But it seems particularly ludicrous that at a presser today, Senator Lindsey Graham actually apologized to Jon Kyl because the rest of the Senate isn’t doing his bidding and appears to be ready to ratify New START:
Graham, who was signaling he might vote for the treat only a week ago, was the most indignant senator in complaining about the process Democrats have used to move the treaty during the lame duck session of Congress.
He also railed against his own party for the way they have handled the treaty and acted throughout the lame duck session.
“I stand here very disappointed in the fact that our lead negotiator on the Republican side … basically is going to have his work product ignored and the treaty jammed through in the lame duck. How as Republicans we justify that I do not know,” Graham said. “To Senator Kyl, I want to apologize to you for the way you’ve been treated by your colleagues.”
Seriously? Senators who have agreed to ratify New START before the end of the lame-duck session are doing this because they’ve been asked to by the President of the United States, the military leadership, all the living secretaries of state under Republican presidents, and a whole range of national security experts across the political spectrum. They doing this after more than a dozen public hearings and countless private briefings from military leaders and White House officials who did everything they could do address their concerns. They are doing this because they are persuaded that it is in the national security interests of the United States and is necessary to maintain global stability.
Yet Senators who are voting to ratify New START because they believe it’s the right thing to do should feel apologetic to Kyl for defying his wishes, even though the evidence is overwhelming that Kyl’s objections have been thoroughly addressed? Yeah, right: It’s an absolute outrage that these Senators are prioritizing their own sense of what’s right for the country and the world, over the influence, standing and fragile ego of a single fellow Senator.
How do these people make it through life with so little self-awareness?
NobodySpecial
While he’s at it, he should apologize for his hairstyle and the lack of Cowboys in a Super Bowl this year.
dr. bloor
This will play well with the jackwagons who fill their coffers and perpetually vote them back into office. They are entirely aware of what they’re doing, and don’t give a shit if we point and laugh at them.
Zifnab
You get a Tea Party primary challenge! And you get a Tea Party primary challenge! Tea Party primaries for everybody!
mellowjohn
well, if i were a u.s. senator i know I’D vote for the start treaty if for no other reason than to fuck jon kyl over.
Carnacki
I want to apologize to my grandmother dead 30 years now because every time I see Senator Graham I think of how much the two of them look alike.
General Stuck
When disappointment is bi partisan, the terrorists lose.
Skepticat
They have a great deal of self-awareness. They are aware of only themselves.
dr. bloor
@Carnacki:
Protip: you can tell them apart because Grandma is still more capable of empathy than Graham.
Maude
@mellowjohn:
Kyl tried a power play with Obama.
morzer
The more you know about Great Cthulhu, the nearer you are to madness. There’s a reason why Lindsay Alhazred doesn’t look too closely in the mirror.
Translation:
I am sorry some of our gibbering rabble of bloated pre-teeners might manage to impersonate reasonable adults when it comes to national security. We should have followed your principled poutitude and pissed in the national sandbox one more time.
Chyron HR
Silly Democrats, lame duck sessions are for impeaching massively popular Presidents.
Mike Kay (Team America)
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/134719-graham-gop-to-blame-for-capitulationof-dramatic-proportions-in-lame-duck
ahahahhahahhahahhahahhahahahhahahah
{deep breath}
ahahahhahahhahahhahahhahahahhahahah
Martin
Huh, I never considered apologizing to my kidnapper for being shot in the head by an FBI sniper before having the chance to issue his demands. Someone should fold that into a Law and Order episode or something.
JCT
Wow, old Lindsey Graham has been really bizarre of late. He used to at least occasionally make sense. I wonder if Mike Rogers’ twittering about photos of some guy who supposedly spent the night at his place has made him a bit nuts.
If it weren’t for the DREAM act the Dems would have basically run the table during this lame-duck session, not bad.
Lolis
If our Founding Fathers wanted an election day to also be the end of a legislative term they would have made it that way. This idea that some in Congress think nothing should be passed after an election is breathtakingly stupid.
morzer
@Martin:
Just so long as a black actor doesn’t get to play him, right? Mustn’t upset the Council of Concerned Crockpeddlers!
Zifnab
@JCT:
He’s been standing too close to DeMint. I think whatever madness Jimmy’s got might be catching.
