Video- NRSC Chief Cornyn Won’t Say Whether GOP Candidates Should Call For Repeal Of Health Reform

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Snort. They know they can't because it will be too popular, but obviously won't say it. h/t Greg.

Immorality of the Right: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about the way the GOP has (mis)behaved lately. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Now for his Special Comment:

Immorality Of The Right

For some time I have given much thought about writing a Special Comment on the Immorality of the Right. There are so many topics that could be covered in such an article, such as their positions on (a) health care, (b) women’s rights and (c ) gay rights. But a couple of things happened in the last few days that really shows, the immorality of the Republicans.

Unemployment Insurance coverage and COBRA benefits ends for many Americans on February 28, and they need Congress to approve extensions of both programs for their benefits to continue.

Yet there stands Sen. Jim Bunning, single-handily blocking a unanimous consent vote of the Senate for a 30 day extension of coverage. The Senate needs this time period to address the issue of continuing the benefits of the long term unemployed for the remainder of the year.

It is estimated that 1.2 million Americans will lose their benefits, which they surely need, if both extensions aren‘t approved. Sen. Bunning is against extending the benefits as it will increase the country's deficit by $10 billion unless there is an offset to it.

Yesterday, Sen. Bunning received the support of Sen. John Cornyn who said "I admire the courage of the junior senator from Kentucky... Somebody has to stand up finally and say, ‘No more inter-generational theft!’"

I have to wonder: Where were their concerns about the growing deficit during the Bush Administration?

You may say, these are only two Republicans who seem to be against the extension of benefits. My response is, the Republican leadership knows how important this extension is for the American people, and they could have put the clamps on Senator Bunning if they so desired, but their silence is deafening. Is it any wonder why Senator Reid took these items out of the jobs bill?

The Senate has recessed for the weekend without taking any action on the extension of benefits; which mean thousands of Americans will wake up Monday morning without any funds to pay their bills, and many will be without any health coverage.

By not extending COBRA coverage, the Republicans just increased the number of Americans without any health insurance. Just what this country doesn’t need, more people foregoing medicines and doctor visits while putting more stress on our emergency rooms.

What the Republicans fail to realize is, their inaction will not only affect those receiving benefits, but also their immediate family members. In many cases those unemployed are receiving financial assistance from their parents, and some have moved in with their parents because they can no longer afford either the rent or mortgage payment.

In many instances their parents are senior citizens who are trying to deal with our tough economic times and now will have a greater burden placed upon them. The additional people affected is never discussed by our politicians or the media. When they say 1.2 million American will be affected, it is much greater than that, by an unknown numerical factor.

Today is a very sad day for America, when Republicans show they have very little care for people in need. I wonder how they can look themselves in the mirror?

Republicans are the modern day Neros: They fiddle away their time while the country crumbles to the ground.

Many thanks again for another thoughtful, relevant piece, 42bkdodgr. You often say what many of us are thinking and feeling, and we thank you for your unique perspective.

VIDEO- Steele: Reid should step down from leadership role for 'Negro' remark

By GottaLaff



Yesterday I posted about Harry Reid's apology for "Negro dialect" remarks he hade made about pre-President Obama during the 2008 election season. Obama accepted the apology.

From the Dep't. of Look Who's Talking About Who Should Step Down:

The chairman of the Republican National Committee called Sunday for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to step down as Majority Leader in the wake of revelations that he used the term "Negro" when discussing President Barack Obama's 2008 candidacy.

"I think he should, if the standard is the one set by [Trent Lott]," Steele said on "Fox News Sunday" when asked if Reid should resign his post.

Trent Lott resigned as Majority Leader in 2002 for praising Strom Thurmond and his 1948 candidacy.

Back to the Department of Look Who's Talking, Michael Steele apparently forgot about his own "Honest Injun" slur. Until he can acquire a shred of credibility for himself, he's the last one who should be pointing fingers.

UPDATE, via an e-mail alert from Politico:

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, tells POLITICO that it's "entirely appropriate" for Sen. Harry Reid to step down as majority leader over comments about President Barack Obama's skin color and lack of a "Negro dialect."

For more information...http://www.politico.com

NRSC to back Bennett against conservative primary challengers

By GottaLaff

Rushpublics Eating Their Own can be fun... if you're a Democratic spectator:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee will back Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) in his battle against the Club for Growth and conservative challengers. [...]

“The NRSC and Sen. Cornyn fully stand behind Sen. Bennett,” said Brian Walsh, spokesman for the committee. [...]

