Republicans Pick Ethically-Challenged Mitch McConnell Senate Leader

[Nbadan]

McConnell picked as Senate Republican leader


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was elected on Wednesday to be Senate Republican leader as his party prepares to turn over control of Congress to Democrats in January, a Republican aide said.


McConnell, now Senate Republican whip, was elected unanimously during a closed-door meeting of the Senate Republican Caucus, the party aide said. McConnell was unopposed.

Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061115/pl_nm/usa_congress_leaders_dc)

From Wikipedia:


A six-month examination of McConnell fundraising found a significant correlation between his actions and his donors' agendas. He has supported government action to help cigarette makers, Las Vegas casinos, the pharmaceutical industry, credit card lenders, coal mine owners, and others who have given large amounts of money. McConnell has responded that he never allows money to influence him. His donors support him because they like his pro-business, conservative philosophy, he said, so it's hardly proof of corruption when he does what they want.<3>"

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_McConnell)

Hummm....Isn't this the same type of cronyism that the guys from CREW are accusing John Murtha of? Where are those headlines?

[boutons_]

Le Plus ca change, ....

And Trent Lott is back as Senate minority leader to affirm for the red-state rascist rabble that racism is still a key plank in the Repug platform.

[ChumpDumper]

Did his daughter marry any of those guys?

[spurster]

Trent Lott is back in style, too.



Trent Lott Wins Back Senate Leadership Slot

By CARL HULSE
Published: November 15, 2006

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 -- Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, who was driven from the Republican leadership four years ago after he made ill-considered remarks at a birthday party for Strom Thurmond, returned to the Senate’s top ranks today, winning election as minority whip in the next session by a single vote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/us/politics/16congcnd.html

We could have a pot-calling-kettle-black contest.

[Ya Vez]

like harry reid doesn't have a few ethics problems...

[ChumpDumper]

Yeah, but he's Mormon, so he's got God on his side.

[Ya Vez]

Abramoff Reports to Prison; Officials Focus on Reid, Others

November 15, 2006 1:23 PM
Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz Report:

As convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff reported to federal prison today, a source close to the investigation surrounding his activities told ABC News that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was one of the members of Congress Abramoff had allegedly implicated in his cooperation with federal prosecutors.

A spokesperson for Reid, elected yesterday as the Senate Majority Leader, said the senator had done nothing illegal or unethical.


everybody hurts sometimes .. harry...

[Zunni]

Trent Lott is back in style, too.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/us/politics/16congcnd.html

We could have a pot-calling-kettle-black contest.
That would be a pot-calling-kettle-darkie contest. :(

[AFE7FATMAN]

McConnell picked as Senate Republican leader



Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061115/pl_nm/usa_congress_leaders_dc)

From Wikipedia:
his [B]donors' agendas. He has supported government action to help cigarette makers, Las Vegas casinos, the pharmaceutical industry, credit card lenders, coal mine owners, and others who have given large amounts of money. McConnell has responded that he never allows money to influence him. His donors support him because they like his pro-business, conservative


Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_McConnell)

Hummm....Isn't this the same type of cronyism that the guys from CREW are accusing John Murtha of? Where are those headlines?
Ever been to KY Dan?
Cigarette markers - The grow Tobacco in KY aloong with making cigarettes

Pharmacaeutical industry.PediaMed Pharmaceuticals Florence ky Pharmaceuticals is involved in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of small molecule therapeutics for pediatric indications.
Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Florence, KY Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals is a a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on products in women’s health, urology and pain management.
Martek Biosciences Winchester Martek Biosciences develops, manufactures and sells products derived from algae.
Coal mines; Way to much of this industry in Ky to mention
Credit card lenders, numerous one in KY.
However Murtha= Arabs and he told them do someting for my folks and we will see about it; It=Taking the money(Bribe).

[spurraider21]

this is pretty crazy tbh

Republicans Fill Court Seat They Denied To Obama For 6 Years


WASHINGTON ― The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Michael Brennan to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ― a vacancy that Republicans prevented President Barack Obama from filling for six years (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ron-johnson-circuit-court-vacancy_us_5717c796e4b0479c59d6bcef).

The vote (https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=2&vote=00089), 49 to 46, was entirely partisan.

