The Politico is reporting that voting on Boehner’s Debt Ceiling Bill called the ‘Budget Control Act’ has been delayed. No more news has come out so far… Chuck Todd tweets : They ACTUALLY are now moving to the business of naming post offices. You can’t make it up The Politico has more: House Republican leaders delayed a vote on Speaker John Boehner ’s debt limit bill Thursday evening, sparking a series of emergency meetings and arm twisting as the fate of a trillion dollar deficit package hung in limbo . House Majority Leader Eric Cantor ’s (R-Va.) office says the vote will still be held Thursday night, but the delay is an indication the votes aren’t totally locked down for passage. For hours, Boehner has been engaged in intense one-on-one meetings with Republicans in an effort to win today’s fight. Still lacking the votes at 9 p.m., Republicans were considering sending their bill back to the Rules Committee for minor tweaks to win more votes. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a conservative Texas Republican, emerged from Boehner’s suite of offices Thursday evening — which include Cantor’s space — and said he is a “bloody, beaten-down no.”
Continue reading …The Politico is reporting that voting on Boehner’s Debt Ceiling Bill called the ‘Budget Control Act’ has been delayed. No more news has come out so far… Chuck Todd tweets : They ACTUALLY are now moving to the business of naming post offices. You can’t make it up The Politico has more: House Republican leaders delayed a vote on Speaker John Boehner ’s debt limit bill Thursday evening, sparking a series of emergency meetings and arm twisting as the fate of a trillion dollar deficit package hung in limbo . House Majority Leader Eric Cantor ’s (R-Va.) office says the vote will still be held Thursday night, but the delay is an indication the votes aren’t totally locked down for passage. For hours, Boehner has been engaged in intense one-on-one meetings with Republicans in an effort to win today’s fight. Still lacking the votes at 9 p.m., Republicans were considering sending their bill back to the Rules Committee for minor tweaks to win more votes. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a conservative Texas Republican, emerged from Boehner’s suite of offices Thursday evening — which include Cantor’s space — and said he is a “bloody, beaten-down no.”
Continue reading …David Wu Resigns: Oregon Congressman Resigning Amid Sex Scandal Allegations (PHOTOS)
July 28, 2011 No Comment
WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. David Wu of Oregon announced Tuesday that he will resign amid political fallout from an 18-year-old woman’s allegations she had an unwanted sexual encounter with him. Within days of the allegation, Democratic leaders requested a House Ethics Committee investigation of his conduct. Wu had said Monday he would not seek re-election, but had come under increasing pressure to step down. “The wellbeing of my children must come before anything else,” Wu said in a statement. “With great sadness, I therefore intend to resign effective upon the resolution of the debt-ceiling crisis. This is the right decision for my family, the institution of the House, and my colleagues.” Wu is the second House Democrat in the last six weeks to be forced to resign as a result of a sex scandal. Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York resigned after sending lewd photos of himself through Twitter. Scroll down for a slideshow of notable political sex scandals: Wu, who separated from his wife more than a year ago, was first elected to Congress in 1998 as the first Chinese-American to serve in the House. He’s maintained a centrist voting record but has been a leading voice on human rights abuses in China. He angered the high-tech firms in his district when he voted against normalizing trade relations with China. Wu’s hometown newspaper, the Oregonian, reported that a California woman had called Wu’s office in Portland and reported an unwanted sexual encounter with him. The paper also reported that Wu told senior aides the sexual encounter was consensual. The newspaper said the woman decided not to press charges because there were no witnesses and it would have been her word against Wu’s. Democratic primary challengers immediately called for Wu’s resignation. “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be a United States Congressman,” Wu said in his resignation announcement. “Rare is the nation in which an immigrant child can become a national political figure. I thank God and my parents for the privilege of being an American.” Wu went on to say that the resignation was the only correct decision to avoid distraction from the important work taking place in Washington. Below is a roundup of notable political sex scandals in recent years:
Continue reading …David Wu Resigns: Oregon Congressman Resigning Amid Sex Scandal Allegations (PHOTOS)
July 28, 2011 No Comment
WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. David Wu of Oregon announced Tuesday that he will resign amid political fallout from an 18-year-old woman’s allegations she had an unwanted sexual encounter with him. Within days of the allegation, Democratic leaders requested a House Ethics Committee investigation of his conduct. Wu had said Monday he would not seek re-election, but had come under increasing pressure to step down. “The wellbeing of my children must come before anything else,” Wu said in a statement. “With great sadness, I therefore intend to resign effective upon the resolution of the debt-ceiling crisis. This is the right decision for my family, the institution of the House, and my colleagues.” Wu is the second House Democrat in the last six weeks to be forced to resign as a result of a sex scandal. Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York resigned after sending lewd photos of himself through Twitter. Scroll down for a slideshow of notable political sex scandals: Wu, who separated from his wife more than a year ago, was first elected to Congress in 1998 as the first Chinese-American to serve in the House. He’s maintained a centrist voting record but has been a leading voice on human rights abuses in China. He angered the high-tech firms in his district when he voted against normalizing trade relations with China. Wu’s hometown newspaper, the Oregonian, reported that a California woman had called Wu’s office in Portland and reported an unwanted sexual encounter with him. The paper also reported that Wu told senior aides the sexual encounter was consensual. The newspaper said the woman decided not to press charges because there were no witnesses and it would have been her word against Wu’s. Democratic primary challengers immediately called for Wu’s resignation. “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be a United States Congressman,” Wu said in his resignation announcement. “Rare is the nation in which an immigrant child can become a national political figure. I thank God and my parents for the privilege of being an American.” Wu went on to say that the resignation was the only correct decision to avoid distraction from the important work taking place in Washington. Below is a roundup of notable political sex scandals in recent years:
Continue reading …This will bring a smile to whale fans: A humpback freed from fishing nets performed what one rescuer could only describe as a “thank-you dance.” Again and again and again. A group from the Great Whale Conservancy freed the whale off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. Afterward, it leaped…
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Uncertainty still rules as US political parties fail to compromise on a strategy to tackle economic crisis The White House is drawing up emergency plans for next week’s debt crisis deadline in the event that Congress fails to reach a last-gasp compromise. With only six days left, the White House dismissed as “political theatre” a new bill before the Republican-controlled House that would cut spending in return for raising the $14.3tn (£8.7tn) debt ceiling. The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, addressing the daily press conference today, said the bill was hated by the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House and was “dead on arrival”. The Senate will not vote for it and, even if it did, Barack Obama would veto it. Fifty-one Democratic members of the Senate, a majority, published a letter pledging to vote against the House bill. Democrats in the Senate are preparing a bill of their own but the chances are Republicans in the House would vote that down too. Global markets, initially sanguine about the crisis and confident of an eventual compromise, were increasingly jittery on Thursday. There were early market falls but US stocks gained and the dollar rose during the day, buoyed by unexpectedly good unemployment figures. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, warned: “Default will rock our financial system to its core.” He expressed hope that there could still be a deal. “Magic things can happen here in Congress in a very short period of time under the right circumstances,” he said. The White House, too, expressed optimism that a compromise could be reached. Negotiations are continuing in private between the White House and senior Republicans and Democrats on a possible short-term emergency deal. But Carney admitted that, in the event there is no deal, the treasury would explain its plans in detail before 2 August. Carney said: “As we get closer to that date, the treasury will explain how it will manage a situation that is impossible.” He acknowledged for the first time that the uncertainty was already causing harm to the US economy. The White House will almost certainly make its priority paying interest on its debts so that the US does not default for the first time in its history. But the consequence could be delaying monthly payments to federal workers, soldiers and other employees, and millions of cheques to social security recipients, veterans and
Continue reading …House Republicans are not just do-nothings — they’re spinning their wheels furiously
July 28, 2011 No CommentTina Dupuy has an excellent piece in The Atlantic examining how this Republican Congress is on pace to set a modern record for non-accomplishment — while expending endless energy passing bills that have no chance of passing the Senate: One quarter into the 112th Congress’s two-year term, only 14 pieces of legislation originating in the House have become laws (12 bills and two house joint resolutions). Fourteen. Compare that with the House in the 111th, which claimed 254 laws (plus 11 house joint resolutions) over two years. The 110th had 308 (plus 10 house joint resolutions). Even the often-derided do-nothing 109th Congress’s House controlled by the GOP passed 316 (with 16 house joint resolutions). If the current House continues with this trend it will have produced a mere 48 laws by the end