Thursday, December 8, 2016

Nancy Pelosi Cartoons





Brown blocks Senate resolution for Pearl Harbor in effort to get better health deal for miners

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
It's not every Pearl Harbor Day when a U.S. senator objects to honoring Pearl Harbor Day. But that's exactly what unfolded on the Senate floor Wednesday as two Democrats went to the mat to force the Senate to cut a better health care deal for coal miners.
Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.,and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, both vulnerable senators facing re-election in 2018, took to the Senate floor to block a host of bills and resolutions that usually sail through unnoticed.
Manchin and Brown want a longer guarantee of health benefits for miners beyond April 28. The miners' health care issue has emerged as a flashpoint on a bill to fund the government through next spring. Funding for the government expires Friday night.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, repeatedly tried to get clearance from Manchin and Brown on a panoply of non-controversial bills Wednesday night. But the Democrats repeatedly objected, effectively blocking each item.
At one point, Tillis tried to advance a measure observing the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Stunningly, Brown objected as he and Manchin had done on all other measures.
Brown said on the Senate floor, "They're like resolutions that don't mean anything. But they're nice. But they don't mean anything to a widow..(who won't get health care)."
Brown said," I suppose we could go all night. I don't mind working late tonight. I don't mind working late tomorrow."
At one point, Brown groused about his GOP colleagues demanding "certainty for corporate America."
"But it's working for mine workers to jack them around...pardon my language."
Brown added, "We're not leaving...if it means a session on Christmas Day."
Off the floor, Manchin said, "Does the Senate Democratic stand and fight for working people? We'll know tomorrow morning."

Federal judge halts recount, sealing Trump's Michigan win


A federal judge who ordered Michigan to begin its recount effectively ended it on Wednesday, tying his decision to a state court ruling that found Green Party candidate Jill Stein had no legal standing to request another look at ballots.
The ruling seals Republican Donald Trump's narrow victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton for Michigan's16 electoral votes.
U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith agreed with Republicans who argued that the three-day recountmust end a day after the state appeals court dealt a blow to the effort. The court said Stein, who finished fourth in Michigan on Nov. 8, didn't have a chance of winning even after a recount and therefore isn't an "aggrieved" candidate.
"Because there is no basis for this court to ignore the Michigan court's ruling and make an independent judgment regarding what the Michigan Legislature intended by the term 'aggrieved,' plaintiffs have not shown an entitlement to a recount," Goldsmith said.
It was the judge's midnight ruling Monday that started the recount in Michigan. But Goldsmith's order dealt with timing — not whether a recount was appropriate. More than 20 of 83 counties already were counting ballots again. They reported minor changes in vote totals, although many precincts couldn't be examined for a second time for a variety of reasons.
Earlier Wednesday, the Michigan elections board voted, 3-1, to end the recount if Goldsmith extinguished his earlier order.
State Republican Party Chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel and Attorney General Bill Schuette said it's a victory for voters and taxpayers. Stein now is left with asking the Michigan Supreme Court to intervene, which is a long shot.
"Jill Stein, who received only 1.07% of the vote in Michigan, is not legally entitled to hijack the will of voters and drag them into an arduous and expensive publicity stunt," McDaniel said.
Stein got about 1 percent of the vote in three states where she's pushed for recounts — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump narrowly won all three.
She insists she's more concerned about the accuracy of the election, but Goldsmith said Stein's legal team presented only "speculative claims" about vulnerable machines, "not actual injury."
The judge said a recount to test the integrity of the voting system "has never been endorsed by any court."
A court hearing will be held Friday on a possible recount in Pennsylvania. Wisconsin's recount, which started last week, has increased Trump's margin of victory over Clinton thus far.
Clinton needed all three states to flip in order to take enough electoral votes to win the election. Trump has 306 electoral votes to Clinton's 232; 270 are needed to win. Michigan has 16 electoral votes, Pennsylvania has 20 and Wisconsin has 10. Electors convene Dec. 19 across the country to vote for president.