IrishGirl
Well, Sen. Kyl, from my own beloved state was only representing the interests of his constituents–the great militia joining, automatic weapons carrying, Rand-worshipping, freedom-fighting men and women of AZ. They expected Senators Kyl and McCain to completely stop the Obama soshulist agenda from moving forward. By God, Kyl’s a true Ameruhkun and the rest of them there so-called Senators should be strung up high!
/snark
Chris
I remember less than a year ago how every conservative I knew had “SCOTT BROWN WON! SCOTT BROWN WON!” or some equivalent as their facebook, Gchat, AIM or other status. It’s been really, really funny watching him bone them on issue after issue.
Not that he’s one of us or anything, but LOL. Won’t back them on DADT, won’t back them on START… they’re rediscovering, as we did after 2008, the joys of working with the senators and congressmen in the middle. Sucks, doesn’t it?
Allan
I’m shocked, shocked to learn that the Senatuh may be light in the loafers.
morzer
@Chris:
“Browned off” has come to have a new and enjoyable meaning, hasn’t it?
General Stuck
Nothing screams out cheap political stunts like blocking the proposition of less thermonuclear devices in the world, that polls consistently show is a popular idea.
Redshift
So, has anyone actually seen Kyl’s so-called “work product”? When the Publicans were whining about how they needed more time to consider amendments to the START ratification legislation, Kerry called their bluff and asked for the amendments, and they had none.
Is there any evidence that Kyl produced anything at all of substance as “lead negotiator”? (And no, delay, victimhood, and counterfactual objections don’t count.)
Mark S.
Lindsay kills me. He isn’t nearly as stupid as the overwhelming majority of goopers in Congress. I remember watching a hearing several years back where he was the only Senator asking substantive questions while everyone else (rep and dem) was using their time to reiterate how much they loved the troops.
None of this matters. He represents the most rednecked state in the Union and will lose to whatever braindead teabagger runs against him next time.
WereBear
In one sense, rather well; it’s so easily to sell out, flog propaganda, and outright lie without blinking when you view life through the lens of a pinhole camera.
However, it does lead to a gaping inner wound they attempt to staunch with money, booze, drugs, and debauched sex. While I have nothing against any of those things in their proper place, the way they do it leads to ruin.
And they don’t see it coming.
Redshift
@Zifnab: DeMint’s the Typhoid Mary of that particular madness.
Mumphrey
I find the Republican senators truly amazing in their neverending capacity to inspire loathing and disgust. I mean, you think you’ve hit the bottom with, say David Vitter, about whom I don’t even need to say anything, but then up pops Jim DeMint, who almost makes Vitter look human. Then, when you’ve settled in your mind that DeMint is the worst excuse for a human on Earth, along comes Kyl to disabuse me of that belief. Their unending capacity for awfulness really does astound me. I mean, you’d think that even Senate Republicans would at some point show some spark of decency, but they seem to have snuffed out any such tendencies.
And, @dr. bloor, I’ve always wondered, what is a jackwagon, anyway?
joe from Lowell
@Chris:
Have you ever read the Boston.com comment threads?
The gloating after his victory was epic, but the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the same obnoxious people six months later was something more than epic.
schrodinger's cat
@WereBear: Off the topic but way more important, than START or Graham. How is young Tristan?
Tonal Crow
@Skepticat: For the win!
JCT
@IrishGirl: Lord, and here I am considering a great job offer from a place in Tucson. Sigh.
Chris
@joe from Lowell:
No, I haven’t. But I imagine it’s truly funny.
Tonal Crow
@Lolis:
You’ve misunderstood the idea, which is really that nothing should be passed after an election in which Republicans have made gains. Also, it’s not stupid; it’s evil.
Sasha
If you are wealthy and/or well-connected enough for long enough that you can be insulated from the world, it’s easy.
4tehlulz
Would Lindsey Graham pass a Turing test?
