President Joe Biden’s sit-down on Wednesday with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and other congressional leaders comes as the White House accelerates its efforts to reach a bipartisan infrastructure agreement — or at least aims to show it’s trying. But McConnell is plainly stating in advance that he’s not interested in the plan as proposed.
The president’s meeting with McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is the first formal gathering of the “big four” congressional leaders since the president took office — a late start after a tumultuous new year. But the timing is crucial for White House’s outreach on Biden’s two-pronged $4 trillion American jobs and families plans.
At the center are Biden and McConnell, two stalwarts of the Senate who have traded expressions of friendship but whose ability to find political common ground seems limited. In a Washington controlled by Democrats by the slimmest of margins, it’s unclear if they actually need each other to accomplish their political goals.
[continues]
mind melded or welded?
lincoln project does stefanik, the soon-to-be GOPer leader
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=201497128316762
Moscow Mitch’s only goal is to stop POTUS Joe from achieving his goals. He said so.
Hmmm, POTUS Joe’s goals are to help Americans in the areas of jobs, health, security, fairness… That means Mitch is trying to hurt Americans.
Someone in the media needs to call out these q-nazis for what that are, a dangerous cult.
If Dick Cheney doesn’t have the clout to protect Liz, whelp, the Republican Party is now a zombie wasp.
wapo:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/11/politics/liz-cheney-republican-party-trump-long-game/index.html
“But Cheney is also planning to take advantage of her expected removal as a way to further her fight against Donald Trump’s grip over the GOP and continue hammering the message that got her in trouble in the first place: that Trump’s lies about the 2020 election are damaging for her party and the country.“
I can’t believe I’m saying this to someone other than Senator Warren but go, Liz, go!
“You’re just not gonna be a leader of the party if you’re anti-Trump,” Graham told CNN.
Translation: You must bow down to the orange monster who owns the brand rights to the Republican Party.
as former sen. claire mccaskill asked this morning on mojo after citing the poll: “but what about the other 50%?”
the hill:
claire went on to point out the GOPers dumping liz don’t have much of a future since 25% of GOPers plus 60+% of indies plus 90% of dems say joe won the election fair & square and the former guy is a big loser as well as a big liar.
apologies for length, but jon makes a very important point
from CNN transcript
ERIN BURNETT: And I want to go now to Historian and Author Jon Meacham. He is the host of the podcast Fate Of The Fact released under Shining City Audio. He is also advised President Biden on some items.
So let me ask you, Jon, how significant is this moment of history? You’ve got the Republican Party. You’ve got two major political parties in this country. That’s how this country is run. One of them is purging one of its leaders with a 98 percent perfect score from the Conservative Heritage Action group, just because she is standing up to a lie about who won an election. What does this say to you?
JON MEACHAM, HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR: It says that one of our two major parties is totally unmoored from reality. And as you say, that’s not the way a constitutional republic can work. We need two vibrant vital parties that debate ideas, that debate the course of action about how we solve largely mutually agreed upon problems.
We don’t need a party that just makes up their own facts when they don’t find the discernible reality of eyes and ears to be congenial. And so I think Rep. Cheney’s issues at the moment, I think the social media decision is hugely important tomorrow.
One of the interesting things about America is we are very good at moving on quickly. And sometimes that’s great and sometimes it’s not. And January 6th now in political time feels like we’re talking about Thermopylae or some ancient, ancient remote thing. It was January 6th, it was this tax year, it was in the first quarter of this year and we almost lost our democracy, because of what Liz Cheney is standing up against.
BURNETT: You raised an interesting point, though, because there are some who may not have thought to this level, when you have a two party system, you do need to vibrant parties, otherwise one party steamrolls everything, controls everything. You could end up dealing with things like Mexico’s had to deal with when one party is just in control all of the time and does whatever it wants, so that that’s what’s at stake here.
What does it do to our democracy to have one party that is completely shackled to its base? A party that in and of itself only now represents 25 percent to 27 percent of the American population.
MEACHAM: About two centuries and a half of democratic lowercase D experience is at risk, unquestionably. The founders hoped in sort of a dreamy way that we would have a supra party system that we would be above faction, that lasted about four minutes.
The first competitive race was 1796, George Washington didn’t like being criticized by the newspapers and by his opponents, he thought about getting out after one term and he never had anybody run against him. So if you wonder or ever wonder where the politicians are sensitive, I refer you to George Washington.
Without this clash of parties, we don’t have a capacity to move forward. And the very roots of the word, your President Biden’s been talking about democracy versus autocracy. If you actually do the etymology of that, democracy means the rule of the many. The rule of the people.
Autocracy means the rule of the one. And that can be the Chinese Communist Party. It can be a dictator. It could be one ideology. It could be one worldview. But the problem and the virtue of democracy is when we all accept the rules of the game, we all have a chance to advance our interests according to the constitutional safeguards.