Until now, the seat was the nation’s longest circuit court vacancy. It was empty since January 2010, and it had been up to Wisconsin’s two senators to work with the White House to fill it. The reason it went unfilled for so long largely came down to one person: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

Obama nominated Victoria Nourse to the seat in July 2010. Johnson denied her a confirmation hearing (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ron-johnson-circuit-court-vacancy_us_5717c796e4b0479c59d6bcef) for all of 2011 by refusing to turn in his so-called blue slip, a Senate tradition whereby home-state senators have the ability to stop or advance a judicial nominee in the Judiciary Committee. Nourse withdrew her nomination in early 2012, calling the system “broken.”

Nourse had been recommended for the court seat by Wisconsin’s judicial nominating commission. But after she withdrew, Johnson said he wanted a new system of picking judicial nominees. He disbanded the state’s nominating panel and worked with Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) to create a new one. That took another year (http://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2013/4/wisconsin-senators-announce-agreement-on-wisconsin-judicial-commission-to-move-federal-nominations-forward).

Johnson then said the panel couldn’t put forward a 7th Circuit nominee until Obama nominated people to two other district court vacancies in the state. That added another year to the process. By the time the panel was seeking applications for the 7th Circuit, it was July 2014 (http://www.wisbar.org/NewsPublications/Pages/General-Article.aspx?ArticleID=11704) and the seat had been empty for four years.

The commission had eight candidates to recommend by January 2015, but couldn’t reach a consensus. The process stalled out in May, so Baldwin submitted all of their names to the White House to let the administration pick someone. Johnson fumed that Baldwin’s move was “partisan” (http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/tammy-baldwin-ron-johnson-spar-over-judicial-candidates-b99496806z1-303145491.html) and said the nomination process should start all over.

By January 2016, six years after the seat became empty, Obama nominated Donald Schott (https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/13/president-obama-nominates-two-serve-united-states-court-appeals) — one of the eight people chosen by the state panel. Baldwin gave the green light for him to get a hearing by turning in her blue slip, and reluctantly, Johnson did too. Schott got his hearing in June 2016. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked action on Obama’s court picks for the rest of the year, and Schott’s nomination expired.

That left the seat open for a Republican president, Donald Trump, to fill, which was Johnson’s and McConnell’s goal all along.

https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5af4834a2000004100b911b1.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_nou pscale
ALEX WONG VIA GETTY IMAGES
Mitch McConnell has been very effective at denying Democrats the ability to fill empty court seats, and then filling up all those seats when Republicans are in power.

After years of denying votes to Obama’s judicial picks, McConnell is now aggressively moving forward with filling those empty court seats with young, conservative, lifetime judges. Trump has been nominating people at record-breaking levels (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-judicial-nominations_us_5a32ddd9e4b0ff955ad14bad), and many of his picks (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-judicial-nominee-abortion-rights_us_59d67a63e4b046f5ad96e117) have records of being anti-LGBTQ rights, anti-abortion rights or anti-voting rights.

“This is my top priority in the Senate,” McConnell told conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt last week (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tammy-baldwin-michael-brennan-judicial-nomination_us_5af1d87ce4b041fd2d2baf9c). “By appointing and confirming these strict constructionists to the courts who are in their late 40s or early 50s ... I believe we’re making a generational change in the country.”

Brennan’s confirmation is rich with irony. He wrote an editorial (http://link.email.dynect.net/link.php?DynEngagement=true&H=btYXC68syxnIlVIaW0qBweEUHWPFwuN5EgnqFgPj0oiC1OMl 9zi1Rpo%2F%2BFb6PZADaWnsa5Kf7bkYwbfUJc6zHGcDicBj9D iVr5yEPQTb86GyW4DscBPoXqgoKV%2B7vUyW&G=0&R=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.jsonline.com%2Fnews%2Fopini on%2F126042043.html%2F&I=20180509201542.000000200337%40mail6-113-ussnn1&X=MHwxMDQ2NzU4OjVhZjM1NmNjYzdiZjIyZTQ3NTEzNDRhMzs% 3D&S=JPZ0NmxfIcQIVa-EZpQQdU16JWAQZeN3JtSC-Z-ocbE) endorsing the blue slip process in 2011 after Johnson refused to return his blue slip for Nourse. He didn’t earn the support of Wisconsin’s judicial nominating commission.

