Well, it’s Monday much to my dismay. Why do the weekends go so fast? Let’s get started with an open thread.
For all those Republicans bashing Harry Reid try to remember the difference between his remarks and those of Trent Lott. Trent Lott said the following, at the 100th birthday celebration of Strom Thurmond:
When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either.
Thurmond ran as a segregationist.
Two things in tandem ended Lott’s career in the senate leadership. First, Lott had a long history of support for and association with segregationist and white supremacist groups in the South. Not in some distant past but in the year’s just before his downfall. (He was also a staunch opponent of virtually all civil rights legislation. But that actually didn’t distinguish him that much for many other Southern Republicans of his generation.) To a lot of us at the time it was always a bit of a mystery how someone with his record could have risen as high as he had. This was all widely known in Washington, DC but it was by common agreement overlooked and excused. (In many ways, because of this, it was a scandal of official Washington — as much as Lott.)
What Harry Reid said was clueless and insensitive and I’m certainly not going to make any excuses for them. Harry Reid’s comments were actually in support of Obama’s campaign. You do see the difference don’t you?
Despite what you’ve been hearing, Obama had a really good year. A new study by Congressional Quarterly found that Obama won 96.7% of votes in Congress.
In all, Congress took 151 votes in which Obama had taken a position ahead of time.
His wins included votes for creating a massive economic stimulus package, bailing out the auto industry, letting the Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco and confirming Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
But they also included key moves toward overhauling the health care system, regulating financial services and reducing greenhouse gases which have not yet passed both chambers of Congress.
…
In the House, Obama won 68 votes and lost four.
Among the losses: a vote to disapprove further spending on a bank bailout and a July vote to pass a food safety overhaul. Both were temporary setbacks since Congress eventually ended up supporting the president’s position.
In the Senate, Obama won 78 votes and lost one.
The Republican win there came on an amendment which would have barred spending money to transfer detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to the United States. In the end, the bill allowed the transfer under certain conditions.
Obama probably will not enjoy the majorities he has now for the rest of his term. Now is the best time to get progressive legislation passed.