If you want total victory every time, which is what the Republicans want in this era, then that system falls apart and you better hope you always win. Because if you’re in an autocratic system, you’re in one where if you’re on top, fantastic. That’s great. If you’re not, God help you, right?
very dangerous for our system of jacks and palances.
When my dad passed it wasn’t so much to deal with because we’d actually lost him little by little along towards the end due to the alzheimer’s, and by the end he’d been totally gone for quite some time……no more questions, no more answers, no more nothing. Had it been a situation like Mr. Crawford’s I’m sure it would have been much more traumatic and longer lasting.
Sturg, and our Jeckyls and Hydes.
I predict that the meeting between Biden and McConnell will be the stuff of SNL takes on it.
Ah, to be a “Dad”- good Dad or bad Dad, everyone caterwauls when you go
KGC
Lots of healing thought sent MrCrackers way. I’ve dealt with kidney stones and lost one of my kidneys so they are serious as well as being painful. And a big hug for you as it is not easy dealing with hospital rules in the era of covid.
Jack
Interesting side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is outrageously low positive cases of flu this season. So far there have been a total of only 2068 positive results from clinical and public labs and one death reported for the entire 2020-21 flu season. As a point of comparison, CDC estimated that about 38 million people were sick with the flu during the 2019-2020 season with 22,000 deaths. Of course COVID and flu could have been comorbidities for some Covid positive patients and deaths, but the cases and deaths were coded for Covid, one explanation being that flu vaccinations were up 20% above the prior year and another, likely significant one being that people with flu-like symptoms got tested for Covid rather than flu, and it’s entirely possible that some proportion of the Covid victims also had the flu.
KGC… may healing and love rule the day for you and Mr. C.
Being the oldest of 3… it was my job to be the executor of my parents’ will. They didn’t own much… but still… it took me a year after the death of my mother to fully do the job. As each task got done, I’d think… good… I never have to do that again. But it also felt like I was slowly erasing my parents lives. It can physically be an easy thing… but emotionally… that’s another story. Wishing you the best, Craig.
Craig
Here is something that hospice gave to me after Sherry’s death. It is a bit hokey as things like that are but there were a few gems that helped me. For one it gave me permission to grieve in my own way and that is what I continue to do. Grief is such a personal thing, just between you and the person you are grieving.
My thoughts are with you, I’m sending you big hug.
Jack
Crackers – Hope the procedure goes well for Mr. C
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/12/texas-republicans-liz-cheney/
“The move to depose her as House Republican Conference Chair, the third-ranking GOP position in the House, came in a closed-door caucus vote. The votes of the 22 Texas Republicans were not immediately clear. Most members have stayed silent on the issue.“
“Two Texas Republicans — U.S. Reps. Lance Gooden and Chip Roy — were vocal about their desire to remove Cheney before Wednesday’s closed-door vote. But most members of the delegation kept their cards close to their chests.“
If the scared, little weasels aren’t vocally supporting Orange Adolf, their silence does the job.
sounds like today doesn’t it?
[u.s.senate.gov on sen margaret chase smith speech 71 yrs ago]
Everything old is new, again.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.kstp.com/articles/father-of-minnesota-us-senator-amy-klobuchar-jim-dies-at-93-6105689.html
“Jim Klobuchar was a newspaperman and journalist who worked at the Star Tribune for many years.“
And from the “pot calling the kettle black” corner… (WaPo)
The repugs have gone off the deep end.
And while I’m no fan of Liz Cheney, on this one issue I do think her head is in the right place. More from that politics feed at Wapo.:
Liz, if that’s your aim, you better point the bow of your canoe upstream and paddle like hell because you are being dragged quickly toward that waterfall behind you.
There are almost no Republicans brave enough to speak up. They are destined for the trash heap of history.
I sure hope those idiots who filled garbage bags, garbage cans, tubs and other open containers with gasoline that when those rupture or leak they are in their own garages or homes. Those should be worthy of a Hollywood explosion. Colonial has restarted operations and pushing gas and diesel up the pipeline. Looks like this weekend when I need to refill the truck things will be nearly normal again.
I’m surprised gas doesn’t melt the bags.
Brake fluid is a powerful solvent (melted my shoes) but I don’t know about gasoline. Probably so.
I’m not sure a garbage can with a garbage bag as a liner is an approved container…
Bright blue suit. Nice, Liz. Nice optical.
You have to wonder how many of the geniuses filled styrofoam coolers with gas. Now they are stuck with high priced gas, which is quite volatile hanging around the house. Bet of a few house fires for a while.
Climate special on PBS
Clothing accounts for more emissions than air travel and shipping, combined?
BB – But will they take the vaccine because they don’t think it’s safe?
BiD, it is difficult (read impossible) to balance the carbon footprint/value of this and that. We talk about reducing/eliminating petroleum-based transportation carbon but never think twice about advocating reducing/eliminating clothing (ok, there are niche exceptions). Go figure.
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