Jay C
@Carnacki:
So what IS the point of resemblance? Is it “looks like Grandma” or the “dead 30 years” part? ‘Cuz with Senators, it’s sometimes hard to tell…
Srsly, tho: GOP butthurtin’ over the New START Treaty is a lame crock-o-crap even by Congress’ low standards. The Senate has had since May to hash over any objections; trying to make folks (who?) believe that this is some late-innings surprise the Obama Admin. suddenly dumped on the Senate for the lame-duck is ludicrously counterfactual – even for Republicans. But hey! Jon Kyl’s “feelings” got scuffed – trying to prevent nuclear war is a worthy goal and all: but Senatorial egos? Now THAT’S a vital national interest…
Redshift
@Tonal Crow: Like all of their other full-throated procedural objections that only apply to Democrats (“up or down vote!”), it is indeed evil. The fact that it gets any reaction other than ridicule is stupid.
DBrown
@JCT: TAKE IT! You can still vote for sanity and good jobs are hard to get!
azlib
Weird. Graham and McCain channel their inner petulant child. Meanwhile, Lieberman actually shows some leadership on DADT.
Poopyman
@Mumphrey:
From:
pragmatism
preemptive assholery before deputy dog graham gets officially outed as one of TEH GAYZ.
Kristine
Sorry if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but in other news:
After Murkowski won, I recall John saying that the Republicans now had a Lieberman of their own. I don’t know if this will last, but we’ll take it for as long as it does:
chopper
@Maude:
and lost.
jl
They are very aware of the tactics of political theater.
My understanding is that the START treaty was signed in April or May, and the committee approved it at the beginning of September. So, there has been plenty of time.
I heard a news report that the GOP requested the delay in putting it on the floor so it could be ‘studied’.
The want complete obstruction, to to create a false narrative that paints the Democrats as either incompetent, or dictatorial and rash.
I don’t think there is any lack of self awareness at all here.
de stijl
Anyone who unironically uses the phrase “work product” is irredeemably douchy.
The Moar You Know
@pragmatism: I’ve been hearing this for years now. What has happened recently that makes it seem as though there is more foundation to the rumors than before?
demkat620
John, I have a winger friend who still fully believes that poor brown people being allowed to buy homes caused the financial meltdown.
The “Angels” of the Free Market System on Wall Street have gotten a bad rap.
And yet he holds a job and gets his ass out of bed every morning. No idea how.
Sasha
@Kristine:
Say what you will about Murkowksi supposed inevitable return to party-line voting. Being unceremoniously thrown under the bus by your own team is going to change your outlook (especially if, against all odds, you then pick yourself off the road and dust yourself off, none the worse for wear).
gwangung
@JCT: Tucson is not a bad place; it’s loads more liberal than most other parts of Arizona (with the possible exception of the hipper parts of Tempe…..).
Turgidson
@demkat620:
I have not-particularly-wingerish friends who believe that too, except they leave the “brown” part out of the diatribe (FWIW, they aren’t racist in my estimation). And they say the government FORCED the banks to lend to these poor people. Egad.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Sasha: There was a study reported on the news the other day that the wealthy have a harder time being empathetic to others. The author’s reasoning is that they don’t need it as much as the poor in order to get by.
change
Bad news for Democrats in the Census!
The Northeast and industrial midwest lose big, Texas, Georgia, Arizona, make BIG gains in House seats and electoral votes!
BTW, why do you suppose liberal New England, New York, Illinois, and Michigan are hemmoraging population while conservative red states like Georgia, Texas, and Arizona have booming populations? You should think about that for a few minutes…
PanAmerican
If you think the Senate antics are funny just wait till Boehner’s majority gets seated. They’re stuck between the nut jobs, trying to hold on to Obama districts and redistricting.
change
@joe from Lowell:
I hope Scott Brown enjoys his 40 pieces of silver come 2012. He’ll have to do without any support from the GOP at all.
There’s no difference between Brown and Kennedy at the same point. Marxist slimebags, both.
freelancer
@demkat620:
It is a feature not a bug. My wingnut aunt that I have told you all so much about is finally sacking up and divorcing her dork of a husband after almost 20 years. She is the crazy teabagger on both sides of the family, and over vaca last summer, she implored that if I or anyone else on the trip were just to pay attention to one person, it would be Glenn Beck. She rails against leechers and considers herself one of Rand’s “producers”.
When my mother told me, I asked, “So, what is your sister going to, y’know, do, I mean considering her last job was working as a manager of the Women’s clothing area of Shopko in 1989? She married Dane, this lanky, asocial doofus for money, and now she’s divorcing him? What’s her plan?”
