senate has already approved Johnny Isakson’s (R-GA) tax credit plan for home purchases. That makes it more likely Johnny will vote for the bill.

The Senate GOP is also proposing the dreadful 4% mortgage. Mind you, it is a number they pulled out of thin air, despite multiple attempts to justify it.

The problem with the 4% plan is that it is a bad idea. The GOP seems intent to throw a bunch of bad ideas at the plan to look reasonable in front of the public. They do not actually expect the Democrats to embrace the 4% plan.

But what if they did?

Privately, I’m told a lot of the GOP, including some of the biggest proponents of the 4% plan, are not actually in favor of it. They just wanted to get something out there. They assure me it won’t be embraced by the Democrats, so they are safe.

That is until the Democrats embrace the 4% plan in the stimulus or in separate legislation.

Then the GOP will either have to vote for its own economically bad idea, or look more stupid than they already do.

The GOP should keep its hands off the stimulus bill. They should vote against it. Following Johnny Isakson’s lead will lead them straight to where Saxby Chambliss found himself this past year — fighting for his political life.

The GOP need not vote for the stimulus. They should make the Democrats own it.