of the chamber’s full term. Quick math: The last three Houses have by this time in their tenure produced an average of 76 laws each. But when House Republicans are actually in session, it’s not exactly like they’re doing nothing. They’ve made a point of passing bills that “send a message.” Over and over, they’ve brought legislation to the floor that was doomed to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Why? To put taxpayer money where Republican congresspersons’ mouths (and votes) are. Yes, the House Republicans of 112th Congress are having a love affair with the symbolic vote. Dupuy compiled a list of the many bills that have passed the House with no chance of passage in the Senate, including the health-care repealers, defunding Planned Parenthood and NPR, ending the oil-drilling moratorium in the Gulf, and gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Of course, these are the same people demanding that President Obama devise a debt-ceiling plan … even though that’s a responsibility clearly in Congress’ hands. By the way, look for more of Dupuy’s work here at Crooks and Liars. She’s joining the C&L team beginning Monday. (You can also check out her work at her own site .) Welcome Tina!
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The House has begun debate on Speaker John Boehner’s deficit-cutting plan. Republican leaders have been pleading with reluctant members of their caucus to support the bill. Should it pass the House, the Senate is promising a quick vote. (July 28)
Continue reading …Today Raúl Grijalva, a tireless champion on behalf of America’s hard-pressed working families and an old and trusted friend of Blue America’s– our only endorsed candidate with a dedicated Act Blue Page — will be spending an hour with us here from noon to 1pm, PT, 3-4pm back East to help us understand the machinations of the debt ceiling debate roiling Washington– and the financial markets– of late. He’ll be answering questions in the live forum in the comments section below. Aside from representing a sprawling southern Arizona congressional district that encompasses everything from the western half of Tucson down to Nogales on the Mexican border and across to Yuma on the California border, Raúl is also the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (with Keith Ellison ). The Progressive Caucus is Congress’ largest, with 76 Members. In the Great Shellacking last year, when Democrats lost the House in a rout, the CPC essentially held it’s ground. While the conservative Blue Dogs lost more than half their members, the CPC only lost 4, all swept away by the refusal of Democratic and left-leaning voters to put their disappointment in Obama aside and turn out to vote. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH), Alan Grayson (D-FL), Phil Hare (D-IL) and John Hall (D-NY) were the casualties. The Caucus picked up 3 new members at the same time: Karen Bass (D-CA), David Cicilline (D-CA) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL). I spent some time on the phone with Raúl yesterday trying to get a better grasp on what the Caucus does and what it hopes to accomplish. Unlike the Blue Dogs, it is not a fundraising powerhouse. They are hardly the darlings of the K Street lobbyists and power-brokers who distribute the legalistic bribes to the members and the organizations that doing their bidding. When the Murdoch scandal started to break, one of the first things we saw was that his PAC was donating heavily to the Blue Dogs. Find a scandal or an outrage in any newspaper and you’ll find a source of contributions to the Blue Dogs– though never to the CPC. Members dues, meager, go to pay a single staffer and for some office supplies. Raúl sees the CPC was a vehicle to unify Congress’ disparate progressive voices and to go beyond just unifying around individual votes. He has been working diligently to assert a kind of independence from the party leadership based on solidly progressive values and principles. “We’re often taken for granted,” he told me. “Leadership thinks ‘they have nowhere else to go’.” That’s why we’ve seen Pelosi, and especially Hoyer, making legislation and strategy more and more conservative to lure Blue Dogs and other conservatives, while basically ignoring progressives. But Raúl and Keith have forged together an inner core of nearly three dozen members who are serious about breaking away from playing the insider game that always leaves progressives coming up short. They are building relationships with grassroots activists and advocates for the progressive agenda around the country, groups dedicated to working families, education, the environment, equality, peace… all the issues that differentiate progressives from conservatives. And they are making their members available to the media and helping give them national visibility beyond their own districts. Raúl tells me that they even plan to utilize the CPC Pac to help elect progressives in districts held by Republicans and in open districts. Yesterday Raúl cut our chat short to get to a CPC meeting where they resolved to endorse Peter Welch’s H.R. 2663, The America Pays its Bills Act. The bill calls for a clean debt ceiling vote in order to end the Republican-created Default crisis. They also resolved that “failing a timely, satisfactory legislative agreement to end the Republican-created default crisis, the CPC urges the President to use his powers granted under section 4 of the 14th amendment to raise the ceiling.”
