U.S. Politics: The Jeff Sessions: The Killing of a Keebler Elf

[Maithanet]

10 minutes ago, Fez said:

The language had been changed. Congress can never pass a bill saying "planned parenthood can't get funding" because that would be a bill of attainder, which are explicitly unconstitutional. Instead, they try to structure the language so it only applies to whoever they want to target. 

In the language struck down by the parliarmentarian, it prohibited funding against community health centers that met certain requirements and also received at least $350 million in annual federal funding. The parliarmentarian said that was too clearly targeting PP, so the language was changed to keep the same community health center requirements but with a lowered threshold to at least $1 million in annual federal funding. There's a good chance it still would've only affected PP, but its also possible that some other centers would be affected, so that passed muster.

I see.  Thanks. 

[Maithanet]

29 minutes ago, Guy Kilmore said:

I also think McCain was cover for other senators.

I don't know about that.  It seems hard to believe that if Republicans had 53 Senators instead of 52 that this would have passed.  But it is also hard to believe that McCain explicitly told other Senators "go ahead and vote for it, I'll kill it, I'm never running for reelection anyway."  I feel like that kind of messaging would have leaked out, and the desperate attempts to woo McCain and Murkowski at the last minute weren't just for show (although it's possible only a few Senators were in on it).  What Senator(s) would that even apply to, who want to vote for the bill, but didn't want it to pass?  Just Heller? For all their bluster early on, Caputo and Paul in the end didn't put up much fuss.

Murkowski, Collins and McCain were all in somewhat unique situations of being unusually insulated from Republican party wrath.  Maybe that was just the three who could vote freely without having to worry (too much) about being primaried. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

To be fair, considering his votes on Monday, it does seem like his main objections were actually policy, not process; but his speech was all about process.

On the plus side, if that's the case, that makes it less likely he'll support future repeal attempts and race back to DC from being treated in Arizona to vote for them.

Lol, just had to give you a little ****. 

Now the question is how long until Reince resigns? He was recently quoted saying that he'll leave after the health care debate was finished. 

[Fez]

2 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I don't know about that.  It seems hard to believe that if Republicans had 53 Senators instead of 52 that this would have passed.  But it is also hard to believe that McCain explicitly told other Senators "go ahead and vote for it, I'll kill it, I'm never running for reelection anyway."  I feel like that kind of messaging would have leaked out, and the desperate attempts to woo McCain and Murkowski at the last minute weren't just for show (although it's possible only a few Senators were in on it).  What Senator(s) would that even apply to, who want to vote for the bill, but didn't want it to pass?  Just Heller? For all their bluster early on, Caputo and Paul in the end didn't put up much fuss.

Murkowski, Collins and McCain were all in somewhat unique situations of being unusually insulated from Republican party wrath.  Maybe that was just the three who could vote freely without having to worry (too much) about being primaried. 

Graham, only Graham. If the Republican majority was one vote larger, I think McCain could've brought Graham along to also vote no. He attacked the bill plenty himself.

I'm sure Heller is happy the bill failed, but he was under too much pressure from Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, and the other Nevada GOP mega-donors to ever vote no.

Capito and Portman may be somewhat happy as well, but their big concern was Medicaid and the skinny repeal left Medicaid alone. 

And Paul, Lee, and others were all fine with eliminating whatever parts of the bill they could, so long as they didn't have to vote for any new funding sources to do so.

[Guy Kilmore]

11 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I don't know about that.  It seems hard to believe that if Republicans had 53 Senators instead of 52 that this would have passed.  But it is also hard to believe that McCain explicitly told other Senators "go ahead and vote for it, I'll kill it, I'm never running for reelection anyway."  I feel like that kind of messaging would have leaked out, and the desperate attempts to woo McCain and Murkowski at the last minute weren't just for show (although it's possible only a few Senators were in on it).  What Senator(s) would that even apply to, who want to vote for the bill, but didn't want it to pass?  Just Heller? For all their bluster early on, Caputo and Paul in the end didn't put up much fuss.

Murkowski, Collins and McCain were all in somewhat unique situations of being unusually insulated from Republican party wrath.  Maybe that was just the three who could vote freely without having to worry (too much) about being primaried. 

I could see him and Graham having that conversation though pretty easily.  

And yes, it could be the other Senators did the math that you did at the end and took that gamble.  (Not sure on voting order the other night, I suppose I could google it, but well, my boss thinks I should be working right now.  The Jerk.)

[S John]

Earlier in the day yesterday it was pretty clear that several R senators were uncomfortable with passing a bill that they didn't want to see actually pass the House and were seeking assurances.  