The Senate Republican campaign committee has pledged it would stay neutral in open-seat Republican primaries this election year.

The committee is backing Bennett because he is an incumbent. [...]

Supporting Bennett could subject the campaign committee to criticism from conservative activists, another reason why GOP officials may be hesitant to spend much money to protect him in a conservative primary.

And we wouldn't want to rile up them Tea Baggers. You know how they get when a bee gets under their Tea Bonnet.

Jeebus media, Begich had just cut Cornyn off earlier

If I hear another tsk tsk or feigned indignation from a "reporter" or a fracking staffer from 40 years ago, I'm going to throw up. They're limiting the time on the floor so they can get their damn work done and go home for the holidays. A classic example of the high school gossip quality of our media. It's alot more fun to make it a pissing match than a procedural point.

WASHINGTON — Normally when senators preside over the Senate, they do little but direct traffic, showing little partiality or emotion as they allow their colleagues to yammer on at length.

So when Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked Sen. Mark Begich. D-Alaska, for additional time to keep talking about health care Thursday afternoon, it wasn't the kind of request usually denied in the polite Senate, where long-windedness is generally tolerated.

But Begich's response was unusual: "In my capacity as the senator from Alaska, I object."

Flummoxed, Cornyn retreated for a moment, then tried again: "Is it the intent of the presiding officer to prevent any senator from speaking on the floor on this important bill? I'm looking around and I don't see any other senator waiting to speak," the Texas Republican said, gesturing to the empty chamber. "I simply would like an explanation of the chair's ruling."

(snip)

It turns out the freshman Democrat from Alaska was acting under orders of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate majority leader, who said he had grown tired of what he deemed Republican delaying tactics.

Begich, who as a junior member of the Senate is required to preside over the chamber frequently to learn its rules, had been asked to limit everyone to 10-minute speeches to speed up proceedings. Another freshman, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., treated Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., much the same way Thursday.

Thanks to Heather for Tweey's concern troll video.

Al Franken anti-rape amendment fallout has GOP fuming

I love the way they act like all this is so "unprecedented". You freaks voted to deny a woman a right to redress and it's Franken that's being mean? I'm only excerpting part, go read the whole thing for their foot stomping hissy fits. Oh, and Senator Franken got "heated" in a discussion? What a bunch of weepy hothouse flowers, clutching pearls and all.

Republican senators feel burned by Al Franken — and not by his old jokes.

The Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers — and because Franken isn’t doing much to stop them.

“Trying to tap into the natural sympathy that we have for this victim of this rape —and use that as a justification to frankly misrepresent and embarrass his colleagues, I don’t think it’s a very constructive thing,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview.


(snip)

In a chamber where relationship-building is seen as critical, some GOP senators question whether Franken’s handling of the amendment could damage his ability to work across the aisle. Soon after Tennessee GOP Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander co-wrote an op-ed in a local newspaper defending their votes against the Franken measure, the Minnesota Democrat confronted each senator separately to dispute their column — and grew particularly angry in a tense exchange with Corker.

People familiar with the Corker exchange say it was heated and ended abruptly — a sharp departure from the norm on the usually clubby Senate floor.

At issue is an amendment to the Pentagon spending bill that would bar “future and existing” federal contracts to defense contractors and subcontractors “at any tier” who mandate employees go through a company’s arbitration process for workplace discrimination claims — including claims of sexual assault. The measure passed 68-30, with 10 Republicans voting yes and 30 voting no.

VIDEO- Rockefeller to Cornyn: Insurance industry "is running certain people in this markup"

By GottaLaff



Suh-nap!

Today, in response to an amendment offered by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) called out this special-interest representation:

ROCKEFELLER: This is a very very important amendment, and it’s a very very bad amendment. If there’s anything which is clear, it’s that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but it is running certain people in this markup. [...]

CORNYN: With all due respect, senator, I don’t know what amendment you’re referring to —

ROCKEFELLER: I’m referring to yours.

CORNYN: — you’re certainly not referring to my amendment —

ROCKEFELLER: I am.

Harrrumph!

VIDEO- Meet the Press: Is the public option off the table?

By GottaLaff

I wish we had 20 more like Howard Dean (and Anthony Weiner)... and 20 less like Corndog:

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Weiner and Corndog? So many hot dog/relish/weenie/buns/food for thought jokes, so little time...