And the same Republicans who used blue slips to deny Obama the seat have now ignored the tradition of blue slips to help Trump fill it. Baldwin never turned in her blue slip in for Brennan, but Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman, gave him a hearing anyway and Republicans sent his nomination to the Senate floor.

Democrats have fumed about the hypocrisy surrounding this court seat. Some already opposed Brennan, a 57-year-old Milwaukee lawyer, on his merits. Among other things, Brennan has discounted the concept (http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=mulr) of the “the glass ceiling” being real, and raised some eyebrows in his confirmation hearing when he couldn’t say (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-judicial-nominee-michael-brennan-racial-bias_us_5a68b41be4b002283008aa8d) if racial bias exists in the criminal justice system.

“How is Sen. Baldwin’s right to consult on judges for her state any less important than Sen. Johnson’s?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “It’s mind-bending hypocrisy. It’s an appalling double standard.”

Until this year, it had been three decades since the Senate confirmed a judge without positive blue slips from both home-state senators.

Before Brennan, the Senate held a confirmation vote (https://www.twincities.com/2018/01/30/senate-confirms-david-stras-for-court-of-appeals-despite-al-franken-withholding-support/) in January for now-U.S. Circuit Judge David Stras of Minnesota. Then-Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) did not turn in a blue slip for Stras, but Grassley gave him a hearing anyway and sent his nomination to the floor.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/michael-brennan-ron-johnson-trump-judges_us_5af47bcbe4b04d3b2c91818f?ncid=edlinkushp mg00000313

[boutons_deux]

been telling you people, the oligarchy has been for years, and has recently intensified, polluting the courts, esp Fed appellate courts where 95% of laws are ruled judged legal or illagal

the oligarchy's judges' ideological rulings are and to be for decades:

anti-union

anti-employee

anti-patient

anti-student

anti-education

anti-non-white

anti-democracy

anti-right-to-vote

weaponized 1st and 2nd and other Amendments in the service of the above.

and 100% pro-oligarchy since the judges are whores to the oligarchy, hired in kind with life-long judgeships.

AmeriKKKa is fucked and unfuckable.

[boutons_deux]

Bitch McC is ignoring Dem blue slips, and fatally slow-walked Obama's judicial nominees for 8 years

The Repugs and oligarchy are literally breaking AmeriKKKa, it's a fucking bloodless coup d'etat

[spurraider21]

this is pretty crazy tbh

Republicans Fill Court Seat They Denied To Obama For 6 Years


WASHINGTON ― The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Michael Brennan to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ― a vacancy that Republicans prevented President Barack Obama from filling for six years (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ron-johnson-circuit-court-vacancy_us_5717c796e4b0479c59d6bcef).

The vote (https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=2&vote=00089), 49 to 46, was entirely partisan.

Until now, the seat was the nation’s longest circuit court vacancy. It was empty since January 2010, and it had been up to Wisconsin’s two senators to work with the White House to fill it. The reason it went unfilled for so long largely came down to one person: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

Obama nominated Victoria Nourse to the seat in July 2010. Johnson denied her a confirmation hearing (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ron-johnson-circuit-court-vacancy_us_5717c796e4b0479c59d6bcef) for all of 2011 by refusing to turn in his so-called blue slip, a Senate tradition whereby home-state senators have the ability to stop or advance a judicial nominee in the Judiciary Committee. Nourse withdrew her nomination in early 2012, calling the system “broken.”

Nourse had been recommended for the court seat by Wisconsin’s judicial nominating commission. But after she withdrew, Johnson said he wanted a new system of picking judicial nominees. He disbanded the state’s nominating panel and worked with Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) to create a new one. That took another year (http://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2013/4/wisconsin-senators-announce-agreement-on-wisconsin-judicial-commission-to-move-federal-nominations-forward).

Johnson then said the panel couldn’t put forward a 7th Circuit nominee until Obama nominated people to two other district court vacancies in the state. That added another year to the process. By the time the panel was seeking applications for the 7th Circuit, it was July 2014 (http://www.wisbar.org/NewsPublications/Pages/General-Article.aspx?ArticleID=11704) and the seat had been empty for four years.

The commission had eight candidates to recommend by January 2015, but couldn’t reach a consensus. The process stalled out in May, so Baldwin submitted all of their names to the White House to let the administration pick someone. Johnson fumed that Baldwin’s move was “partisan” (http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/tammy-baldwin-ron-johnson-spar-over-judicial-candidates-b99496806z1-303145491.html) and said the nomination process should start all over.

