BobGeiger.com

Not Disappearing… Just Not Back Yet

2009-02-05T10:50:00.001-05:00

Being a political blogger would be an amazing way to make a living -- if only one could make a living doing it. Hell, I would probably settle for a partial living, a pittance even.

Alas, it pays nothing, while also consuming almost as much time as a full-time job. So I'm taking more time to focus on the corporate job that does pay -- and pay well at that -- and where I'm fortunate enough to have a great boss and interesting work for a good company.

I live and breathe politics and I love writing here and The Huffington Post. And I've made a lot of great friends in the progressive media and on Capitol Hill. But unless that nice Arianna Huffington is going to adopt me and pay me to do what I really love, my focus must remain elsewhere for now.

Blogging doesn't pay the mortgage and it sure doesn't help me be a more attentive father to my son when so much of my time is dictated by the daily news cycle. So, for right now at least, my attention needs to stay on my real, day-to-day life.

The support from my readers, friends and blogging colleagues has always meant so much to me and I thank you all for that.

If you're not already on my mailing list, please sign up if you want to receive the occasional note on what's happening with me next -- and don't worry, it will only be for significant news and not ongoing (and unwanted) e-mail.

Thanks for reading.

No Posting In January

2009-01-05T13:42:00.001-05:00

Happy Holidays… And a Short Break

2008-12-22T09:30:00.000-05:00

I will be taking some time off over the holidays to spend time with family, relax, reflect on our tremendous victories in 2008 and look forward to the coming year. I hope you do the same. Happy Holidays to all of you and thank you for your support.

BobGeiger.com will return with the 111th Congress and an exciting new political year on January 5, 2009.

Today In The Senate

2008-12-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

The U.S. Senate is in recess and will be back in session on January 6, 2009, when the 111th Congress will convene.

The Saturday Cartoons

2008-12-20T00:04:00.000-05:00

* * * * *Here's Mark Fiore with a timely version of 'Twas The Night Before Christmas -- "Corruption Christmas."

Click on the screenshot above or go here to see it.

* * * * *

Our friends at Headzup show us Dick Cheney admitting to war crimes on national television:

* * * * *And you think Fox News is bad? This week, the best fake news on the web at The Onion breaks the story wide open about the Weather Channel and its clear "pro-weather bias."

* * * * *Finally, an added treat today… The game that's sweeping the Internet… Socks and Awe. Throw a shoe at Bush and ring up those points.

Click on the screenshot above or go here to play.

* * * * *Thanks to all who have come to visit from other sites -- I'm glad you're here. But please know that this blog is about far more than the Saturday cartoons. They're merely a diversion and provide a humorous take on what's really on our minds. I primarily cover the U.S. Senate but also write about presidential politics and White House activities as well. So please take a look around beyond the 'toons -- and come back soon.

All cartoons are posted with the artists' express permission to BobGeiger.com. Please visit the following sites to see more work from these fine cartoonists:

Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle
Tony Auth, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Jeff Danziger, Syndicated Political Cartoonist
Matt Davies, NY Journal News
Walt Handelsman, Newsday
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol's World
Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Morin, Miami Herald
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Bill Sanders, Retired Syndicated Cartoonist
Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman
Todd Umbarger, Political Cartoonist and Illustrator

A Reader Asks That I Reconsider Obama-Warren

2008-12-19T12:27:00.003-05:00

I stopped publicly answering reader mail quite some time ago -- I generally only did it years ago to make fun of right-wingers sending me hate mail -- but I got a note from Michael Rapaport of Brooklyn, New York who had some interesting comments on me and much of the Progressive media jumping Barack Obama for selecting homophobe Rick Warren to give the opening prayer on Inauguration Day.

Yes, I have Michael's permission to use his name and his full message and, no, I'm not going to make fun of it -- I thought he gently raised a point worthy of discussion and it's representative of many e-mails I received yesterday.

Here's Michael:

Bob, I understand your sentiments when you wrote that article asking what was Barack thinking with the selection. I am a 61 year old individual who can't believe I lived to see the day when someone like Barack could be elected. It made all the dreams I've had since I worked in Bobby Kennedy's campaign come true.

However, please look at what Barack's selection is really saying. The first task our new POTUS will have is to bring us all together after our beloved nation has been purposefully rendered apart for the past eight years for the most nefarious of reasons. It is why I wonder how truly progressive those who call themselves "progressives" really are. No POTUS has ever entered office facing the humongous challenges facing Obama and instead of criticizing him I think it is time we get behind him.

Fair enough, Michael, and I agree to some extent with the spirit of what you're saying. I've spent no time at all criticizing some of President-elect Obama's cabinet selections that may have raised my eyebrows, including retaining Robert Gates as Defense Secretary. While I'm inclined to say Obama should start fresh as he moves to end the Iraq debacle, I'm willing to concede that Gates is undoubtedly clear on Obama's intent to leave Iraq and will follow the Commander-in-Chief's directive. I also give Obama credit for wanting to begin the withdrawal with as little upheaval as possible at the Defense Department.

I'm also mindful of the huge challenges Obama is inheriting and the extent to which he needs support and not sniping from his own side of the political divide and, the fact is, I donated money and worked hard to help elect the man. I believe in him and I believe he will be a great president.

I say all of this to point out that I'm as far from an Obama basher as you'll find and hated even having to write my piece yesterday -- and I strongly considered not posting it precisely for the points you raise.

But this situation is different and his choice of Warren does anything but bring us together as a people.

Obama is not including someone from the other side of the aisle who has a mere philosophical difference with Progressives/Liberals and who, for example, may take a different stance on Iraq or stem cell research than we do. On this day of national pride and celebration, he's chosen to include someone who believes that a certain portion of our population should be demonized and deprived of the same rights enjoyed by other Americans.

The President-elect has picked someone to share center stage with him on January 20th who is, tacitly, a self-proclaimed bigot, who strongly supports discrimination against the gay community and who believes gay folks are something less than the rest of us.

It is as simple as that and, the last time I looked, that kind of bigotry was considered downright un-American.

What Warren believes is not exactly the same as the ugliness we saw during the Civil Rights struggle but it's damn close. And Rick Warren is someone who essentially takes the same approach toward gay people, based simply on their sexual orientation, as George Wallace, Bull Connor and that whole Cracker Brigade took against African-Americans in the 1960s.

So I appreciate what you're saying, Michael, and the support you believe we should all show for Barack Obama as he charts some incredibly tough waters ahead. As I said, I believe he will be a great president and that as the next few years unfold, I will feel far more pride and solidarity with him than I will disappointment.

But that doesn’t make choosing a known bigot to speak on Inauguration Day something we can ignore. Barack Obama will be taking that oath of office on January 20th because the majority of Americans, as Dr. King longed for, looked at the content of his character and not the color of his skin.

Our gay family, friends and neighbors deserve nothing less than the same standard of decency.

Rick Warren??? What Is Team Obama Thinking?

2008-12-18T10:45:00.005-05:00

Even through my utter euphoria at Barack Obama being elected president, I knew there would be times in the coming years when I would disagree with certain decisions and policy stances taken by our new Democratic president. That's a natural thing -- I just didn’t think one of those moments would come a month before he's even sworn into office.

The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, has announced a good program to usher in the Obama presidency on January 20th that, most unfortunately, includes rabid homophobe Rick Warren giving the opening prayer.

Warren is a prominent evangelical and founded the Saddleback Church in Southern California, strongly supported California's ugly Proposition 8 and has long fought against gay rights saying that "this is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about."

He will give the invocation after Inaugural Committee Chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) calls the event to order.

My friend Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend has some excellent coverage going on at her site and brings us some failed spin control from the Obama transition team from spokeswoman Linda Douglas: "This is going to be the most inclusive, open, accessible inauguration in American history," said Douglas. "The president-elect certainly disagrees with him on [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] issues. But it has always been his goal to find common ground with people with whom you may disagree on some issues."

Please also check out AMERICAblog for what will certainly be outstanding coverage of every aspect of this nonsense.

My take on this is that President-elect Obama and his staff are being incredibly disrespectful to Progressives who were a major part of getting the Obama-Biden ticket elected and having Warren anywhere near the festivities on January 20th is just flat-out stupid politically.

People in the Religious Right will never support Barack Obama or his agenda, so giving a homophobic bigot like Warren such a prominent place on such a special day for our country will do absolutely nothing to gain Obama support from that lot. Meanwhile, he will piss off a lot of his supporters before he even takes office and will be going against what the mainstream of America thinks by boosting someone who is anti-choice, for continuation of the Iraq occupation and who clearly hates gay people.

And, of course, Warren's also at least a partial nut job, as shown in things like the episode on Sean Hannity's show in which he responds to Hannity saying we need to "take out" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by saying that stopping evil “is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers.”

Here's Warren's who-would-Jesus-bomb moment:

This isn’t change any of us can believe in and Obama needs to find a graceful way to have someone else -- anyone else -- do the opening prayer on his big day. He also needs to remember that this isn't just his big day, it's also a huge occasion for our country and he has a responsibility to present people who represent the best of American life, not the worst.

This isn’t a prime-time television special, so it isn't even necessary to pick someone who is well known -- how about a community-organizer member of the clergy who toils with silent dignity and doesn't support and defend discrimination? How about giving one of them a place on the national stage?

But a confirmed bigot? No way.

Update: If you haven't read John Aravosis's piece in the Huffington Post, he does a beautiful job inventing a dialog that explains why the Warren choice is so awful far better than I ever could. Go here to see it.

BuzzFlash's Media Putz Of The Week

2008-12-18T07:00:00.001-05:00

The folks at BuzzFlash check in today with their Media Putz of the week, "for reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America."

This week, the award goes to Glenn Beck for completing a classic right-wing, two-for-one deal: He invents a problem with a Democrat -- in this case, Hillary Clinton -- and then proceeds to analyze and find fault with a situation that nobody envisions and that will never happen.

Specifically, Beck was talking to that famed political genius, Joe the Plumber -- and here you thought his 15 minutes were over -- and they were both a bit aghast about the thought of Senator Clinton serving as a U.S. Senator and being Secretary of State at the same time. Of course, that scenario is not planned, nor would it ever happen -- but when you're a conservative radio host, you don’t need to worry about having listeners smart enough to call you on this.

BuzzFlash comes in right after the part where Beck says that "…one of my guys who's deep in the Constitution, he's saying that she can't have two offices. That's the problem."
Hey, Glenn: "one of my guys" doesn't know what he is talking about. And neither do you. Nobody, and we mean nobody, thinks Clinton, or anyone else would do both jobs at the same time. Being a U.S. Senator is a lot of work, and being Secretary of State is a huge amount of work.

And the whole idea that "it's kind of iffy on that." Are you now saying Clinton might legally occupy both posts as you are saying that she couldn't be both? And what does this have to do with the subject being talked about in the United States on the planet Earth?

As Keith Olbermann succinctly put it, "You are less well-informed than Joe the Plumber."

Usually, when the rabid right-winger rants, an argument is presented with lies and misleading statements. Here we have an argument that is a lie, a fiction no one ever thought to create. And Beck doesn't even have the guts to say this from his own heart: he hides behind referring to "one of my guys who's deep in the Constitution."

To be fair, this is probably why right-wing talk shows such as Beck do get the Republican talking points. Because when they come up with their own talking points, they screw them up. If someone else does not write down for Beck, there apparently is this chance Beck will go off and come up with tangents such as this.
Please go here to read more.

The Buzz Around Caroline Kennedy

2008-12-17T15:04:00.004-05:00

Unless you've been ignoring the news entirely, you know that there's significant buzz in New York and nationally over Caroline Kennedy as a possible choice by Governor David Paterson to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate as Clinton departs to become Barack Obama's Secretary of State.

And Chris Cillizza reports yesterday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has made a call to Paterson urging him to select Kennedy -- and if this is true, I agree with Senator Reid.

There's two basic schools of thought around Paterson selecting Kennedy to replace Clinton: One is that she's a political neophyte who has spent her life avoiding the spotlight and that she simply isn’t qualified. The other is that she's serious, smart, has name recognition and star quality -- perhaps those two go hand-in-hand with the Kennedy name? -- and that she'll be up to the task.

At this point, I fall into the latter group.

There's no doubt that there's more experienced politicians who could get the nod from Paterson, but Republicans are salivating over the thought of possibly being able to pick up this seat in 2010 and who will run best in that race has to be a consideration in the selection process.

Although she appears a bit shy and tentative when speaking in public, Caroline Kennedy will grow on the campaign trail in 2010. I also believe people will be drawn to her and, if appointed, she will make a formidable, compelling candidate two years from now.

She will also have strong support from President-elect Obama -- who she endorsed and for whom she campaigned this year -- and she will be helped very ably by Reid, New York's senior Senator Chuck Schumer and will undoubtedly surround herself with an experienced Senate staff who will guide her through all the administrative minutia of the office.

We don’t know when Paterson will make his choice as the seat is not even formally up for grabs until Hillary Clinton is confirmed for her next job and resigns from the Senate.

And I guess you should take my words as just more fodder for a debate that will continue throughout the holiday season. Especially with me having watched Democrats be such a minority in Washington for the bulk of the last eight years, I fully admit that I'm a fierce partisan who wants nothing more than to extend the Democratic majority in both houses of Congress going forward.

So in some ways, I'm a single-issue voter on how this is decided -- and I'm "voting" for who I think can retain this Senate seat in 2010.

Who To Replace Salazar? It Should Be An Improvement…

2008-12-17T12:49:00.003-05:00

Now that Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) has been nominated by President-elect Barack Obama to be the new Secretary of the Interior -- and will certainly be confirmed based on qualifications and a favorable Democratic Senate majority -- all eyes in Colorado go to see who will replace Salazar in the 111th Congress.

Salazar was up for reelection in 2010 anyway and whoever this person may be will have to make a full run for the seat then -- this happens anyway when you're appointed to the Senate.

In my mind, it will be hard for anyone not to be an improvement over Salazar who as part of the infamous "Gang of 14" in the Senate, proved he is a Democrat who is hardly a lock to vote with the Democratic party on important issues.

Nate Silver, at FiveThirtyEight.com, has a good rundown today on the pool of candidates from which Colorado Governor Bill Ritter will likely make his pick.

Please go here to read the post.

As far as I'm concerned, selecting Senator Salazar's brother John, who is in his third Congressional term for Colorado would be a big mistake. A conservative Democrat, John Salazar is a member of the disgusting Blue Dog Caucus in the House -- you know, people who wake up and decide over their morning coffee whether they are a Democrat or a Republican on a given day.

Obama's new Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) need to be making a few calls to Ritter to urge against that.

I lean toward Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper or Congresswoman Diana DeGette. Both would be improvements over Salazar in the area of Progressive dependability and both would be a boost toward our new president being able to move the agenda that got him elected.

Reid Announces Senate Committee Chairmanships For 111th Congress

2008-12-16T10:45:00.000-05:00

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) yesterday announced his recommendations to the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee regarding committee chairmanships for the 111th Congress.

“I am pleased to recommend these capable men and women to chair the Senate’s Committees during the 111th Congress," said Reid on Monday. "We have much work to do and many challenges facing our nation. I know that these Senators will be able to deliver on the change that the American people have called for to help move our country in the right direction.”

Here's the list of anticipated Chairmanships for the 111th Congress.

Change in Chairmanship

Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations; Replaces Robert Byrd (D-WV), who resigned his chairmanship.

Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Chairman, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Was Inouye, who becomes chair of the Appropriations Committee.

John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; Upon the resignation of Joe Biden (D-DE).

Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chairwoman, Senate Intelligence Committee; Was Rockefeller, who will now chair the Commerce Committee.

Charles Schumer (D-NY), Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Administration; Was Feinstein, who will now chair the Intelligence Committee.

Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Chairwoman, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship; Was Kerry, who will now be chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

No Change in Chairmanship

Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman, Senate Special Committee on Aging

Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture

Carl Levin (D-MI), Chairman, Senate Committee on Armed Services

Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chairman, Senate Committee on Budget

Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chairman, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairwoman, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works

Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance

Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Chairman, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Chairman, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary

Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Chairman, Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs

Final approval will be ratified with an Organizing Resolution when the Senate returns to session in January 2009, but it is highly unlikely that this roster will change.

Kerry Comes Full Circle on Foreign Relations Committee

2008-12-16T09:15:00.001-05:00

On April 22, 1971, young Lieutenant Junior Grade John F. Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations committee to give testimony in hearings about ending the Vietnam war. The opportunity put Kerry center stage in the anti-war movement and, sadly, would later become the linchpin in Republican attacks on his patriotism when he became the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004.

Of course the rest is history and the Senate part of Kerry's story began when he was elected to that body in 1984 and he has been a member of the Foreign Relations committee ever since.

And things really came full circle on Monday when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that Kerry would be the new chairman of that powerful committee for the 111th Congress, which convenes in January.

“I am honored to serve as Chairman of a committee which I know from my own experience as a young man can impact the course of our security and help advance our values and interests in the world," said Kerry. "I look forward to working with all members of the committee to help strengthen America’s hand in Afghanistan and Pakistan, work towards global climate change solutions, and end the war in Iraq responsibly."

"We have a big agenda ahead of us, just as our country faces big challenges across the globe.”

During his tenure on the committee, Senator Kerry has chaired the Asia and Middle East subcommittees and authored and passed major legislation on international drug trafficking, global AIDS, international money laundering, and climate change – and negotiated the UN’s genocide tribunal to prosecute war crimes in Cambodia’s Killing Fields.

“John will do an excellent job as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the nation’s fortunate to have him in this high position," said Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA). "I know he’ll make significant contributions to our foreign policy in dealing with the many challenges we face in our relationships with other countries, and he’ll work well with President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to restore America’s respect in the world.”

Kerry assumes his chairmanship with Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) moving on to the White House and the only Democratic colleague with more seniority, Chris Dodd (D-CT), choosing to remain chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee.

Another Clue On Why We Like Obama

2008-12-15T12:15:00.000-05:00

In the January 2009 issue of Esquire magazine, New Mexico Governor and Commerce Secretary nominee Bill Richardson gives us another clue as to why so many Americans have been drawn to Barack Obama. Here's part of the interview in which Richardson, a Democratic presidential candidate this year, tells of Obama being a total gentleman and saving his butt during one of the primary debates:

As I'm chatting with Obama, the moderator says, "Governor Richardson, what do you think of that?" And I look at him like a deer in the headlights. I was about to say that I hadn't heard, when Obama puts his hand over his mouth and says, "Katrina." So I gave my four-point plan on Katrina. When I was done and the debate moved on, I looked over and said, "Thanks, you're okay." He said, "Nothing to it, brother."

It confirmed to me that this guy was something special.

There's an old saying about how the word integrity means doing the right thing when nobody is looking -- there you have it.

The President-Elect's Weekly Address

2008-12-15T09:56:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it, here is President-elect Barack Obama with his weekend radio/web address in which he discussed a major part of the country's economic problems -- the mortgage crisis. He also used the opportunity to formally announce that he has selected Shaun Donovan, New York City's commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development to be the next U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

"In the end, expanding access to affordable housing isn’t just about caring for the least fortunate among us and strengthening our middle class -- it’s about ending our housing mess, climbing out of our financial crisis, and putting our economy on the path to long-term growth and prosperity," said Obama. "And that is what Shaun and I will work to do together when I am President of the United States."

Have a look:

Today In The Senate

2008-12-15T09:44:00.000-05:00

The U.S. Senate is in recess and will be back in session on January 6, 2009, when the 111th Congress will convene.

The Saturday Cartoons

2008-12-13T00:40:00.000-05:00

Before we get to the 'toons, I'm pleased to share the news that our friend Jeff Danziger of the New York Times and the Rutland Herald (Vermont) has received the 2008 Thomas Nast Award, for editorial cartoons. Jeff calls Nast “the grandfather of all American cartoonists” and I'm sure he was thrilled to receive the honor, which was awarded in Landau, Germany, Nast’s birthplace.

Congratulations, Jeff!

And now, on with the cartoons.

* * * * *Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle has a great animated short that shows the rut walked by the Republican party …

Click on the screenshot above or go here to see it.

* * * * *Ann Telnaes at the Washington Post has an animation nailing Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and using his own voice to do it.

Click on the screenshot above or go here to see it.

* * * * *Finally, The Onion shows us the most detailed presidential press briefing I've ever seen on a day that a "giant monster" enters Manhattan.

* * * * *Thanks to all who have come to visit from other sites -- I'm glad you're here. But please know that this blog is about far more than the Saturday cartoons. They're merely a diversion and provide a humorous take on what's really on our minds. I primarily cover the U.S. Senate but also write about presidential politics and White House activities as well. So please take a look around beyond the 'toons -- and come back soon.

All cartoons are posted with the artists' express permission to BobGeiger.com. Please visit the following sites to see more work from these fine cartoonists:

Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle
Tony Auth, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Jeff Danziger, Syndicated Political Cartoonist
Matt Davies, NY Journal News
Walt Handelsman, Newsday
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol's World
Steve Kelley, New Orleans Times Picayune
Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Morin, Miami Herald
Jack Ohman, Portland Oregonian
Dwane Powell, Raleigh News & Observer
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Bill Sanders, Retired Syndicated Cartoonist
Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman
Ann Telnaes, Syndicated Political Cartoonist

BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite Of The Week

2008-12-12T14:00:00.000-05:00

Hey, it's Friday, which means it's time to check out BuzzFlash's "GOP Hypocrite Of The Week." As always, it's a grueling process to narrow the selection to just one Republican hypocrite, and this week BuzzFlash went with one of the most prolific hypocrites in the GOP universe, Rudy Giuliani.

This one was a no-brainer, with Giuliani having the nerve to come out recently and say that it was a good thing for America that Barack Obama got elected -- after doing everything he could to help the Republicans smear Obama during the presidential campaign.

A BuzzFlash excerpt:
So, let's get this straight. Now that a man that you disparaged at every opportunity is our incoming president, we can stop being hypocritical? Clearly Giuliani isn't including himself in that "we," because that statement alone drips with hypocrisy. While he lauds Obama's election these days, it wasn't always so. At the Republican National Convention in September, Giuliani laughed at Obama's work as a community organizer.

"He's never had to lead people in crisis. He is the least experienced candidate for president of the United States in at least the last 100 years," Giuliani said in making the case for a President McCain. "The choice in this election comes down to substance over style."

But that's not the only part about the interview that's two-faced. One of his main points about the positives of having Obama in the White House is that it will improve the United States' image abroad. Yet on July 10, 2008, Giuliani said on "Morning Joe" that the reason Obama is so well-liked in Europe is that he captures anti-American sentiment.
You can read the rest at GOPhypocrites.com and see a historical list of BuzzFlash's other worthy selections.

Feingold Calls On Obama To "Restore Rule of Law" In America

2008-12-12T12:30:00.000-05:00

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), as a key member of both the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees, has been battling the Bush administration for many years over the litany of Constitutional abuses that will be George W. Bush's legacy. And this week, the Wisconsin Senator called on Barack Obama to use his opportunity as president to "… take concrete steps to restore the rule of law in this country."

Feingold sent a letter to Obama on Wednesday making this plea and outlining steps he believes are necessary to make that happen.

“In light of this recent history, I believe that one of the most important things that you can do as President is to take concrete steps to restore the rule of law in this country – that is, to return to the White House respect for an appropriate separation and balance of powers among the branches, for the President’s important but not paramount place in our constitutional system of government, for the laws that Congress writes and the importance of its oversight functions, and for the judiciary’s crucial role in interpreting the law,” Feingold wrote.

Feingold then offered recommendations for action in four key areas – the separation of powers, excessive government secrecy, detention and interrogation policy, and domestic surveillance and privacy. He also provided additional points made during a Judiciary Committee hearing he chaired in September called “Restoring the Rule of Law.”

Those recommendations include:

Closing the facility at Guantanamo Bay, which the President-elect already supports.

Banning torture and establishing a single, government-wide standard of humane detainee treatment

Conducting a comprehensive review of Office of Legal Counsel opinions and repudiating or revising those that overstate executive authority

Supporting significant legislative changes to the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act

Cooperating with congressional oversight, including providing full information to intelligence committees

Establishing presumptions of openness and disclosure in making decisions on the classification of information and responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

Feingold said that Obama should make this such a priority that he even mentions it prominently in his inaugural address on January 20th, saying that the days of the Executive Branch running with no oversight must end and that "all three branches of government must be engaged in the process of restoring the rule of law, but the role of the President is particularly important because turning back the excesses of the Bush Administration may be seen in some respects as contrary to the institutional interests of the presidency."

"That is why it is all the more important that you clearly and unequivocally renounce, early in your tenure, President Bush’s extreme claims of executive authority," wrote Feingold in his letter. "Indeed, stating this position in your inaugural address would affirm to the nation, and the world, that respect for the rule of law has returned to the Oval Office. I urge you to take the opportunity in your first speech as President to make a strong and clear statement of your intention to restore the rule of law in our country."

And Feingold wrapped it up by stating something that he has been saying for years and that Obama said repeatedly on the campaign trail -- that we can have freedom and security at the same time.

Said Feingold: "As I know you recognize, we can protect our national security – in fact, we can do it more effectively – without trampling on the rights of Americans or the rule of law."

Democrats React To Daschle Nomination

2008-12-12T10:00:00.003-05:00

Senate Democrats were understandably pleased when President-elect Barack Obama announced that former Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota will be his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. In making the announcement, Obama reinforced that overhauling how health care is delivered is a central tenet of his administration and praised Daschle, while calling him the “lead architect” of the new administration's plan to expand coverage and control health-care costs.

"Tom brings more than just great expertise to this task. He brings the respect he earned during his years of leadership in Congress," Obama said in a press conference announcing the nomination. "He knows how to build consensus across the aisle. And he has the trust of folks from every angle of this issue: doctors, nurses and patients; workers and businesses; hospitals and consumer groups -- all of whom will have a seat at the table as we work on this vital issue."

Here's reaction from Daschle's former Senate colleagues:

Ted Kennedy (D-MA)

"Exceptional challenges call for exceptional leaders, and Tom is an ideal choice to meet the urgent challenge of health reform. His integrity, intelligence, experience and commitment to the American people have won him friends and admirers on both sides of the aisle. All of us in Congress who share the goal of this long overdue reform welcome today's announcement."

Ken Salazar (D-CO)

“I applaud the selection of Senator Daschle to lead the effort to put President-elect Obama’s vision of affordable, quality health care for all into action. He brings to the position a wealth of health policy expertise and legislative experience, as well as a proven ability to build consensus around policies that work for all Americans. I cannot think of a better person for the job, and look forward to working with him and President-elect Obama to fix our Nation’s broken health care system.”

Tim Johnson (D-SD)

"Tom has been a leader in our state and country throughout his time in Congress. I am proud that he has been nominated this morning to lead our nation’s health care efforts and I know he will make an outstanding Secretary of Health and Human Services. As a South Dakotan, he truly understands the unique challenges of providing quality health care throughout rural America. He is a dear friend, and I look forward to working with him and the new Administration in the months ahead. The President-Elect faces many challenges, but I know with Tom working at his side, we have a real chance to finally provide affordable care to all Americans."

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

"Every American deserves health care he or she can afford. But Senator Daschle knows we need to do more than that - we need basic, systemic reform that will revolutionize the way health care is delivered in this country. He has already brought forward ideas, like the creation of a Federal Health Board, that have contributed substantively to the health care reform debate, and that I will hope he will pursue further at HHS. His nomination, and President-Elect Obama's creation of a new White House Office of Health Reform, emphasizes his serious commitment to solving this problem."

Ron Wyden (D-OR)

“President-Elect Obama quite simply could not have made a better choice for the job. Tom Daschle is not just an expert on health policy, he is a skilled legislator and an inspiring leader. He is also a close friend. Eighteen years ago, I was honored to have then Senator Daschle join me in leading the effort to reform Medigap and protect seniors from health insurance scams. Today, I am honored at the prospect of joining Secretary-designate Daschle in the effort that will ultimately reform the nation’s health care system.”

Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

“Tom Daschle is a distinguished and uniquely qualified choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. He will bring a proven record and Midwestern sensibility to help us tackle one of the largest challenges facing our nation – health care. I believe Tom Daschle can lead the kind of bold reform that our health care system so desperately needs. Tom and I have discussed how we can replicate some of Minnesota’s successes in high-quality, high-efficiency care on a national level. I look forward to our continued work together in the months and years to come.”

Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

"President-elect Obama has made another superb choice in selecting Tom Daschle to head the Department of Health and Human Services as well as a new White House Office of Health Reform… Health care reform is sorely needed and long overdue. It will be one of the core projects of the Obama presidency and certainly one of the most complex and difficult issues on the nation's agenda. No one is better prepared for this monumental job than Tom Daschle is. His talents, his experience, his vision and his decency are admired on both sides of the aisle."

Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)

“Tom Daschle is an incredible public servant and someone who shares my passion and commitment to improving and expanding health care coverage and making it more affordable for all Americans – especially the 46 million Americans without any coverage at all. There is no one better qualified to shepherd through President-elect Obama’s ambitious plans for health care reform."

Senate Republicans Kill Auto Bailout Bill

2008-12-12T09:45:00.002-05:00

With 31 of them and a small handful of Democrats ready to throw millions of workers under the bus because of the mistakes of the Big Three automakers' executives, Senate Republicans last night successfully filibustered a bill that would have provided $14 billion in bridge loans to the car companies and allowed them to restructure and keep running during the current economic crisis.

Putting the blame on autoworkers, the Republicans were not even willing to let the bill come up for the famed "up or down vote" they crowed so much about when they were the majority party and continued down the same obstructionist path they have traveled for the entire 110th Congress.

"Given the unhappy choice between a bridge loan and bankruptcy, Democrats have always believed that we must give the Big Three and the millions of Americans they employ every possible chance to succeed," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) after the vote. "Because Republicans failed to act, three million Americans are more likely than ever to lose their jobs and our economy is at risk of suffering even greater damage. Our hearts go out to those families who will now have to deal with this burden as the holidays near."

"Republicans may think that rejecting this legislation sent a message to the auto industry. Instead, they sent a message to every single American that they are more interested in settling scores than solving problems."

If anyone needed any clearer explanation of exactly what the Republican party's values are and where they stand, consider this: This is the same crew that's been willing to pump almost $600 billion into an Iraq debacle that's ruined our nation's global reputation and made us less safe and didn’t hesitate to give hundred of billions to bail out their friends on Wall Street -- but when it comes to something that could keep millions of working Americans employed, forget it.

I am no fan of how the auto makers have continued for years to crank out and pimp gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks despite all evidence showing that they need to change gears, but when you look at the priorities behind how taxpayer money is being spent, this latest piece of Republican obstruction is both sad and outrageous.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) put it best last night: "I am greatly disappointed that some Senators didn’t hesitate to bail out Wall Street, but decided not to help millions of working class Americans.”

Specter's Curious Hindsight On Alberto Gonzales

2008-12-11T13:41:00.004-05:00

I'll be the first to admit that out of all Senate Republicans, Arlen Specter (R-PA) was arguably the hardest on then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during Gonzo's lengthy period of ignoring the Constitution, lying to Congress and serving as George W. Bush's personal water boy.

