Report: Shelby Blocks All Obama Nominations In The Senate Over AL Earmarks

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has put an extraordinary "blanket hold" on at least 70 nominations President Obama has sent to the Senate, CongressDaily (sub. req.) reports. 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 reports, "Senate aides said a blanket hold represents a far more aggressive use of the power than is normal."

Shelby has been tight-lipped about the holds, offering only an unnamed spokesperson to reporters today to explain them. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid broke the news of the blanket hold this afternoon after Shelby announced it to him in a letter sent today. Reid aides told CongressDaily the hold extends to "all executive nominations on the Senate calendar."

source: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/report-shelby-blocks-all-obama-nominations-in-the-senate-over-al-earmarks.php

Period.

Oh...that's right...nothing.

Well, I'm sending my letters to the media on this.
I'm only one person, so I doubt I'll have any effect,
but I can't just sit on this forum and fucking do nothing
about this bullshit!

tell one think about it on the news. That is the trouble. The public does not know what is going on and the republicans know they will blame the democrats because as far as they know they are in charge.

I think there should be a way to pay this piece of absolute cow pukey back and all the other republicans who think they are hot s**t. If the democrats were so afraid of them they would do away with the filbuster and the cloture vote and take back congress. Maybe they can then get something done.

I can't believe that Obama even gives these fuckers the time of day anymore. How much more evidence does he need that they will NOT play nice?!

What happens if Reid tells him to go fuck himself?

And Harry will acquiesce as usual.

:eyes:

After all, McCain isn't McCain is supposedly so opposed to earmarks, isn't he? :eyes:


As for Shelby, to think that he used to be a Dem......:banghead:

I even supported him, helped with a fund raiser, when he ran for office, as a dem, before he jumped ship.

Slimey jerk, he is just a slimey jerk.

I don't have a lot of nice things to say about any of the Dems whom jumped ship on us following the 1994 elections. Any chances of getting rid of him anytime soon? It seems like he's been around for awhile now.

Alabama is always going to be a red state. I'm in MS, we have the same problem.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/11/mccain-received-defense-f_n_90951.html

03-11-08

Critics on Tuesday questioned whether Sen. John McCain catered to special interests when he aggressively threw his support behind a $35 billion Pentagon contract for a European plane maker.

McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, played a crucial role in blocking the deal to build air tankers from going to U.S.-based Boeing, instead paving the path for EADS to score the loot. He framed his decision as an example of political integrity; Boeing has previously been exposed of contract abuse. But a review of campaign finance donations and lobbying records suggests that money and personal lobbying may have also been in play.

On January 15, 2007, McCain appeared at Alabama Gov. Bob Riley's gubernatorial swearing in ceremony and formally called for multiple bidders in the tanker deal. The push for an open process had only one true beneficiary, however, and that was the Northrop Grumman/EADS consortium, which was poised to be Boeing's sole competitor.

A day after McCain made his proclamation, the contributions began to flow. John Green, a lobbyist for EADS donated $2,100 to the senator's presidential campaign. Ten days after that, Michelle Lammers, the "Chief of Staff" for EADS North America, gave $250 to the McCain campaign. It was her first political contribution ever. Less than a month later, the long-time head of EADS' government affairs program, Samuel Adcock, made a $2,100 donation to McCain. And eleven days later, Ralph Crosby, the head of EADS North America, donated $2,300 himself.

You mean, he really doesn't care as much about earmarks as he said he did and he was just saying that to try to get elected? I'm SHOCKED!!! SHOCKED I tell you!!!


NOT!!!

He IS a Republican after all, and therefore NOT immune from hypocrisy.

They give to campaigns, how can that be. The GOP says that they can't, that foreign corporations cannot contribute and Obama was making stuff up in his SOTU about SCOTUS.

Boeing Military Aircraft was moved from Seattle because it's on the coast. If Seattle is vulnerable Mobile is definitely vulnerable. Why isn't Shelby wetting his pants over the security concern for his constituents?

protested and the contract was voided. The two companies have going back and forth for years trying to win this contract. I don't know anything about the whole DOD thing though...

