Good afternoon, Daily Kos readers and happy Darwin Day. 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. We'll be here all weekend.
It seems the snow has shifted south and now Atlanta is getting hit. I guess this means we can completely stop all efforts to cap carbon emissions, or something.
Meanwhile, the Winter Olympics kick off tonight. Too bad there's no snow in Vancouver. Anyway, good luck to Robel Teklemariam, Ethiopia's best (okay, only) hope for a medal in skiing. I wonder if they are getting snow in Addis Ababa. In sad news, thoughts and prayers to the family of Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luger who died today.
Some of the Hill news that's fit to blog is over the fold...
Lobbying spending up
How much disposable income do you have these days? Not enough? Yeah, I can empathize. In spite of the rotten economy, the DC lobbyists were able to set aside an extra few bucks. Lobbying spending increased by five percent last year.
Federal Lobbying Climbs in 2009 as Lawmakers Execute Aggressive Congressional Agenda
The economy stunk. Corporations slashed jobs. And some firms, once juggernauts of American industry, simply ceased to exist.
But for federal lobbyists, 2009 proved to be a year of riches unlike any other, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates.
In all, federal lobbyists’ clients spent more than $3.47 billion last year, often driven to Washington, D.C.’s power centers and halls of influence by political issues central to the age: health care reform, financial reform, energy policy.
Depressed yet? Check the link and scroll down to see the top spenders. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was the top spender at $144.5 million. Exxon Mobil was a distant second at $27.4 million. Remember, this is the same U.S. Chamber of Commerce that is lobbying hard against global warming legislation.
In other lobbyist news, former Republican Congressman Billy Tauzin has quit as head of Washington's largest pharmaceutical lobbying outfit.
Drug industry lobbyist Billy Tauzin to resign
Tauzin has been under fire for cutting a private deal with the White House to push the healthcare overhaul forward.
Reporting from Washington - Billy Tauzin, the chief lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry who forged a private deal with the Obama administration to push the healthcare overhaul forward, will announce his resignation Friday, further complicating the outlook for passage of comprehensive legislation this year.
Tauzin, a garrulous former Louisiana congressman, has been considered a brilliant and bold negotiator, particularly in mid-2009 when he cut a deal with the White House to back the healthcare overhaul that once seemed all but inevitable.
But he has come under increasing fire as the health initiative stalled on Capitol Hill following the Republicans' surprise Senate victory in Massachusetts last month that denied the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority.
He was under fire for (ZOMFG) negotiating with Democrats, who happen to be in power right now.
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Hitting back on the Citizens United Ruling
In case you haven't heard, progressive consulting firm Murray Hill Inc. is running for Congress to represent Maryland's Eight Congressional District. This is a tongue in cheek political statement on the recent Citizens United ruling.
The decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, has repercussions of at least two types. First, it sets precedents in constitutional law regarding when unelected judges in our democracy can strike down the laws passed by elected legislatures, and when it's appropriate for the court to overrule the decisions of earlier courts.
Critics assert that the conservative justices here not only overstepped in each instance but did so in ways that expose the conservative jurisprudential principles they profess to live by as shams.
Second, the ruling has enormous impact on campaign finance law, where it frees corporations (and presumably unions) to use their vast financial resources to influence elections. At the same time the decision upholds certain disclosure requirements for corporations, which the majority of justices hope might act as a brake on abuse.
So it really doesn't allow companies to run for office, but Murray Hill Inc. is not the worst possible company to be running for office.
Perhaps Chris Van Hollen, the Democrat representing Maryland's Eighth District might be a little nervous about a November election pitting Van Hollen v. Murray Hill.
Schumer, Van Hollen Push Citizens United Fix
Dems anxious about the influx of corporate money in political campaigns have submitted a legislative fix they hope will get around a controversial SCOTUS ruling earlier this month.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen announced Thursday they will begin work on a legislative framework aimed at tightening limits on certain corporate expenditures and outright banning others after last month's Citizens United v. FEC ruling. The ruling dealt a serious blow to advocates of campaign finance reform.
~snip
The legislative framework would ban expenditures from corporations with a high percentage of foreign ownership; corporations that win federal contracts; and those that received TARP funds. Corporations that do spend money on political ads would be subject to disclosure both to the FEC and to shareholders, directly and through the SEC.
Statute is one thing, but a Constitutional Amendment would go much further toward defining the exact legal status of businesses and limiting the influence of corporate money in elections and lobbying.
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Kill the filibuster
It's not going to happen, but some Democratic Senators are moving to kill the filibuster.
Dem senators seek to kill filibuster
Two Senate Democrats on Thursday formally launched their quixotic effort to kill the filibuster.
Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) re-introduced a bill Harkin first unveiled in 1995 that would set a gradually lowering threshold to shut off debate on legislation, starting at 60 votes and lowering to 51 over six days.
Such a change to Senate rules would require 67 votes — an impossible threshold to reach, given the chamber’s make-up and divisiveness. While Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has backed the measure, Harkin and Shaheen said they have no Republican co-sponsors. They are unlikely to get any.
They also have Tom Udall, so that's four. If Joe Biden wen't Vice President, they would have five.
This move more symbolic and political than actually feasible. The Democrats have to make this an issue and let the voters know that this is the reason why we don't have any of that Change that 53 percent of the people voted for in 2008.
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Jobs Bill in Trouble
It's simply amazing that Congress can ever do anything important.
Pelosi cool to Senate jobs bill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) planned job-creation bill is getting a cool reception from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose assent will be required to get the measure enacted into law.
Reid frustrated Senate Republicans and some fellow Democrats on Thursday by scrapping a bipartisan $85 jobs measure negotiated by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). Instead Reid said he will push a smaller bill, stripped of many elements sought by Republicans.
The move immediately prompted the question of whether Reid will be able to muster the 60 votes necessary to move his measure forward in the Senate. But there is little evidence that Pelosi likes either version of the jobs bill much.
Dear leader Reid: Please be bold and see if a bipartisan bill will actually pass. kthxbai
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No more Kennedys
Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island has announced that he will not seek a ninth term in Congress, meaning that the Kennedy family is officially out of politics.
Rep. Kennedy to bow out, spelling end to family era
WASHINGTON - US Representative Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek reelection, capping a dramatic year for the Kennedy family and probably leaving it without a member in Washington for the first time in more than six decades.
Kennedy made the decision based on “some personal struggles,’’ including the death in August of his father, Edward M. Kennedy, according to a Democratic official briefed on the decision. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because Patrick Kennedy has not yet made a formal announcement.
Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida is also retiring. You wouldn't know it from the chattering class, but more Republican members of Congress have announced their retirements than Democrats. Naturally, this is great news for John McCain. Either way, the speculation is on:
3 House retirements spur debate on whether Republicans are losing momentum
A trio of House Republican retirement announcements over the past 10 days have sparked a debate between the leaders of the two major parties over whether the GOP is losing momentum in its quest to score major gains at the ballot box this fall.
With the three latest lawmakers choosing not to seek reelection in November, Republicans will have to defend 18 open seats and Democrats 14. The raw numbers contradict the conventional wisdom that Democrats would head for the sidelines after GOP Sen. Scott Brown's special election victory Jan. 19 in Massachusetts.
~snip
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (Tex.) said that "not all retirements are created equal," adding that Democratic retirements are coming in far less friendly territory for the majority.
At any rate, an open seat is much easier to switch than one occupied by an incumbent. Don't forget to donate to your favorite candidates and volunteer for campaigns if you have time. This poll is also heartening. A New York Times/CBS News poll found that Americans hold President Obama in higher esteem than Congressional Republicans. On the other hand, the same polling organization found that only eight percent of adults (not registered or likely voters) would vote for incumbents.
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GOP harnessing Tea Party movement, teabaggers like totally pissed about it
In The Most Important News of the Day™, Talking Points Memo asks if Sarah Palin is a wolf in Demon Sheep clothing. More specifically, the Tea Party movement is being co-opted by the Republican Party.
'Warning: Tea Party In Danger': Leader Slams Palin As 'Wolf In Sheep's Clothing'
A prominent Tea Party leader from Texas is warning that the movement "is becoming nothing more than a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party," and slamming Sarah Palin as representing "a growing insider's attack to the heart of the Tea Party."
Dale Robertson, the founder of TeaParty.org, is just the latest Tea Partier to express concern that the movement is being hijacked by the GOP.
In a lengthy statement -- entitled "Warning: Tea Party In Danger" -- posted yesterday on the TeaParty.org homepage, Robertson instructs his felllow Tea Partiers to "[b]e alert to turncoats and deceivers being herded into the Tea Party by usurpers from the weakened Republican Party for the sole purpose of capturing our populist movement."
Here's a quick political science lesson: This always happens. Occasionally a significant part of the coalition that comprises one of the two major parties splinters off (Green Party, anyone?) and does its own thing. That major party will lose elections as the third party draws votes away. Sooner or later (sooner if the party leaders are smart) the major party will respond to the demands of the splinter group and pull as many as possible back into the fold.
So what do the teabaggers really want? We'll be able to read their manifesto "soon."
I'll leave you with this movie quote:
When will then be now?
Soon, sir!