“Oh, her plan is alimony. She’s already put a bid on a huge house.”
Priceless.
change
BTW, Massachusetts lost a seat. A seat that will go to TEXAS.
pragmatism
@The Moar You Know:
oh, i got it from a hard news source. teh wonkettes from mike rogers’ twatter. that’s some iron clad reporting there. http://wonkette.com/433064/loathsome-southern-dandy-lindsey-graham-about-to-be-outed#more-433064
gwangung
Wonder how they explain the fact that the vast majority of defaults were from upper class and upper middle class borrowers.
Anybody who believes that nonsense about the poor is functionally innumerate. Ask them to do the math, then ask them to reconcile that with who earns the vast majority of wealth and property in this country.
de stijl
@change:
Jackalope pie!
FormerSwingVoter
@Turgidson:
The worst part is this is really easy to debunk. Ask if US law was responsible for all the other housing bubbles worldwide. Somehow, I don’t think Fannie and Freddie had too much to do with the surging prices in Ireland or Spain.
Or the fact that the bubble was just as overblown (if not more) in commercial real estate, which has none of these types of regulations in place whatsoever.
And if they’re talking about the CRA specifically (which many of them do), it’s worth pointing out that the rate of default on CRA-backed loans was lower than others – the vast majority of loans came from banks with no CRA obligations whatsoever.
freelancer
@change:
Abstinence education.
Boom. Roasted.
FormerSwingVoter
@change: Have you ever made an on-topic post?
licensed to kill time
@FormerSwingVoter: I can answer that: Nyet. Nein. No. Nay. Nunca.
Maude
@change:
#54
Isn’t it more than 40 with inflation?
@gwangung:
#58
Stop ruining the story line.
Bob Loblaw
@change:
Is it that white people like segregation and dislike snow? Yeah, I bet it’s that.
Tim
John, you are paying way too much attention to Miss Graham these recent days.
The best thing to do when an emotionally ill person acts out is to ignore them. As Mizz Lindz has shown in the past, the more attention you pay, the more she acts out.
God, I bet she is a bossy, demanding bottom.
demkat620
@change: Wait until Texas turns D.
And oh yeah, that is gonna happen. It’s called demographics.
jl
So, what is Rosie up to now, Cole?
Turgidson
@gwangung:
Yeah, it’s just a tortured rationalization for why the rich deserve further tax cuts and every problem this country has ever or will ever face is somehow the fault of foolish poor people and the nanny state that shields them from their bad choices. Yawn.
These people are perfectly normal on social issues – pro-gay marriage, pro-Prop19, etc – but really think the only thing standing in the way of Galtian utopia is the crippling tax burden the rich must pay so that welfare queens can buy more Cadillacs. And no amount of facts or reason can penetrate that absolute belief.
quaint irene
Kyl? Oy. Isn’t this the guy who railed about having to work on the health benefits bill for 9/11 responders? That it would be disrespectful to do it over the Christmas holiday.
Loved the editorial in my local paper. Basically saying, if his house catches fire on Christmas, they hope his local fire department says ‘Sorry, Senator, we’re not working today out of respect for Christmas.
I’m sure you understand.”
change
@demkat620:
AHAHAHAHAH!
It’s already a minority-majority state, and guess what?
This year they have a GOP SUPER MAJORITY in their state legislature and one of the most conservative Governors in the nation.
Demographics? It won’t save liberalism, child.
Ash Can
It sounds to me like Lindsay has started hitting the Christmas Cheer a little early.
Chris
@change:
Awwww! And won’t THAT be a kiss of death in Massafrigginchusetts!
scav
small change can’t reliably find his own ass let alone reality and you’re hoping for on-topic? oh, and shhhhh, don’t bring up the possibility that migration (presumably from blue states to red states) or natural increase (demographically more lily from immigrant/minority sub-populations) might account for the increase in change in his cherished states and might just tilt them purple. don’t want to ruin the little guys holidays.
Mumphrey
@freelancer:
Thank you for that.
