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The US Senate and the European Parliament likened to the ostrich that Sir Thomas Browne tried to feed an iron bun.
Archive for the ‘The Dysfunctional Senate’ Category
April 9th, 2013
Category: Law Notes, The Dysfunctional Senate
President Obama’s announcement today making three nominations to the National Labor Relations Board should remind us that the GOP is the party of permanent constitutional crisis. It has been quite clear from the beginning of the Obama Administration that the Republicans simply have no interest in allowing the NLRB to function. That shouldn’t be much [...]
January 4th, 2013
Category: The Dysfunctional Senate
The continually growing presence of women in Congress — now for the first time breaking into triple digits — is getting deserved attention. Another historic first of the 113th Congress: Senator Barbara Mikulski has become the first woman to Chair the Senate Appropriations Committee. How she got the job however reflects the unfortunate dysfunction of [...]
December 3rd, 2012
Category: Democrats in Congress, The Dysfunctional Senate
Just sent: The Hon. Diane Feinstein 331 Hart Senate Office Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20510 December 3, 2012 Dear Sen. Feinstein: As a Democrat who has had the pleasure of voting for you three times so far, I was very troubled to read that you were wavering on the question of filibuster reform. I hope that [...]
October 12th, 2011
He certainly claims that he can. In the GOP President debate last night, Mitt Romney said that because the Affordable Care Act was enacted via budget reconciliation, which cannot be filibustered, it can be repealed that way. Now, in typical Romney fashion, this is out-and-out false, because of course the Affordable Care Act was not [...]
August 10th, 2011
Missouri’s economically-stressed African-American voters put Claire McCaskill over the top in a close 2006 race. She repays her most loyal constituents and her party by opposing UI extension.
May 27th, 2011
The Democrats did. And it doesn’t matter: they were right to do so. Here’s why. The GOP filibuster of Goodwin Liu (who has since withdrawn his candidacy) has led to all sort of recriminations. “You violated the “Gang of 14″ agreement!” “Oh yeah? You filibustered Miguel Estrada.” And on and on. Dahlia Lithwick suggests that [...]
May 23rd, 2011
Category: Law Notes, The Dysfunctional Senate
Senate Republicans have filibustered Goodwin Liu’s nomination, and it’s silly to think that this won’t happen with virtually every Obama nominee, especially with a McConnell-led caucus. For example, Caitlin Halligan, Obama’s first nominee to the DC Circuit, was opposed by every single Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and if you think that doesn’t mean that [...]
May 19th, 2011
To the surprise of exactly no one, Senate Republicans will filibuster Goodwin Liu’s nomination to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. As I argued yesterday, this really shouldn’t matter if the administration’s eventual goal is to appoint Liu to the United States Supreme Court: many of the greatest justices had no or virtually no judicial [...]