Tagged: Senate

Dodd Defends Filibuster

Retiring from the Senate shouldn’t be such a painful experience, but for Chris Dodd, a long farewell speech highlights why he needed to retire. Let’s hone in on Dodd’s defense of the filibuster.

I appreciate the frustration many have with the slow pace of the legislative progress. And I certainly share some of my colleagues’ anger with the repetitive use and abuse of the filibuster. Thus, I can understand the temptation to change the rules that make the Senate so unique—and, simultaneously, so frustrating.

But whether such a temptation is motivated by a noble desire to speed up the legislative process, or by pure political expedience, I believe such changes would be unwise.

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Nanny State Thinks We’re Stupid

The problem when you start banning stuff, is that you don’t know when to stop. So the subject of alcoholic energy drinks is confounding the very serious senate nannies. They want to ban packaged drinks like Four Loko. On Senator Schumer, D-NY’s web site:

“The Food and Drug Administration will rule that caffeine is an unsafe food additive to alcoholic beverages, effectively making products such as Four Loko, Joose and others like them prohibited for sale in the United States. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission plans to notify manufacturers that they are engaged in the potential illegal marketing of unsafe alcoholic drinks.”

Um, yeah like you can’t drink a Red Bull and a shot of vodka on your own. At a bar. Consecutively or mixed. Morons.

The 2012 Connecticut Senate Race

Just about every pundit has been speculating on whether Linda McMahon stays in it to win it, that is keeping her name in for another Senate run. With the next Senate election in 2012, things aren’t too far off to begin looking for signs of the next big money race. In 2012 Joe Lieberman is up for reelection. In 2006, he petitioned onto the ballot, as a candidate of the Connecticut for Lieberman party,  after losing the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont.

The Connecticut For Lieberman party didn’t get 1% of the vote in this senate election, despite running a candidate, so the path back to the Senate for Joe Lieberman isn’t so clear cut. He could of course petition his way back onto a ballot, assuming the Democratic Party doesn’t endorse his candidacy. Which seems fairly likely considering there’s a whole universe out there of the anti-Lieberman Liberals who just don’t like him.

Leading the purely speculative roster of who might run on the Democratic side for the Senate seat.

Chris Murphy, just reelected to Congress.

Susan Bysiewicz, you can never count her out.

Ned Lamont, just because who wouldn’t want a repeat.

Jim Amann, lobbying is hard work after all.

John DeStefano, assuming he’s gotten bored with New Haven.

On the Republican side, the easy answer is McMahon. But if she doesn’t run, look for Rob Simmons to make a run for it.

With no shortage of candidates on the Republican side, unlike 2006, Lieberman’s path back to the Senate could be difficult.

Sharia Law Coming To You From South Carolina

Imagine if the Senate was returned to a Republican Majority. We’d get something akin to Sharia laws. What are those? Hey you haven’t been paying attention to the tea party these days. Meet Sharon Angle who has lots to say about constitutional law while running for Senate in Nevada:

One of the last questioners asked about “Muslims taking over the U.S.,” including a question about Angle’s stance on the proposed mosque near Ground Zero in New York.

“We’re talking about a militant terrorist situation, which I believe isn’t a widespread thing, but it is enough that we need to address, and we have been addressing it,” Angle said.

“Dearborn, Michigan, and Frankford, Texas are on American soil, and under Constitutional law. Not Sharia law. And I don’t know how that happened in the United States. It seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreign system of law to even take hold in any municipality or government situation in our United States.”

Um, Sharia law is the Islamic version of  Allah’s edict on a whole bunch of things. Like that women are subservient to men when it comes to property and inheritance and the right to work. Kinda like Senator Jim DeMint’s views on the same:

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The Senate Is Broken

The New Yorker has a great article on the many ways that the Senate is broken. We can spend out time debating the merits of Linda McMahon buying a senate seat versus Dick Blumenthal representing the worst in attorney general meddling. But in the end, the choice on who you want to represent Connecticut in the Senate should about the character of the person who will actually show up and do the job they were elected to do, like actaully read bills and attend meetings and hearings and do their best job doing so. And what is going on in Washington now? Read on after the jump.

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NY Times Really Musn’t Like Blumenthal

Today’s Connecticut media is atwitter with the NYTimes report that Dick Blumenthal, in their words: “record is the contrast between the many steps he took that allowed him to avoid Vietnam, and the misleading way he often speaks about that period of his life now, especially when he is speaking at veterans’ ceremonies or other patriotic events.”

Really? Whatever you want to say about Dick Blumenthal’s service as Attorney General, it hardly takes some hack New York Times reporter to discover that Blumenthal speaks about veterans issues and often compares the vietnam era’s problems as something not to repeat with veterans serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Earlier the NYTimes was first to say that Blumenthal was suffering from “early bumps” in his campaign. And just how is the Times doing its investigative research? Well according to the Daily Caller, they use Linda McMahon!

