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President Bartlet is Robocalling…
A progressive group is invoking the classic television show “The West Wing” via its star Martin Sheen to pressure GOP senators who face tough re-elections to hold hearings on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.
A robocall campaign by the liberal People For The American Way will get underway in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and target Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), respectively, who are both up for re-election. People For The American way provided the TPM with the robocall in advance of the public announcement.
Come inside for the audio of the call.
Now is the time to raise the gas tax.
Right now, in the Brandywine Hundred region, the price for a gallon of gas is about $1.67. So if you are going to raise the gas tax to fund infrastructure and transportation improvements throughout the state, now is the time, when the prices are low, to do it. Personally, I believe the tax is a regressive tax that punishes the lower wage earners more than the wealthy. So a gas tax is not my first choice. But if you are going to do it, now is the time to do it.
And State Reps. Sean Matthews’ and Michael Mulrooney’s bill will allow a reevaluation if the price of a gallon of gas rises, as it surely will.
Penrose Hollins to run for NCCo. Council President
With incumbent Chris Bullock demurring on reelection, Karen Hartly Nagle was briefly alone in the race to become the next County Council President. No longer.
Thursday Open Thread [2.18.16]
![Thursday Open Thread [2.18.16]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Inverse.Blue_.Open_.Thread-240x180.png "Thursday Open Thread [2.18.16]")
Kevin Drum on how he thinks the Supreme Court fight will play out: it will be a battle over Reasonableness.
So now Republicans are backing off a bit. President Obama announced in mild tones that of course he’d nominate someone—that’s what the Constitution tells him to do—and Republicans are kinda sorta saying that they’ll hold hearings after all. If they do, they’ve probably dodged a bullet since most of America isn’t really paying attention yet. The next stage in this PR battle is up to Obama: will he nominate someone who’s scrupulously centrist and well qualified? That would rack up some points for Team Liberal in the battle to seem most reasonable. Will Republicans then run hearings that are at least tolerably efficient and fair-minded? That would rack up some points on their side.
Roughly speaking, every statement or action by anyone in the Supreme Court fight should be interpreted as a shot being fired in the underlying PR war. Most people won’t care about this—they’re already firmly on a team—but there’s a small sliver of voters in the middle who do care, and they could make the difference in November. For that reason, it’s worth it for each side to try to rein in its extremists and put up a show of being the most reasonable. Democrats have the early lead right now, but they won’t necessarily keep it. After all, they have a base to keep happy too.
It depends on who the centrist is. Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) suggested the so called “centrist” Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval (R). LOLz. Meanwhile, Sri Srinivasan is also considered a respectable moderate choice, given his 97-0 Senate vote of confirmation in 2013 to the DC Circuit, the supposed minor league to the Supreme Court’s big league, but he would be much more decidedly liberal in his opinions.
Wednesday Open Thread [2.17.16]
![Wednesday Open Thread [2.17.16]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/George.W.Bush_-240x180.jpg "Wednesday Open Thread [2.17.16]")
Dana Milbank has some very thick rose colored glasses: “I had a twinge of nostalgia watching George W. Bush campaign for his little brother in South Carolina Monday night… He was earthy… Bush was corny… He was also self-deprecating.”
“But mostly, W’s cameo in the 2016 campaign served as a reminder that, not too long ago, conservative politics wasn’t so beastly. Bush, wading into the manure pile that is the 2016 Republican primary fight, was pleasant, civil and decent.”
Tuesday Open Thread [2.16.16]
![Tuesday Open Thread [2.16.16]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/pleaseproceed-240x180.jpg "Tuesday Open Thread [2.16.16]")
Spandan Chakrabarti on why Obama wants a Supreme Court Fight and how Republicans blew it before it starts:
The bigger part of the advantage that the President and Democrats have is the actual fight over the nomination and confirmation process.
Say the President nominates someone like Sri Srinivasan, who was confirmed to the DC Circuit by a 97-0 vote of the Senate in 2013. Among those 97 Yea votes were those of Sens. Cruz and Rubio, as well as GOP Leader McConnell, all calling for the current President to abdicate his Constitutional responsibility. What will people who have already voted for a judge to be on the federal bench say as a reason to oppose the same judge that won’t sound political and hollow?
The funny part is that the President doesn’t even have to nominate a consensus candidate like Srinivasan to paint the Republicans into a corner. Republicans have already helpfully handed the President all he needs to paint their opposition to his eventual nominee as political and not substantive with their incredibly shortsighted to demand right away that President Obama stay away from nominating a new Justice.
There is no way they can stop the president from exercising his Constitutional power, and because they have shown their hands early, the President and Harry Reid can easily frame any Republican attack against his inevitable nominee as spite rather than any serious concern on jurisprudence.
Once painted into a political corner, Republicans may well have to back down from their initial stand just to get out of that corner.
Harry Reid, I am certain, has other tricks up his sleeve to frustrate the Republican leadership by essentially ending the Senate’s business until the President’s nominee gets a vote. He could use executive sessions (the motion is non-debatable) to halt business, block unanimous consent requests for short breaks or recesses, and pull every parliamentary maneuver to make Republicans go on record. Even worse for the GOP, by constantly asking for procedural votes on the nomination, he can force Republicans to show up and be on the Senate floor.
And no Democratic Senator will pay a political price for standing with Reid and President Obama on this. It will be like the GOP’s government shutdown, part deux. Democrats will coalesce around the Constitutional principle of giving the president’s nominee a vote, and Republicans will be seen as the party of destruction, endangering the very operation of government itself. And this time, there won’t be a malfunctioning website to go after when it’s done.
The political cornering of Republicans will be especially important because this is an election year. The longer Republicans drag out this fight, the more it will galvanize an electorate favorable to the Democratic party.
Monday Open Thread [2.15.16]
![Monday Open Thread [2.15.16]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Supreme.Court_-240x180.png "Monday Open Thread [2.15.16]")
Vox has a list of 14 Supreme Court Justices confirmed during Presidential Election Years, with the most recent being 1988 and Anthony Kennedy. So when a Republican lies to you and says that we have never confirmed Supreme Court nominations in Presidential election years or near the end of a term, punch them directly in the face and call them a liar, for that is what they are.
Sunday Scalia and Republican Debate Open Thread
Scalia’s death is a world class gift to the Democrats. First, as I said yesterday, thanks to the Republican violent racist hatred of the President, and due to the shock of the unexpected death and the immediate realization that “oh shit, Obama gets to swing the court to a liberal majority for the first time in 50 years,” they reacted rather unwisely last night in demanding complete obstruction. That played right into the Democrats’ hands. And placed the GOP into a lose lose situation. Either they confirm Obama’s nominee, and give the country a liberal majority court for a generation, or they lose 6-7 Blue State Republican Senate Seats and the Presidency due to their obstruction, thus guaranteeing a liberal majority court for a generation. They should have negotiated with Obama for a moderate pick. Now, Obama has no need to negotiate. Either confirm his liberal pick or Hillary will get to confirm her liberal pick. Republicans are very very stupid. They let their racist emotions get the better of them time and again.
Second, with a Supreme Court seat at stake, this is an enthusiasm spiker and uniter for liberals and Democrats for the coming election. Bernie Sanders supporters have to agree that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama’s Supreme Court picks were liberal and so will Hillary Clinton’s. So that means, even the most disappointed Sanders supporter will know that they have to vote Democratic. And that is true for Clinton supporters if Bernie is the nominee, but I see that as more unlikely now than ever, because of Scalia’s death.
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