Senator Richard Shelby really likes air tankers. Shelby reportedly is blocking 70 nominations in a dispute over the long-controversial Air Force tanker deal. This contract has been criticized for years as wasteful and unnecessary. Shelby is supporting the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company against Boeing in the dispute because the Europeans are promising to build the tankers in his state.
Putting aside the merits of the tanker deal, Shelby’s “hold” on all nominees renews the controversy over the ability of senators to hold up nominees unilaterally. I have long been a critic of this tradition called “blue slipping” and holds. For a recent article, click here. This tradition is notorious for allowing senators to engage in hold ups of the Senate and the White House — demanding favors for friends or simply opposing nominees for personal reasons. There is little public benefit from blue slipping. If a senator has a problem with a nominee, he or she should state the objection in public and oppose confirmation. Blue slipping was traditional confined to judicial nominees from a senator’s state. He or she would literally send a blue slip with a written objection. The Shelby controversy involves a broader use of a “hold” by a senator.
For a prior column criticizing blue slipping, click here.
For the full story, click here.
Give me my Pork and I will raise you 2 Tarps. If I don’t get my Pork you don’t have your tarp.
Are 100 quarreling dictators any more desirable than one?
Yes, mespo. In fact a 100 quarreling dictators would be better than one. The less power is concentrated, the less it can be unilaterally abused and the easier it is to wrest it from any individual tyrant.
jonoloan:
I see you are an oligarchy fan.
LET ME MAKE A CONTRIBUTORY CONSULT. NOT TO INSULT THE WISDOM THAT ABOUT WITHIN THESE FOUR WALLS.
I AM STILL CONSULTING SO FAR “B” “R” “B” HAS COME UP.
mespo,
I’m not particularly a fan of oligarchies, but I’ll take them over a singular autocrat any day of the week.
The GOP screeches about pork and then we see this. The GOP says the admin. must concentrate on jobs then decries the President’s jobs bill. That plan calls for working through banks to enable more small business lending to lead to job creation rather than direct government employment. Do they prefer the latter?
They moan (read that as lie) they aren’t in the loop, but the tax credit for hiring was originally a GOP idea. There were also 161 GOP sponsored amendments made to the Health Care Reform bill during committee hearings. The GOP’s collective head spins over the debt and deficits they created and then they voted en masse against pay-as-you-go. They voted 100% against the stimulus package, but clamor to get their picture taken with the big cardboard check to get credit for it. Hypocrites is far too kind a name.
They also voted unnanimously against their own suggestion of a deficit reduction commission. That one is particularly galling as, again, this has been one of their party’s rallying issues and a big fundraising item. That is, of course, only after passing $1.7T in tax cuts and the Medicare Part D, both without any funding, added taxes or program cuts.
Why would anyone listen to a Republican on any issue? These are the folks who assailed life and injury saving seat belts as the ruination of the auto industry 40 years ago. They still abhor OSHA. One wonders how many lives and limbs have been saved from these two pieces of legislation the GOP so adamantly opposed. And what are their solutions to the mess they got us into? More of the same of what bruught us to the brink.
I may get angry at the administration from time to time, but at least they’re trying to DO something instead of trying to prevent an economic recovery from happening.
I don’t know the answer to this nor how to properly formulate the question. But say this Health Care Bill passes. What would it do to medicare and/or Medicade? These are programs that the GOP have been trying to do away with for years.
SS by the way was at one time fiscally sound. So sound that the government could not touch the principal so took loans against it until the first Bush years and then the corpus has been raided and exhausted.
Interesting commentary from the LA Times that touches on Shelby:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten6-2010feb06,0,1034960.column
“But say this Health Care Bill passes. What would it do to medicare and/or Medicade”?
The answer is simple: Nothing happens to Medicare, Medicade, nor to any person’s existing coverage. As Obama said during the campaign, if you like your policy’s coverage, keep it.
The bill does these basic things:
* Requires everyone to have inurance and requires insurers to insure (no pre-existing condition exclusions). No limit was placed on pricing of pre-existing conditions.
* No annual or life-of-policy limits on coverage.
* Those who can’t afford coverage (pre-existing pricing, insufficient income, etc), can join an exchange which groups individuals to amass a size large enough to shop insurers and command large company rates from them.
* Those with incomes still too low to afford the exchange rates can receive federal assistance.
rcampbell,
Thank you.
Gosh, does he ever let anyone feel his big muscles?
Dredd:
“Gosh, does he ever let anyone feel his big muscles?”
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Some lassie in Buenos Aires I think has had the pleasure. I find it comforting somehow that fascists still enjoy some measure of comfort south of the Border.
GOP=modern day Armageddon
http://www.evilgopbastards.com/http:/
“It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.” (Josef Stalin)
The above caught my attention…..
_____________________________
Bush, Cheney and the Great Escape
Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bush-Cheney-and-the-Great-by-William-Rivers-Pit-100206-265.html
rcampbell: Excellent, the level of hypocrisy dwarfs the depth of yesterdays snowfall.
Johnolan, I’m with you on this one. Personally I’d like to see the Senate dissolved and the House allowed to evolve into the Parliament it so closely reflects. I haven’t been a fan of the Senate for years.