Even so, it's still a bit jarring to hear Specter on the Senate floor yesterday discussing his concerns about Barack Obama's nomination of Eric Holder to be the next head of the Justice Department, while spilling his honest assessment of Gonzales's time as Attorney General -- for which Specter was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee most of the time.

Here's Specter on Wednesday:

The position of Attorney General is an extraordinarily important position. We have seen that during the administration of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, stated candidly, the Department was not well handled. That is a candid statement and also a very mild statement.

During the course of Attorney General Gonzales' tenure, there were so many situations where the Attorney General molded his views to accommodate his appointer, the President of the United States. A great deal that went on in the Department of Justice was partisan and not in the interests of the work of the Department or in the interests of the American people.

We have seen, since 9/11/2001, a vast extension of Executive authority. We found the terrorist surveillance program was initiated by the President without consultation under the tradition of notifying the chairman, which I was during the 109th Congress, or the ranking member. We found there was an engagement with the telephone companies to engage in electronic surveillance, again without notifying the chairman or ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and without notifying the intelligence committees of both Houses, as mandated by law. Further was the expansion of signing statements all during the tenure of the Attorney General.

OK, so while he did give Gonzales some high-profile spankings during a few hearings in 2007, Specter was chairman of Judiciary -- the primary Senate oversight arm for the Justice Department -- for the vast majority of the 2 1/2 years that Gonzales served, until Bush's Boy resigned under fire in September of 2007.

During that time and through all of the Constitutional abuses and outright lying to Congress that occurred, Specter did seem to stand up and be counted occasionally but still, if he knew at the time just how bad Gonzales's tenure really was, why wasn't he storming the Republican Majority Leader's office to get greater action in the name of our national interest?

Indeed, when the Senate tried to hold a no-confidence vote on Gonzales (S.J.Res.14) on June 11, 2007, the Republicans filibustered it and 38 of them -- including some guy named Lieberman -- kept the resolution from even coming to a vote.

Sure, Specter voted to allow the no-confidence resolution to move forward, but where was his voice and impact on his own party (as the Senator best able to speak on Gonzales) if he couldn’t keep almost every Republican Senator from blocking the vote entirely?

While Albert Gonzales ran roughshod over our national creed, Specter said a lot of words about the horrible -- if not criminal -- job Gonzales was doing, but had very little action to back it up.

So with Specter now ranking member on a Judiciary Committee chaired by the able Patrick Leahy (D-VT), we'll see just how strident the gentleman from Pennsylvania is with Eric Holder and if he suddenly develops more passion, influence and righteous indignation than he did for one of the most rogue Attorney Generals in U.S. history.

Today In The Senate

2008-12-11T08:46:00.000-05:00

The Senate will convene at 10:30 a.m. and proceed to a period of morning business for up to one hour, with Senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R.7005, the Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008.

Senate Democrats Call On Blagojevich To Resign

2008-12-11T08:33:00.002-05:00

In a letter signed by Democratic leaders Harry Reid (D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA) and co-signed by 43 other members of the caucus, Senate Democrats asked Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to resign his office and to absolutely not appoint a successor to the Senate seat formerly held by President-elect Barack Obama.

Blagojevich has been charged with trying to make money and gain power by essentially selling Illinois' open Senate seat to the highest bidder.

"We write to insist that you step down as Governor of Illinois and under no circumstance make an appointment to fill the vacant Illinois Senate seat," said the letter from Senate Democrats. "In light of your arrest yesterday on alleged federal corruption charges related to that Senate seat, any appointment by you would raise serious questions."

The letter goes on to say that if Blagojevich defies their wishes and still appoints a successor to Obama, the Senate “would be forced to exercise our Constitutional authority … to determine whether such a person should be seated.”

(It is unclear whether the Senate has such absolute Constitutional authority and Nate Silver has a good discussion on that at FiveThirtyEight.com.)

Here's the text of the letter from Senate Democrats to Blagojevich:

December 10, 2008

Dear Governor Blagojevich:

We write to insist that you step down as Governor of Illinois and under no circumstance make an appointment to fill the vacant Illinois Senate seat. In light of your arrest yesterday on alleged federal corruption charges related to that Senate seat, any appointment by you would raise serious questions.

It is within the authority of the Illinois legislature to remove your power to make this appointment by providing for a special election. But a decision by you to resign or to step aside under Article V of the Illinois Constitution would be the most expeditious way for a new Senator to be chosen and seated in a manner that would earn the confidence of the people of Illinois and all Americans. We consider it imperative that a new senator be seated as soon as possible so that Illinois is fully represented in the Senate as the important work of the 111th Congress moves forward.

Please understand that should you decide to ignore the request of the Senate Democratic Caucus and make an appointment we would be forced to exercise our Constitutional authority under Article I, Section 5, to determine whether such a person should be seated.

We do not prejudge the outcome of the criminal charges against you or question your constitutional right to contest those charges. But for the good of the Senate and our nation, we implore you to refrain from making an appointment to the Senate.

Meanwhile, Obama has also called for Blagojevich to step down.

“The President-elect agrees with Lt. Governor Quinn and many others that under the current circumstances it is difficult for the Governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois,” spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

Gibbs simply said "yes" when asked if the President-elect believes the governor should resign.

Stay tuned…

Today In The Senate

2008-12-10T10:51:00.000-05:00

Democrats React To Shinseki Nomination

2008-12-09T13:10:00.000-05:00

Some key Senate Democrats on the Veterans Affairs Committee were quick to offer positive comments on President-elect Barack Obama's excellent choice of former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki to head the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Here's some reaction:

Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

“General Shinseki is a decorated soldier who served the nation with honor and distinction for more than four decades. I applaud his selection as the next VA Secretary. General Shinseki will be a courageous and tireless advocate for our nation’s veterans.

"Today, the VA faces historically-high backlogs of claims as a new generation of veterans return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is imperative that the VA increase outreach and programs designed to better address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. And we must do more to ensure that veterans have access to a college education and good paying jobs. America’s veterans will have the leader they deserve when General Shinseki is sworn in as VA Secretary and I look forward to working with him and the Obama administration on behalf of Ohio’s one million veterans.”

Daniel Akaka (D-HI)

"General Shinseki is a great choice. He is well aware of the needs of our veterans and will make an excellent Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

"I've worked with him in the past and I look forward to working with him in the future.

"I have great respect for General Shinseki's judgment and abilities. I am confident that he will use his wisdom and experience to ensure that our veterans receive the respect and care they have earned in defense of our nation.

"President-Elect Obama is selecting a team that reflects our nation's greatest strength, its diversity, and I applaud him."

Patty Murray (D-WA)

“I have always said we need a VA Secretary who will be honest about what our veterans need and have the backbone to stand up and ask for it. America’s veterans deserve a truthful advocate and energetic leader who will break through the red tape and make veterans, not the bottom-line, the top priority of VA management. I am hopeful we’ll find both in General Shinseki.

“This is a critical time in the VA’s history. With our troops fighting overseas, veterans coming home every day, and countless more aging into the system, the VA is facing unprecedented challenges in providing quality care for all of our veterans. For too long, leaders at the VA have done the agency, its doctors and nurses and our veterans a disservice. Too many have been apologists for failed policies and bad budgets, rather than strong advocates for the heroes who have served and sacrificed for our nation.

“General Shinseki, himself, is a wounded combat veteran of the Vietnam war. He has put his country above politics and his reputation is one of honesty and courage. General Shinseki has shown the fortitude to speak truth to power and the vision to see and say what others could - or would - not. That is the type of honest advocate our veterans deserve."

Democrats Supporting, GOP Ready To Fight Obama's Public-Works Initiative

2008-12-09T09:58:00.002-05:00

President-elect Barack Obama talked in his Saturday radio/web address about the bold national-infrastructure initiative he will send to the new Congress as soon as it convenes next month. It's a plan that the new president believes will boost the economy, provide millions of new jobs during the current recession, while also making tangible repairs and improvements to the country's roads, bridges and schools.

Obama's plan will be the biggest public-works effort since the Interstate highway system was built in the 1950s and it's the kind of ambitious leadership he promised when running for president.

Here's a reminder of what the president-elect said on Saturday:

Today, I am announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.

Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.

Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.

And Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) took to the Senate floor on Monday to immediately support Obama's initiative.

"I believe it's very important to do as President-elect Obama has suggested… You need to invest to try to get the economy moving again," said Dorgan. "And it makes a lot of sense to me to invest in the kinds of things that can produce an asset for the future. We should build roads and bridges and repair infrastructure and schools and libraries and water projects -- the kinds of things that invest in this country's future."

"Because all of that puts American people back to work."

Here's Dorgan:

Of course, Obama will get support from Congressional Democrats -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling for up to $500 billion for the package -- and the nation's Governors have expressed rabid enthusiasm at the thought of billions in federal dollars finding its way into their cash-strapped states.

And we also know that after years of supporting hundreds of billions of dollars on George W. Bush's war for nothing in Iraq, the Republican party will balk at anything that will actually help the American people and fall back on their old stand-by of tax cuts for the wealthy trickling down to the little people.

"Anyone who has talked to the American people knows that while they are hurting, they don't believe that more Washington spending is the answer," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner.

But Obama is talking about big stuff here -- calling it "unacceptable" that the U.S. ranks 15th in the world in high-speed-Internet adoption -- and saying that to be competitive he wants every school and library in every state equally wired and connected.

"Every child should have the chance to get online and they’ll get that chance when I’m President," said Obama. "Because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world."

The new Congress starts on January 6th and, while you could argue that Democrats still need some degree of across-the-aisle cooperation to get Obama's plan enacted, a whole bunch of these Republicans need to get reelected in just two short years -- and is this really the kind of Roosevelt-like plan they want to oppose and explain to voters in 2010?

I bet not.

Today In The Senate

2008-12-09T07:04:00.000-05:00

The Senate will convene at 10:30 a.m. and proceed to a period of morning business until 12:00 noon, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 3297, the Advancing America's Priorities Act.

Excellent Obama On Meet The Press

2008-12-08T14:30:00.000-05:00

President-elect Barack Obama sat down for a lengthy interview with Tom Brokaw on Meet The Press yesterday and, as I have experienced many times since election day, I just couldn’t help but feel so damn happy that we're once again going to have an intelligent, well-studied person in the Oval Office. Obama doesn’t need talking points and note cards to get through a long, wide-ranging interview and he sounds more presidential before he even assumes office than George W. Bush has at any point in the last eight years.

More than that, Obama is honest and straightforward about issues like helping the Big-Three automakers out of their self-induced crisis, saying "I think that the Big Three U.S. automakers have made repeated strategic mistakes."

"They have not managed that industry the way they should have, and I've been a strong critic of the auto industry's failure to adapt to changing times -- building small cars and energy efficient cars that are going to adapt to a new market," said the President-elect. "And if they expect taxpayers to help in that adjustment process, then they can't keep on putting off the kinds of changes that they, frankly, should have made 20 or 30 years ago. If, if they want to survive, then they better start building a fuel-efficient car."

And middle-class families continue to see that Obama wasn't just playing to them to get elected as he returns to the tough times faced by American families in most answers he gives on the economy. When Brokaw asked Obama about whether it's time to jack the price of gas way up again via hefty taxes to discourage consumption and force conservation, Obama said it was not and gave this reason:

"Well, keep, keep in mind what's happening to families all across America. Yes, gas prices have gone down. But, in the meantime, maybe somebody in the family's lost their job. In the meantime, their housing values have plummeted. In the meantime, maybe their hours have been cut back.

"Or if they're a small-business owner, their sales have gone down 50, 60, 70 percent. So putting additional burdens on American families right now, I think, is a mistake."

So in addition to standing by working families in this way, reinforcing that the tax cuts he promised for the middle class are indeed coming and telling Brokaw he still has not changed his tune on ending the Iraq war (beginning the day he assumes the presidency), Obama continues to sound like the guy we've been waiting for in the White House.

You can watch the entire Meet The Press interview here of read the transcript here.

Obama Announcement On Shinseki

2008-12-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

Here's video of President-elect Barack Obama making his welcome announcement yesterday that former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki will be his nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs:

Shinseki Tapped As Veterans Affairs Chief

2008-12-08T12:05:00.000-05:00

General Eric Shinseki, who defied former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush administration by giving Congress the truth about the level of troop strength that would be needed to secure Iraq after the initial invasion -- and was quickly fired for doing so -- was announced by Barack Obama on Sunday as the president-elect's choice to head the Veterans Affairs Department.

"I think that General Shinseki is exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home," Obama said yesterday adding that no Americans "will ever doubt, that this former Army Chief of Staff has the courage to stand up for our troops and our Veterans."

Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America -- along with the Veteran writing this blog post -- agrees that Shinseki has demonstrated a lifetime of commitment to America and to the nation's military men, women and families and is the right guy for the job.

"General Shinseki has a record of courage and honesty, and is a bold choice to lead the VA into the future," said Rieckhoff. "He is a man that has always put patriotism ahead of politics, and is held in high regard by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan."

The 66-year-old Shinseki is a highly-decorated Vietnam Veteran who was ridiculed and ultimately forced into retirement by Rumsfeld and his chief henchman, Paul Wolfowitz, for saying before Congress in 2003 that the Bush administration was way off base in the number of ground troops it would take to secure Iraq after Saddam Hussein's ouster.

And Shinseki, like most people in the Obama administration who will spend years cleaning up the mess left by Team Bush, will be inheriting a system in which many troops returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan wait months for adequate care -- but he says that's going to change.

"A word to my fellow veterans," Shinseki said on Sunday after Obama announced his nomination. "If confirmed I will work each and every day to ensure that we are serving you was well as you have served us."

"We will always honor the sacrifices of those who have worn the uniform, and their loved ones."

Leahy To Meet With Holder Today

2008-12-08T10:30:00.000-05:00

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) will meet with President-elect Barack Obama's Attorney General nominee today to begin mapping out the process for a rapid confirmation when the 111th Congress convenes next month. Leahy, who is a strong and powerful supporter of Eric Holder's nomination, has already given the Attorney General nominee the bipartisan questionnaire he must complete in preparation for the hearings.

"He is an outstanding nominee for this challenging position, and he should have the support of senators from both sides of the aisle," said Leahy last week. "I plan to consult with our Ranking Republican and then schedule Mr. Holder’s confirmation hearing as promptly as possible."

"Rebuilding morale and public confidence in the Justice Department continues to be a top priority, and Eric Holder’s extensive experience and knowledge of the Department will serve him well as he faces many challenges as Attorney General. After the scandals that have undermined the public’s trust in the Justice Department and that have damaged the morale of its dedicated professionals, it would be especially fitting to bring in a leader who is widely admired by the staff and especially by the professionals of the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the nation."

With the chairman of the Judiciary Committee pushing hard already for rapid confirmation and with almost no chance that the Republicans would be stupid enough to try to filibuster any of Obama's initial nominees, Holder should be confirmed and sworn in very quickly.

This Week's Senate Committee Schedule

2008-12-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

It's a generally slow week in the brief lame-duck Senate session that will be held, save for the goings-on over the Big-Three automakers and their self-induced dilemma caused by years of pushing giant trucks getting 10 miles to the gallon… But there's a few Senate committee hearings being held this week -- here they are:

Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

Dec 8, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. Hearings to examine USDA food assistance and child nutrition programs in the economic downturn, focusing on promoting health and fighting hunger.

Energy and Natural Resources

Dec 10, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. Hearings to examine investment in clean energy and natural resources projects and programs to create jobs and stimulate the economy.

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Dec 10, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. A hearing entitled "Prevention and Public Health: The Key to Transforming our Sickcare System."

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Dec 11, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. Hearings to examine a report from the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation, and Terrorism.

