Salon.com > U.S. Congress

Politics has become the new reality TV

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:08:00 +0000

Politico's well-reported narrative of the fiscal cliff negotiations begins with an inevitable anecdote:

“Go f— yourself,” Boehner sniped as he pointed his finger at Reid, according to multiple sources present.

Reid, a bit startled, replied: “What are you talking about?”

Boehner repeated: “Go f— yourself.”

The harsh exchange just a few steps from the Oval Office — which Boehner later bragged about to fellow Republicans ...

I love those blushing em dashes, as if the four-letter word itself would scandalize Politico's hard-bitten audience.

Years ago Vice President Dick Cheney expressed himself similarly, addressing Sen. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vt.). While the remark made it into the press, it's fair to take Cheney at his word. The veep later congratulated himself for his bravado.

Why 2013 is going to be awful

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 12:45:00 +0000

The good news is 2012 is over and will never happen again. The bad news is, now it's 2013. Here's why I'm not holding out hope for a great year in politics:

Austerity

It's coming. Congress will obsess over crafting a long-term deficit deal no matter what happens with the tax rates and the sequester. In all likelihood, we'll get regressive budget cuts at all levels of government, plus, for good measure, tax hikes not just on the rich but on working people. The well-funded "Fix the Debt" monsters will still demand massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Republicans are justifiably confident that they can use the debt ceiling to force more spending cuts less than a month from now. If all of this sinks the still-sluggish economic recovery, that'll be just one more sign that we need to cut more, and "tighten our belts." Plus the debt ceiling fight might just crash the world economy anyway.

Congress Isn't Going to Do Anything

As historically unproductive as the 112th Congress was, there's not much reason to expect more from the 113th. The Senate has gotten marginally more liberal and the House has gotten marginally less Republican, but the basic makeup of both is the same. It's still the case that House Republicans have no incentive to compromise on anything, while Senate Democrats live to compromise.

Obama: An agreement is “within sight”

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:08:00 +0000

President Barack Obama said that a Congressional deal was possible before the so-called "fiscal cliff" kicks in.

Speaking before an appreciative audience his tart speech lightly mocked Congress and emphasized that any deal would include tax hikes on the rich and some types of spending cuts.

Watch (The speech begins at the 49 minute mark.):

Prepare for the mini-cliffs: Wind and dairy on the brink

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:20:00 +0000

For the umpteenth day in a row rhetoric and speculation about the fiscal cliff dominated the news cycle. No one knows exactly what will happen if this unholy marriage of tax hikes and spending cuts takes effect, but a few industries are facing their own mini-cliffs and it's easier to predict the aftermath.

First, there's what might be called the windy cliff. In 1992 the government created a production tax credit to incentivize the use of clean, domestic wind power. The subsidy is a 2.2 cent credit per kilowatt hour of energy produced over ten years, amounting to about $1 million per large turbine. Since the initial credit was enacted, it has been renewed seven times and has been allowed to expire three times.

The tax credit expires for the fourth time at midnight tonight. That's too bad for fans of clean, domestic power since this tax credit works. It has been in place since 2004 and U.S. wind generating capacity increased almost six-fold between 2006 and 2011 and now accounts for about three percent of electricity generation nationwide.

GOP hasn’t fallen off a cliff

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 22:37:00 +0000

Basically, the Republican "strategy" on the current self-inflicted looming debt crisis is to constantly sabotage themselves and, eventually, the nation as a whole. Either they will just totally lose completely, or they'll somehow manage, through nihilism and intransigence, to pull out a deeply unpopular "victory" that will end up hurting the already crappy economy. So, basically, everyone agrees that they're idiots and they're screwing themselves. Even people who think the GOP's "let's be very loudly irresponsible and then lose horribly" strategy is more canny than it looks agree that it hurts the "national brand" of the party and will likely lead to them becoming a permanent minority party.

I think, though, that regardless of how completely lost the Republican party is -- and they are well and truly lost, and not currently "negotiating" with anything resembling a coherent plan or unified voice -- they will emerge from the current mess unscathed.

