Showing posts with label bob corker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bob corker. Show all posts

Friday, September 27, 2013

Smackdown ~ Senator Bob Corker vs. Ted Cruz on Obamacare

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Previous Related Posts:
Line forms to criticize Ted Cruz after Filibuster Attempt
Talkative Ted Cruz fumbles to Fauxlibuster Finish Line
Green Eggs and Sham ~ The Ted Cruz Fauxlibuster Continues
Ted Cruz Attempts to Filibuster Obamacare

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From Washington Post
The only thing separating them being a single Senate desk, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) engaged in what Senate rules deem a "colloquy," but what most observers would call an old-style public airing of grievances.
At one point, Corker accused Cruz and Lee of turning Senate proceedings “into a show.” Cruz countered by questioning Corker’s loyalty to the Republican Party by siding with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.)
The clash lasted roughly 10 minutes, with colleagues watching and cameras rolling. It exposed deep disagreements among Republicans over how they should proceed with the spending bill, which currently includes language defunding the new federal health-care law. But using procedural rules that allow him to make changes to the bill, Reid plans to amend the bill by restoring funding for the new federal health-care law.





































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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Ted Cruz and Teapublicans Trapped in "Box Canyon" with Obamacare ~ Updated

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source: democratic underground

I oppose Obamacare as much as anybody in the Senate, but it's just difficult for me to see how this leads us anywhere but a boxed canyon.
~ Senator Bob Corker, R-Tennessee


For those unfamiliar, a “box canyon” is a canyon that’s essentially a trap with no way out. (Sen. Ted) Cruz went to both Ivy League schools mentioned.
~ Roll Call

In the United States Senate, we will not repeal or defund Obamacare. We will not. And to think we can is not rational.... To somehow think we are going to defund it is simply not going to happen at this time, and it will, in my opinion, as it did before, harm the American people's view of the Republican party,
~ Senator John McCain, R-AZ on CNN

They have this hard-nosed, adamant, almost surreal tea party saying go ahead and do it, and the tea party doesn’t even know how it’s going to end.
~ Senator Chuck Schumer, D-NY

We voted on Obamacare ... and it's the law of the land. It's been through the Supreme Court. It's not perfect, but let's work to make it better.
~ Senator Mark Pryor, R-Arkansas





Huffington Post
On Wednesday, after House leaders said they'd go forward with the defund strategy Cruz had been pitching with ads on Fox News, his response boiled down to 'Thanks, you're on your own.'

"Harry Reid will no doubt try to strip the defund language from the continuing resolution, and right now he likely has the votes to do so," Cruz said in a statement. "At that point, House Republicans must stand firm, hold their ground, and continue to listen to the American people."

On the surface, House Republicans were seething. Members openly accused Cruz and his allies, Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), of waving the white flag before the fight had even begun. One House GOP aide even called Cruz a "joke, plain and simple."

. . . "Cruz officially jumped the shark this week," said one GOP operative allied with House leadership, who, like others, requested anonymity to speak critically about fellow Republicans. "He's doing for the House Leaders what they couldn't do for themselves. House rank-and-file members are uniting with Boehner, Cantor over Ted Cruz's idiotic position."

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What a shame all this melodrama is a mirage, a farce, a game.
The choice is not, and never has been, between those willing to defund ObamaCare and those willing to fund it. That supposed choice is in fact an illusion. To defund the ACA would require the House and Senate to pass new legislation, which Barack Obama would have to sign. And no one, not even Senators Cruz, Paul, Lee and Rubio, believes the president would do that.
All the posturing that’s being done to present this as a battle between Intrepid Republicans versus the Surrender Caucus is nothing more than political theater.
It also appears that Captain Courageous himself, Ted Cruz, and some of his colleagues are now engaging—at least for now—in a premature surrender. House Republicans are incensed at Cruz for going wobbly on the filibuster he once seemed to favor, putting all the responsibility back on the House.
~ Peter Wehner on Commentary





























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Friday, July 19, 2013

The Unraveling of Mitch McConnell

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. . . this is the week that Mitch McConnell lost his iron grip on the Senate Republican caucus.
~ Michael Tomasky on Daily Beast