Today In The Senate

2008-12-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Senate will convene at 3:00 p.m. and proceed to a period of morning business for up to one hour, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Note: The above reference to "morning business" -- at 3:00 p.m. -- is not written in error. Morning business is a phrase used to describe the routine stuff that usually happens in the first two hours of a legislative day. It usually is in the morning but, if the Senate first convenes in the afternoon, "morning" business will occur then.

President-Elect Obama On The Economy, Jobs

2008-12-07T16:17:00.002-05:00

President-elect Barack Obama is continuing the ambitious approach he has been taking since his election by using his Saturday radio/web address to propose the biggest public works endeavor since construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s. Have a look:

The Saturday Cartoons

2008-12-06T00:03:00.000-05:00

* * * * *In " Greater Georgelandia," Mark Fiore shows us how George W. Bush tries to keep Crazyland intact by "Royal Rule Changes" -- also known as Executive Orders.

Click on the screenshot above or go here to see it.

* * * * *And here's our buddies at Headzup with their version of Sarah Palin campaigning for the repugnant Saxby Chambliss who, against all reason and intellect, was just reelected to the U.S. Senate by the sizable backwoods demographic in Georgia.

* * * * *And we end with The Onion with a view of what Republicans would be considering for our combat troops if the GOP hadn't been tossed out of the White House and neutered almost entirely in the Congress.

* * * * *Thanks to all who have come to visit from other sites -- I'm glad you're here. But please know that this blog is about far more than the Saturday cartoons. They're merely a diversion and provide a humorous take on what's really on our minds. I primarily cover the U.S. Senate but also write about presidential politics and White House activities as well. So please take a look around beyond the 'toons -- and come back soon.

All cartoons are posted with the artists' express permission to BobGeiger.com. Please visit the following sites to see more work from these fine cartoonists:

Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle
Tony Auth, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Matt Davies, NY Journal News
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol's World
Steve Kelley, New Orleans Times Picayune
Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Morin, Miami Herald
Jack Ohman, Portland Oregonian
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Bill Sanders, Retired Syndicated Cartoonist
Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman

BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite Of The Week

2008-12-05T12:05:00.000-05:00

Hey, it's Friday, which means it's time to check out BuzzFlash's "GOP Hypocrite Of The Week." As always, it's a grueling process to narrow the selection to just one Republican hypocrite, and this week BuzzFlash went with Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, who was reelected in a Senate run-off election this week despite being a gutless Chickenhawk, a general scumbag and a genuine Southern Cracker.

Oh, wait, it appears those characteristics help one get elected in Georgia.

Here's a BuzzFlash excerpt:
You can't keep a bad man down when it comes to Republican Southern politics, and so Saxby "Chickenhawk" Chambliss will return to the U.S. Senate after defeating Democratic Vietnam War Veteran Jim Martin.

Chambliss was a coward who got out of the Vietnam War by claiming a football injury prevented him from serving. In 2002, he ran a savagely dishonest campaign against triple Vietnam War amputee Max Cleland, running ads where Cleland's face morphed into Osama bin Laden's.

Southern Republicans love to elect tin soldiers who look strong and brave and love war, as long as other people are fighting it for them. And many of the voters who re-elected Chambliss may be more loyal to the notions of the Confederacy than to America.

In fact, in 2007, we "honored" Chambliss as the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week, noting that he yearned for the days of Stonewall Jackson when he stated in the Senate Armed Services Committee: "We need better intelligence. If we had better intelligence in the Civil War, we'd be quoting Jefferson Davis, not Lincoln."
You can read the rest at GOPhypocrites.com and see a historical list of BuzzFlash's other worthy selections.

Republicans Jumping Ship From Senate

2008-12-05T09:18:00.002-05:00

With Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post reporting last night that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) is forming an exploratory committee to consider a run for the Texas Governor's office in 2010, Republican Senators as a group are starting to look like rats from a sinking ship before the next Congress even convenes.

According to Cillizza, Hutchison will drop $1 million into her gubernatorial committee in what looks like a sure challenge to Republican Governor Rick Perry.

"There's too much bitterness, too much anger, too little trust, too little consensus and too much infighting," said Hutchison. "And the tone comes from the top. Texans are looking for leadership and results."

You can read more from Chris at The Fix.

If this pans out, Hutchison will join Republican Senator Mel Martinez of Florida, who announced this week that he will not seek reelection to his Senate seat in 2010 -- a wise move given that Martinez has very low approval ratings, has largely been seen as a huge enabler for the Bush-Cheney regime in his one term in office and probably sees that there's no shortage of challengers in Florida willing to take him on.

It also seems certain at this point that Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) will leave the Senate in 2010 to run for Governor of Kansas. He would be trying to replace popular Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius who will be leaving due to term limits and who could, by the way, make this an excellent chance for another Democratic pickup in the next Senate election season.

Ohio Republican George Voinovich will be 74 in 2010, will certainly face a serious challenge from someone -- Paul Hackett? -- when his term is up and may not have the stomach to keep going after watching his GOP Senate colleagues get their asses handed to them in the last two election cycles.

Republican Chuck Grassley is a fixture in Iowa but will be 77 in 2010 and, of course, we're all hearing the rumors of MSNBC's Chris Matthews possibly posing a big threat to Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), who has been fighting cancer since 2005 and is now 78 years old. And Roll Call is reporting that Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy may also be up to challenging Specter for his seat.

So some Republicans are making it clear from two years out that they're gone from the Senate and others are major question marks to even try to retain their seats… Democrats need to start recruiting their 2010 candidates now and, hopefully, work hard toward three successful Congressional elections in a row and an even bigger majority that will take the Republicans a long, long time to reclaim.

While Democrats were able to grab Senate seats from Republican incumbents this year -- goodbye, John Sununu and Elizabeth Dole -- there may be some cyclical backlash against an all-Democratic Washington in 2010 and campaigning for a bunch of open seats will make the road to a bigger majority much easier to travel.

GOP Senator Wants More God In Government Visitor Center

2008-12-04T09:45:00.005-05:00

Showing once again that whenever a transformational leader like Barack Obama comes along to lead the nation into the future, the Republican party is always there to drag us backwards, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) tried to delay the grand opening of the new Capitol Visitor Center in Washington because be thinks there just isn't enough mention of God in the facility.

Saying that the $621 million historical exhibit is "left-leaning" and leaves out America's "history of faith," DeMint tried to use his Senatorial clout to delay the center's opening on Tuesday and, among other things, wanted the original national motto of "E. Pluribus Unum" -- "from many, one" in Latin -- replaced with "In God We Trust."

“The Capitol Visitor Center is designed to tell the history and purpose of our nation's Capitol, but it fails to appropriately honor our religious heritage that has been critical to America’s success,” said DeMint.

What DeMint's religious-right stunt leaves out is that the purpose of the center is to provide an "…educational environment for visitors to learn about the unique characteristics of the House and the Senate and the legislative process" and to teach about our system of Government -- not to talk about the private religious practices of the nation's Senators and Representatives.

DeMint, who was joined in his silly protest by Republican Senators Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, has managed to strong-arm the Visitor Center into plastering over "E. Pluribus Unum," changing the motto to "In God We Trust" and committing to add the Pledge of Allegiance to the displays.

Of course, you know DeMint probably doesn’t care about pledging one's loyalty to the U.S. as much as he does about the "one nation, under God" part.

And the South Carolina Senator apparently really objected to a prominent statement near the facility's entrance that says "we have built no temple, but the Capitol. We consult no common oracle but the Constitution," which is attributed to Representative Rufus Choate, who represented Massachusetts in Congress in the 1830s and 1840s.

"This is an intentional misrepresentation of our nation’s real history, and an offensive refusal to honor America's God-given blessings," said DeMint.

That pretty much wraps it up nicely, doesn’t it? Given that DeMint and his Republican colleagues have contributed mightily to Bush and Cheney utterly trashing the Constitution and our true national creed for eight years, it's not at all surprising that a quote heralding the Constitution as our governmental foundation -- and not the bible, I guess -- should make him so angry.

And I guess South Carolina voters must approve of DeMint spending his time and energy on this while we have two wars going on, an economy in deep recession and people losing jobs and homes every day.

I'm assuming the inclusion of the Flat Earth Society somewhere in the newest D.C. attraction is coming next or a DeMint insistence that the Capitol Visitor Center include a mural of Adam and Eve riding a dinosaur to a church social.

GOP's Martinez To Give Up Senate Seat In 2010

2008-12-03T09:31:00.002-05:00

Having helped do enough damage during the second half of George W. Bush's dismal presidency, Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) announced on Tuesday that he would leave the U.S. Senate in 2010 after only one, six-year term.

Saying that his decision "was not based on reelection prospects, but on what I want to do with the next eight years of my life," Martinez said that stepping down after only one term is primarily so he can spend more time with his family.

“The thought of devoting more time to my roles as husband, dad, granddad, brother and son to the family I love and cherish, and to be 'Mel' to the friends I miss – makes this decision far easier than one might think," said Martinez. "So with two years left in my term, I make this announcement today in order to give the many qualified individuals who might choose to try to succeed me an opportunity to organize and gather support."

With Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) also expected to leave the Senate to run for Governor of Kansas, this would make two Republican seats already listed as toss-ups in the 2010 election cycle.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush is seen as a possible candidate for the Republicans in replacing Martinez, while there may be many Democrats up to the challenge, including Congressmen Kendrick Meek and Ron Klein and state Senator Dan Gelber. The state's popular Chief Financial Officer, Alex Sink, is a Democrat who has indicated she will not run -- but running for an open seat versus fighting an incumbent might cause Sink to change her mind.

With his most recent approval rating at only 42 percent, a November Quinnipiac poll showing him losing by four points to an unnamed Democratic opponent in 2010 and with a reputation for being a huge enabler to President Bush, it's safe to say that Martinez sees the writing on this wall already and wants to leave before he's tossed out.

“I look forward to serving out these next two years," said Martinez. "There are big problems facing Florida and the nation, and I will continue to do what I think is in the best interests of the people whom I represent."

And I'm guessing that having to not run for reelection means that he can decide what's best for Floridians and the nation is to act as a primary roadblock to President Barack Obama's agenda.

That may just be cynical, Senate-watching Bob's wild speculation -- but I doubt it.

Chambliss Reelected In Georgia

2008-12-02T22:04:00.003-05:00

Aided by light voter turnout and a Georgia population that's voted Bush-Bush-McCain in the last three presidential elections, Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss defeated Democratic challenger Jim Martin in Tuesday's U.S. Senate run-off election.

The run-off contest was mandated by Georgia state law when both Chambliss and Martin failed to get 50 percent of the vote on November 4th.

With 92 percent of precincts reporting (10:00 PM EST), Chambliss had 1,136,711 votes compared to only 815,647 for Martin -- or 58 percent to 42 percent.

We now await the results of the Minnesota recount between Democrat Al Franken and the GOP's Norm Coleman to see if the Senate Democratic caucus will have 58 or 59 members when the 111th Congress convenes next month.

And Georgians, who with Chambliss and the do-nothing Johnny Isakson -- "who?" you ask -- as their two wholly undistinguished Senators, had another chance to correct this embarrassment and failed.

No wonder "Deliverance" was set in that state.

Attorney General Nominee's Encouraging Words

2008-12-02T11:30:00.000-05:00

Maybe I'm a little bit like a guy getting his first drink of water after being stranded in the desert, but after eight years of watching the anti-constitutional abuses of the Bush administration -- and with most of those coming from the Justice Department -- it was great to hear some of the words spoken yesterday when President-elect Barack Obama introduced Eric Holder as his nominee for Attorney General.

"Let me be clear: the Attorney General serves the American people," said Obama on Monday, in drawing a clear distinction with George W. Bush, who believes the head of the Justice Department works for him personally. "And I have every expectation that Eric will protect our people, uphold the public trust, and adhere to our Constitution."

And here's Holder in some brief comments after being introduced by Obama:

"The Department of Justice plays a unique role on this team. It is incumbent upon those of us who lead the department to ensure not only that the nation is safe, but also that our laws and traditions are respected. There is not a tension between those two. We can and we must ensure that the American people remain secure and that the great Constitutional guarantees that define us as a nation are truly valued.

"For example, working with Republicans and Democrats in Congress, should I be confirmed, we look forward to actually structuring policies that are both protective and consistent with who we are as a nation."

So we can be a secure, law-abiding nation while not trampling our Constitution… What a concept, huh? Here's video of Holder's remarks:

On the most basic level, this is already sounding like change I can believe in.

Senate Democrats React To Obama Security Team

2008-12-02T09:09:00.001-05:00

President-elect Barack Obama announced his national security team yesterday, in a big event that included making it official that Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is his nominee for Secretary of State.

Obama also announced that current Defense Secretary Robert Gates would stay on in his administration, while saying that he would nominate Susan Rice as United Nations Ambassador, retired Marine General James Jones as his National Security Adviser, Eric Holder as Attorney General and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Homeland Security Director.

Here's some reactions from Senate Democrats.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

“President-elect Obama has announced a strong, bipartisan and highly competent team to protect America’s national security interests. This remarkable group of men and women demonstrates the new Administration’s commitment to countering adversaries and confronting threats with every tool at our disposal – our military might, diplomatic strength and moral authority. Democrats and Republicans alike agree that with these extraordinary nominees, we will begin to make Americans more secure and restore America’s leadership around the globe.”

Chris Dodd (D-CT)

“I applaud President-Elect Obama’s nomination of an experienced national security team. Hillary Clinton, James Jones, Robert Gates, Janet Napolitano, Eric Holder, and Susan Rice each have a proven record of pragmatic problem-solving and bipartisan cooperation on a host of complex challenges to U.S. national security.

“With Senator Clinton as Secretary of State and General Jones as National Security Advisor, United States foreign policy will again combine the best of our soft and hard powers, rebuilding our effectiveness and moral authority around the world. I look forward to Secretary-Elect Clinton's rapid approval by the Senate, and to working closely with her and the rest of this talented national security team.”

Ted Kennedy (D-MA)

"Throughout her distinguished career in public service, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has earned the respect and admiration of millions around the globe. She is a hardworking public servant who cares deeply about our country. This is an outstanding nomination and I look forward very much to working with President-elect Obama and Secretary-designate Clinton to restore America's standing in the world."

Evan Bayh (D-IN)

“In the national security realm, it takes experience and continuity to bring about real and lasting change. The outstanding team assembled by President-elect Obama is uniquely capable of harnessing all of the tools of American power to advance our security interests… This experienced team will help the Obama administration recapture our best traditions of strong and pragmatic American leadership in a dangerous world.”

Ben Cardin (D-MD)

"President-elect Obama has chosen bold, talented and experienced leaders to carry out his national security policy and help keep the American public safe and our country secure. His selections reinforce my deep belief that Barack Obama's steady hand and good judgment is exactly what we need at this time to put our country back on course and restore our leadership in the world.

"As President-elect Obama stated, Americans will once again stand proud in the world as a responsible member of the global community and a moral example of peace and stability."

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

"In Senator Clinton, President-Elect Obama has chosen a Secretary of State who will help restore the world's confidence and faith in our nation. She brings massive international recognition and clout, and clearly understands President-elect Obama's strategy for a strong, clear change in America's message to the world. This was a wise and exciting choice.

"Our new Attorney General must restore the Justice Department's proud tradition of independence and excellence, and insulate it from improper pressure even when it comes from the White House. No one will fill that role more capably than Eric Holder. I served in the Clinton Administration with Mr. Holder, and can attest to his vast experience, his calm judgment, his legal skill, and his unswerving loyalty to the Department and its principles. I have no doubt that he will offer the independent, wise leadership necessary to repair the terrible damage of the Bush years. He has my enthusiastic support."

Bob Casey (D-PA)

“President-elect Obama today announced an incredibly impressive group of experienced, pragmatic individuals who will be ready from Day One to begin repairing our nation’s broken foreign policy. They will restore robust diplomatic engagement with the international community while maintaining the strongest, most capable military in the world.