Cornyn Hits White House For Collecting Emails, But So Does His Senate Web Site

By GottaLaff

All those accusations that the Big Bad White House was creating their Ultra Super Duper Secret E-Mail List of Unsuspecting Citizens? Bull pucky, brought to you by the King of Bull Pucky, Senator John Hyp. O. Crite:

Over on Cornyn’s Senate Web site, for instance, you find that people who want to contact the Senator are asked to submit personal info, such as their names, addresses and emails, which are all required.

Oh noes! He's compiling an Ultra Super Duper Secret E-Mail List of Unsuspecting Citizens! Socialist Commie Dictatory Marxist!

Following Cornyn’s logic about the White House, the DNC says, shouldn’t those who write in to Cornyn’s Web site to criticize the Senator ask what his office will do with their personal info? Isn’t it also fair to ask Cornyn to “purge” the email addresses of such critics, too?

Says a DNC official: “The only thing ‘fishy’ is John Cornyn’s sudden newfound interest in internet privacy.”

Nice try, Corninny.

VIDEO: Sen. Cornyn confuses China, India; calls India security threat

By GottaLaff



I have to quote John Aravosis:

That's okay, we often confuse Cornyn for a real Senator.

Here's the Oops Scoop:

A key US Senator who has extensively supported India, including the passage of the nuclear deal, stunned his Indian and Indian-American supporters this weekend when he identified India as a US national security threat and clubbed it with North Korea and Iran, while arguing for continuing the F-22 fighter jet programme, which would keep up to 100,000 jobs going in the US. [...]

''Senator Cornyn misspoke saying 'India' when he meant to say 'China.' As Founder and Co-chairman of the Senate India Caucus, no Senator has greater respect or admiration for India or values our relationship with them more. Sen. Cornyn regrets the mistake and apologizes for any misunderstanding this may have caused,'' his spokesman Kevin McLaughlin clarified after the remarks were brought to his notice.

Misunderstanding and ire there certainly was for a moment from a very sensitive Indian lobby. One community activist wanted to know what the Senator had been drinking. And coming on a day India launched its first indigenously built nuclear submarine, it certainly raised eyebrows.

Finally, it was the Senator’s Indian supporters who brought what was obviously a flub to his notice.

And the Rushpubs make fun of V.P. Biden?

I want to know if he's always drinking, considering what comes out of his mouth on a regular basis.

Video- Cornyn: Public Support For Public Health Insurance Doesn't Exsist

Of course Nate debunks Senator Cornyn's talking point on the "skewed" poll.

Anonymous Senate hold put on Harold Koh; Anonymous as in Cornyn and Vitter?

By GottaLaff

The Party of No, the Party of Blockage, the Party of Obstruction, the Party of Losers, the Party of Fear of a Yale Law School Dean... is at it again:

[A]n anonymous senator has placed a hold on Koh’s nomination, a source told Talking Points Memo:

Koh, who if confirmed will serve as legal adviser to the State Department, was reported out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about three weeks ago, but has languished ever since — a fact which, I’d imagine, makes him thrilled that he resigned as Dean of Yale’s Law School in order to serve in government.

Recall that before the committee vote, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) also placed a hold on Koh’s nomination. That delay only lasted a week.

The Facebook group “We Support Harold Hongju Koh” and Jay Michaelson at the Huffington Post both write that the hold has been placed by Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and David Vitter (R-LA). ThinkProgress called both Cornyn’s and Vitter’s offices, but was unable to confirm that they are responsible for the hold.

All you need is a little reSpecter: "I'm a loyal Democrat"

By GottaLaff

Via Taegan:

"I'm a loyal Democrat. I support your agenda."

-- Sen. Arlen Specter, quoted by ABC News, in a phone conversation with President Obama about switching parties.

And this:

Sen. Arlen Specter told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) about his decision to switch parties in person yesterday.

The Hill reports Senate Republican leaders "received no heads up" from Specter about his decision.

Meanwhile, Ben Smith reports Vice President Joe Biden "deeply involved" in the talks with Specter to make the switch.

NBC News says Democrats promised Specter would face no Democratic challenger but that he was promised no committee chairmanship in return for switching parties. [Laffy Note: I'd posted this part down thread]

And here's a Cornynlicious moment:

Just asking... How upset is Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) after stepping up as head of the NRSC to back Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) in a Republican primary against Pat Toomey (R) now that Specter is switching parties?

Said Cornyn: "I believe that Senator Specter is our best bet to keep this Senate seat in the GOP column. A vote for Arlen Specter is a vote for denying Harry Reid and the Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate."

