Shelby to the U.S.: hold everything!
Harold Meyerson
WashPost
Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby has found a way to resurrect New Gingrich’s 1995 attempt to close down the federal government. He has placed a hold on all 70 pending nominations that President Obama has sent up to the Senate for confirmation.
A hold is one of those wondrous devices that enables individual senators to screw up the workings of government unless they get their way on a project that’s dear to them. In this case, Shelby is upset that the Pentagon isn’t convinced that a bid from Northrop-Grumman, a longtime Shelby campaign contributor, to build Air Force refueling tankers is the best offer it's received. If Northrop-Grumman got the contract, the company would probably hire up to 1,000 of Shelby’s fellow Alabamians in a shiny new tanker-building factory.
Since the Pentagon isn’t convinced, Shelby has decided to show them a thing or two. By putting a hold on a presidential nominee, a senator compels the Senate to drop its other business and devote four days of debate to the nominee’s confirmation, at which time it requires a 60-vote supermajority to ratify the nomination. Now, for the first time ever -- or at least in the memory of Senate historians -- a hold has now been placed on all of a president’s nominees.
Shelby’s ploy is simply the logical continuation of the Republicans’ legislative strategy, which is to obstruct every act, large or small, consequential or trivial, of the Obama administration and its Democratic legislative colleagues. This commitment to opposition transcends such ephemera as longtime Republican principles. Shelby, for instance, hails from a party that has yowled against earmarks for many years, yet it is precisely an earmark that he seeks for his home state. As yet, however, not one of his Republican colleagues has called him out for flouting Republican principles -- perhaps because the only principle to which the GOP currently adheres is to show that Obama and the Democrats are incapable of doing anything.
(More here.)
WashPost
Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby has found a way to resurrect New Gingrich’s 1995 attempt to close down the federal government. He has placed a hold on all 70 pending nominations that President Obama has sent up to the Senate for confirmation.
A hold is one of those wondrous devices that enables individual senators to screw up the workings of government unless they get their way on a project that’s dear to them. In this case, Shelby is upset that the Pentagon isn’t convinced that a bid from Northrop-Grumman, a longtime Shelby campaign contributor, to build Air Force refueling tankers is the best offer it's received. If Northrop-Grumman got the contract, the company would probably hire up to 1,000 of Shelby’s fellow Alabamians in a shiny new tanker-building factory.
Since the Pentagon isn’t convinced, Shelby has decided to show them a thing or two. By putting a hold on a presidential nominee, a senator compels the Senate to drop its other business and devote four days of debate to the nominee’s confirmation, at which time it requires a 60-vote supermajority to ratify the nomination. Now, for the first time ever -- or at least in the memory of Senate historians -- a hold has now been placed on all of a president’s nominees.
Shelby’s ploy is simply the logical continuation of the Republicans’ legislative strategy, which is to obstruct every act, large or small, consequential or trivial, of the Obama administration and its Democratic legislative colleagues. This commitment to opposition transcends such ephemera as longtime Republican principles. Shelby, for instance, hails from a party that has yowled against earmarks for many years, yet it is precisely an earmark that he seeks for his home state. As yet, however, not one of his Republican colleagues has called him out for flouting Republican principles -- perhaps because the only principle to which the GOP currently adheres is to show that Obama and the Democrats are incapable of doing anything.
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home