Bad Boy, No Recess

By Mimikatz

During the school year, I help out at a local elementary school, working with kids who have difficulty with math.  Among the 4th and 5th graders, there are always boys who cannot walk across the room without throwing their weight around, poking other boys and pulling girls' pigtails.  They disrupt every group they are in.  One remedy?  No recess.  (The next step is calling their parents.)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is like those bad boys.  Many people do not know that it is due to him that the Senate has accomplished virtually nothing, while the House has passed over 400 pieces of legislation.   Even bills that have been passed by a majority of both houses cannot become law because Bad Boy McConnell will not allow a vote on sending them to a conference committee.  We all know that McConnell would not allow a vote on the Webb-Hagel Amendemnt, leading Majority Leader Harry Reid to file a cloture motion that needed 60 votes.  Since the Dems had only 56 votes, debate could not be closed off and there was no vote on the substance of  Webb-Hagel.  McConnell promises the same on Levin-Reed and Feingold-Reid.  But this obstruction has also meant:

Senate Republicans blocked funding for the intelligence community  (National Journal Congress Daily, 4/18/07), …denying our country the tools to fight the war on terror. (DPC Report)

Senate Republicans blocked a vote on reforming the Medicare Prescription Drug plan“ (Boston Globe, 4/19/07) and denied seniors lower prescription drug prices. (DPC Report)

Senate Republicans blocked raising the minimum wage (New York Times, 1/25/07) delaying a much needed raise for hard-working Americans. (DPC Report)

Senate Republicans are blocking the appointment of conferees on the 9/11 Commission Recommendations (DPC Report)  leaving the United States vulnerable to terrorist threats.  (Washington Times, 3/14/07)

Senate Republicans are blocking the appointment of conferees on ethics reform  (DPC Report)  halting progress on the “most significant ethics reform since Watergate.” (Washington Post, 1/19/07)

Senate Republicans are blocking a bill to bring transparency to campaign fundraising  (The Washington Post, 05/09/07) denying the American people the right to know who funds Senate campaigns.  (Washington Post, 5/9/07)

Senate Republicans blocked a vote on holding Attorney General Gonzales accountable (Reuters, 06/11/07)  refusing to hold the Attorney General accountable. 

Senate Republicans blocked legislation to make forming unions easier  (Associated Press, 06/15/07)  siding with corporations against average American workers.  (DPC Report)

The details are here.

So what's the solution?  As Digby has said so many times, this is not your father's Republican Party.  These folks play for short-term advantage, and they play for keeps.  The Senate cannot just keep rolling over in the face of these obstructionist tactics.  Here are two suggestions.  I've made them before, but they should be repeated until the message sinks in.

(1)  No recess.  If the GOP won't allow votes, then they aren't doing their jobs.  Majority Leader Reid should stop caving and calling cloture votes.  Instead, he should allow debate to continue, indefinitely if necessary, starting with the amendments to the Defense Authorization Bill.   Force the GOPers to stand at the podium and defend a war that 70% of the people oppose.  Let the Dems catalogue the horrors--the dead, the severely wounded, the impaired, those returning to society with serious problems and substandard or no mental health care, Walter Reed, all of it.  Until there is an up or down vote on the amendments. 

(2)  No vote.  If the Dem caucus is too wedded to its vacation, here's Steve Soto's idea over at  The Left Coaster.  If McConnell continues to stonewall, then debate something else.  My idea--the bill the House just passed to make college more affordable.   But don't vote on the Defense Bill until after the Senate has had a chance to go home and talk to the voters (the parents in my analogy) one more time. 

While I like the no recess idea, not the least because it would prevent any more recess appointments, the latter idea has merit as well.  In fact, since Bush keeps pushing the upcoming Petraeus Report in September as so important, why vote on the Defense Bill until we know what the strategy will be?  What sense does it make?   Wait until Petraeus makes his report, since that's evidently the thing that matters.  The President will scream because he doesn't have his money, but this is Congress' only real weapon, the one thing that McConnell can't obstruct.  They have to appropriate the money, or Bush can't spend it, and they should extract some mighty big concessions for doing so.  Because it is McConnell who is obstructing and because the public is so solidly against the war and Bush's approval is below freezing, the Dems do not risk looking like Newt Gingrich in 1996. They have the public on their side; Bush does not.  McConnell has given them the weapon, and Reid should use it. 