Update: A statement from Cornyn: "Senator Specter's decision today represents the height of political self-preservation. While this presents a short-term disappointment, voters next year will have a clear choice to cast their ballots for a potentially unbridled Democrat super-majority versus the system of checks-and-balances that Americans deserve."

Heaven.

Cornyn Says Democrats Likely to Get 60 Seats: "We've got to claw our way back in 2010."

By GottaLaff

Not that I'm in the habit of giving Cornyn credibility on much of anything, but I can make an exception just this once. Consider this my effort to reach across the aisle:

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the man in charge of electing more Republicans to the Senate, "said it will be difficult to stop the Democrats from winning a 60-seat majority in 2010," according to The Hill.

Said Cornyn: "That's going to be real hard, to be honest with you. Everybody who runs could be the potential tipping point to get Democrats to 60. We've not only got to play defense; we've got to claw our way back in 2010. It'll be a huge challenge."

"So far this cycle, Republicans have been faced with retirements in four swing states, emerging primaries against at least three of their members and a map that, after two cycles of big GOP losses, continues to favor Democrats."

Jim Bunning: John Cornyn "doesn't understand English"

By GottaLaff

Jim "Justice Ginsburg will die in 9 months" Bunning, is none too happy with "Big Bad John" Cornyn. As Jim Ward would say, "Thank you for playing 'Republicans Eating Their Own'":

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) warned that he would sue the NRSC if it supported a primary challenge against him, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.

Though the committee's head, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), has said they will support Bunning, the Kentucky senator isn't buying it.

Said Bunning: "I don't believe anything John Cornyn says. I've had miscommunications with John Cornyn from, I guess, the first week of this current session of the Senate. He either doesn't understand English or he doesn't understand direct: 'I'm going to run,' which I said to him in the cloakroom of our chamber."

Shh. Nobody say a word while these two are talking to each other. It would be rude to interrupt them, and we certainly wouldn't want this conversation to end any time soon.

Stanford paid for Sen. Cornyn’s ‘travel expenses’ to Caribbean

By GottaLaff

Jet Set:

Bloomberg notes that Stanford “cultivated his image by shuttling politicians in corporate jets.” One politician he was particularly close to was Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX):

The money trail led to the Caribbean, where Texas Sen. John Cornyn took a three-day trip in late November 2004. Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin confirmed to Texas on the Potomac’s Stewart Powell that Cornyn’s Senate disclosure form showed that Stanford’s firm had paid $7,441 in 2004 to cover the senator’s travel expenses to the Caribbean island of Antigua as part of a “financial services industry, fact-finding mission hosted by a constituent company with substantial operations on site.”

Cornyn has issued a response to the revelations: “No one is above the law and prosecutors should follow the facts, wherever they may lead.” Stanford contributed heavily to former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD), the Bush Inaugural Committee, and a host of other prominent leaders of both parties.

This story's growing more legs every day. It's one of the up and coming octopi of news cycles.

John Cornyn Worried About the Census Being Politicized

Project much there John? "Politicizing" government sounds like the last damn eight years to me...

Overheard-- Hillary: "The Clintons don't forget"

By GottaLaff

In the mood for some extra crunchy Hillary gossip?

Megan Carpentier:

Well, one of our eagle-eyed sources... was able to get within earshot just in time to hear Clinton warn Cornyn, "The Clintons don't forget." One day later, Cornyn's objections to Clinton's confirmation magically disappeared and the man who had set the roll call vote in motion voted in favor of confirming Clinton. Now let's see how she handles Hamid Karzai. [...]

UPDATE: Unofficial Cornyn camp response: "Are you kidding?"

A non-denial denial, mayhaps?

So much heresay, so little time.

Hillary confirmed by Senate 94-2

The two voting nay were of course the biggest dickwads of the Senate, Vitter and DeMint. Not even Cornyn and Lugar (who had legitimate concerns) voted against her.

John McCain rescues Hillary Clinton

By GottaLaff

So now we have to hear the word "maverick"... again? That's a pretty steep price to pay:

John McCain has just come to the rescue of his old drinking buddy Hillary Clinton, bucking his colleague John Cornyn by calling for an immediate voice vote on her confirmation as Secretary of State.

In his first maverick-y move of the 111th Congress, McCain took to the Senate floor to call for unanimous consent to skip the 4:30 p.m. roll call on her nomination. [...]

So far, every Republican except Cornyn has risen to say they want her confirmed as quickly as possible.

Gramm-pa does get points for this, but only reluctantly.