Subscribe to Excerpts
Subscribe by Email
Love this account of a pissing match between Warren Buffett and Mitch McConnell. The Senator from Kentucky has been urging the Sage of Omaha to make voluntary contributions to the Treasury if he felt he was undertaxed. Buffett has now responded that he’ll match any such contributions made by Republican Senators. This dialogue makes in [...]
Archive for the ‘The Dysfunctional Senate’ Category
October 12th, 2011
He certainly claims that he can. In the GOP President debate last night, Mitt Romney said that because the Affordable Care Act was enacted via budget reconciliation, which cannot be filibustered, it can be repealed that way. Now, in typical Romney fashion, this is out-and-out false, because of course the Affordable Care Act was not [...]
August 10th, 2011
Missouri’s economically-stressed African-American voters put Claire McCaskill over the top in a close 2006 race. She repays her most loyal constituents and her party by opposing UI extension.
May 27th, 2011
The Democrats did. And it doesn’t matter: they were right to do so. Here’s why. The GOP filibuster of Goodwin Liu (who has since withdrawn his candidacy) has led to all sort of recriminations. “You violated the “Gang of 14″ agreement!” “Oh yeah? You filibustered Miguel Estrada.” And on and on. Dahlia Lithwick suggests that [...]
May 23rd, 2011
Category: Law Notes, The Dysfunctional Senate
Senate Republicans have filibustered Goodwin Liu’s nomination, and it’s silly to think that this won’t happen with virtually every Obama nominee, especially with a McConnell-led caucus. For example, Caitlin Halligan, Obama’s first nominee to the DC Circuit, was opposed by every single Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and if you think that doesn’t mean that [...]
May 19th, 2011
To the surprise of exactly no one, Senate Republicans will filibuster Goodwin Liu’s nomination to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. As I argued yesterday, this really shouldn’t matter if the administration’s eventual goal is to appoint Liu to the United States Supreme Court: many of the greatest justices had no or virtually no judicial [...]
December 30th, 2010
Category: 2011 Democratic Agenda, The Dysfunctional Senate
Ending filibusters of executive branch appointments is such an obviously a good idea that no one is pushing it.
December 23rd, 2010
Category: The Dysfunctional Senate
All the returning Democratic Senators sign a letter calling for filibuster reform.
December 22nd, 2010
Tom Coburn took 9/11 first responders hostage — and might have won.
December 6th, 2010
Category: 2011 Democratic Agenda, The Dysfunctional Senate
Stockholm Syndrome comes to Talking Points Memo.