I’ve brought this up before, but I still wonder, why do these clowns keep coming here and spouting off when they know that everybody thinks they’re dead voles, intellectually? What drives them to write this crap when everybody just insults them? Do they need to feel victimized that badly? Do they have some other goal? Surely they can’t be dumb enough to believe that the random blatherings they spew are going to make us all wake up and say, “Wow, I never thought of it that way before! Obama really is a marxist! I’ve been such a fool! I didn’t believe him the first 687 times he said it, but, surely if he went that last mile and said it that last 688th time, then it must be true! Nobody would say something that wasn’t true 688 times; 687 I can believe, but not 688! Palin in 2012!”
Mnemosyne
@Kristine:
It’s nice to have the petty vindictiveness of the average Republican senator working in our favor for a change.
Chyron HR
@change:
67 votes?! How the heck are we going to get 67 votes?! WE’RE SCREWED!
Chris
@Mumphrey:
Defiance. They get off on the impression that that’s what they’re doing. Of course, anyone typing away at a keyboard miles away from the people he’s talking to isn’t defying anyone (our selves included here). But, y’know, vindication. This is one way to get it.
And even in death a vole retains a measure of dignity that will elude most wingnuts all their lives.
Mnemosyne
@change:
Take a look at the current weather reports and get back to me with the breaking news that people would rather be in Arizona or Georgia right now than Michigan or Illinois.
And learn how to use the spell check, for fuck’s sake.
Rosalita
@change:
Old Boomers moving where it’s warm.
demkat620
@change: Mm hmm.
Oh yeah it will happen.
Live in denial.
morzer
@Mumphrey:
Why do people with small penises feel compelled to drive SUVs? I suspect that change comes here to wave his weaselly wedding-tackle for the same reason.
water balloon
@FormerSwingVoter
It really is crazy. Somehow the community reinvestment act lay dormant for 20 years, then sprang into action in some parts of the US (not highly regulated Texas, though it’s pretty much impossible to convince anyone that Texas has some laws that are less free market conservative than the rest of the country), hopped an ocean and caused Ireland and Spain to also have huge housing bubbles, even bigger than ours. Yet it’s taken as a given across the entirety of talk radio, and even among lots of moderates I know.
morzer
@Mumphrey:
Why do people with micro-p.enises feel compelled to drive S.U.V.s?I suspect that change comes here to wave his weasel-sized wedding-tackle for the same reason.
dmsilev
@Chyron HR: change’s record of accuracy leads me to believe that his Real Name is Bill Kristol.
dms
Mumphrey
@morzer:
Good question. I have a microp.enis and I drive a subcompact…
Tonal Crow
@Rosalita: And illegal immigrants moving in. That should get the GOPers fuming.
Cermet
@Chyron HR: Change needs a brain before he types for a change – the 67 votes were easily made today and the treaty is in the bag – trolls, too stupid to ever be right, too much fun not to mock.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Sasha: Further, many of them are convinced they are right with God, so why spend too much time critiquing yourself when there are a lot of people who make God angry. That’s where the focus should be.
Jay C
@Chyron HR:
Where did you find this lovely example of political analysis?
Because it is such a perfect piece for the FAIL file:
the Treaty’s proponents might just find their “67 votes” among those Senators who just voted for cloture on New START (h/t TPM).
Guess Harry Reid’s political bladder has a bigger capacity than thought….
4tehlulz
@dmsilev: Be fair. Kristol at least knows grammar and spelling.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Tonal Crow: My favorite part of Braveheart is when King Edward I is lying in bed unable to speak or move and Princess Isabelle tells him that the child is not his grandson (I had to look up the names on IMDB). I imagine that happening to the Goopers when Texas goes blue.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Kristine: I wonder, is this how we get a responsible opposition party? We need the GOP to splinter so the more moderate Republicans can just apply their oppositional defiance disorder to the tea baggers that primary them. It can’t hurt.
SRW1
@change:
Son, have you have been skipping Sunday school again? The book says its 30 pieces of silver.
Bullsmith
I gotta think if you didn’t have a nuclear arsenal that can eradicate every country on the planet, you wouldn’t think holding your breath and pounding your fists on the floor was a manly act. Suffice to say I find the current American definition of manliness, from AEI to MoDo, is fucking pathetic.