“These picks build on the trends we have seen in earlier appointments, including his economic team last week: the President-elect recognizes that our nation faces a grave set of challenges, both at home and abroad, and he is choosing the most capable individuals to help him meet those challenges, regardless of party affiliation or past differences."

Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)

“President-elect Obama today announced a national security team that is just what America needs – this impressive group represents strength, smarts and a deep commitment to keeping our nation safe and prosperous. He understands the very serious threats we face and believes we need new strategies that integrate all elements of American power – from intelligence to law enforcement to diplomacy. It is clear our incoming Commander-in-Chief believes an experienced team will help advance his global agenda and sends a message that he intends to work across the aisle in a bipartisan way. I look forward to working with this extremely impressive team on day one to tackle the very serious national security challenges we face.”

John Kerry (D-MA)

“President-elect Obama has chosen a terrific national security team to protect our security and help restore America’s rightful place in the world. General Jones and Governor Napolitano are bright, strategic thinkers dedicated to the security of the nation.

"Eric Holder will lend integrity and experience to the Justice Department. Secretary Gates brings not just institutional knowledge but a keen understanding of the global challenge we face, Susan Rice is a sharp, trusted foreign policy mind who will bring an incredible ability and energy to the United Nations, and as Secretary of State, my friend and colleague Hillary Clinton will bring her years of experience and her remarkable intellect to the effort to restore our alliances and advance the President’s agenda in the world."

Do Some Minnesota Recounting Yourself

2008-12-01T13:00:00.000-05:00

The Star-Tribune in Minneapolis has an interesting feature running on their web site where you can get a look at some of the actual ballots being contested in the undecided Minnesota Senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger, Al Franken.

If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can examine up to 599 images of real ballots where the voter intent is in question and give your opinion on who should get the vote from the contested ballots. Under Minnesota law, a ballot must be counted if it is possible in a manual recount to determine what the voter was actually trying to do -- even if the voter failed to follow instructions.

Have a look at one sample:

Unfortunately you'll need to take the time to register at the Star-Tribune web site to participate, but it's kind of interesting to see and get to weigh in with your opinion of what voter intent really was for each ballot.

Give it a go.

Georgia Run-Off Election Tomorrow

2008-12-01T11:30:00.000-05:00

The Georgia Senate race between Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin will be decided tomorrow in the special run-off election that state law mandated when neither candidate received at least 50 percent of the vote on November 4th.

Given that Georgia is one of the reddest states in the country -- I'll withhold my own description of what that really means -- it's amazing that Martin even got as close as he did. He certainly benefited by huge African-American turnout on election day and the presence of a third-party candidate who helped keep Chambliss under the 50-percent threshold.

But Martin is still down in all the polls and it would take a political miracle for him to prevail in tomorrow's election. A Politico poll conducted November 23rd showed Chambliss leading 50 percent to 47 percent, while a recent DailyKos.com survey had the race at 52 percent for Chambliss and 46 percent for Martin.

Sarah Palin is expected to campaign for Chambliss in Georgia today and the incumbent has also benefited from appearances by John McCain and other GOP heavy hitters. And, while Martin has appeared with both Al Gore and former President Bill Clinton and has been heavily assisted by President-elect Barack Obama's former Georgia campaign staff, I still believe Obama himself should have made a campaign appearance or two on Martin's behalf.

Even understanding the significant tasks being worked on by Obama and his team and the fear of losing political capital should he campaign there and then have Martin lose, I know how many Senate bills come down to one vote and the decision to keep Obama away may come back to haunt the Democratic White House down the road.

The Senate Democratic caucus currently has 58 members, with the Minnesota recount still underway and the Martin-Chambliss race left to decide what the Senate's final composition will be for the 111th Congress.

There's a great report from Sean Quinn of FiveThirtyEight.com on the state of the race in Georgia and how the organizational edge goes to Jim Martin but, if I had to bet a month's pay right now, I would wager that Chambliss retains his seat.

At that point, Georgians will get what they deserve: Six more years of this undistinguished legislator and general buffoon representing them in the U.S. Senate.

Minnesota Senate Recount Update

2008-12-01T09:03:00.002-05:00

The recount goes on in the Minnesota Senate race with most of it done at this point and Democrat Al Franken still trailing Republican Norm Coleman.

As of about 8:00 PM Saturday night, the Minnesota Secretary of State's office was reporting that with the recount done in almost 90 percent of the state's precincts and with 86 percent of the ballots counted again, Coleman still leads Franken 1,044,255 to 1,040,285, a margin of 3,970 votes.

The recount started with Franken behind Coleman by 215 votes out of the 2.9 million ballots cast.

However, as I crunched some Minnesota county numbers last night, I found that of the six biggest counties in the state -- making up well over half the state's voters -- the four counties (of those six) that went for Coleman on November 4th are completely done and are thus already included in the above total.

Conversely, Hennepin and Ramsey Counties, by far the two biggest in the state, and that went overwhelmingly for Franken on election day, are not fully counted. Hennepin County has recounted 86 percent (365 of 426) of its precincts, while Ramsey County has been through 81 percent (144 of 178) of its precincts.

This leaves some room for Franken to play catch-up as the recount continues.

"There is more blue left to be counted than there is red left to be counted," said Marc Elias, Franken's lead recount attorney.

Also important in all of this are the 5,000 plus ballots that have been challenged in one way or another by either side -- these are ballots with questionable markings and where one of the candidates disagrees with the voter-intent decision made by officials during the recount.

Let's see what happens this week.

The Saturday Cartoons

2008-11-29T00:46:00.003-05:00

We're going to start with something a little different today -- a short video clip from Jack Ohman of The Oregonian in Portland showing us how a cartoon goes from an idea to a finished piece in print… Have a look:

And now on with the cartoons…

* * * * *Here's Mark Fiore with a take-off on that old device for turning the lights on and off, The Clapper -- except this time it's for turning free-market capitalism on and off when it suits Wall Street best.

Click on the screenshot above or go here to see it.

* * * * *And from The Onion, we have George W. Bush coming up with his own corrupt version of a beloved White House Thanksgiving tradition, when he pardons Scooter Libby, with Dick Cheney's former main man dressed in a giant turkey costume.

* * * * *Thanks to all who have come to visit from other sites -- I'm glad you're here. But please know that this blog is about far more than the Saturday cartoons. They're merely a diversion and provide a humorous take on what's really on our minds. I primarily cover the U.S. Senate but also write about presidential politics and White House activities as well. So please take a look around beyond the 'toons -- and come back soon.

All cartoons are posted with the artists' express permission to BobGeiger.com. Please visit the following sites to see more work from these fine cartoonists:

Tony Auth, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Jeff Danziger, Syndicated Political Cartoonist
Steve Kelley, New Orleans Times Picayune
Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Morin, Miami Herald
Jack Ohman, Portland Oregonian
Dwane Powell, Raleigh News & Observer
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Bill Sanders, Retired Syndicated Cartoonist
Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman

Thanksgiving Address From President-Elect Obama

2008-11-28T09:10:00.001-05:00

"So this weekend -- with one heart, and one voice, the American people can give thanks that a new and brighter day is yet to come."

Enjoy, and be thankful for the fact that at long last we have an intelligent, thoughtful President on the way.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T01:45:00.001-05:00

Another Campaign, Another Terrorist - Same Old Saxby

2008-11-26T15:33:00.003-05:00

There are some things you can always count on in life -- like death, taxes and Saxby Chambliss being promoted by the absolute lowest television ads smearing his Democratic opponent.

The latest piece of sludge -- this time offered by the National Republican Trust PAC (GOPtrust) in the Georgia Senate run-off election -- is one that subtly, but very noticeably, places a picture of everyone's favorite 9-11 terrorist, Mohammed Atta, front and center in an ad ripping Democratic candidate Jim Martin and his support for President-elect Barack Obama.

Have a look and pay attention to the center driver's license about 10 seconds in when the narrator ominously says that Obama will "…give 12 million illegal aliens citizenship, Social Security, even driver’s licenses."

Did you spot this guy?

How could you not, given that Atta's mug is one of the primary images forever tattooed on our brains after the September 11 terrorist attacks?

And if you believe that out of every stock image of a driver's license GOPtrust could have used, they just happened to pick the one showing one of the most infamous faces in U.S. history, I have a beautiful bridge going from Manhattan to Brooklyn that I can get for you at a sweet price.

It's the same old stuff from the same old Republican playbook: Take the worst images you can come up with -- whether it's Willie Horton, exploding World Trade Center towers or Mohammed Atta -- and associate them with the Democratic candidate in any way you can.

I'm surprised Chambliss and his buddies didn’t use Osama bin Laden and link him to Jim Martin… Oh, wait, they already did that with Max Cleland in 2002.

Will Chambliss do the right thing and tell GOPtrust to pull this ad? Sure he will… And the Brooklyn Bridge will be in your family for generations.

Georgians: You Still Want This Guy As Your Senator?

2008-11-24T11:14:00.003-05:00

We all know how Saxby Chambliss swift-boated decorated Veteran Max Cleland to win his Senate seat in 2002 and those of us involved in covering the Senate know that Saxby's not considered, well… the finest legislative mind in the chamber. But it's important that people in Georgia who will be voting in the December 2nd run-off election between Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin know just how thin Chambliss is on the economy and the plight of unemployed workers.

Leaving alone for a minute that Chambliss has for years fought tooth and nail against every bill to increase the federal minimum wage rate, ThinkProgress tells us about how Chambliss didn't even care to show up for last week's Senate vote on extending benefits for the unemployed and instead stayed Down South to give a campaign speech on… Unemployment!

Here's ThinkProgress:

On Thursday, Georgia’s Department of Labor announced that the state’s unemployment levels rose to 7 percent in October, the highest in 16 years; approximately 43,093 unemployed Georgians are looking for work. That same day, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who is locked in a tough run-off election battle with Democrat Jim Martin, gave a campaign speech on the state’s economic troubles:

However, Chambliss was so busy campaigning that day that he actually skipped the Senate’s vote on the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008, which extended unemployment benefits “by 13 weeks in states with an unemployment rate of at least 6 percent.” Chambliss was one of just four senators to miss the vote. WCTV reported that Chambliss later sent out a press released praising “the passage of the law and [said he] hopes it will help laid-off workers get by while seeking a new job.”

Please go here to read more.

And here's a great video on Saxby Economics that shows that this guy doesn’t even have the knowledge of a freshman Economics student, much less a United States Senator:

Good thing Georgians will have had another month to think this through before voting again.

The Saturday Cartoons

2008-11-22T01:06:00.001-05:00

* * * * *And here's our friends at Headzup showing us James Dobson celebrating the passage of California's Proposition 8 by asking WWJF?

* * * * *And, via The Onion, we have a few minutes with Andy Rooney -- well, China’s version of the 60 Minutes commenter-in-chief, who gives us the lay of the land with the wonderful Chinese government:

* * * * *Thanks to all who have come to visit from other sites -- I'm glad you're here. But please know that this blog is about far more than the Saturday cartoons. They're merely a diversion and provide a humorous take on what's really on our minds. I primarily cover the U.S. Senate but also write about presidential politics and White House activities as well. So please take a look around beyond the 'toons -- and come back soon.

All cartoons are posted with the artists' express permission to BobGeiger.com. Please visit the following sites to see more work from these fine cartoonists:

Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle
Jeff Danziger, Syndicated Political Cartoonist
Matt Davies, NY Journal News
Walt Handelsman, Newsday
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol's World
Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Morin, Miami Herald
Jack Ohman, Portland Oregonian
Dwane Powell, Raleigh News & Observer
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Bill Sanders, Retired Syndicated Cartoonist
Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman

BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite Of The Week

2008-11-21T10:48:00.000-05:00

Hey, it's Friday, which means it's time to check out BuzzFlash's "GOP Hypocrite Of The Week." As always, it's a grueling process to narrow the selection to just one Republican hypocrite, and this week BuzzFlash went with Senator Joe Lieberman for, well, being Joe Lieberman.

An excerpt:
Since we began publishing BuzzFlash.com in May of 2000, the gold standard for Republicans in high places has been brazen hypocrisy. That's why we created this special BuzzFlash site to "honor" those who practice the opposite of what they preach.

It's been hard choosing a "winner" each week, given that few Republicans are not hypocrites. It's their brand, after all.

Of course, every once in awhile comes along a Democrat who comes out of the closet as a Republican, and such is the case with Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman could be a Jewish James Dobson in that he oozes with such self-righteousness, while practicing the politics of fear and hysteria.

Joe bet that if he supported McCain, he might end up as the first person to run for vice president as a Democrat and then a Republican. Now that is an odd way to make it into the history books, but for Joe it was mission unaccomplished. Given McCain's loss at the polls, Lieberman couldn't achieve his fallback position to become a Republican Secretary of Defense.
You can read the rest at GOPhypocrites.com and see a historical list of BuzzFlash's other worthy selections.

The Letter We Wanted To See

2008-11-21T08:41:00.000-05:00

Here it is from Wednesday's Congressional Record:

U.S. SENATE,
Washington, DC, November 18, 2008.

Hon. RICHARD CHENEY,
Vice President of the United States of America, President of the U.S. Senate, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC.

DEAR VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. SENATE: This letter is to inform you that I resigned from the United States Senate, effective November 16, 2008, in order to prepare for my duties as President of the United States.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama,
U.S. Senator

Short, sweet and beautiful.

Six Republicans Who Wanted To Kill Extending Jobless Benefits

2008-11-20T17:01:00.002-05:00

In one of the best Senate-floor speeches I ever heard Ted Kennedy (D-MA) give, he brutalized Senate Republicans for continuing to block the first increase in the minimum wage in almost a decade and roared to the other side of the aisle "What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?"

"What is it about it that drives you Republicans crazy? What is it?" asked Kennedy about GOP objections to raising the minimum wage rate. "What is the price that the workers have to pay to get an increase?"

While it was heartening to see a bill extending unemployment benefits for out-of-work Americans sail through the Senate today -- with President Bush having already said he would sign it -- there's always a few Republicans that just can't seem to stomach throwing some true support to families already going through a tough time.

Before that bill passed by unanimous consent, it had to go through a cloture vote today to end debate. That vote passed easily, 89-6.

Which, given that voting against cloture is an attempt at a filibuster to block passage of a bill, would naturally lead you to ask… Who voted against it?

Here they are:

John Barrasso (R-WY)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Mike Enzi (R-WY)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
James Inhofe (R-OK)

“On the day we learned that more Americans are filing for unemployment than at any time in the last 16 years, the Senate acted responsibly by helping struggling families make ends meet," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) upon passage of the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008.

But such fine gentlemen, these six Republicans, huh?

Hopefully, their evenings will be complete if they can only find a homeless child to kick on the way home.

Senate Approves Extending Unemployment Benefits - Bush Will Sign

2008-11-20T16:24:00.002-05:00

The U.S. Senate today passed by unanimous consent a bill that will extend unemployment benefits to jobless Americans by up to 13 weeks. The legislation had passed the House of Representatives in October by a 368 to 28 vote.

This comes after the Labor Department reported today that claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to the highest level since 1992 and George W. Bush announced this afternoon that he will sign the bill as soon as it reaches his desk.

“Because of the tight job market, the president believes it would be appropriate to further extend unemployment benefits, and he would sign the legislation,” said White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a guy who has always been on the right side of working families, seemed to consider this a good welcome-back present as he returned to work in the Senate after being diagnosed with cancer.

“The Senate was right to act now to provide greater assistance for Americans who can’t find work," said Kennedy. "Today’s action is a vital step in repairing the tattered safety net for the millions of families struggling during these harsh economic times. But there is still much to be done, and I look forward to working with our new President and the new Congress early next year to do all we can to heal our stricken economy.”