...They don't have hurricane season in the Pacific Northwest.

**

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned Republicans Thursday that if they use the arrival of Scott Brown as an opportunity to filibuster every Democratic nominee, then his party may have to bypass the legislature and rely on appointments made during recess.

"I hope that we can get more cooperation here. I have been someone, Madam President, who has tried hard not to do -- have the president do recess appointments," Reid said from the Senate well Thursday afternoon. "But what alternative do we have? What alternative do we have?"


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/04/reid-threatens-to-bypass_n_449695.html

go through with it....

But I won't believe Reid will do it until I see it happen!

If Reid don't get a spine pretty soon and start acting like the leader of the senate, he will be looking for a new job next year! I wonder if he even realizes this?

But he won't. He'll meekly surrender his balls once again.

He's not the right person to lead the Democrats. We need a Patrick Leahy or a Chuck Schumer--guys who like to win and will do what it takes.

No chance of Ala. voting him out.
In fact, in some areas of the state, it would be suicide to even throw a tomato at him.x( x( x( x(

nt

Extraordinary partisanship.

I just watched Torchwood: Children of the Earth last week. "You have yielded in the past" is echoing in my ears...

Plaster his blown-up face all over the news and let Stewart, Olbermann, Maddow, Tweety, all the way up to the President SKEWER that summabitch.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4649965

Soon after Clinton took office, he proposed a $16 billion plan to boost the nation's economy and asked members of his own party to give him at least three days of grace before criticizing any part of it. Shelby, then a Democrat, did not wait three hours.

"The taxman cometh," he said in a sound bite made for television.

If that weren't enough, several days later, Shelby met with Vice President Al Gore before television cameras. Asked by a reporter what he thought of the administration's budget priorities, Shelby didn't hesitate, even though Gore was at his side: "High on taxes, low on (spending) cuts."

The comment, a deliberate slight of Gore from a member of his own party, made the network news.

"I didn't like that," responded Clinton a few days later.

And he did something about it.

He took a $375 million program - and 90-plus jobs - from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and moved it to Johnson Space Center in Houston.

For good measure, when the University of Alabama's national champion football team came to the White House in March 1993, the White House gave Sen. Howell Heflin of Alabama 15 tickets for him to give to friends. It gave Shelby one ticket.

Sounds like a good way to deal with the jerk -- but he'll just squeal to get his pork back.

Since he switched parties, he might even switch teams he roots for!

Good one.

A blanket hold is an attempt to shut down the government. What Shelby is doing should be put out over the "airwaves" everywhere. Any bill/amendment he supports should not be considered in as timely of a manner and perhaps it is time to move his Senate office to another space. Perhpas repairs need to be done to his office/building and he will need to vacate while the repairs are being done or something like that. There is always a way to make it less comfortable re office arrangements or parking arrangements or whatever it is that makes one office space better than another. It's often the little things that really irritate.

And Shelby knows it.

This is an open invitation for Obama to make me look like a fool. Go for it.

We need to do to Shelby what happened to Nelson in Nebraska.


Shine the fucking light on him and make it clear to the public.



The media won't do its job... so EVERY single public appearance, Obama has to point this out so the media has no choice but to cover it.

come with a time limit. Then I really hope that the olive branch is retracted and the hammer comes down.

Firstborns? A very stern note? Really nasty frowns?

.

I'll bet money rove is behind this.

But there should be consequences for Dick Shelby.

is this,when one person has control of presidential appointments,its broken and should be fixed?.

Do away with the filibuster entirely. Change the rules. It's a majority vote on everything except those constitutionally mandated otherwise.

...It didn't take long. As soon as Brown's sworn in, they go for the jugular. Sooner or later, Obama and others will have to realize that "no holds barred" is the only way to deal with these folks. Assume the worst.

We're just ahead of the curve on this stuff.