You would think that at times like these, a senior Republican would have the political savvy (not to speak of the decency) not to have done something like this:
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has put an extraordinary “blanket hold” on at least 70 nominations President Obama has sent to the Senate, according to multiple reports this evening. The hold means no nominations can move forward unless Senate Democrats can secure a 60-member cloture vote to break it, or until Shelby lifts the hold. “While holds are frequent,” CongressDaily’s Dan Friedman and Megan Scully report (sub. req.), “Senate aides said a blanket hold represents a far more aggressive use of the power than is normal.” The magazine reported aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were the source of the news about Shelby’s blanket hold.
The Mobile Press-Register picked up the story early this afternoon. The paper confirmed Reid’s account of the hold, and reported that a Shelby spokesperson “did not immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages seeking confirmation of the senator’s action or his reason for doing so.”
Shelby has been tight-lipped about the holds, offering only an unnamed spokesperson to reporters today to explain them. Aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid broke the news of the blanket hold this afternoon. Reid aides told CongressDaily the hold extends to “all executive nominations on the Senate calendar.”
According to the report, Shelby is holding Obama’s nominees hostage until a pair of lucrative programs that would send billions in taxpayer dollars to his home state get back on track…
You would think.
Don’t get me wrong: bipartisanship is a much overrated virtue. Generally I think oppositions should oppose – and if that means by the use of procedural arcana, so be it.
However to do all this for pork, well, ugh…
Senator Shelby is up for reelection in 2010. It strikes me that someone should start brewing up a tea party in Alabama.
I grew up in Alabama and have never cared much for Richard Shelby. I think the fact that he used to be a Democrat when that party held more power in the state shows where his loyalties ultimately lie (and I don’t mean with the Democrats).
I would be very good if Shelby gets punished in the polls this fall right along with all of the liberal democrats. Such a punishment would make clear that the tea party people are not just about protecting the GOP above all else. Shelby is exactly the kind of corrupt republican that the party needs to rid itself of if they are not to be punished again like they were in ’06 and ’08.
That’s the kind of stuff he can put into a campaign ad saying “Richard Shelby fought for Alabama jobs”. There’s 1,300 Alabama jobs attached to the EADS contract. He probably figures that the outcry disappears quickly enough, the communities who would get that EADS money will be around for a while.
The culture of pork is obviously a bad thing from a principled point of view but there’s no real evidence that obtaining federal funds for his area has ever been held against a political representative by his electorate. If anything past history suggests that the lack of such funds can actually be used against a politician. Unfortunately a lot of people are entirely convinced that it’s the government’s job to provide jobs to people and thus vote based on that notion and let’s not kid ourselves here, there’s Tea Party types who think that, too.
Is it worse than agreeing to vote for HCR in exchange for a 300 million dollar bribe or for your state’s Medicare burden to be assumed by the other states? Business as usual.
Susan, no, it is not worse than doing those things you cite, although coming from a senior member of a party now supposedly dedicated to spending restraint. it is more than a little jarring. Shelby’s behavior is, of course, yet another example of (as you rightly say) “business as usual” and while I take Mike H’s point about the electoral advantage of a senator being able to boast about the jobs that he has brought to his state, I suspect that “business as usual” may well not be the way for the GOP to go this fall.
@Andrew Stuttaford
Well, there’s “business as usual,” and then there’s “business as usual.” To pile on another cliche, it depends on whose ox is being gored. I suspect Shelby’s hold-up of Obama nominees will probably make his constituents happy. And if Shelby can thwart Obama PLUS bring home the bacon (stop me before I cliche again) so much the better, in their eyes.
As glad as I am that Obamacare went down in flames, there is a good case for reform. Like it or not, the Democrats did win large majorities, and they should be able to enact their agenda. Yes, they needed to get their own act together, but the roadblocks in the Senate can also lead to stagnation and the extortion Shelby’s engaged in here.