Jay C
@SRW1:
See # 64 — Inflation.
asiangrrlMN
@Mumphrey: Negative attention. Only attention they can get. Look how many people are responding to change in this thread. That’s all he (assumption on my part, I admit) wants.
@Kristine: I love watching a woman scorned take it to her ex-party. Don’t care why she’s doing it, and I know it won’t probably last. I’m just enjoying the here and now.
@JCT: Consider it. Tucson is less batshitcrazy than other areas of AZ.
Kyl, Graham, and cohorts are wankers. I am glad they’re all getting the vapors because it means they are fucking losing–which is a win for America.
Jules
I’d don’t know about the rest of y’all but I am sure glad Miss Lindsey apologized to Kyl.
I would have hated for him to sit around all Christmas (that holy of holy days) Day and the week after (even more holy) with hurt fee fees.
It would have ruined my Christmas….
Cheryl from Maryland
@Poopyman: Shoot, I thought it was the great new ad hominem term of abuse that was rated G for general audiences, since douche nozzle and/or tool is PG-13 or maybe even R.
TOP123
@Carnacki: Actually, something similar used to happen to me in the late Eighties-early Nineties; whenever then President George H. W. Bush would speak on television, the way he talked always reminded me of my grandmother.
Mumphrey
@asiangrrlMN:
I guess you’re likely right. It just seems like such a sad and pointless waste of time.
RareSanity
@change:
TOP123
@Mumphrey: I don’t know, either, but I think it has something to do with car insurance.
Davis X. Machina
@RareSanity: They all, iirc, have increasing populations, but since the House is capped at 435, they lose seats when their populations grow less fast than the others.
IrishGirl
@JCT: Actually Tucson is much more liberal than the rest of the state. You actually have two Dems in Congress from there….Giffords and Grijalva. Giffords is kind of a “blue dog” and Grijalva is a proud liberal. He suffered quite a lot of threats and violence in the last election and still won. So, if you had to go anywhere, Tucson, politically-speaking, would be better.
morzer
@RareSanity:
Well, the poor critter can’t spell “hemorrhaging”, which leads me to suspect that smart kids move to the South because the South can’t produce properly edumacated people any longer, and so the opportunities are there for those who mastered English and math. Of course, that excludes our little buddy change, but them’s the breaks.
TOP123
@change: Let’s see: they’re warm, they’ve got lots of room for development, their (admittedly less extensive) infrastructure is a lot newer, and rents, house prices, and general cost of living are a hell of a lot cheaper. How’s that for starters?
Oh, and–the increase in population in the new census in, I believe, all of those three states you mentioned is attributable in significant part to a rise in the Hispanic population. Good luck with that, GOP. Or do you think that Republican minority outreach effort has been making great strides that we haven’t noticed?
Nick
If only Obama had used the bully pulpit…
…oh wait
PanAmerican
Mostly it is birthrates in the Latino and African American communities. It will take a while for those populations to work their way into the voter pool but the VRA means they get counted for House minority-majority seats now.
I’d like to hear the idiot explain how the GOP will cut two seats from Ohio and keep their thirteen seats without unpacking Cleveland. Short answer: They won’t. Mean Jean will get tossed over the side.
Kristine
@Barb (formerly Gex): I wonder, too. Murkowski proved an R can win without the Tea Party. Granted, it was an exceptional situation–she had huge name recognition and was the incumbent, and Joe Miller imploded.
But the dynamic changes next year. With the prospect of more conservative legislation coming out of the House, will the Senate Rs dig in their heels even more and will Murkowski go along because she sees the bigger payoff? I sure don’t know.
CalD
As best I can decipher, the answer to that question seems to basically boil down to:
Because SHUT UP! That’s why.
Steve
I saw on some blog that dear Lindsey is about to be dragged – kicking and screaming – outta the closet within the next week. Someone has leaked a photo of some boy toy leaving his house one night. I’ll see if I can find the post and then post the link here.
bemused
@Mumphrey:
Masochism. You can almost hear him panting for more punishment.
TheWatcher
“How do these people make it through life with so little self-awareness?”
Easy. Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).