Here come the new senators and House members -- some for a repeat

Sen. Kelly Ayotte concedes race to Democrat Maggie Hassan

And here they come.
The presidential election commanded nearly every cubic centimeter of news oxygen available the past few months. But believe it or not, dozens of new members of Congress -- House and Senate -- are poised to arrive this week in Washington for orientation sessions, vote in internal, party leadership elections and figure out the congressional geography.
And for many congressional neophytes, their first introduction to Washington will come from the much-maligned press corps.
A squadron of scribes will stand outside a Capitol Hill hotel just up from the Library of Congress to greet the new lawmakers-elect. Some members-elect will arrive with a coterie of staff.
Others will take the subway from Reagan National Airport and lug a suitcase on wheels and a duffle bag up the street from the Capitol South Metro stop. The questions from the reporters will flummox those who aren’t used to all of the attention.
Others are more genial and prepared to chat. Some are more than willing to talk. They want to make sure reporters know who they are, where they’re from. Sure, I can go on your morning program at 5:30 a.m. Here’s my card. My cell phone number is on the back. Call or text me any time.
Who are all of these people?
Certainly, there are the “celebrity” newcomers. There’s Sen.-elect Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada. She’s the first Latina senator. Masto too the seat of retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in a hard-fought battle against GOP Rep. Joe Heck. Then there’s New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat who unseated Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., in a tough race, too.
In the House, journalists will focus on Rep.-elect Charlie Crist, D-Fla.
He’s the former Republican Florida governor who tried for Senate, morphed into an independent, and finally transmogrified himself into a Democrat.
Crist defeated GOP Rep. David Jolly in a redrawn congressional district. There’s also Rep.-elect Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., son of former Congressman and former everything-Washington Leon Panetta.
In Wyoming, Rep.-elect Liz Cheney, a Republican, succeeds retiring GOP Rep. Cynthia Lummis. Cheney’s the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Her father represented Wyoming’s at-large congressional district for a decade. He even ascended to the leadership post of GOP Whip before President George H.W. Bush tapped him to become Defense secretary.
Lots of journalists will focus on these folks. They’re easy to pick up. They offer compelling narratives. Make good story lines.
Then there are those few outside of their districts have ever heard of. Try Rep.-elect Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., who succeeds retiring Democratic Rep. Lois Capps. Maybe Rep.-elect Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., or Rep.-elect Scott Taylor, R-Va.
There are some old but new members this Congress.
Rep.-elect Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., emerged victorious in a fourth-consecutive race against incumbent GOP Rep. Frank Guinta.
Guinta unseated Shea-Porter in the 2010 GOP wave. Shea-Porter vanquished Guinta in the 2012 presidential election. Guinta rallied in 2014. And now Shea-Porter is back after the 2016 presidential election.
Rep.-elect Brad Schneider, D-Ill., unseated Rep. Bob Dold, R-Ill., in 2012. Dold came back in 2014. Now Schneider defeated Dold in 2016.
Notice a trend here?
Rep.-elect Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, also returns to Congress.
She lost the Democratic primary against Sen. Brian Schatz in 2014 and left the House. Rep. Mark Takai, a fellow Democrat, won Hanabusa’s seat in 2014 but died this past summer. Hanabusa will now succeed Takai.
It’s unclear if former lawmakers returning to Congress view attendance at the orientation sessions as the same as repeating a grade in school.
House Republicans will pitch their new members immediately into a candidate forum and Tuesday votes for leadership elections.
Just a few weeks ago, there was chatter about the future of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
The question focused on whether Ryan could win a vote on the House floor in January to return to his leadership post.
Ryan feuded openly with President-elect Trump. Some pro-Trump Republicans argued the Wisconsin Republican wasn’t doing enough to elect the GOP nominee.
But Trump’s victory ironically seems to have now quashed those concerns. Ryan last week even showed Trump around his Capitol Hill office and took him out onto the Speaker’s Balcony of the Capitol, which overlooks the stage now under construction for the late-January inauguration.
Then there’s the office lottery for House members.
That won’t come until early December. Incoming lawmakers always angle for the biggest office possible. “Returning” members like Shea-Porter and Schneider typically skip ahead in the line. New senators work out of cramped quarters in the basement of the Russell and Dirksen Senate Office Buildings for a few months before moving into their “swing” offices.
These are “regular” Senate offices. But not the full office those senators will occupy for the balance of their six-year terms.
Three lawmakers-elect are expected to join the House ahead of some of their colleagues. Not only did they win election to a full, two-year term on Tuesday, but they also won special elections to succeed lawmakers who either died or resigned.
Hanabusa will take Takai’s seat early. The House will also swear-in Kentucky GOP Rep.-elect James Comer -- not James Comey -- to take the place of GOP Rep. Ed Whitfield, who resigned.
The House will also seat Pennsylvania Democratic Rep.-elect Dwight Evans -- not the former Boston Red Sox star -- who won the district represented by former Rep. Chaka Fattah, a fellow Democrat.
Whitfield resigned amid an ethics inquiry. Fattah quit after his conviction on federal corruption charges.
At that point, the House will be at full membership of 435 -- 247 Republicans and 188 Democrats. Of course, the House and Senate may be at less than full membership in January. It’s inevitable that the incoming presidential administration will tap at least a few House or Senate members for Cabinet or other administration posts.
This time of year on Capitol Hill is always a period of change. Expect to hear copy machines on the fifth floor of the Cannon House Office Building running non-stop as junior aides and interns fine-tune resumes. Furniture, file cabinets, broken lamps and wooden desks that look like they were commissioned during the Eisenhower administration will litter the congressional hallways as new members move in and retiring or defeated lawmakers exit.
And those lawmakers who aren’t sticking around?
They’re relegated to the grandiloquently-named “Departing Member Services Center,” in the Rayburn House Office Building. The cramped joint is stocked with a few desks, file cabinets and phones. It’s equipped with just the basics for lawmakers as they finish their final weeks in Congress.