Good news all around and an excellent thing to be bipartisan about right before the holidays.

Senate Democratic Leadership Announced

2008-11-20T12:06:00.001-05:00

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced the Senate Democratic Leadership for the 111th Congress.

Here's the Democratic Leadership for the 111th Congress:

Harry Reid (D-NV), Majority Leader

Senator Reid will continue in the position he held in the 110th Congress.

Robert Byrd (D-WV), President Pro Tempore

As President pro tempore, Senator Byrd will continue to provide the Democratic Caucus leadership and experience gained from a lifetime of public service.

Dick Durbin (D-IL), Assistant Majority Leader

As Assistant Majority Leader, Senator Durbin will continue to serve as the Majority Leader’s key aide on and off the floor, helping to lead the Democrats’ fight to protect America and help working families get ahead.

Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Vice Chair of the Conference

The third-ranking member of the Democratic leadership, Senator Schumer will continue to oversee strategy and policy to keep and build support for Democratic values.

Patty Murray (D-WA), Secretary of the Conference

As Secretary of the Conference, Senator Murray will continue to play a critical role in helping shape and set the Democratic agenda.

Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND), Chairman of Policy Committee

Senator Dorgan will continue to provide strong leadership at the Democratic Policy Committee (DPC). Under Senator Dorgan, the DPC has been credited with conducting aggressive Congressional oversight and generating innovative policy ideas for the Democratic Caucus.

Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chair of Steering and Outreach Committee

Senator Stabenow will continue to serve as Chair of the Steering and Outreach Committee. In her role as chair, Senator Stabenow will engage Democratic Senators and community leaders across the country in an active dialogue about the pressing issues facing our nation.

Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chief Deputy Whip

As Chief Deputy Whip, Senator Boxer will continue to be responsible for managing and implementing Caucus efforts on the Senator floor. Working alongside the Democratic Leader and Assistant Democratic Leader, Boxer plays an instrumental role in articulating, advancing and achieving the objectives of the Democratic Caucus.

Thomas R. Carper (D-DE), Deputy Whip
Bill Nelson (D-FL), Deputy Whip
Russell D. Feingold (D-WI), Deputy Whip

Serving as Deputy Whips, Senators Carper, Nelson and Feingold will play critical roles in marshalling the Caucus’s forces.

Stevens Concedes, Minnesota Recount Begins

2008-11-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

Senator Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican who was convicted of seven felony counts in October, has conceded his Senate race to Democrat Mark Begich and will not ask for a recount.

“Given the number of ballots that remain to be counted, it is apparent the election has been decided and Mayor Begich has been elected,” Stevens said. “I wish Mayor Begich and his family well. My staff and I stand willing to help him prepare for his new position.”

Stevens turned 85 this week and is the longest-serving Republican in Senate history.

With this victory, Democrats have now picked up seven Senate seats in 2008, with the results of races in Minnesota and Georgia still to be decided.

Meanwhile, the statewide vote recount in Minnesota's incredibly close Senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken began on Wednesday. The recount was mandated by state law because the votes cast for Coleman and Franken differed by less than one-half of 1 percent, with only 215 votes separating them out of almost 3 million ballots cast.

As of 11 p.m. Wednesday night, the Minnesota Secretary of State's office reported that, with 23 percent of precincts recounted, Coleman was leading Franken 195,638 to 180,923, or 43 percent to 40 percent.

While this shows Franken behind, the current count includes only a tiny part of Ramsey County, where St. Paul is located and where Franken clobbered Coleman on election day.

All of the 2.9 million ballots are being counted by hand and the process may extend all the way to December 5th, when a state board convenes to certify the results.

Democrats Push For Unemployment Benefits Extension Today

2008-11-20T09:09:00.002-05:00

The United States Senate will vote this week -- and very likely today -- on a bill that will extend unemployment insurance benefits by seven weeks for the jobless whose benefits have run out and a total of 13 weeks for those in states with an unemployment rate higher than six percent.

The bipartisan legislation -- cosponsors include Republicans Coleman, Smith, Snowe and Specter -- passed the House in October and will go immediately to President Bush's desk for his signature if passed this week.

"It all comes down to Main Street Americans who want to work, who want to pay their bills, who want to take care of their families; their well-being is tied to the well-being of our economy and our Nation," said Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in fighting for the bill on the Senate floor Monday. "Unemployment insurance is the mechanism by which Americans looking for jobs but who have lost their jobs can sustain their families, can keep their financial commitments, can afford the tools needed to find a new job."

"Extending unemployment insurance is key to getting the economy going. It injects dollars into the economy and helps people meet their obligations, raise their kids, and do what they need to do in the community. It is one of the most important and immediate ways to stimulate the economy."

The Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008 was authored by Democrats in response to the rapidly climbing unemployment rate, which has grown from 4.8 to 6.5 percent since last year. It passed the House last month by an overwhelming majority, 368 to 28.

It is estimated that more than one million Americans will run out of their current unemployment insurance benefits by the end of 2008.

And Brown did not waste any time when the Senate reconvened on Monday in pushing his Senate colleagues for rapid relief for America's unemployed.

"Does anyone in Congress want more American families to lose their homes?" asked Brown of the Senate chamber this week. "Does anyone in Congress want more American children to go to bed hungry? Does anyone in the House or Senate want more American families to stop paying their heating bills, to delay their credit card payments, to skip out on their health care bills?"

"Assuming the answer to any of these questions is no, then voting to extend unemployment insurance for current job seekers should not be a fight, it should be a formality."

With strong bipartisan support behind it, the only way this bill will fail is if Republicans filibuster which, even for the Grinch-like GOP, seems unlikely as we enter the holiday season.

And President-elect Obama has also thrown his support behind the legislation to help the unemployed, mentioning it in his Saturday radio address, saying "…we cannot afford to delay providing help for the more than one million Americans who will have exhausted their unemployment insurance by the end of this year.”

Today In The Senate

2008-11-20T06:32:00.001-05:00

The Senate will convene at 9:30 a.m. and proceed to a period of morning business for up to one hour, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. Following morning business, the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 6867, an act to provide for additional emergency unemployment compensation.

Lieberman's Biggest Crime Of All

2008-11-19T09:21:00.003-05:00

There's a giant gray area in how the United States Senate operates and, as someone who covers that body, I'm aware of that and try not to react too quickly when I see something I don’t like. Maybe my proximity has made me too sympathetic, but I'm aware that there's very often more than meets the eye when something happens in the Senate that people on my side of the political divide may not like.

But this thing with Joe Lieberman is different and I'll tell you why.

When it comes to Lieberman, I've really tried to understand. I even did a brief study in early September in which I set out to discern what good Lieberman actually did do the Democratic caucus in the 110th Congress, by looking for the number of votes where Lieberman's presence on our side of the aisle actually made a difference. And I admit, my dislike for Lieberman is so deep that I truly wanted to find that his membership in the Democratic caucus made no difference and that Senate Democrats could have kicked his butt to the other side of the aisle after his reelection over Ned Lamont in 2006 with little or no consequence.

As much as I hated it, that wasn't what I discovered.

Instead, I found that of 638, 110th-Congress votes through July 31, 2008, 36 of those came down to a tie or were decided by only one vote and, of those, Lieberman voted with the Democrats 31 times -- and on most of those 31, Democrats prevailed based on Lieberman's vote.

I didn’t like seeing that, but the results were real and they made me conclude that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was right to not push for Traitor Joe's ouster two years ago and that, like it or not, Democrats actually did need him on their side, at least some of the time.

So I get it. I've learned about nuance and I've learned that the party leader's job in the Senate is a lonely one, fraught with political peril and no-win situations.

Despite all of that, I was as aghast and disgusted as anyone yesterday when Reid and most of the Democratic caucus, let Lieberman off scot free for his repulsive and disloyal actions in 2008. Even with my eyes filled with the gray that is Senate life, I believe Lieberman should have not only been stripped of his Homeland Security chairmanship, but he should have been removed from the caucus entirely.

We all know the conventional wisdom why: He spoke at the Republican National Convention. He smeared Barack Obama for things like allegedly voting to take money from combat troops in Iraq, despite knowing damn good and well that he was incredibly misleading tens of millions of conventions viewers on Obama's record. And he hit the campaign trail with John McCain and Sarah Palin, participating in hideous personal attacks on Obama and sharing the stage with those calling the president-elect everything from a terrorist to a Marxist.

But as I mulled a stomach made queasy over what took place yesterday, it suddenly struck me that Lieberman's main breach was far more general than any of that and it comes down to this: Joe Lieberman seriously wanted John McCain to be the next president -- and he worked damn hard to make that happen.

So it goes way beyond Lieberman's personal loyalty to a GOP Senator and some nasty comments about his own caucus's guy and becomes a startling view of what Lieberman would actually have liked to see over the next four to eight years -- and there's nothing in it that even remotely resembles being a Democrat or having the right to remain in their Senate delegation.

Because in wanting so desperately to have John McCain taking the oath of office on January 20th instead of Barack Obama, Lieberman wanted the following:

Years or decades more of endless occupation of Iraq and thousands of more dead American troops
Acceleration of al Qaeda's strength as the U.S. further ignores real threats in favor of Iraq
Greater erosion of U.S. image and prestige in the world
More charity for Big Oil while devoting zero resources to energy independence
Less oversight of Wall Street and more of the recent price we have paid
Millions more Americans without health insurance to add to 47 million who already have no coverage
More children living below the poverty line
Further debasement of our Constitution and national creed
Even more elderly making a monthly choice between food, home heating and prescription drugs
A deficit ballooning to such size that our children's children will be paying it off
Reversal of Roe v. Wade and criminalizing every woman's reproductive choice

And add to that the significant fact that, as a campaign insider, Lieberman knew for certain that Sarah Palin was an ignorant third-stringer, embarrassingly and dangerously unqualified to be so close to the Oval Office -- and yet he pushed to make that happen.

So, yes, Lieberman said terrible things about Barack Obama and stabbed every Democrat in the back in making allegations about Obama that would by extension also apply to most of them. And he deserved to have his ass kicked to the Republican side of the aisle -- or at least have his committee Chairmanship revoked for that alone.

But what's even more telling is that deep down, underneath all the words and speeches and photo opportunities with the McCain-Palin ticket, what Lieberman was really after was four to eight more years of neo-conservative Republican rule. At least four more years of the same leadership that made 80 percent of Americans believe the country was on the wrong track. And up to eight, 12 or even 16 more years of the same policies that have driven the United States to the point of social, economic and political ruin.

Beyond every outward thing Joe Lieberman did in 2008, he finally came out and admitted through his actions that he is exactly what we've always known he is -- a Republican.

That alone disqualifies him from leading a committee in a Democratic Senate or, for that matter, even sitting in the same room with the Democratic caucus.

And, for dismissing all of that, 42 Senate Democrats should be profoundly ashamed.

Begich Wins Alaska Senate Seat

2008-11-18T21:27:00.001-05:00

On a day that has us very upset over Joe "Turncoat" Lieberman getting off scot free for campaigning for John McCain and smearing President-elect Barack Obama throughout 2008, we have some great news.

The Anchorage Daily News and MSNBC are reporting at this hour that Democrat Mark Begich has defeated Republican incumbent -- and convicted felon -- Ted Stevens to win the hotly-contested Alaska Senate seat.

After 24,000 absentee and contested ballots were counted on Tuesday, Begich's lead widened to 3,724 votes and, with only 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted, it's over.

“I am humbled and honored to serve Alaska in the United States Senate,” Begich said this evening. “It’s been an incredible journey getting to this point, and I appreciate the support and commitment of the thousands of Alaskans who have brought us to this day. I can’t wait to get to work fighting for Alaskan families.”

Stevens has not yet conceded.

But this is wonderful news and a great way to end the day.

Sanders on Lieberman Keeping Committee Chairmanship

2008-11-18T15:45:00.000-05:00

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an Independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, blasted the 42-13 vote this morning that allowed Joe Lieberman to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, despite campaigning for John McCain in 2008 and participating in the smearing of President-elect Barack Obama.

“I spoke against the Lieberman motion and voted against it," said Sanders, who had made his feelings on the issue known before today's vote. "For me, the bottom line is that millions of Americans, with unprecedented energy, worked day and night to get Barack Obama elected and to move our country in a very new direction."

"I think it’s a slap in the face to these activists that someone who opposed those efforts in a very prominent way is awarded with a major committee."

And, of course, Sanders is exactly right. Stripping Lieberman of such a key committee chairmanship is the least Democrats should have done and many of us believe he should have been flat-out booted from the caucus entirely.

But at least we know we had Sanders and 12 unknown Democrats -- the vote was a secret ballot -- who had the guts to stand up and be counted on Lieberman and his despicable actions.

Lieberman To Keep Committee Chairmanship

2008-11-18T12:35:00.003-05:00

The Associated Press is reporting that the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 this morning by secret ballot to let Joe Lieberman continue as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, despite participating in McCain-Palin campaign smears of President-elect Barack Obama and speaking on behalf of McCain at the 2008 Republican National Convention.

As was predicted, Democrats only managed enough backbone to take a subcommittee chairmanship from Lieberman on the Environment and Public Works Committee.

"We're looking forward, we're not looking back," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-NV) after the vote." Is this a time when we walk out of here and say, 'Boy, did we get even?'"

"This is the beginning of a new chapter, and I know that my colleagues in the Senate Democratic Caucus were moved not only by the kind words that Senator Reid said about my longtime record, but by the appeal from President-elect Obama himself that the nation now unite to confront our very serious problems," Lieberman said after the vote.

More on this disgusting story later.

Why We Elected Him: Obama On Guantanamo And Torture

2008-11-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

If you haven't yet seen the 60 Minutes interview with President-elect Barack Obama from Sunday, it's well worth the time to watch and one of my favorite sections was the unequivocal response Obama gave when Steve Kroft asked him about using his executive-order power to fulfill campaign promises about closing Guantanamo Bay and ending torture of detainees.

When Kroft mentioned Guantanamo and prevailing interrogation methods and asked Obama if those were things he planned "to take early action on," the president-elect's response was immediate and straightforward.

"Yes. I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that," said Obama. "I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm gonna make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world."

Have a look:

Obama cannot waver on these things once in office and I would bet anything that he will not.

On Iraq, Obama also reinforced his promise to end that war saying "…I've stuck to this commitment, that as soon as I take office, I will call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my national security apparatus, and we will start executing a plan that draws down our troops."

This is the change we voted for and, even before January 20th, it's so good to see it already taking shape.

Kennedy Returns To Senate

2008-11-18T09:39:00.002-05:00

As I'm sure many of you saw on the news last night, Democratic stalwart Ted Kennedy returned to the U.S. Senate yesterday, six months after having a seizure that ultimately led to the diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor.

As someone who covers the Senate, I can tell you that Kennedy has one of the most well-run offices in the Senate and they absolutely love their boss -- so it was no surprise that a group of over 100 of them was waiting to enthusiastically greet the senior Senator from Massachusetts when he returned, under a blue-and-white banner reading, "Welcome Back Senator."

And Kennedy talked about immediately getting to work in support of President-elect Obama's agenda including of course, health care, a cause for which Kennedy has always been a national champion.

“It’s good to be back in the Senate. I am particularly looking forward to seeing my staff and my colleagues and to working in the current brief session on a realistic new stimulus package to help our fellow Americans who are suffering in this economic crisis," said Kennedy.

"I will also continue to lay the ground work for early action by Congress on health reform when President Obama takes office in January. We’ve been making real progress in our discussions about a consensus approach, and I’m optimistic we’ll succeed."

And Senator John Kerry (D-MA), his Massachusetts colleague and a very good friend, was equally enthusiastic about Kennedy's return.

"I know Teddy's excited," said Kerry. "He's pumped and ready to go."