Mr. McConnell, minority leader of Senate Republicans, became even too obstructive for his own colleagues this week as they sought to end the endless GOP filibusters that have ground Washington to a halt.
It left Mr. McConnell, who so loves the filibuster he once filibustered himself, sidelined.
It is a stunning fall from power for Mr. McConnell, famous for marching his members in lock-step party discipline, and could leave him considerably weakened as he seeks a sixth Senate term, touting his power and influence.
~ Lexington Courier-Journal

From Roll Call
A meeting of Senate Republicans on Wednesday grew tense as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told his members he could have gotten a better deal on nominations than the one negotiated by rank-and-file Republicans.
McConnell’s tone, according to multiple sources, implied that he had been kept in the dark about the talks between some in his own ranks and Democrats. However, those same Republicans say they kept McConnell updated throughout their negotiating process.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., got so frustrated with McConnell’s presentation of events, that he called “bullshit” loud enough for the room to hear, nearly a half-dozen sources said. The heated exchange underscored the “buyer’s remorse” among some Republicans, especially leaders, one senior Republican said on background.

I’m really glad what happened yesterday at lunch, as far as my response, I’m glad that that occurred.
~ Senator Bob Corker, via Roll Call

As a rule, when senators are shouting "bullpucky" -- or perhaps a related word with a similar prefix -- at their own party's leader, it's not a good sign.
~ Maddow Blog

[The Filibuster Deal] will give more momentum to those who want to go to 51 votes, there's no doubt about that," McCain said, adding that the Senate's budget conferees could be told not to discuss the debt limit under a motion to instruct. "That's the way the regular order works around here. You just don't say, 'No, I object to going forward.'"
He also told The Huffington Post in a brief hallway interview last week that the same group of conservative senators had threatened to filibuster debate on gun control legislation. It's not just about regular order, McCain said, but also about how Americans view the Republican Party.
"They had planned, the same people, on filibustering the gun bill and not moving forward with it for debate, and finally it was enough of us that prevailed that we moved forward with debate," McCain said. "Think how the American people would have reacted if we hadn't even agreed to debate the gun bill?"
~ John McCain on Huffington Post



Mr. McConnell lost quite a bit of power . . . His caucus was forced to kneel to the Democrats, and for all his insistence that the filibuster remains a real weapon, he was unable to stop 17 Republicans from setting the weapon down. If these Republicans continue to allow votes on nominees, Mr. McConnell will not be able to block other people President Obama wants on his team. (Of course, that remains a big if, and Mr. McConnell will undoubtedly encourage obstruction.)
The most telling proof of defeat was in the words of three other Republican leaders who also voted against the deal and appeared with Mr. McConnell — John Thune, John Cornyn, and John Barrasso. Each of them said how glad he was to get past this whole messy nominations things so that they could get back to their preferred topic: “Obamacare.”
It’s a “train wreck,” Mr. Thune and Mr. Cornyn said. It’s “unraveling,” Mr. Barrasso said.
~ New York Times

. . . This is killing Mitch McConnell. He simply does not know what he is doing and is worn out. As are the hundreds of GOP strategists who have been shaped by his policies and singing along with Mitch for over two decades.
It's really the end of the road for Mitch. Help me, anyone, interpret what's going on any other way.
~ Ken Camarro on New York Times





The game is on in Kentucky for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Democratic Party.
Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Democrat and the only woman to hold statewide office in Kentucky, announced Monday that she will run for the U.S. Senate next year and challenge McConnell. Grimes, 34, is the Democratic Party's top candidate after actress-activist Ashley Judd decided in March she would not run.
~ USA Today

The Kentucky Senate race is now a tossup. Mitch McConnell is the most unpopular incumbent in the entire country. He is a relic of the past and a symbol of everything that is wrong with Washington. Kentuckians want a change.
~ Guy Cecil, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)

Mr. McConnell is fairly unpopular in Kentucky. Public opinion surveys show that, on average, more Kentuckians disapprove than approve of the job he has done in the Senate. Roughly half of the respondents in the four recent partisan polls said they disapproved of Mr. McConnell’s performance.
~ Nate Silver, 538 Blog




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