Good afternoon, Daily Kos readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
As always, this is a crosspost from Congress Matters and I will refrain from my routine claim that this is the most important writing of the day. That would be the diary I reference below about Islamophobia.
Here are some of my own thoughts...
Update: Do you want to watch Parker Griffith lose his committee positions?
Quick. Painless. And I don't even think he was there.
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The Senate is in session today, but to be quite honest they are just filling up time until the votes are taken. Today just seems to be yet another day of rehashing the health care talking points and running out the clocks until the procedural votes. I did just hear Orrin Hatch quote Jane Hamsher, though.
On another front, President Obama is the closing pitcher on health care reform.
President Barack Obama’s role in healthcare reform will change from cheerleader to closer in the coming weeks.
Obama, who has largely deferred to congressional leaders on healthcare reform, is expected to play a major role in ironing out differences between the House and Senate in order to sign a bill early next year.
And the rest of the story debates whether the administration has done too much, not enough or handled this just right. I'm not in the least bit surprised by this story, by the way. What has two thumbs and predicted this exact thing at the end of August? This guy!
For what it's worth, this item either flew under the radar or we have forgotten about it, but President Obama is planning to let the health care reform battle play itself out in Senate. Then he is planning to get involved more directly during the conference process. The president has no formal role in the process, but it is an opportunity to do some arm-twisting, dealing, and bullying from the pulpit.
On one other note, the Senate voted on (and failed to uphold) a point of order questioning the constitutionality of the bill. Hatch and John Ensign say the individual mandate violated the commerce clause and the Fifth Amendment. The mandate sucks, but I doubt it's unconstitutional. Even if it is, the Supreme Court will have the chance to make that ruling. From the For What It's Worth file, Chuck Grassley thinks the vote is pointless:
"Yeah, but I don't think that means much," Grassley told Iowa reporters when asked if he'd support the point of order.
"Democrats are not going to admit that they didn't write a bill that's constitutional," Grassley said, adding that while he "would vote to challenge it constitutionally, the courts are going to make that judgment."
(Also at this hour, the Senate is voting on another point of order from Kay Bailey Hutchinson claiming that the bill violates the Tenth Amendment. It was "not well taken" meaning that the vote did not pass.)
Are you just dying to know what all the Senate majority leadership had to give up to get to 60 votes? The Washington Independent has your answer.
As The Washington Post’s Joel Achenbach wrote Saturday, “Life at 60 has been awkward for the Democrats.”
Nowhere has that statement rung more true than in the debate over health care reform, where conservative-leaning Democrats have had much greater success watering down the bill than all Republicans combined.
But if it makes you feel any better, Michael Gerson details exactly how much it costs to purchase one Senator from Nebraska.
Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the last Democratic holdout, was offered and accepted a permanent exemption from his state's share of Medicaid expansion, amounting to $100 million over 10 years.
Afterward, Reid was unapologetic. "You'll find," he said, "a number of states that are treated differently than other states. That's what legislating is all about."
Nelson claims that the deal is not special treatment for his state.
The Republicans have no room to gripe about the contents of, but the way. CQ's Craig Crawford wrote that the GOP Again Opts Out of Making History
Instead, the GOP threw the dice and lost. Republican leaders stood firm against making any deals, expecting Democrats to be unable to overcome their internal differences and collect the 60 Senate votes needed to pass anything that could remotely be called universal health insurance.
Finally, House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter has joined the kill the bill caucus.
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Don't be too quick to blame the president when he misses the self-imposed Jan. 22 deadline to close Gitmo. And he had such a good idea with buying that maximum security prison in Illinois. From the New York Times:
But in interviews this week, officials estimated that it could take 8 to 10 months to install new fencing, towers, cameras and other security upgrades before any transfers take place. Such construction cannot begin until the federal government buys the prison from the State of Illinois.
The federal Bureau of Prisons does not have enough money to pay Illinois for the center, which would cost about $150 million. Several weeks ago, the White House approached the House Appropriations Committee and floated the idea of adding about $200 million for the project to the military spending bill for the 2010 fiscal year, according to administration and Congressional officials.
But Democratic leaders refused to include the politically charged measure in the legislation. When lawmakers approved the bill on Dec. 19, it contained no financing for Thomson.
Well, it was a nice thought while it lasted.
In other news, apparently the CIA doesn't even have secret prisons in Lithuania.
Lithuania's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday rejected a report from lawmakers saying the country had hosted secret CIA prisons as part of the "war on terror."
"There are neither facts nor information that secret CIA detention centers existed in Lithuania," the ministry said in a statement, contradicting Amnesty International statements a day earlier based on a report by Lithuanian lawmakers.