Finally, we can all pitch in together and Ditch Mitch just like they sent Tom Daschle packing.

Comments

[Mimikatz]

According to the WaPo, the GOPers are pining for a bipartisan olive branch (or fig leaf) from the Dems so they can cut a deal, pass the Defense Bill and go home.

This, as Steve Soto says, is exactly the wrong thing to do. This is their only weapon, and the Dems must make it clear to Bush that the Defense budget will contain troop withdrawal language or it won't happen, period. It is the President who has chosen to play chicken, with his own party, with the country, and the Dems do not act resposibly by always being the ones to blink. They only encourage Bush not to take them seriously, to continue to stonewall and thumb his nose at them.

As Bush so often used to say of the Arabs, Bush/Cheney only understand power, and the Dems had better use theirs before it is all gone.

[William Ockham]

As someone who used to be a 4th grade boy, I would like to object to your unfair comparison. Many of my 4th grade friends and enemies had legitimate impulse control issues that they later outgrew. Those Republicans in the Senate are just being jerks.

[orionATL]

MK

now you're talkin'.

the problem national democrats - that includes senators - have is that, with the exception of howard dean, they just don't like to fight.

i presume they are trying to avoid having the senate be a spectacle of conflict.

but now is not the right time for that concern to carry weight.

right now i suspect the public would welcome a fight.

but the democrats better have good spokespeople if they do decide to duke it out in the senate.

so far, their public defense of their actions in this congress have been feeble beyond belief.

ah, mitch mcconnel

the most reptilian senator we have, more so even than orin hatch.

nothing matters to him except the republican party,

nothing.

[Mimikatz]

Well, WO, I was a 4th and 5th grade tomboy with many of the same issues, so I sympathize with them even as I try to help.

And here's more reason to defer the Defense Budget until September, from the Oracle on the Hudson:

Between now and September the battle for Baghdad will intensify, likely costing hundreds of American troops' lives, and the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will be pressured to do more to weed out sectarian influences in the Iraqi security forces and to pass legislation designed to promote reconciliation.

The U.S. casualty rate has increased in recent months, and total U.S. deaths in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 now exceed 3,600.

Better to have that happen before the vote rather than after. It may sharpen a few minds, and they can always pass one of those stop-gap things if they need to (and Mitch will let them).

[mighty mouse]

This seems to accord nicely with a tenet of civil disobedience--you don't behave violently but you act so that the opponent/oppressor/authority figure must take action, even violently, against you and so demonstrate what is really going on. So you just walk across that bridge even if the fire hoses are turned on you--or sit at the lunch counter even if you are arrested. Dems should do what's necessary to show what Repubs are actually doing (or not doing, as the case may be). Does that make sense?

[MarkH]

Fabulous post!

I've seen the argument for letting debate go on, but this post lays out the argument best.

DEBATE ON

It's been said nobody knows you're a fool so long as you keep your mouth closed. Let the Republicans show their nature by letting them open their mouthes.

DEBATE ON

The public is running away from Bush on Iraq and some Senators are following. Let the ones who stand with Bush open their mouthes and hang their own re-election efforts (especially the ones up for re-election in '08).

DEBATE ON

[freepatriot]

so how much credibility does the corporate media have with the average voter ???

about the same as dick cheney, right ???

so who gives a fuck what the news media says

Pravda printed bullshit every day, and that didn't stop ordinary Russians from learning the truth

there are millions of words floating in the blogosphere, full of sound and fury, signifying NOTHING

America's voters can see thru the bullshit

nobody's buying george's pipe dreams

we know who started this disaster, and we know who continues this disaster

and we already KNOW what we're gonna do to the assholes who are defending this disaster

anybody checked out the mccain campaign lately

mccain adopted george bush's war, and NOW HE'S DEAD

NEXT !!!