Continue reading …Today Raúl Grijalva, a tireless champion on behalf of America’s hard-pressed working families and an old and trusted friend of Blue America’s– our only endorsed candidate with a dedicated Act Blue Page — will be spending an hour with us here from noon to 1pm, PT, 3-4pm back East to help us understand the machinations of the debt ceiling debate roiling Washington– and the financial markets– of late. He’ll be answering questions in the live forum in the comments section below. Aside from representing a sprawling southern Arizona congressional district that encompasses everything from the western half of Tucson down to Nogales on the Mexican border and across to Yuma on the California border, Raúl is also the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (with Keith Ellison ). The Progressive Caucus is Congress’ largest, with 76 Members. In the Great Shellacking last year, when Democrats lost the House in a rout, the CPC essentially held it’s ground. While the conservative Blue Dogs lost more than half their members, the CPC only lost 4, all swept away by the refusal of Democratic and left-leaning voters to put their disappointment in Obama aside and turn out to vote. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH), Alan Grayson (D-FL), Phil Hare (D-IL) and John Hall (D-NY) were the casualties. The Caucus picked up 3 new members at the same time: Karen Bass (D-CA), David Cicilline (D-CA) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL). I spent some time on the phone with Raúl yesterday trying to get a better grasp on what the Caucus does and what it hopes to accomplish. Unlike the Blue Dogs, it is not a fundraising powerhouse. They are hardly the darlings of the K Street lobbyists and power-brokers who distribute the legalistic bribes to the members and the organizations that doing their bidding. When the Murdoch scandal started to break, one of the first things we saw was that his PAC was donating heavily to the Blue Dogs. Find a scandal or an outrage in any newspaper and you’ll find a source of contributions to the Blue Dogs– though never to the CPC. Members dues, meager, go to pay a single staffer and for some office supplies. Raúl sees the CPC was a vehicle to unify Congress’ disparate progressive voices and to go beyond just unifying around individual votes. He has been working diligently to assert a kind of independence from the party leadership based on solidly progressive values and principles. “We’re often taken for granted,” he told me. “Leadership thinks ‘they have nowhere else to go’.” That’s why we’ve seen Pelosi, and especially Hoyer, making legislation and strategy more and more conservative to lure Blue Dogs and other conservatives, while basically ignoring progressives. But Raúl and Keith have forged together an inner core of nearly three dozen members who are serious about breaking away from playing the insider game that always leaves progressives coming up short. They are building relationships with grassroots activists and advocates for the progressive agenda around the country, groups dedicated to working families, education, the environment, equality, peace… all the issues that differentiate progressives from conservatives. And they are making their members available to the media and helping give them national visibility beyond their own districts. Raúl tells me that they even plan to utilize the CPC Pac to help elect progressives in districts held by Republicans and in open districts. Yesterday Raúl cut our chat short to get to a CPC meeting where they resolved to endorse Peter Welch’s H.R. 2663, The America Pays its Bills Act. The bill calls for a clean debt ceiling vote in order to end the Republican-created Default crisis. They also resolved that “failing a timely, satisfactory legislative agreement to end the Republican-created default crisis, the CPC urges the President to use his powers granted under section 4 of the 14th amendment to raise the ceiling.”
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