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The other big vote on Thursday morning in the Senate will be to raise the debt ceiling to $12.4 trillion. The House has already passed such a bill. Now for the least shocking news of the day. The Republicans are breaking with tradition and forcing a 60 vote supermajority for passage, though the GOP routinely raised the debt limit with as few as 52 votes when they held a slim majority.
Under the Bush administration and Republican rule, for example, debt ceiling increases repeatedly passed with as few as 52 or 53 votes. Since taking power, Democrats have muddied the record by wrapping debt ceiling increases into larger bills subject to 60-vote filibuster rules. But the situation now is much more akin to the Bush years, and Republicans are setting a much higher standard than they imposed on themselves then.
At a minimum, the higher 60-vote threshold now poses a greater burden on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). But it also gives new leverage to those in his party who are pressing for the establishment of an independent task force to force more action on deficit reduction in the next Congress.
And that independent task force is going to need to look at paying down the debt as well as cutting annual deficits.
One option: Dick Cheney in a dunk tank, a dunk tank filled with sharks with friggin' lasers strapped to their foreheads.
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The Congressional Research Service found that ACORN broke no laws in the last five years, but CRS probably has a well-known liberal bias.
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Memo to Texas Democrats. Now would be a good time to elect more Democrats to the state legislature. Texas will probably pick up a whooping four House seats after the census.
• Of the 11 House seats that would switch among the states as a result of the projections, Texas would gain four. The remaining seats would be distributed one each to seven states -- four in the West (Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Washington) and three in the South (Florida, Georgia and South Carolina).
• Of the states losing seats, only Ohio would suffer multiple losses, with two. The remaining states that are projected to have downsized House delegations include four in the Northeast (Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania), four in the Midwest (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota), plus Louisiana.
Of course, that also makes the road to the White House that much tougher for Democrats, who will probably need to establish more solid majorities in at least one decent sized swing state like Virginia or Missouri.
Of course, Texans could always refuse to fill out their census forms, I guess.
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If you have read any of Al Franken's books, you know that he can be terribly vicious, profoundly insightful and downright hysterical all in one sentence. Apparently, his Senate colleagues are just now getting the press release on that one.
Another GOP staffer, an aide to a Senate Republican leader, found herself at the sharp end of Franken’s wit at a recent reception in the Senate’s Mansfield Room. The tongue-lashing took place at an event to celebrate the swearing-in of GOP Sen. George LeMieux (Fla.).
After the conversation began ordinarily, Franken started to grill the aide about what he sees as the failings of the GOP. Franken demanded to know why it had become the "Party of No" and had exaggerated facts in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, according to another GOP leadership aide.
Again with the whining. Minnesota elected a progressive fighter and someone who will finally call "bullshit" when he sees it. Get out of politics if you can't handle the heat.
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If you only read one other diary today, read (and tip) this excellent dairy about anti-Muslim bias from a 21 year old Kossack.
There are days that make me want to cry. There are days that I do end up crying. There are days in which I want to scream. There are days in which I do give a good yell or two. And there are days that make me want to give up. But that is something I cannot and will not ever do. If they want to hate me for what I believe in, they can go right on ahead. But to make "Muslim" an insulting word, well that's where I've had enough. I'm 21 years old now and I refuse to live the rest of my life dealing with this kind of nonsense. I don't want to to go the airport and get extra screening done to me yet again, because of my name. I refuse to be treated as though I'm not "American enough" although I was born and raised here in the United States. I refuse to see this nation go backwards. We've made too much progress to go back. I say enough is enough.
This is probably the most important diary that has been written this week.
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Also, check out alpolitics diary for more about Parker Griffith's party switch.
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Finally, in The Most Important News of the Day™, we have a two-fer from couples shamelessly looking for their 15 minutes of fame on reality TV.
First, balloon boy's parents will be serving jail time for their little stunt. Daddy got 90 days with the last 60 on work release and Mommy got 20 days that can be served on weekends. They also got four years probation which will be revoked, and probably result in more jail time, if they profit from the episode. Authorities spent more than $50,000 chasing down a weather balloon that they were led to believe was carrying the couple's young boy. They were apparently desperate to generate publicity to get on a reality TV show.
And then we have the DC gate crashers. Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who wandered into a state dinner with the Prime Minister of India, are apparently defendants in at least 30 civil lawsuits.
I'll just let the Post speak for itself on this one:
The picture that emerges from court documents and interviews with detectives, sheriff's deputies and two dozen people who say they were bilked is that the Salahis created for themselves a fantastic world of champagne bubbles and fashion, famous friends and jet-setting good times, when, in fact, the reality was far different.
The court cases and interviews show that they convinced one person and company after another to chauffeur them, pamper them, provide designer dresses, food or entertainment -- then left them holding the bill. When challenged they sometimes countersued.
With that, I will wish you all a happy holidays.