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group,”
http://jonathanturley.org/2010/02/07/sen-shelby-accused-of-blocking-70-nominations-over-air-force-tanker-deal/#comment-110816
It Appears that major corporations have taken heed in this sage advice:
“No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country”
I might ask what the hell JFK was thinking when he said this:
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”
LottaK,
See how Nebraska handles the unicameral legislature. It works good when the area to be represented in totality is small. However, with the population size of this country would we result into a People Republic of America? China does this well.
It is my understanding that the main weakness of the unicameral system is the lack of restraint on the majority. Especially where the leaders of the legislature and the executive are of the same party. Another consideration is how the seats are drawn. Depending on how seats are allocated people may be underrepresented.
Can you imagine when the republicans had control of all three, the House, Senate and Executive how much more the US citizens would have been screwed?
” … we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish.”
~ Cicero (The Extremes of Good and Evil)
mespo,
That one of my favorite quotes. I forgot the importance of the quote. Until I awoke this morning.
The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment. – Bertrand Russell
Another,
Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.
Bertrand Russell
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
Bertrand Russell
The concept of a Senator putting a hold on anything is ridiculous and archaic. The ability to fillibuster without actually holding the floor is likewise archaic and stupid. That so many Senators from each party can’t see this indicates the sad state to which our country senior legislature has fallen. I well understand the concept of and possible need for perogatives, but these two only insure that a greater chaos exists in this supposedly “august” body.
Great quotes Mespo and AY and that is why I see myself as a political iconoclast and pragmatist. The concept of “character” as in loyalty to my party, my country or my race is an absurdity that only prevents an individual from fully responding to the nature of the environment they’re in. Had it been presnt 100,000 years ago mankind may have become extinct by now.
I am a good friend of Richard Shelby. He is Alabama’s senior United States Senator. He was first elected to the Senate in 1986 with an undeniable commitment to Alabama and the simple philosophy that a smaller government can also be a more effective government.
While he does not chair any Committee he is on a number of subcommittees. Please contact his office and let him know that you support his decisions. He will appreciate, your phone call, faxes, letters and emails.
Sincerely,
Richard Snow
RTL
Washington Office:
304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Telephone: (202) 224-5744
Fax: (202) 224-3416
Email: senator@shelby.senate.gov
Mr. Snow,
Senator Shelby is a disgrace to himself and his party. That you’re his good friend does not speak well of you. This is a purely venal exercize on his part, something that is certainly not new to him. Who do you lobby for?
Thank you Mike S.
”
“Sen. Richard Shelby’s (R-Ala.) decision to place a “blanket hold” on all presidential nominations until a pair of billion-dollar earmarks for his home state are fast-tracked has reignited the debate over the parliamentary tactics being deployed by the Republican Party. It also has thrust into the spotlight the clout that major defense contractors often wield on the political process.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/05/shelbys-blanket-hold-puts_n_450934.html
I thought after reading the article that Buddha attached the DOD said that they did not want the expenditure.
Excuse me but are not the Republicans the folks that talk about too much government and that they need to cut back in spending?
I am sorry wrong party.
Gassed Old Pricks? GOP
Mr Snowjob
We all know who and what Sen. Shelby is and no amount of lipstick, whitewash nor an endorsement from a “friend” will change what he is for the better. Thanks for stopping by though, Senator.
We on the right dont claim him, he used to be a democrat.
SO Byron I suppose he is a Dixiecrat and not a true Republican.
AY:
I actually don’t know what his fundamental political philosophy/outlook is.
If this story is true, he sure isn’t a capitalist.
Byron, how can you be so sure there isn’t some capital/capitol consideration in all of this?
lottakatz
Johnolan, “I’m with you on this one. Personally I’d like to see the Senate dissolved and the House allowed to evolve into the Parliament it so closely reflects. I haven’t been a fan of the Senate for years.”
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I second that.
We all learned in 8th grade and then again is senior Civics class that, through the process of amendments, the Constitution is a living and evolving document wherein, originally, the Senate was intended to represent the states’ sovereignties that had not been delegated to the national government. Senators, with 6 year terms, were never expected to be part of the People’s House but passage of the Seventeenth Amendment changed all that … the Constitution evolved and through the 17th gave more power to “The People” in deciding their Senators.
Based on the performance of the Senate over the last 25 years, the corruption that has so thoroughly taken hold of that institution, and the changes within our society and body politic, perhaps it is now time to “evolve” once more and dissolve the Senate as it is, replacing it with a more modern body that would maintain our bicameral legislature yet reflect the advances and needs of our citizens.
In other words, the country has outgrown the Senate, as it now stands, and requires a more advanced and modernized institution.
“On November 9, 1994, Shelby switched his party affiliation to Republican, one day after the Republicans won control of both houses in the midterm elections, giving the Republicans a 53-47 majority in the Senate.”
wikipedia
rcampbell:
in my understanding of capitalism, a true capialist would not go to government to get an advantage over another company. I would call that fascism and the people who would do that are fascists. So I think I would be well within my rights to call Senator Shelby a fascist.
And you are right it was done for money, it certainly wasnt done on sound capitalistic economic principles.
Actually, I think buying a less suited and more expensive product just because it is made by a domestic owned company isn’t “true capitalism” either…