Kennedy said he's appreciative of all the good wishes he's received from throughout the country and also cited Obama's election as a real cause for optimism.

"I am grateful for the prayers and good wishes I’ve received over the past several months," he said. "They have certainly lifted my spirits, as has the election of Barack Obama as our 44th President.”

Democrats To Vote On Lieberman This Morning

2008-11-18T06:15:00.002-05:00

When Democrats step into the Old Senate Chamber this morning for the meeting of the Senate Democratic Conference they will be there to elect leadership for the next Congress -- but that's not what anyone is paying attention to. That's because the first item on the agenda will be whether or not to strip former-Democrat Joe Lieberman of his Chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as punishment for his despicable conduct during the 2008 presidential campaign.

In addition to speaking at the Republican National Convention in support of their nominee, John McCain, Lieberman smeared President-elect Barack Obama in that same speech, saying among other things that Obama tried to cut off funding for troops serving in combat in Iraq. Lieberman then went on to campaign with McCain and Sarah Palin as they called Obama a terrorist and whatever other names they decided to use on a given day.

Today's vote will be by secret ballot but CNN, ABC News and others have reported what I am also hearing from Senate sources: That Lieberman will be allowed to stay on as chair of the Homeland Security Committee but will lose his position as Chairman of a subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee, known as the Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection Subcommittee.

If you're saying "are you kidding me?" about right now, join the club.

Why don't they just make him write "I will not backstab the entire Democratic party again" 100 times on the Senate chalkboard?

That'll show him, won’t it?

Look, Lieberman took a political gamble and lost big time. He thought John McCain would win the presidency, that he would be McCain's Secretary of Defense and could then walk away from his tarnished reputation on Capitol Hill -- so he went all in on the GOP and torched Barack Obama and everyone else in the Democratic caucus along the way.

I personally believe he should be removed from the caucus entirely and if his conduct in the last year hasn’t been enough, what would it take? Shooting the Senate Majority Leader during Morning Business?

"To reward Senator Lieberman with a major committee chairmanship would be a slap in the face of millions of Americans who worked tirelessly for Barack Obama and who want to see real change in our country," said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an Independent who has more guts than most Senate Democrats. "Appointing someone to a major post who led the opposition to everything we are fighting for is not 'change we can believe in.'"

We should know what happened by noon … But don’t expect to be happy about it.

Clinton To Campaign In Georgia Senate Race - Where's Obama?

2008-11-17T12:16:00.004-05:00

When I made my Senate-race predictions at the end of October, I guessed that Georgia would be heading to a mandatory run-off election on December 2nd -- if neither Republican Saxby Chambliss or Democratic challenger Jim Martin garnered 50 percent of the vote -- and we're now pointing straight toward that election next month.

What I also said was that Martin would win that election based on an influx of national Democratic money and some timely rallies with President-elect Barack Obama -- and for some reason that last part now looks doubtful.

The Martin campaign is reporting that former President Bill Clinton will be the featured speaker at a rally for Martin in Atlanta on Wednesday. This is great. When I said that Martin would benefit in the month leading to December 2nd by a cast of heavy hitters coming in to help him out, Bill Clinton was definitely one of the people I was talking about.

And I understand that President-elect Obama has to be incredibly busy and revving up to mend the nation after eight years of George W. Bush's dismal leadership. But given that Democrats are now knocking on the door of a 60-vote majority in the U.S. Senate and that this would help immeasurably in moving the Obama-Biden legislative agenda forward, shouldn't Obama find the time for at least a couple of quick flights down to Georgia?

Chambliss has already had John McCain stumping there for him and that cretin Zell Miller -- some call him a former Democrat -- has been a fixture touring the state with the Republican incumbent.

And while Martin is thrilled to have Clinton coming to speak on his behalf, I'm sure he's hoping the real big-ticket campaigner will find time to head south.

"I am honored to have President Clinton join me in Georgia once again and proud to have the support of such a tireless advocate for the middle class," said Martin of the event coming on Wednesday. "President Clinton and I share a common goal of helping President-elect Obama fix our economy and get our country working for middle class Georgians again."

Given what a massive draw he is and how incredibly motivating he is to Democratic voters, President-elect Obama needs to put this election on his radar screen and make an overt effort to get Chambliss out of the Senate and Martin in.

In a revealing bit of polling , a Survey USA poll reports that 15 percent of Georgia respondents say that a visit from John McCain would make it more likely that they would turn out for the run-off election -- while 30 percent say that Obama making a campaign appearance for Martin will have the same effect.

With Martin still behind Chambliss in recent polling, partisan turnout will rule the results on December 2nd and Obama's popularity and appeal could be what drives this seat into the Democratic column.

It just makes sense. What do you think, Rahm Emanuel?

Update: I've received quite a few e-mails and seen comments from people suggesting that maybe I am clueless about how much work President-elect Obama has on his plate or how he shouldn’t have to bother with something like the Georgia Senate race. Just to clarify, I didn’t say that Obama should grab a bunk on the Martin campaign bus for the next two weeks. I'm suggesting that he take a short flight, one or two times, and help Martin take a Senate seat that's both important to the Democratic party and to the Obama presidency.

Achieving 60 Senate seats probably isn’t as important on a day-to-day basis as some of us may make it sound. But every seat counts and, with some of President-elect Obama's winning mojo, this one is attainable.

"A president has to be able to do more than one thing at a time," Obama said when John McCain pulled his silly stunt of pretending he could not campaign and be a Senator at the same time. And our President-elect is certainly capable of a couple of speeches for Martin while he does his good work between now and December 2nd.

Alaska Senate Update: Begich Leads

2008-11-17T11:11:00.003-05:00

In news that continues to give us faith that the people of Alaska may, by a small margin, yet choose not to reelect a convicted felon to represent them in the U.S. Senate, the Anchorage Daily News reports that most of the state's outstanding 80,000 ballots have been counted and that Democrat Mark Begich now maintains a solid lead over Republican incumbent Ted Stevens.

With 24,000 ballots left to count -- 16,000 questioned and absentee ballots from Anchorage and about 8,000 absentee ballots from the Southeast and the Kenai Peninsula -- Begich, the current Mayor of Anchorage, holds a lead of 1,022 votes as of Friday.

The Division of Elections will count the remaining ballots on Tuesday.

With so many of the remaining votes to come from Anchorage, where Begich is well-known and popular, there is little chance that Stevens will retain the Senate seat he has held for 40 years.

However, according to the Daily News, Begich is expecting there to be a full recount in December and has begun appealing to supporters for donations, saying that they need "to prepare for the onslaught of Republican lawyers we expect to come from the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign to fight on behalf of Senator Stevens."

Fair enough, I say. There's nothing wrong with a legitimate recount... But given that they are crooks and they would be representing one in Stevens, let's just make sure we don't let the RNC steal this one.

Today In The Senate

2008-11-17T08:30:00.000-05:00

The Senate will convene at 12:00 noon and proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

This Week's Senate Committee Schedule

2008-11-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

The U.S. Senate will be in a somewhat limited lame-duck session this week with only a few committee meetings and hearings scheduled.

One that people will be watching happens in the Banking Committee on Wednesday when they will consider George W. Bush's nomination of Neil Barofsky to be the Treasury Department's point person overseeing the Wall Street bailout. If confirmed, Barofsky will be charged with monitoring the $700 billion financial rescue plan passed by Congress.

Here's the full Senate Committee schedule for the week:

Armed Services

Nov 18, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. To consider pending nominations and to consider and approve the report of the Committee’s inquiry into the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.

Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Nov 18, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Examining the State of the Domestic Automobile Industry

Nov 19, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. Nomination Hearing, Mr. Neil M. Barofsky , Special Inspector General , Troubled Asset Relief Program

Budget

Nov 19, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. The Economic Outlook and Options for Stimulus

Finance

Nov 17, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. Pending Nominations Hearing

Nov 19, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. Health Care Reform: An Economic Perspective

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Nov 17, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. Hearings to examine the nomination of Robert W. McGowan, of Nevada, to be a Governor of the United States Postal Service.

Nov 17, 2008 at 02:30 p.m. Hearings to examine the nominations of Kathryn A. Oberly, to be an Associate Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, Alfred S. Irving, Jr., to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and Paul A. Quander, Jr., to be Director of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia.

Judiciary

Nov 18, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. Hearings for the return of subpoenas regarding legal analysis and advice from the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel related to the Bush administration's terrorism policies, including detention and interrogation policies and practices.

Nov 19, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. “Helping Families Save Their Homes: The Role of Bankruptcy Law”

President-Elect Obama's Saturday Radio Address

2008-11-16T06:00:00.001-05:00

In case you missed it, this was President-elect Barack Obama's Saturday radio address, which they will also be regularly making available as a web video:

It's nice to see someone looking and sounding like a president, isn't it?

The Saturday Cartoons

2008-11-15T00:05:00.000-05:00

* * * * *
In "State-Run Sacrament," Right-Wing Ralphie shows how anti-gay bigotry really does support heterosexual marriage…

Click on the screenshot above or go here to see it.

* * * * *
And our friends at Headzup give us their take on the get-together between Vice President-elect Joe Biden and Dick Cheney this week.

* * * * *And The Onion brings us home with one that's a couple of weeks old but is still good: Barbara Bush Runs Aground Off Coast Of Maine:

* * * * *Thanks to all who have come to visit from other sites -- I'm glad you're here. But please know that this blog is about far more than the Saturday cartoons. They're merely a diversion and provide a humorous take on what's really on our minds. I primarily cover the U.S. Senate but also write about presidential politics and White House activities as well. So please take a look around beyond the 'toons -- and come back soon.

All cartoons are posted with the artists' express permission to BobGeiger.com. Please visit the following sites to see more work from these fine cartoonists:

Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle
Tony Auth, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Jeff Danziger, Syndicated Political Cartoonist
Matt Davies, NY Journal News
Walt Handelsman, Newsday
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol's World
Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jack Ohman, Portland Oregonian
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Bill Sanders, Retired Syndicated Cartoonist
Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman

BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite Of The Week

2008-11-14T11:35:00.000-05:00

Hey, it's Friday, which means it's time to check out BuzzFlash's "GOP Hypocrite Of The Week." As always, it's a grueling process to narrow the selection to just one Republican hypocrite, and this week BuzzFlash went with a guy named John McCain. And it's not for an entire presidential campaign filled with hypocrisy as you might reasonably expect.

BuzzFlash's choice is based on far more recent evidence in the form of the Arizona Senator going to Georgia to campaign for Saxby Chambliss -- who McCain pretty much called on being a scumbag for smearing Max Cleland in 2002 -- and against a fellow Vietnam Veteran in Democrat Jim Martin.

An excerpt:
But in order to tell this story, we have to go back to the tale of how Chambliss got his Senate seat in the first place. In 2002, Chambliss painted incumbent Sen. Max Cleland, a Vietnam veteran who'd lost three limbs in the war, as being too cowardly to face a post-9/11 world. Chambliss' campaign ad showed Osama bin Laden's face melting into an image of Cleland.

At the time, the ads were denounced by many, even some Republicans. McCain said this in response to the ad:

"Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to a picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield -- it's worse than disgraceful, it's reprehensible."

During Vietnam, Chambliss received five student deferments and one medical deferment (bad knees, apparently), entirely avoiding service. Yet he can often be seen stumping in military gear and on bases around his home state. Chambliss didn't have a record of his own to stand on, so apparently he felt he had to stomp all over Cleland's.

Still, McCain, the nation's favorite POW, has been able to forgive Chambliss for his disgrace. Well, maybe Chambliss has had a big turnaround since then. Let's look at his voting record.
You can read the rest at GOPhypocrites.com and see a historical list of BuzzFlash's other worthy selections.

Obama Officially Resigns From Senate

2008-11-14T09:31:00.001-05:00

I never thought I would be this happy to see a Democrat quitting the United States Senate.

President-elect Barack Obama announced on Thursday that he is making his resignation from the Senate official and that his resignation will be effective on Sunday.

"It has been one of the highest honors and privileges of my life to have served the people of Illinois in the United States Senate," said Obama, in a statement yesterday. "In a state that represents the crossroads of a nation, I have met so many men and women who've taken different journeys, but hold common hopes for their children's future."

"It is these Illinois families and their stories that will stay with me as I leave the United States Senate and begin the hard task of fulfilling the simple hopes and common dreams of all Americans as our nation's next President."

Now the task of appointing Obama's Senate replacement falls to Illinois' Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich and it is expected that he will make that choice in December to give the appointee time to assemble staff and other operations before the new Congress convenes in January.

Conventional D.C. wisdom has the short list for Obama's replacement as Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., Representative Jan Schakowsky, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Iraq war veteran (and former Congressional candidate) Tammy Duckworth, who is currently the head of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Obama's successor would serve until the next national election in 2010 and would run then for a full six-year term.

A Lieberman Press Release For All Senate Democrats

2008-11-14T07:28:00.000-05:00

The United States Senate is a relatively small legislative body where members typically enjoy long tenure and develop deep political bonds and personal friendships. So I understand that it must be incredibly difficult for Senate Democrats to do what they must and deny Senator Joe Lieberman further chairmanship of the Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee and to so marginalize him in the Democratic caucus.

I know it's not easy, so I want to help.

For the consideration of all staffers of Senate Democrats, I offer this suggestion for how to announce such a painful, but entirely necessary, decision.

* * * * * *
It is with deep regret and sadness that I announce I am unable to support my colleague, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut in his quest to retain his position as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee in the 111th Congress.

I have known and admired Senator Lieberman for many years, and had been willing to accept his continued support for President Bush's disastrous Iraq policy as a philosophical and political difference that, while considerable, still left room for me to work with him on a range of other issues and to find common ground.

But with his support of the Republican nominee in the 2008 presidential campaign and his persistent and active participation in events and forums that smeared and discredited President-elect Barack Obama in intentionally misleading and despicable ways, I believe Senator Lieberman has revealed beliefs and values that are inconsistent with the Democratic party and the President-elect's mandate from the people.

President-elect Obama inherits significant economic and political challenges when he takes office in January and, under a Democratic Senate, a committee as vital as Homeland Security can simply no longer be led by one who has abandoned our party's core principles and who stood by mutely and with no oversight as President Bush debased our Constitution and our national creed, while also diminishing our nation's security posture.

The United States Senate is well known as an extraordinarily collegial and deliberative body and this is not a move any of us wanted to make. But Senator Lieberman has clearly decided for himself that he no longer wishes to be a part of the majority leadership and with his many actions has effectively resigned his committee chairmanship -- we are merely finalizing a decision of his own making.

Therefore, I will vote in the Senate Democratic Conference meeting next week to strip Senator Lieberman of his Chairmanship of the Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee.

# # #

Did Republicans See The Same Election We Did?

2008-11-13T11:30:00.001-05:00

OK, I admit it -- I modified the Stop-the-Liberals web banner the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is using to make it even spookier than they're already trying to make things… The NRSC sent out an e-mail blast on Wednesday trying to rally their discouraged flock in support for Saxby Chambliss holding on to his Georgia Senate seat and featuring ultra-conservative Orrin Hatch (R-UT) attempting to -- you guessed it -- make people afraid of Barack Obama.

How did that work out for you guys on November 4th?

And they even threw in some Moveon.org for good measure.

"MoveOn.org has already airdropped $217,741 into Georgia's crucial Senate runoff," writes Hatch. "Why? Barack Obama and MoveOn.org need Georgia's Senate seat to seize complete control of government."

"And to thank them, their candidate Jim Martin has promised to rubberstamp Obama's far-left agenda... Please donate $25 today to stop the liberals from gaining an unstoppable, filibuster-proof majority for Barack Obama."

Seize complete control of the government?