McMahon campaign is saying they gave the story to the New York Times, according to a blog post written by a former Republican state lawmaker that the campaign has posted on their website.

The post, written by Kevin Rennie, who writes for the Hartford Courant and RealClearPolitics in addition to on his blog, says the Times story was “fed to the paper by the Linda McMahon Senate campaign.”

“The Blumenthal Bombshell comes at the end of more than 2 months of deep, persistent research by Republican Linda McMahon’s Senate campaign. It gave the explosive Norwalk video recording to The Times. This is what comes of $16 million, a crack opposition research operation and an opponent who … gave them the sword,” Rennie wrote late Monday.

Rennie confirmed in an e-mail to the Daily Caller Tuesday that he had written the post and that the McMahon campaign had told him they gave the story to the Times.

Now let’s cut to the chase. Who cares? Really, if this is the best issue this race can come up with then Connecticut is just doomed. I don’t care what Dick Blumenthal’s military service was. I do care that the next Senator from Connecticut will actually pay attention to the fact that Connecticut is getting shafted by the feds at every turn. Let’s see some stimulus dollars going to our crumbling infrastructure, oh wait. Or enlightened Hartford political flunkies think stimulus dollars should be used to balance the budget. They’ve already spent next years too. The grass on our state highways now tops two feet in Fairfield County. Yeah, I guess kicking up a fuss over 40 year old stories is more important than covering that.

Never breaking stride, Malloy makes candidacy official.

One week ago today, Dan Malloy officially became a candidate for Governor.
Video:


Malloy continued his torrid pace of appearances, appearing on WFSB’s Face the State, answering questions from panelists Daniela Altimari of The Hartford Courant, Ted Mann of The Day, and host Dennis House.
Video (thanks to ctblogger):


Malloy’s Sunday appearances included a conversation with Connecticut Newsmakers host Tom Monahan.
Video (thanks again to ctblogger):


There’s more after the jump…
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Subplot added to Senate race.

If you were feeling disappointed with the the story line on the Senate race this year – if for you it lacked a certain kind of looniness that you find de riguer for a political season that aspires to hold your interest – help has arrived in the form of lower Fairfield County’s answer to Lyndon LaRouche.

Lee Whitnum has declared her intent to replace Chris Dodd. As evidence of her qualifications for the job, she cites a picture taken of her with Senator Dodd, and the fact that she found him very disappointing to talk to.

I have some pictures of myself with Chris Dodd, and they are much nicer than Lee’s. In a couple, it is just me and Chris Dodd. Therefore I am announcing my intention to seek the seat for United States Senator. My campaign will commence as soon as I can locate my signature zany hat.
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Linda McMahon

There is a lot in the press about Linda McMahon the last couple days. McMahon’s campaign has, relative to what one can meaningfully spend on a statewide political campaign in Connecticut (about five million dollars will do the job, and its maybe eight million dollars tops), an unlimited amount of money. Her fortune comes from the family business, the very definition of stage-managed storytelling media companies, World Wrestling Entertainment. People tend to go with what they know and, sure enough, McMahon’s pursuit of the Senate seat vacated by Chris Dodd is a tightly controlled marketing campaign, with the star act’s every move – and everything in her vicinity – meticulously attended to by her handlers.

But McMahon and her campaign are not escaping scrutiny. From the cutting edge of online local media right here in Connecticut, to the original innovator that brought us the 24-hour news cycle, Linda2010 is generating controversy.

Start with the local: Valley Independent Sentinel reporter Joe Cole attempted to ask McMahon a coupla questions at a public appearance in Seymour last week, and McMahon “press wrangler” Suzan Bibisi reportedly shut it down. The campaign followed up with a boiler-plate email response to the reporter’s question; followed by a ham-handed attempt to intimidate the local guys with a press release, quoted in a report by veteran investigative journalist Paul Bass of the New Haven Independent:

“Valley Independent Sentinel Report Involved in Head-On Collision with Reality, the Facts,” the release’s headline read.
“The Valley Independent Sentinel’s claim is demonstrably false, contradicted by scores of interviews Linda has given, including more than a dozen hour-long interviews with reporters and editorial boards nationally and in Connecticut,” the release stated, listing selected interviews her campaign has arranged.

The skinny: Gilded Senate Campaign – 0, Gritty Local Reporters – 2.

Then, CNN‘s Anderson Cooper 360 launched its new series on campaign spending – Cost of Entry – with an expose’ on none other than Linda McMahon. Have a peek:


The, uh, money quote:

The Center for Responsive Politics says 40 out of 51 Congressional candidates that spent half a million dollars or more on their 2008 campaigns lost, or quit. Proof, perhaps, that even the richest person in the world needs a message voters believe, not just a good act.

Meanwhile, note that former CT02 Congressman and contender for the GOP nomination Rob Simmons got some nice “earned media” in the CNN piece.
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