By January 2016, six years after the seat became empty, Obama nominated Donald Schott (https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/13/president-obama-nominates-two-serve-united-states-court-appeals) — one of the eight people chosen by the state panel. Baldwin gave the green light for him to get a hearing by turning in her blue slip, and reluctantly, Johnson did too. Schott got his hearing in June 2016. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked action on Obama’s court picks for the rest of the year, and Schott’s nomination expired.

That left the seat open for a Republican president, Donald Trump, to fill, which was Johnson’s and McConnell’s goal all along.

https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5af4834a2000004100b911b1.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_nou pscale
ALEX WONG VIA GETTY IMAGES
Mitch McConnell has been very effective at denying Democrats the ability to fill empty court seats, and then filling up all those seats when Republicans are in power.

After years of denying votes to Obama’s judicial picks, McConnell is now aggressively moving forward with filling those empty court seats with young, conservative, lifetime judges. Trump has been nominating people at record-breaking levels (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-judicial-nominations_us_5a32ddd9e4b0ff955ad14bad), and many of his picks (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-judicial-nominee-abortion-rights_us_59d67a63e4b046f5ad96e117) have records of being anti-LGBTQ rights, anti-abortion rights or anti-voting rights.

“This is my top priority in the Senate,” McConnell told conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt last week (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tammy-baldwin-michael-brennan-judicial-nomination_us_5af1d87ce4b041fd2d2baf9c). “By appointing and confirming these strict constructionists to the courts who are in their late 40s or early 50s ... I believe we’re making a generational change in the country.”

Brennan’s confirmation is rich with irony. He wrote an editorial (http://link.email.dynect.net/link.php?DynEngagement=true&H=btYXC68syxnIlVIaW0qBweEUHWPFwuN5EgnqFgPj0oiC1OMl 9zi1Rpo%2F%2BFb6PZADaWnsa5Kf7bkYwbfUJc6zHGcDicBj9D iVr5yEPQTb86GyW4DscBPoXqgoKV%2B7vUyW&G=0&R=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.jsonline.com%2Fnews%2Fopini on%2F126042043.html%2F&I=20180509201542.000000200337%40mail6-113-ussnn1&X=MHwxMDQ2NzU4OjVhZjM1NmNjYzdiZjIyZTQ3NTEzNDRhMzs% 3D&S=JPZ0NmxfIcQIVa-EZpQQdU16JWAQZeN3JtSC-Z-ocbE) endorsing the blue slip process in 2011 after Johnson refused to return his blue slip for Nourse. He didn’t earn the support of Wisconsin’s judicial nominating commission.

And the same Republicans who used blue slips to deny Obama the seat have now ignored the tradition of blue slips to help Trump fill it. Baldwin never turned in her blue slip in for Brennan, but Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman, gave him a hearing anyway and Republicans sent his nomination to the Senate floor.

Democrats have fumed about the hypocrisy surrounding this court seat. Some already opposed Brennan, a 57-year-old Milwaukee lawyer, on his merits. Among other things, Brennan has discounted the concept (http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=mulr) of the “the glass ceiling” being real, and raised some eyebrows in his confirmation hearing when he couldn’t say (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-judicial-nominee-michael-brennan-racial-bias_us_5a68b41be4b002283008aa8d) if racial bias exists in the criminal justice system.

“How is Sen. Baldwin’s right to consult on judges for her state any less important than Sen. Johnson’s?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “It’s mind-bending hypocrisy. It’s an appalling double standard.”

Until this year, it had been three decades since the Senate confirmed a judge without positive blue slips from both home-state senators.

Before Brennan, the Senate held a confirmation vote (https://www.twincities.com/2018/01/30/senate-confirms-david-stras-for-court-of-appeals-despite-al-franken-withholding-support/) in January for now-U.S. Circuit Judge David Stras of Minnesota. Then-Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) did not turn in a blue slip for Stras, but Grassley gave him a hearing anyway and sent his nomination to the floor.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/michael-brennan-ron-johnson-trump-judges_us_5af47bcbe4b04d3b2c91818f?ncid=edlinkushp mg00000313
:lmao thinking pelosi rivals this shit
baseline bum

[Winehole23]

DMC says she’s the real statesman, or, looks like one.