JCT
@asiangrrlMN: and @DBrown,@gwangung, @IrishGirl and anyone else I missed — thanks for the moral support, the folks in Tucson keep assuring me that it is different from the rest of the state (and I would be at the U of A), but every time I see Kyl or McWeasel’s lovely visage (as compared with Schumer/Gillibrand) I get cold feet. Not to mention the horror that is Jan Brewer…
But the weather is looking good right now!
lol
Coming soon to GOS: “If only Obama had postponed the health care reform vote until the lame duck session, we could have had a public option.”
gene108
Drove down from New Jersey to North Carolina, on Saturday to visit family and drove back today.
When I got to Baltimore, I flipped the dial to C-SPAN radio, on Saturday. They were airing coverage of the Senate floor debate on the New START treaty, while they were filling time as the DADT vote was being counted.
Kyle was pissy about some word in the preamble of the treaty regarding missile defense and another Republican Senator seconded his pissiness and demanded the only way the Senate could be informed enough to consent to the treaty was to get the transcripts / minutes of the negotiations, which the White House didn’t release (which, I guess is standard practice for any White House).
Listened to the live floor debate, while driving back today, as I was passing through the D.C./Baltimore area. What was surprising and refreshing were the Republican Senators, who actually were acting like adults. Ensign was spouting something about not being able to track / inspect / verify railroad launchable ICBM’s, because of the way the wording in the treaty didn’t specify rail launchers specifically and the only way to know what the treaty really said was to get the transcripts / minutes of the negotiations.
Carper and Kerry bitch-slapped him down, especially Kerry. The treaty does limit any type of ICBM launch unit, which would include rail launchers, even though it isn’t specifically mentioned. Kerry pointed out the wording is broad enough that it catches everything.
Luger (R) also got into the bitch-slapping, by pointing out the Russians voluntarily, with U.S. cooperation as part of the Nunn-Luger bill, dismantled their last rail launch systems in 2007 or 2008. There are no rail launch systems in Russia anymore. To think a country that voluntarily dismantled a rail launch system a couple of years ago, would try to jump start production of this delivery system again after this treaty is ratified, defied logic.
Even though Russia didn’t ratify the prior START treaty, they did cooperate with the U.S. in reducing their nuclear stock piles to be ahead of the START limits. He also cited Llamar Alexander, who earlier in the day stated we’ll both still have enough nuclear bombs to blow the Earth up many times over, if we felt like it because the Republicans were being pissy in the morning because the U.S. will make larger reductions in our nuclear stock pile than the Russians (because the Russians cut there’s back earlier), if this New START treaty is ratified.
I really feel Kyl, Ensign and a bunch of other Republicans want to feed the right-wing wurlitzer with the talking point of how Obama isn’t releasing the transcripts / minutes to the New START treaty and that somehow makes it invalid or a treaty “rammed down the Senate’s throat”, in order to keep their wing-nut base at peak frothiness.
I don’t think that Obama not releasing the minutes / transcripts to the negotiations will become a right-wing rallying cry going, because on this one topic, finally, a few Republicans are behaving like adults about an important piece of legislation.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@morzer:
Flagstaff and Jerome are DFH towns. Mostly Arizona is a red state because of all the retirees. When that demographic dies off over the next decade or so, I expect it to be at least purple, if not blue.
Erikthe Red
@change:
Oh yeah?
You watch, your precious GOP is gonna support him just like they did Chafee.
Erikthe Red
@change:
Nice bit of deflection, btw, but the main point of this particular thread is a GOP Senator being a whiny douchebag.
Belvoir
Alex Pareene was very amusing today on Graham’s prisy eye-rolling exasperation, as if he were the only one who knows how things should be done in the Senate.
Lindsey Graham’s Rules of Order
Acharn
@JCT: I never figured out, who cares about Lindsey Graham? What bloc of votes does he influence? What followers does he have? Why did Rahm Emmanuel say he “needed” Lindsey Graham to close Guantanamo? It just never made sense to me. Granted Graham is a reservist in the Judge Advocate General branch of the Air Force (if they have a JAG branch, I was Army myself) but his expressed legal opinions are so far from reflecting the current reality of the UCMJ he clearly is not a competent military lawyer, nor civilian either. Just bizarre, as so many of the bits of reasoning we’ve heard from the Obama White House staff.
anticontrarian
The question answers itself, no?