Ultimately, I would not be at all surprised if that group of Senators simply did not trust that the House wouldn't send that bill to Trump - and I wouldn't blame them for  being worried about that.

McCain is nearly certainly on his last term and will face no electoral consequences.  Could easily see McCain agreeing to vote 'no' to guarantee the bill fails while providing political cover to a handful of R senators to vote yes on a bill they don't actually want.

[Robin Of House Hill]

Calling Sessions the Keebler Elf is wrong   The Keebler elf is not a racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic,white supremacist.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

5 minutes ago, S John said:

McCain is nearly certainly on his last term and will face no electoral consequences.  Could easily see McCain agreeing to vote 'no' to guarantee the bill fails while providing political cover to a handful of R senators to vote yes on a bill they don't actually want.

This. I'm sure he told the Senators that were on the fence to not worry, he has their back. I suspect the conversation went like this:

"Don't worry, vote yes. I'm going to give the Turtle some double middle fingers action."

[all swedes are racist]

so, i mean, that's all that he really did, right? give a little cover to murkowski and collins? if he had abstained and stayed in the hospital, the vote still would have failed, 49-50, yeah?

[OldGimletEye]

On 7/28/2017 at 2:00 AM, r'hllor's red lobster said:

anyone want to cheer on the people that really fought to help bring this down (and will continue to do so) please consider donating to http://adapt.org/donate/

Let's give a cheer for the "Dirtbag Left".

And thanks for the link.

 

[Fez]

35 minutes ago, r'hllor's red lobster said:

so, i mean, that's all that he really did, right? give a little cover to murkowski and collins? if he had abstained and stayed in the hospital, the vote still would have failed, 49-50, yeah?

If that was why the vote failed though, it would've been brought back up as soon as he came back to DC. And he wanted to be back in DC at some point anyway to get the military approps bill passed, he's the floor manager for it. Best to get it over with while he's still healthy enough to give the floor speech he did.

[ThinkerX]

Been little spiels on my Facebook for weeks now urging people to tell Murkowski to vote 'No' on all versions of the ACA repeal.

The comments were mixed, though (barely) positive overall.

Bright and early this morning, I get a call from a pollster (?) wanting to know if I wished to call and thank Murkowski.  Alas, I was pressed for time.

 

[LongRider]

Heller said earlier in the week that he would vote for the skinny bill because it didn't cut Medicare. So he had his out for doing what his big donors wanted.  He's a hack and up for reelection in '18 so hopefully he'll be gone soon. 

[denstorebog]

Why the fuck is Kid Rock outpolling his opponent?

[all swedes are racist]

40 minutes ago, Fez said:

If that was why the vote failed though, it would've been brought back up as soon as he came back to DC. And he wanted to be back in DC at some point anyway to get the military approps bill passed, he's the floor manager for it. Best to get it over with while he's still healthy enough to give the floor speech he did.

fair enough, makes sense. i wasn't sure if they could re-vote on a bill that failed, but even the fact they only brought it to a vote because he was there and mcconnell was counting on his aye vote is admittedly a point in his favor 

[IheartIheartTesla]

18 minutes ago, denstorebog said:

Why the fuck is Kid Rock outpolling his opponent?

Fake poll. No really, it was released by a company that has no prior history, and had 44% undecideds, and Stabenow getting 26%, which is ridiculous in a purple state like Michigan.
Also, I live in Michigan and I'll make it my life's goal to ensure Kid Rock doesnt win if he does eventually run and the polls are close.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Trump just gave a speech in front of a auditorium filled with police officers, and in said speech he encouraged them to be MORE violent while detaining suspects. 

The audience cheered as loud as it did at any point in the speech.

God help us......

[denstorebog]

13 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Fake poll. No really, it was released by a company that has no prior history, and had 44% undecideds, and Stabenow getting 26%, which is ridiculous in a purple state like Michigan.
Also, I live in Michigan and I'll make it my life's goal to ensure Kid Rock doesnt win if he does eventually run and the polls are close.

I'm talking about a Trafalgar Group poll from today which says 49-46.

[Trebla]

25 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Trump just gave a speech in front of a auditorium filled with police officers, and in said speech he encouraged them to be MORE violent while detaining suspects. 

The audience cheered as loud as it did at any point in the speech.

God help us......

Fookin' Hell... 

ETA: 

 

[Morpheus]

27 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Trump just gave a speech in front of a auditorium filled with police officers, and in said speech he encouraged them to be MORE violent while detaining suspects. 

The audience cheered as loud as it did at any point in the speech.

God help us......

Yep, and I don't expect the police to offer an apology like the Boys Scouts. He may sound like an utter braindead dipshit when he speaks, but he is still very effective at bringing out the worst in his audience.