Now’s the time to fix the filibuster

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:30:00 +0000

The momentum for filibuster reform in the Senate is real, and there’s a very good chance that something will happen when the body convenes at the beginning of January. Reformers believe that the beginning of a congress gives them a unique opportunity to change the rules surrounding the filibuster with a simple majority vote, instead of the 60-vote supermajority required by literal Senate rules. I disagree with that to some extent: I think that in fact a dedicated majority can find ways to change the rules at any point. But I agree change on Opening Day for the Senate is at least more in keeping with traditions and norms, and so I think it makes sense for them to move ahead now.

The problem, very simply, is that filibusters have exploded in the Senate. It was once a rare procedure used to block legislation only in cases where the minority was intensely opposed. But then, in 1993, minority Republicans started using it against every major initiative President Bill Clinton proposed; and by 2009 Republicans were deploying it all the time. What that’s created is a true 60-vote Senate -- because a supermajority of 60 votes is needed to defeat a filibuster -- on every bill and every nomination. Combine procedural moves to require 60 votes with often-unanimous opposition by the minority party, and the Senate has become deeply dysfunctional. At this point, even most supporters of the filibuster believe some reform is needed.

Pelosi to stay on as House Dems’ leader

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:08:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — A congressional official said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told her party caucus Wednesday that she will remain as minority leader in the new session of Congress.

This official said the 72-year-old Pelosi made the decision to remain at the helm of the party’s House leadership even though Democrats failed to win the necessary 25 additional seats to become the majority party again.

The official, who is close to Pelosi, revealed her decision on condition of anonymity because she hadn’t yet publicly announced it.

Pelosi’s quarter-century of service in Congress representing a San Francisco area district in the House includes becoming the first woman in history to serve as speaker. The tea party-fueled political wave of 2010 forced the gavel from her hand to Rep. John Boehner, an Ohio Republican.

Election’s forgotten winner: Harry Reid

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 19:34:00 +0000

In the immediate aftermath of any election, lists of winners and losers quickly proliferate. Putting aside the obvious choices — Barack Obama and Mitt Romney — the loser lists have included Karl Rove, anti-gay marriage advocates, older white men and Paul Ryan, while non-white millennials, reproductive rights, early voters and Nate Silver top many of the winners lists.

But there’s one often-overlooked name on the 2012 list of big winners: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In an election that reaffirmed status quo control of the presidency, Senate and House, Reid was arguably the biggest winner among the national leadership troika that includes him, Obama and Republican Speaker John Boehner.

A year ago, with Democrats defending 23 total seats from their huge 2006 freshmen Senate class to just 10 Republican-defended seats, Reid’s chamber majority was in serious jeopardy. But just like the Nevada Democrat’s own 2010 reversal of fortune — despite low approval numbers back home and a weak Democratic cycle nationally, Reid slipped the Republicans’ noose — the Democratic majority not only also cheated death but expanded his Senate control Tuesday night.

“I’ve never been more hopeful”

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 01:56:00 +0000

What are you seeing and hearing in your state and at the polling place? Send information and photos to readermail@salon.com.

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Secret socialist or grand bargainer?

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:45:00 +0000

What would a second Barack Obama term look like? There are way too many variables to answer the question with any confidence. His conservative enemies have their terrifying visions: He'd go full-on New Black Panther Party, basically. (Or else he'd simply spend all his time in a glow of self-satisfaction, appearing on "The View" constantly.) But for liberals and leftists, the idea of a reelected Obama involves a lot of uncertainty. (Though we are also hoping for the secret socialist agenda thing, mostly.)

Will a reelected Obama simply hold down the fort, protecting the domestic achievements of his first term and working to block the excesses of an activist Republican Congress? Or will he be in Grand Bargain legacy-establishing mode, desperate to cut bipartisan deals on as many issues as possible? If his foreign anti-terror campaigns are shown to be inspiring the sorts of attitudes that cause people to become terrorists in the first place will he reconsider his strategy or will we continue to act as though we can kill each terrorist (and only each terrorist) in the world one by one until there aren't any anymore? Will Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton finally switch jobs?

Study: Rise in discrimination charges on Capitol Hill

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:28:00 +0000

A new study by the Office of Compliance (OoC) in Washington D.C. finds that complaints of discrimination and harassment on Capitol Hill have more than doubled in the last five years.

The Hill reports:

"The number of discrimination and harassment claims has risen from 64 allegations in 2006 to 196 brought forward in 2011. And alleged instances of retaliation have grown from 44 cases in 2006 to 108 charges in 2011.