GOP aims to grow majority in final Senate race, amid shades of Clinton-Trump fight


Republicans are looking to put a bow on this year’s election victories with a final Senate win this weekend in Louisiana.
The party took control of Washington last month, with Republican Donald Trump staging an upset White House victory and Democrats failing to retake the House or Senate. But the GOP hopes to widen its slim majority in the upper chamber in Louisiana on Saturday, when two finalists compete in a runoff for the open seat of retiring GOP Sen. David Vitter.
A Republican win would give the party a 52-48 seat majority in the Senate next year.
The contest between GOP candidate John Kennedy, the state treasurer, and Democratic opponent Foster Campbell, a state Public Service commissioner, also has emerged as a final proxy battle between the Trump campaign and supporters of failed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
State Republicans announced Wednesday that Trump, now the president-elect, will visit Baton Rouge on Friday to lead a get-out-the-vote rally for Kennedy.
Kennedy leads Campbell by 14 percentage points in the runoff race, according to the most recent polling by Southern Media Opinion and Research.
They enter the runoff as the top two vote-getters in the Nov. 8 general election in which nobody in the 12-person field could surpass the 50 percent threshold to win.
The GOP in 2016 had incumbent senators in 24 races, which gave Democrats their best opportunity in years to retake control of the chamber. But the populist wave that swept Trump into the White House also helped fellow Republicans keep their House and Senate majorities.
A GOP win this weekend would be cause for a final, 2016 celebration for the party.
This past weekend, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was in Louisiana trying to whip up votes for Kennedy.
“I just hung up the phone from President-elect Trump,” Pence told the crowd. “He said to … say how grateful he was for the support from Louisiana. He said that he has one more thing to ask, to send John Kennedy to the United States Senate.”
Despite having a Democratic governor, Louisiana is deep red and has voted for the GOP presidential nominee in eight of the past 10 contests, including this year when Trump decisively beat Clinton, 58-38 percent.
As Pence suggested Saturday, his visit with Trump this summer to flood-ravaged Louisiana -- a trip Clinton didn't make -- only strengthened the bond between Republicans and Louisiana voters.
“The most inspiring day for me on the campaign was back in August,” he said. “Louisiana, you inspired the nation. And I promise that our president-elect and I will be with you.”
Southern Media pollster Bernie Pinsonat on Tuesday told FoxNews.com: “Trump is very popular here. The issue is very simple: Trump stomped Clinton.”
Clinton supporters and other Democrats have tried to help Campbell, giving enough money, much of it in small-dollar donations, to essentially keep him evenly matched with Kennedy. Each has roughly $1.4 million in cash going into Saturday’s runoff, according to OpenSecrets.org.
Still, Campbell faces an uphill battle in trying to erase Kennedy’s 52-38 point lead with the runoff just days away.
Beyond the Trump effect, Louisiana’s $300 million budget deficit is a big factor in the contest.
Pinsonat said Kennedy climbed to the top of the race because he was a state treasurer with the popular message that Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration was spending too much.
“He had a microphone to go across the state,” Pinsonat said. “He was the people’s choice on the budget.”
The Southern Media poll showed voters agreed with Kennedy 54-40 percent on overspending, not Edwards’ argument that state government needs more revenue.
If Campbell has one advantage compared with last month's candidates, it is that he is the only Democratic Senate contender this year who can tell voters exactly how he would deal with a new president -- since Trump has already won.
"If he wants to build roads and bridges, I'm all about that," Campbell recently said on the "Keepin' It 1600" podcast. "But if he wants to privatize Social Security and he wants to give a voucher for Medicare, I cannot support that. I'll fight that tooth and toenail."

CartoonsTrashyDemsRinos