*WOYM = What’s on your (and my) mind
Another Wednesday and lots of stuff going on, some of it wacky.
Brown wins in Massachusetts. A Republican wins in supposedly blue MA. Let’s play the blame game! There’s certainly enough to go around. EDIT: How could I forget about Jim Webb’s response to Brown’s win? Can you say CYA?
Wright runs for re-election. Anyone who didn’t see this coming after Thelma Drake was appointed to the job he wanted simply wasn’t paying attention.
More names for Norfolk Council. Ward 1: Andy Protogyrou is supposedly the latest choice of the downtown crowd after previous choice Norma Dorey dropped out. John Hadjikakos and Chuck Brewer are also is still in. Ward 3: Looks like three challengers to Anthony Burfoot – Billy Mann, Mamie Johnson and Donna Smith. If all three stay in, Burfoot wins. Ward 4: Looks like two challengers to Paul Riddick here – Michael Muhammed and Billy Cook. Again, multiple challengers = incumbent win.
Lou Holtz is a funny guy. Really. He gave a great speech at the Norfolk Forum last night. Haven’t read any of his three best-selling books but after hearing him speak, I intend to.
I’ve got five sisters. And I’m really glad this woman isn’t one of them.
Shotguns can come in handy. In honor of the 2nd Amendment folks who converged on the General Assembly Monday, you never know when you need to shoot your way out of your own car.
Governor’s Sunday surprise. Gov. McDonnell’s office sent out an email on Sunday morning, announcing that his cabinet had been sworn in. Slipped into the release was the notice that Bob Sledd, the nominee for Secretary of Commerce and Trade, had been named to “an unpaid, senior-level position.” The move by McDonnell warded off a nomination fight – that the Governor was likely to lose – over Sledd’s holding of board memberships. I think it was a good move on McDonnell’s part – and an even better move by the Democratically-controlled State Senate.
WOYM? Consider this an open thread to talk about whatever.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
“supposedly”? Every current member of the Massachusetts delegation is a Democrat. Obama got 62% of the MA vote in 2008. Only Vermont and Hawaii were higher. (Three others were also at 62%.)
How much bluer can you get?
You mean the state that elected Bill Weld, Paul Celucci, Jane Swift, and Mitt Romney as governors?
Yes, the Mitt Romney that instituted a public option healthcare plan.
My used of “supposedly” was more tongue in cheek, but also to point out that nothing is forever blue – or red, for that matter.
So basically, Sledd still gets to provide McDonnell with advice and have some visibility in Richmond (where he is well-regarded), and McDonnell avoids a controversy. Works well for me.
I also think that Webb’s response to hold off votes until Brown is seated was Webb’s way of saying “I see where this could be headed, and I’m jumping off of that ship”. If Reid does delay Brown’s seating for a time beyond what would be considered “reasonable” just to pass health care, there are going to be a lot of angry people across the spectrum (especially with the precedent set by how quickly Al Franken was seated after the Norm Coleman withdrew his contention of the results in that race). Webb is simply distancing himself from that potential controversy.
Funny guy, Phil.
That IS pretty funny.
I would like not to hear that Obama’s agenda is over. But alas, that will be the chorus of that stems from this election.
I think the important thing to remember is that the agencies still have immense regulatory authority. And they are already writing new rules.
As for Congress, Speaker Pelosi could stun these talking heads by just passing the Senate bill. I would love for her to do that just to see the dumb looks on all these news-readers faces. That would require a lot of work on her part, but what are you really going to get out of conference anyway?
The best solution would be something Republicans promised us years ago: the nuclear option. Get rid of these procedural filibusters (but not just on judicial appointments). A majority is a majority. We have the courts to protect us from the tyranny of the majority. If someone really feels strongly about stopping a piece of legislation, break out the catheters and the cots and let them get to talking non-stop.
I keep wondering how realistic the nuclear option is. My reading of Senate Rule XXII is that cloture is harder to achieve on a motion to amend the Senate rules (2/3) than on a motion on actual legislation (3/5). Getting Virginia off the Dillon Rule seems easier.
Give the guy a break. I mean, his cell phone went off. No wonder he had to crash into a guardrail, drive into a creek, shoot out the window, and escape the sinking vehicle. As they say, hindsight is 20/20. It’s way too easy to second guess. You never know how you’ll react in a crisis the next time YOUR cell phone goes off.
Ha! 😀
Jim Webb’s CYA is very disappointing. But as for your sisters, I would take nothing for granted. I’m married to a wonderful woman with two wonderful sisters. But I wouldn’t put it past any one of them to snipe off another’s nose or finger nail if provoked.
This means health care reform is basically dead.
I think Webb realizes that.
It really doesn’t matter. The big money had already won with the elimination of a public option.
Without that, the bill certainly isn’t worth anybody risking their seat over.
So a major change that would have postively affected the majority of the country is again killed by the big money boys.
Not surprising. This country has become ungovernable, by either the right or the left, because we’re too stupid, lazy and selfish.
(Excuse the vitriole. This is my first tobacco-free day in 40 years and I’m feeling a litle cranky.)
Yeah – health care reform was dead, anyway. I think it was a lack of leadership.
(BTW – I’d be a lot more cranky than you if I quit.)
You really think so? If they let this die, then honestly why bother? And who is going to show up later this year to help defend all of these seats? The well is going to run dry with a lot of disaffected Dems running around.
Hopefully, they are listening to Ezra Klein.
Not me. And not a lot of people (a surprising number, actually) who make a fair share of their living doing exactly that.
Defeat? I can accept. Surrender? F*ck that.
Response to Sen Mark Warner’s op-ed, “Here’s a Bipartisan Solution”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: Tuesday, January 19, 2009
Dear Sen. Warner:
A bipartisan approach to effective government(as you and other members of Congress are proposing) is the only hope for our country to return to its former position of ethical, responsible leadership as a world democracy. In my 74 years of life, I cannot remember when we were so divided and so unwilling to compromise. It’s more than political partisanship–words like self-seeking and public-paid retirement come to mind.
As a former teacher and school administrator of the 1960s thru 1990s, I must ask myself, “How did we fail?” Indeed, I remember some examples–students defying all authority in the early 1970s. For an instant in history–5 to 10 years–we adult leaders lost our grip, and our students (perhaps especially the more privileged and gifted ones in private schools where I worked) “got away with murder,” compared to the standards of earlier times.
More than one of these Seventies Survivors became President of the U.S.; many more than that got into other top positions of leadership–esp. corporate and governmental–on the right and left.
The road back is long and arduous. It appears that you, Senator Warner, may have special gifts and experiences to guide you and to sustain you–as shown in your work as Virginia’s governor: “most of us serving in Richmond recognized the need to act in a bipartisan way to move Virginia forward,” as you said accurately in your op-ed.
I am one septuagenarian WASP who believes that change is needed and often painful–esp. in Virginia. I would urge you to stick by your instincts gained from your governorship– overcoming the mess left by James Gilmore. Knowing that IT CAN BE DONE is an advantage not everyone has; may you use your confidence to help bring this country back to balance, to bi-partisanship, and to the consensus-building that this state, nation and world will require to survive.
President Obama must be part of that bi-partisan solution, too; don’t make the mistake of leaving him out. He represents the fulfillment of what many of us–black and white–have spent our adult lives trying to bring into being. And he’s more intelligent than any of his predecessors in the White House, including Woodrow Wilson. It would be terrible to waste President Obama’s mind and talent; without him appropriately in the loop, your bi-partisanship is not the real thing.
Gerald Cooper
Norfolk
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