Tag: US Senate

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GOP US Senator: Some Of Fox News “Totally Not Fair And Totally Not Balanced”

As part of his farewell tour to the state, GOP Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn called some shows on Fox News “totally not fair and totally not balanced,” referencing the network’s “fair and balanced” slogan.

“The truth is somewhere in between the three,” Corbun said of MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News.

“There are certain shows on Fox I can’t watch,” Coburn said. “Because they’re totally not fair and totally not balanced. I want all the information if which I can make the best decision.”

The senator is retiring this year in part due to a recurrence of prostate cancer.

Coburn was responding to a question about how he would “fix” media to focus on less superficial things if he was in charge of it. He said he also reads the New York Times and Wall Street Journal saying “the real problem is we’ve lost the professionalism of journalism.”

(via Buzzfeed)

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would welcome House immigration bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would welcome the $659 million immigration bill currently circulating in the US House.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is trying to round up enough votes for a pared-down border bill that spends far below the president’s request for $3.7 billion and includes policy changes to speed the deportation of illegal minors from Central America.

Reid said the policy changes would give him an opportunity to attach the comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Senate passed last year with the support of 14 Republicans.

“If they pass that, maybe it’s an opening for us to have a conference on our comprehensive immigration reform. If they’re finally sending us something on immigration, maybe we can do that,” Reid told reporters after a lunch meeting with his caucus.

“We’ve been looking for something to do a conference on. Maybe we can do it with that,” Reid said.

The current House bill would send National Guard troops to the southern border plus add funding for immigration judges to speed the processing of unaccompanied minors found crossing US borders illegally.

While the Senate passed legislation last year, Speaker Boehner has blocked any attempt to further immigration reform this year. To do so could might open the door to what could be considered a “win” by President Obama and the Democrats.

 And of course, it’s more important to play politics than to get the people’s work done, don’t you know?

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Washington Post: 82% chance GOP takes control of Senate

According to the Washington Post, Republicans have an 82 percent chance of claiming the six seats they need to move back into the majority.

The main reasons?

• It’s a midterm year — and the president’s party almost always loses seats in the midterm.

• The economy is not growing that strongly and, as a consequence, President Obama is not that popular.

• AND many seats that the Democrats must defend this year are in Republican-leaning states.

(source)

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New Hampshire: Scott Brown announces run for NH Senate seat

Former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown is announced today he’s running for the US Senate again. Only this time, in New Hampshire.

The term “carpetbagger” comes from the 1860s after the Civil War left the South with many deaths in the political world. Northerners relocated to the South for political opportunity. (A carpetbag was a type of luggage). Sometimes, when a politician fails in one race, they move to another state to try their luck there. It’s often frowned upon because the pol may or may not understand the local political climate.

It will be interesting to see if the “carpetbagger” term sticks to Brown in this race. The Real Clear Politics poll average shows Jeanne Shaheen, the Democratic incumbent, at a nine point lead.

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The reason why Senate Democrats decided to go “nuclear”

In the history of the United States, 168 presidential nominees have been filibustered.  82 blocked under President Obama.  86 under ALL the other presidents.  

More on the reasons why Senate Democrats decided to go “nuclear” and change the filibuster rules for judicial nominations here.

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ENDA passes in US Senate 64-32

Via HRC press release: Today, the U.S. Senate voted 64 to 32 to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) for the first time in the legislation’s two-decade history. All Senate Democrats joined 10 Senate Republicans to approve the bill.

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin issued the following statement:

“Today, a strong bipartisan majority of the United States Senate made history by standing up for a fundamental American truth. Each and every American worker should be judged based on the work they do, and never based on who they are. This broad Senate coalition has sent a vital message that civil rights legislation should never be tied up by partisan political games.

“We firmly believe that if the House of Representative were freed by Speaker John Boehner to vote its conscience, this bill could pass immediately. It’s unconscionable that any one person would stand in the way of this crucial piece of the civil rights puzzle.”

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BREAKING: US Senate approves Employment Non-Discrimination Act 64-33 in initial vote

From Advocate:

A bipartisan coalition of 64 senators voted to move ENDA forward, clearing the way for an affirmative final vote, expected to occur around 1:45 p.m. Eastern today. 33 Republican Senators cast “no” votes against the bill.

All 55 Senate Democrats voted to move the bill forward, as did nine Republicans, including a surprise “aye” vote from Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania introduced an amendment that would broaden the scope of religious exemptions, but it was voted down 55-43.

Speaker of the House John Boehner has already announced he will NOT bring the bill to a vote in the House.

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Employment Non-Discriminatino Act gets 61 votes for cloture in US Senate

Proud of my two senators from Nevada, Harry Reid and Dean Heller,  for voting for ENDA.

And thanks to all the senators who voted on the right side of history!

From Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed:

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has been pending in Congress over the past 20 years, could, in its current form, ban sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination in most workplaces.

An earlier version of the legislation that only included sexual orientation protections was voted on in 1996, but it failed 49-50. There has been no Senate vote on the legislation since then.

UPDATE: Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the first and only LGBT out senator, talks about ENDA’s cloture vote.

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Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada to support Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada

Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada announces his support for ENDA, becoming the 60th vote for passage of the legislation in the US Senate.

From Raw Story:

On Monday, Democrats found their 60th vote when Heller announced that he would also be backing the bill.

“After listening to Nevadans’ concerns about this issue from a variety of viewpoints and after numerous conversations with my colleagues, I feel that supporting this legislation is the right thing to do,” Heller said in a statement. “Under the leadership of this Governor, as well as the legislature over the past several years, Nevada has established a solid foundation of anti-discrimination laws.”

“This legislation raises the federal standards to match what we have come to expect in Nevada, which is that discrimination must not be tolerated under any circumstance,” he added.

A few other GOP Senators may join in now. Word is Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio (who has an openly gay son) may vote for the bill as well later today.