[Mimikatz]

Mighty mouse--yes. I've been saying for months that one good way to fight back is to force the Bush/Cheney regime and its allies to go through the motions of defending the indeffensible over and over. Issue subpoenas and file lawsuits and other mechanisms even without knowing if they will be successful or not so that they have to oppose. I'd even go for impeachment, but this is written for those who love legislative procedure and think Impeachment is too risky.

We can never know the future, so its always better to have done the morally right thing than to have not tried or, worse, succeeded by doing the morally wrong thing. Not only does the end not justify the means, the means can all too easily corrupt the ends, as we see on display every day.

[P J Evans]

They're spinning Ben Nelson as being a 'moderate Democrat' because he voted to fund Cheney's office (whichever branch he's claiming it's in this week).

[fired up dem]

mimikatz,a suggestion to you or any of the other posters on here.This article needs to be sent to all the Dem Senators on the hill.Apparently they haven't thought of this strategy.Time to give them a little nudge.

[Sandbar]

I think Digby also suggested forcing the Repos to actually fillibuster--old fashioned style-- instead of giving them the easy vote in place of standing and talking for hours and hours in order to obstruct. Time for hardball. [And dreaming now, how about digging up and twisting beyond all recognition an archaic rule that would require the president of the Senate, the (dis)honorable Cheney himself, to sit in the chamber thru the entire debate?]

[MsCasey]

These are wonderful suggestions! Particularly wrt the Republican strategy (on all issues) to filibuster. Definitely make 'em do it! Every time!

[Mimikatz]

I sent the argument to Harry Reid. The rest of you are wlecome to bombard them too. Click here. Fax it to them. Don't think they won't listen.

[kaleidescope]

I hate to harp on this, but making the R's actually filibuster (especially really popular legislation) is such an obvious move, you have to wonder why Reid hasn't done it yet.

I've tried to think of reasons Reid would be reluctant to do so, and, so far, the only reason I come up with is that Democrats really want their August recess.

Can anyone, anyone, think of why Reid isn't making the R's talk themselves sick?

[Jodi]

You are forgetting that while the Republicans had control of the Congress and the White House, the Democrats did the same thing.

I was a 4th grader also. If a boy bothered me or my friends too much, I would sic my big brothers on them.

[flyover_27]

This is a thoughful post. For more views of corruption and blocking reforms, including continuing efforts by a certain defense contractor and others to silence whistleblowers, visit: http://whistleblowersupporter.typepad.com

[Mimikatz]

Jodi--Actually, it is not true that the Dems did the same thing. The Dems refused a vote on a small number of judges (under 10), but confirmed almost all of Bush's judges including his two Supreme Court nominees. They threatened a filibuster on a very snall number of other bills to get a slightly better deal. Meanwhile, when the R's were in charge they would send a bill to a conference committee but not put any Dems on the committee and would sneak provisions in with no time for anyone to read the bill. Now they are literally refusing to allow almost anything to pass. Click the links in my post. The two parties are not the same, not by a long shot.

When are your brothers taking on Bush?

[klondike]

and if repubs do filibuster iraq legislation (but when do bullies ever follow through on threats?), any iraq legislation, simply follow every repub speaker with a Dem who recites the names and hometowns of the Iraq dead from that Repubs state. Would make for a very snappy bit of video. 60 seconds that any jackass could understand.

[Elsie Alderman]

Mimikatz is exactly right, Jodi. Besides, what's with your lack of taking personal responsibility for defending yourself against bullies? I'd learned to stand up for myself well before 4th grade. So much for Republican chickenhawks and hawkettes. Get somebody else to fight your battles for you....

[bluebleeder]

Make the repugnikans talk and talk and talk and talk into September. The American people will then understand how thin are their arguments - and their brain power.

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