The majority — 63 percent — of allegations raised by employees on Capitol Hill came from the U.S. Capitol Police, the OoC found in its study, which looked at the time period from Oct. 1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2011."

The OoC, which is tasked with protecting workplace rights, also found that there were 142 total complaints that alleged 332 different violations of the Congressional Accountability Act, and 23 of the cases resulted in financial settlements.

Congressmen almost come to blows at campaign forum

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:56:00 +0000

Last night’s feisty vice-presidential debate looks tame compared to a California congressional event between two Democrats. Due to redistricting, and California’s “jungle primary” system, the race pits two remarkably similar candidates against each other in a race to represent the San Fernando Valley.

Last night the two sitting congressmen, Rep. Howard Berman and Rep. Brad “There is no Berman Oaks” Sherman almost got down to fisticuffs as a security guard intervened and the raucous crowd seemed to urge them on. Sherman’s the one who wrapped his arm around his opponent and asked, "Do you want to get into this?"

Congress likes scratching its own back

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:34:00 +0000

The Washington Post surveyed legislation sponsored and co-sponsored by members of the House and the Senate, and found that 73 of them pushed bills that would benefit their own businesses or those of family members.

Some examples of the practice, from the Post:

"A California congressman helped secure tax breaks for racehorse owners — then purchased seven horses for himself when the new rules kicked in.A Wyoming congresswoman co-sponsored legislation to double the life span of federal grazing permits that ranchers such as her husband rely on to feed cattle.

And a Pennsylvania congressman co-sponsored a natural gas bill as Exxon Mobil negotiated a deal that paid millions for his wife’s shares in two natural gas companies founded by her great-great-grandfather."

The practice is legal, as long as the congressperson or a family member is not the only one who would benefit from the bill.

“Homeland’s” Carrie Mathison and Nicholas Brody: A deranged love story

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Showtime’s glorious thriller “Homeland” is full-body television: It sets pulses to racing, stomachs to churning, minds to strategizing. Its first season was a visceral 12-episode ascent to an apex of anxiety, the finale leaving its two star-crossed protagonists not so much hanging from a cliff, as smashed at the bottom of a canyon, a beat after their hold had given way. Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) had just failed to set off the bomb in his suicide vest and kill the vice president, while Carrie Mathison, the manic genius CIA agent, played with incandescent focus by Claire Danes, elected to have her short-term memory — and knowledge of Brody’s treachery — wiped out by electroconvulsive therapy.

Season 2, which premieres on Sunday night, picks up six months after the aforementioned events, the action having slowed — temporarily. A fragile, disgraced, medicated Carrie, officially bounced from the CIA, is languidly recuperating, avoiding the spycraft that is her calling. Brody, now a congressman, is being considered as a vice-presidential candidate, while secretly trying to aid the terrorist Abu Nazir without committing violence himself. Carrie is soon called to Beirut for one last job — and you know how those tend to go. The series' thriller engine turns on, turns over and begins to purr. By the end of the first episode, as Carrie gets her groove back, I was fist-pumping. By the end of the second episode, I was doing whatever fist-pumping with every single nerve ending in one’s body is called.

No ethics charge for Democratic California Rep. Waters

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:33:00 +0000

California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters won't be charged with ethics violations following allegations she steered a $12 million federal bailout to a bank where her husband owns stock.

House Ethics Committee members said Friday at a hearing their investigation found no violation by Waters, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee.

However, the committee said Waters' chief of staff, Mikael Moore, did take actions in Congress in an attempt to help the bank and violated House standards of conduct. Moore likely will receive a letter admonishing him for his conduct but will not face more severe punishment, such as a reprimand, by the full House.

Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte, acting chairman of the panel, announced the tentative findings at the hearing but noted the committee had not issued a final report.

Goodlatte said the committee was convinced that when Waters asked for a meeting at the Treasury Department to discuss financial help for minority banks, she believed she did so on behalf of all minority banks — not just OneUnited, where her husband owns stock. Goodlatte said the committee agreed with Waters' assertion.

Congress’ endless fundraising

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 03:30:00 +0000

With just a couple of weeks left in September, members of the House and Senate hurried back to Washington after their August recess and the party conventions, ready to get some legislating done and impress their constituents before they head back home for the final stretch of their reelection campaigns.

