Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Transitions

An interesting day of transitions today.

First and most importantly, today is Groundhog Day, and it coincides this year with the State of the Union speech. I find the confluence of these events quite an ironic juxtaposition; one involves a meaningless ritual in which the country looks to a creature of nearly no intelligence for prognostication, and the other involves a groundhog.

Today is Alan Greenspan's last day on the job; he gives way to Ben Barnanke.

And on the day that Sam ScAlito is sworn in as the nation's 110th Supreme Court Justice, Coretta Scott King passes away.

As I watched the whip count for the cloture vote on C-Span yesterday afternoon, I was surprised and pleased that it showed 57 votes aye, 40 no (a 'no' vote for cloture, or ending debate on the nomination, being evidence of the strength of the opposition's prospects for filibuster). Only 41 votes were needed, and had cloture failed, the filibuster would have commenced, and the Republicans' nuke threats would have been called.

But that hope was dashed, as at least fifteen Senators abandoned their commitment, and the final vote was 72-25.

These are the Democrats who, despite furious activism, abandoned their party and voted yes on cloture:

Akaka -HA
Baucus -MT
Bingaman -NM
Byrd-WV
Cantwell-WA
Carper-DE
Conrad-one of the Dakotas
Dorgan-also a Dakota
Inouye-HA
Kohl-WI
Landrieu-LA
Lieberman-CT
Lincoln-AR
Ben Nelson-NE
Bill Nelson-FL
Pryor-AR
Rockerfeller-WV
Salazar-CO

As I watched the vote, I was struck again by the congeniality evidenced by the Senators. Lots of laughing, hand-shaking, back-slapping, and not among the Republicans but the Democrats. What is so funny, I kept thinking. And then I began to recall the words of the Senators who voted for cloture but said publicly that they thought it an exercise in futility: Joe Biden, chuckling with Don Imus -- well, ha ha, I already did my filibuster when I questioned Alito. We don't have a prayer of stopping him. I'll vote no on the first cloture vote, but it's really a waste of time ...

Barak Obama said to George Staphylococcus he'd vote no to cloture, but also said it was a waste of time. We really need to elect more Democrats ...blah, blah, blah. Thanks for the enthusiasm, Barak.

Jeff Bingaman: 20 minutes before the vote he tells us, through an aide, maybe he'll vote against cloture if we give him 2,000 calls in 20 minutes. He voted for cloture.

Mary Landrieu, who had us all crying for New Orleans, voted for cloture. See, this will focus attention on a relief package for New Orleans. Alito is a distraction. So much for a pro-choice woman that Emily's List endorses.

Robert Byrd, the respected constitutionalist; the man who carries a copy with him at all times, who rails against executive power and the surrender of Congressional war-making authority to an imperial Bush, votes yes on cloture to a Supreme Court nominee whose "unitary executive" theory gives a blank check to that same President to torture, wiretap, and hold Americans indefinitely and without charges because "it's wartime".

Maria Cantwell. The guru of Real Audio, the Internet personified, votes for cloture on a man who won't tell us if there's a constitutional right of privacy.

And the noble Tim Johnson and Byron Dorgan -- profiles in courage on the great plains.

Sean-Paul Kelley is outraged, calling them a "quivering, quavering, gelatinous mass of timorous toadies".

B & B is much more reserved.

Casual Soapbox breaks it down nicely.

Me? I think I'm through being mad about it, but the fight goes on. We've got to take not only our country back from the fascists but we've got to take the Democratic Party away from the quitters and cowards, and we must do so before it is too late for democracy, and for us all.

To that end, there's an interesting protest opportunity this evening.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Corruption Chronicles: Gov. MoFo and Texas' own K Street project

Already blogged here, and also by Kuff and Eye on WC and others, and Paul Kiel pushes even more of the pieces together:

The more you learn about the Texas lobby boondoggle (this is where the state's federal relations office was gutted in order to hire K-Street-Project-approved private lobbyists such as DeLay's former Chief of Staff), the more ludicrous the narrative becomes.

