Pelosi: "Everything was going great & all of a sudden secret $$$ from God knows where..."

Politico calls this an "Excuse"
I Call It The TRUTH, kp

"Everything was going great and all of a sudden secret money from God knows where -- because they won't disclose it -- is pouring in."

-- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), quoted by Politico.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/44110.html

(They better check out THINKPROGRESS: http://thinkprogress.org/)

One would think that Nancy Pelosi would have known that this was coming after the Citizens United decision.

Maybe she will shocked to also learn that Rush Limbaugh is still broadcasting hate and lies about Democrats to our soldiers on the Armed Forces Network. Things might be different if Nancy only knew someone in a position of power that might be able to change things. Hmmmm... Let's think deeper about who might even remotely be able to do something about these things...

They have shown a united disinterest in figuring out how to legislate Financial Reform of Big Money, in terms of Campaign Contributions.

Hard to feel sorry for them.

But .. they needed 60 votes and NOT ONE Republican would vote for it.

Post as you will - those are the Senate rules.

Just look at what is going on in terms of the Propositions on the ballot in California.

You have all these made up groups. One group supports the Propositon, the other opposes. Hypothetical: Is "Healthy Babies Coalition" really for Healthy Babies or is it for mandating baby formula?

I'd love to give you the names of the real life "coalitions" and other sponsors of various Props, as real life examples, but the tiny font writing that is at the bottom of the TV screen goes by too fast to read. You have one group saying that the State Association of Firefighters is for the thing, and then the opponents claim that the Coalition of State Firefighters is opposed. Which is legitimate - which is made up by the Big Money interests?

The problem is that doing much else will take a constitutional amendment at this point, because this is due to the SC decision. Yet you blame the Congress. Even if magically every Democratic Senator and Congressperson magically started thinking exactly like Kuchinich - they could not make big Corporate money illegal.

I suspect the simplicity of the bill was because it SHOULD have passed had everyone done what they honestly thought could be defended. The Republican position is untenable - and that's why Democrats up to Obama have publicly been making a case of why this is wrong. This is important because it is only if an overwhelming number of people thing it both wrong an important enough to get angry about will there be any chance of getting any control of this - and that's a long shot. It will require a Constitutional Amendment.

I have not seen the ads in CA - because I live in NJ - but I have seen enough of various ads on line to understand how despicable they are. Senator Kerry, with Feingold, was among the first to speak of the need to do something on this. They both testified to the Rules committee. Kerry has also sent any number of emails speaking of this.

as it defines the type of legislation that will be considered. But, that does NOT mean that anything with just 51 votes will pass the Senate.

force the 60-vote threshold for legislation. Bush got everything he wanted with just 51 votes, but the Dems, who were afraid to filibuster the Repubs' very worst legislation are also afraid to force the Repubs to actually filibuster anything. All the Repubs have to do is say, "Boo! Consider this a filibuster!" and the Dems cave. They should force the Repubs to actually stand there for endless hours in front of C-SPAN cameras and filibuster bills that provide benefits for vets, that extend the unemplyement benefits for people who can't find jobs in this economy, etc. But instead the Dems just say, "Oh, gee, without 60 votes, we can't pass anything," and even when they had 60, they didn't enforce party discipline at all, but instead tied themselves in pretzel knots trying to accommodate Republicans, Blue Dogs, and Lieberdweeb. The Republican Party's memebr vote the party line, no matter what. The Dems don't cooperate with their party at all.

Many on a 51 vote simple majority. The Democrats are too chicken to pass anything.

I think not. The two big bills he passed through reconciliation were the tax cut bills - though the first had a fair number of Democratic votes.

There are limits on what cn be passed under reconciliation.

most are lame nonsense anyway. Wall Street, the Chamber of Commerce and foreign interests are spending large sums of cash hoping to push the GOP into a majority. That is all a middle class or poor person need know.

I know I am. Is it really necessary to run back-to-back commercials? That's what I've been seeing. Sadly, around here, it probably won't matter. Looks like the majority will still vote for the candidate for the sole fact that he or she has an "R" after their names.