Yes, I’m auditioning for a job at The Onion.

Members hustled back to the capital all right, not to get much accomplished for the good of the nation but to party down at events designed to scrape every last nickel of campaign contributions from the jam pots of cash held by K Street lobbyists and special interests.

The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that as of this past Monday, House Democrats had 184 events scheduled through the end of the month — that’s according to a directory from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Their GOP counterparts, according to a list from the National Republican Congressional Committee, have more than 110 breakfasts, coffees, lunches, dinners and receptions on the calendar. That doesn’t include scores more Senate fundraisers and intimate industry-focused events not logged on the official lists.”

Report: DADT repeal still not harming the military

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 18:38:00 +0000

Remember when Republicans told us that without DADT, the military would basically implode? Well, it turns out that's not remotely true, according to a new study by the Palm Center, a think tank focused on sexual minorities in the military.

The study used interviews with military personnel who were publicly opposed to repealing DADT, as well as other people who actively spoke out against it, and found that, across the board, it had no negative impact. The study assessed factors like readiness, recruitment and retention, cohesion, assaults and harassment and troop morale.

"Some military members have complained of downsides that followed from the policy change," the report concludes, "but others identified upsides, and in no case did negative consequences outweigh benefits. In balance, DADT repeal has enhanced the military’s ability to pursue its mission."

Meet Allen Quist: Michele Bachmann’s deranged mentor

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:09:00 +0000

Allen Quist, a former Minnesota state representative who worked with Michele Bachmann to change Minnesota's school curriculum, defeated his primary opponent in the race for Minnesota's District 1 seat in the House of Representatives. Quist, a retired political science professor, helped Bachmann win election to the state Senate in 2000. He also shares many of Bachmann's positions, according to Mother Jones, which describes him as "a 67-year-old soybean farmer and onetime anti-sodomy crusader who believes that humans and dinosaurs may have coexisted in Southeast Asia as late as the 11th century."

The article, written by reporter Tim Murphy, adds:

John Conyers: A relic’s last stand

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 20:18:00 +0000

John Conyers is a relic. The congressman, first elected to Washington during the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964, is 83 years old, and has been beset, in recent terms, by ethics controversies (including his wife currently serving up to 37 months in federal prison for taking bribes while on the Detroit City Council). Conyers should be vulnerable this year. Or at least as vulnerable as a 24-term incumbent who has always received at least 75 percent in a general election can be. However, Conyers isn’t facing a general election on Aug. 7; he’s running in a racially polarized Democratic primary.

Conyers is facing a crowded field in his new district, the product of a Republican gerrymander that now includes blue-collar, heavily white Detroit suburbs. The result is an electorate that, unlike the disproportionately minority district that Conyers currently represents, will be about 40 percent white, according to Ed Sarpolus, Conyers’ campaign manager.

Although Conyers faces two African-American opponents, state Sen. Bert Johnson and state Rep. Shanelle Jackson, neither has caught fire. Instead, Conyers’ main competitor has become state Sen. Glenn Anderson, a white suburban candidate. As of the most recent FEC deadline, Anderson had almost as much money available as Conyers for the last few weeks of the election and gained a number of endorsements in suburban parts of the district.

GOP finds a frontwoman

Thu, 24 May 2012 13:27:00 +0000

In March, a few weeks after the photo of an all-male hearing on contraception went viral, a USA Today story pointed out that on the most recent "Meet the Press" discussing that same policy change, Debbie Wasserman Schultz argued the Democrats’ case, while “the Republican counterpoint was given by a man” – Eric Cantor. The GOP, according to the headline, was in a “struggle to find a feminine voice.”

In Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a mild-mannered congresswoman from eastern Washington, an increasingly visible Romney surrogate and apparent aspirant to be his running mate, they seem to have found it. But it can be an awkward fit.

On April 29, McMorris Rodgers found herself representing elected Republicans on "Meet the Press" opposite Rachel Maddow, who told her, “The first law passed by this administration is the Fair Pay Act … The Mitt Romney campaign put you out as a surrogate to shore up people's feelings about this issue after they could not say whether or not Mitt Romney would have signed that bill. You're supposed to make us feel better about it. You voted against the Fair Pay Act.”