The Texas Office of State-Federal Relations (OSFR) has existed since the 60's, and its purpose is clear from the title. According to the website, it's there in Washington to "advocate for the interests of Texas." Simple. You might even say that they're there to lobby the federal government on behalf of Texas. ...

... Members of the OSFR staff quietly went over the bids and selected the Federalist Group's Drew Maloney, who had been Tom DeLay's Chief of Staff until March of `02. The Federalist Group is literally an all Republican firm.

The Governor and his minions at OSFR snuck this past the Democrats, the press, everyone.

...

Gov. Perry is responsible for this, on whose orders you can probably guess (hint: back in 2003, the Houston Chronicle had an anonymous source who claimed that a certain Majority Leader was responsible). It was clearly his initiative. The Governor appointed Perez to his post, and Perez serves at his pleasure. The idea that a career bureaucrat would come up with this on his own, offering to deeply cut his own staff - from 17 to 7, more than half - is ludicrous.

...

Everyone seemed happy with this arrangement until early 2004, when Sen. Hutchison and Gov. Perry clashed over the issue of base closings. Perry made a big show of supporting the Pentagon's draft guidelines; Hutchison came out against. At the same time, Hutchison was reportedly mulling over running against Perry for the Governorship.

Then, in February, the Governor began to publicly worry whether Piper Rudnick had a "conflict of interest" in representing Texas, since the firm was reportedly in negotiations with Florida to lobby to preserve their bases.

Now, there is an inherent conflict of interest when a private lobbyist, with a full slate of corporate clients, is paid with state taxpayer dollars to lobby for federal dollars. So this is obviously a phony line of argument. And the Federalist Group has a host of other governmental clients (cities, counties, university systems, etc.) that the Governor has never had any problem with.

No matter: the contract with Piper Rudnick was abruptly severed in the spring of '04. Another round of bidding ensued, and Todd Boulanger, former member of Team Abramoff, won the contract, despite the fact that his bid wasn't the best, as if that was the point.


The excerpts above simply don't do justice to the research done by Kiel. You must read the entire thing to get the true sense of the breathtaking cronyism that has snaked its way throughout our state government.

Kiel says he's got more to come, but I've already read all I can stand.

The past week's Democratic candidate scramble

Yesterday, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in southwest Houston, I met Wesley Clark briefly. He was in town stumping for Bob Gammage, and he also met Hubert Vo and Kristi Thibaut and a small clutch of media and supporters before he left for Corpus Christi to campaign for Juan Garcia.

Eddie tried to live-blog the event in CC but got caught in that weak-wireless-signal Catch 22 -- stay inside to hear the event, or go outside to post, but not both.

While I was there, John Kerry decided to filibuster Alito. Good on him.

David Van Os asked me to be his campaign manager, and I accepted. So I'll be blogging a lot less, and as a matter of ethics, not at all after today about the man whom Ronnie Duggar calls "the Ralph Yarborough of his generation". So you need to bookmark his website, and help out a little from time to time if you can.

You see, Van Os has no intention of running television commercials ad nauseum or even trying to blanket the state with yard signs; his campaign runs on a virtual shoestring. My time and efforts, for example, are currently gratis, as I wind down my business in order to go full-time. His message is delivered the old-fashioned way; directly to the people.

One thing I've learned in the short period of time that David has been my good friend is that once you hear him speak, it's over.

I experienced this for myself a few years ago where he outshone Jim Hightower, and I've seen it happen time and time again, most recently at a little place called Arturo's Underground Cafe in Austin where about fifty people ( about forty of them under the age of 25) gathered at a post-steering committee meeting after-party. They came to hear a four-piece bluegrass band named Herb Pharm (sorry, no link; when you Google their name and add 'bluegrass' or 'austin' you still only get 100,000 hits for supplements) and they stayed to hear David.

I also added the button in the right column for SH 146 candidate Borris Miles, who's taking on incumbent Al Edwards. I could say a lot about my representative, but I'm pretty sure it's all been said. And I can't say anything bad about the third Democrat in the race, Al Bennett, who is an outstanding gentleman and to whom I wish all the best. I want to support your candidacy in another race very soon, Al.

There's a lot more to talk about, but I'll get back to you later on it. Don't go away and stay away, please.