First of all, just like in 2006, the GOP had their asses handed to them in the Congressional elections last week. Those pesky voters decided that not only did they still want a Democratic Congress, they wanted more Democrats in the House and the Senate.

As for Obama's "far-left agenda," Republicans must be trying to make their lemming-like herd afraid of the majority of their fellow Americans given that Obama wiped John McCain out by over 200 electoral votes and won the popular vote by eight million ballots.

Obama's goals are not a "far-left agenda" but the roadmap that the majority of Americans want for the future.

But rather than live with that mandate from the people, the Republican party resorts to their favorite weapon, and now, the only thing they have left -- fear.

Chambliss Returns To Slimy Campaign Roots

2008-11-13T09:30:00.002-05:00

You thought we were done for the year, didn't you?

We saw Barack Obama run the McCain-Palin slime gauntlet for months, while watching him called a terrorist and a socialist on a daily basis and witnessed a bottomless pit of ads for Congressional races in which Republicans accused Democratic candidates of everything but the Kennedy assassination -- and we thought it would all be over on November 4th.

No such luck.

As you know, we still have three undecided Senate races and Georgia's Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss is back with a lying television ad that's kind of a first cousin to the McCain offering that claimed Obama once wanted to teach sex education to kindergartners.

Coming from the same guy who in 2002 plumbed new lows by aligning triple-amputee war hero Max Cleland with Osama bin Laden in his campaign ads, Chambliss this time is entering the campaign for the December 2nd run-off election with an ad from the NRSC that's not about what good he has done for Georgians but about what fabrications should make them afraid of his opponent, Jim Martin.

"If someone solicits a child for prostitution, shouldn't it be a felony?" says the narrator in the latest piece of GOP campaign garbage. "Jim Martin doesn't think so. Martin voted against tougher penalties for people who prey on children."

Here's the ad:

It cites in little tiny print at the bottom, HB 1221, which passed the Georgia House of Representatives in 1988 and that Martin did indeed vote against.

But as Lyin' Saxby well knows, Martin was always in favor of such crimes being felonies and voted for the unified House-Senate version of the bill two week later that mandated exactly that.

The original bill as passed by the Georgia House on February 1, 1988, had a provision added that rendered the bill unconstitutional. Because Martin knew that passing an unconstitutional law would lead to expensive litigation, he voted against that version of the bill. The unconstitutional provision was removed in the Senate's rewrite and, when it returned to the House for a final vote, Martin of course voted in favor of making child solicitation a felony.

But to Chambliss, ignoring that truth on this would have been as difficult as showing some respect for a highly-decorated Vietnam Veteran like Cleland, rather than assailing his patriotism.

I'm guessing what made this even more irresistible for Chambliss and the NRSC is the fact that Martin has always fought to protect children and that instinct was galvanized when his daughter Becky was kidnapped when she was 8 years old. His child was returned safely but the experience left a mark on how important Martin considers laws protecting children -- and now he has to deal with Republicans running this particular kind of false ad?

“Georgians want someone who will work with our next president to get America’s economy back on track,” Martin spokesperson Kate Hansen said. “Instead, Saxby Chambliss is launching the same old false attacks that made him famous."

Or so infamous that we can all only hope he goes down in flames on December 2nd.

If you can spare just a few more campaign dollars, Jim Martin could use some help here.

Kyl Set To Block Obama's Non-Existent Court Nominees

2008-11-12T14:45:00.002-05:00

I've been wondering since last Tuesday what it will feel like to be on defense for the next four years with a Democratic president and Congress and I think Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is letting us know way before Barack Obama even assumes the office and the 111th Congress convenes.

With thanks to my friends at Crooks and Liars for the tip, I find out today that Kyl is already making noise about how, with no Supreme Court seats open and nobody on Team Obama even remotely talking about possible future nominees, he'll fight tooth and nail to see that President Obama's nominees are not confirmed.

Here's an excerpt from the Phoenix Business Journal:

Jon Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, warned president-elect Barack Obama that he would filibuster U.S. Supreme Court appointments if those nominees were too liberal.

Kyl, Arizona’s junior senator, expects Obama to appoint judges in the mold of U.S Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and Stephen Breyer. Those justices take a liberal view on cases related to social, law and order and business issues, Kyl said.

“He believes in justices that have empathy,” said Kyl, speaking at a Federalist Society meeting in Phoenix. The attorneys group promotes conservative legal principles.

Kyl said if Obama goes with empathetic judges who do not base their decisions on the rule of law and legal precedents but instead the factors in each case, he would try to block those picks via filibuster.

Wow. This may be the first time a new president's "honeymoon" period with Congress ends in the November before inauguration.

With the Democratic caucus sitting at 57 seats before the Senate races in Minnesota, Georgia and Alaska are even decided and with the prospect of having to oppose what might be a very popular president, Kyl's ludicrous comments have the empty ring of the chicken saying he is going to eat the fox.

But as one who has watched the Senate for many years, I will say that President-elect Obama should know that any hand he or Senate Democrats reach across the aisle will likely be bitten or urinated upon.

In other words, we have our feet on Congressional Republicans throats. This kind of talk from Kyl should reinforce the need to step down harder way before giving in to any foolish urge to let up.

Senate Guru: A Tale of Two Public Servants in Georgia

2008-11-11T10:54:00.001-05:00

And speaking of Republican Chickenhawks -- see post below referencing John Cornyn -- the always-excellent Senate Guru has an outstanding post up about the ongoing Georgia Senate race, in which they compare Democratic candidate Jim Martin, a Vietnam Veteran, with the GOP's Mr. Six Draft Deferments, Saxby Chambliss.

The piece cites Chambliss's memorable smearing of triple-amputee war hero Max Cleland in 2002 and his terrible record on Veterans' issues.

Please go check it out.

A Vet's Message To The GOP on Veterans Day -- Shove It

2008-11-11T10:05:00.000-05:00

Being from a distinctly lower middle-class family in central Nebraska, I grew up in a house where we never wanted for food or shelter, but where there was no money for luxuries and where members of my immediate and extended family had little hope of ever going to college. So I went into the military, got the original G.I. Bill -- yes, I am that old -- and decades later enjoy a healthy standard of living based on getting an incredible education and all the doors that has opened for me.

I gave to my country and my country gave back to me.

And, in purely financial terms, I'm also convinced America has more than recouped my educational costs based on 30 years of much higher wages (and associated revenue from my taxes) than I would ever have realized based on my diploma from a rural Nebraska high school.

So Veterans benefits are earned -- and they matter.

Which is why I get so disgusted whenever I see all the faux military-loving Republicans turning up on Veterans Day with their flowery pronouncements of how much we Vets mean to them when they prove at every turn that they really don’t give a damn about the troops, Veterans or military families.

Of course, Exhibit A is Iraq and the Republican party's steadfast refusal to ever allow our troops to come permanently home to their families and their continued desire to keep them bogged down in a war for nothing. But I mention the G.I. Bill specifically because of the following samples of Republican hypocrisy we see every Veterans Day:

“On Veterans Day – and every day – we thank the men and women who have fought to keep us safe and free.” - Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

"We must remember the great debt that we owe veterans and members of the armed services who fight to maintain our freedom around the world. Throughout history, our soldiers have risked their lives to defend our freedom, and we must not forget their sacrifices." - Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

“Veterans Day is our opportunity to honor America’s veterans who have courageously served our country. These brave men and women have fought to keep our nation free and secure, and we thank them and their families for their service and sacrifice on our behalf.” - Senator Bob Corker (R-TN)

"So this day, perhaps more than any other day, is a time to honor them. We owe them our respect and profound gratitude." - Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

What's the common denominator in this crew? They all were among 22 Republicans who voted against the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill, authored by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) -- a highly-decorated Vietnam Veteran -- and passed with 75 votes on May 22nd of this year.

Webb's bill brought back the full, post-service educational benefits that I and so many other Veterans have enjoyed. After three years of service, it provides tuition and fees for any in-State public college, a stipend for books and supplies and a housing allowance based on actual housing costs in the area. The benefit is extended to both active-duty troops and members of the National Guard and Reserve who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

An opportunity. A way to better oneself after sacrificing much for the country. And a nation expressing gratitude in a meaningful, tangible way.

President-Elect Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) both found time in the midst of their frenzied presidential campaigns to vote for it, while John McCain (R-AZ) couldn’t be bothered to even show up to vote on Webb's bill --probably because he wanted to be president and it would have looked bad when he voted against it.

And this instance of the GOP's true anti-Veteran sentiments, came despite the fact that some old-school and fairly conservative Veterans groups like the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars strongly supported the legislation.

So why did these patriots who wear their little flag lapel pins and festoon their SUVs with support-the-troops ribbons vote against the new G.I. Bill?

Because they were primarily afraid that, after serving in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of our military men and women might -- horror of horrors -- actually avail themselves of the benefit they so richly deserve and leave the military. Yes, people like Alexander, Corker, Kyl and Hatch want them to remain in harm's way, not going off on some college campus recovering their lives and bettering themselves.

Here's John Cornyn (R-TX), who also voted against the measure, on the Senate floor in May arguing that point:

"I know it is not his intention, but Senator Webb's bill actually would encourage people not to reenlist by providing a perverse incentive to leave early in order to obtain the benefits they would receive after 3 years of service. We need to make sure we encourage continuation of service, retention in the military in the best interests of our All-Volunteer military force."

"A perverse incentive." Amazing.

But what can you really expect from a Republican Chickenhawk like Cornyn who never served in the military himself but who loves war and considers it a "perverse incentive" to give combat Veterans an opportunity to go to college.

Hillary Clinton said it best on the Senate floor on May 22nd, 2008 when she declared "we often hear wonderful rhetoric in this Chamber in support of our troops and our veterans, but the real test is not the speeches we deliver but whether we deliver on the speeches."

And in that spirit, Senators Alexander, Corker, Kyl and Hatch -- and every other Republican who voted against this important Veterans benefit -- I hope you'll forgive this Vet today when I say that you can take your self-serving, Veterans Day press releases and shove them.

Obama Wins Nebraska Electoral Vote

2008-11-10T14:30:00.000-05:00

From our Hell-Freezing-Over Department we have the news that my home state of Nebraska has finally made me proud in a presidential election. The Omaha World-Herald reported on Saturday that President-elect Barack Obama has taken one of Nebraska's five electoral votes after it was confirmed this weekend that he won the area encompassing Omaha and some extended suburbs.

Nebraska is one of only two states (along with Maine) that separates electoral votes in presidential elections, awarding one electoral vote for each congressional district carried plus two for the statewide winner.

From the World-Herald:

Obama won 8,434 of 15,039 mail-in ballots counted Friday by Douglas County election officials. These early ballots arrived in the election commissioner's office too late to be included in Tuesday's election results.

The additional votes gave Obama a 1,260-vote lead over Republican John McCain in unofficial returns. McCain won the popular vote statewide and four electoral votes.

About 5,000 provisional ballots in Douglas County remain to be counted next week, but they are unlikely to change the 2nd District outcome. About half of such ballots typically are disqualified.

"We always knew we could do it, but it would be an uphill climb. It's great to see a little corner of Nebraska turn blue," said John Berge, state director for the Obama campaign.

So this may be as blue as we ever see my home state:

With Missouri still outstanding, this gives Obama 365 electoral votes -- or 200 more than the 162 picked up by John McCain. Presidential mandate anyone?

In other signs that even the deepest-red states may be starting to turn the corner on racism, Obama picked up a total of 41 percent of the vote in Nebraska. Not great, but that compares to the 33 percent and 32 percent won there by Al Gore and John Kerry, respectively.

So while race may still be a factor in places like Nebraska, there's evidence to suggest that the content of Obama's character -- thank you, Dr. King -- carried the day even there.

Alaska Senate Race Update

2008-11-10T13:20:00.000-05:00

With all Alaska precincts reporting, Republican incumbent Ted Stevens continues to lead Anchorage's Democratic Mayor Mark Begich by 3,257 votes out of 221,713. That would certainly be enough to call the race for convicted-felon Stevens if there were not still well over 80,000 ballots being counted to finalize the tally.

As of Friday, the Alaska Division of Elections reported that they had 81,224 uncounted ballots on hand. Absentee ballots mailed from U.S. locations on or before November 4th can continue to arrive until Friday, with ballots from overseas and military bases having until November 19th to be counted.

The final count of absentee and questioned ballots is scheduled for November 19th, with certification of the election on November 25th.

A lot of the outstanding ballots are early votes and Begich is hoping that many of those will be from enthusiastic Barack Obama supporters and that they will generally trend Democratic. There are currently almost 10,000 early votes still to be counted.

Meanwhile, the Alaska Democratic Party believes the amount of votes remaining to be counted in areas Begich won on Tuesday bodes well for the Democrat.

Stay tuned…

Georgia Senate Race Update

2008-11-10T12:01:00.000-05:00

The New York Times reports that we are indeed heading for a December 2nd run-off election in the Georgia Senate race with only 433 votes left to be counted as of Sunday and that amount being too slim to lift Republican Saxby Chambliss over the 50-percent threshold necessary to avoid another election.

John McCain has already committed to campaign for Chambliss in the next month and Democratic challenger Jim Martin, who ran about 1.5 percent behind the Republican in the general election, is lining up President-elect Barack Obama to help him garner the support necessary to win.

Libertarian candidate Allen Buckley, who got 3.4 percent of the vote last Tuesday, said he will not endorse either candidate in the runoff until one of them signs a series of pledges honoring Buckley's campaign platform. Buckley is scheduled to have the campaign “commitment form" ready this week and, among other things, it will ask each candidate to commit to reducing the federal deficit, promise to cut federal spending and support a "realistic" change to the Social Security program.

“If they don’t sign it, they won’t get my endorsement,” said Buckley.

My feeling is that if Martin can agree to Buckley's conditions with a clear conscience, he should sign it. If not, he should tell him to kiss off and focus on running a campaign with a lot of Democratic heavy hitters coming in to get even more Democrats out to vote on December 2nd.

Finally, here's a great new ad that Martin is running that harnesses Obama's victory last week and the support the President-elect is going to need in the Senate:

Obama To Begin Gutting Bush Directives Immediately

2008-11-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

If there was any doubt about the power of the U.S. presidency -- and I mean the real Constitutional powers, not the stuff invented by the Bush-Cheney regime -- we've certainly experienced the frustration of it with the Iraq war and with executive orders, that allow the president to effect the national agenda with no buy-in from Congress.

The good news is that a new president can rescind any executive orders issued by the previous president and President-elect Barack Obama is sending signals that he will hit the ground running and begin reversing some of George W. Bush's orders immediately upon taking office.

"I think across the board, on stem cell research, on a number of areas, you see the Bush administration even today moving aggressively to do things that I think are probably not in the interest of the country," said Obama's transition team leader John Podesta on Sunday. "There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that."

In addition to Bush-issued executive orders on things like stem cell research, Podesta mentioned the likelihood that Obama would reverse an order allowing for oil and gas drilling on 360,000 acres of public land in Eastern Utah.

"Previous administrations proved that there can be a balance between wilderness protection and oil and gas development," said former Bureau of Land Management Director Jim Baca, who served under President Clinton. "Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has worked tirelessly to appease the oil and gas industry no matter the cost to our national heritage of wild and untamed places."

The Sierra Club, the country's largest grassroots environmental group, also weighed in saying of the Bush administration "they have consistently weakened protections over the last eight years, and we are encouraged that the Obama team plans to act to clean up the mess when they get into office."

Look for the fire-sale of Utah land to Bush and Cheney's Big Oil buddies to end very quickly on or very shortly after January 20th.

"They want to have oil and gas drilling in some of the most sensitive, fragile lands in Utah," Podesta said. "I think that's a mistake."

And to John McCain and Sarah Palin I say, drill that, baby.

Minnesota Senate Race Update

2008-11-10T10:00:00.002-05:00

The Minnesota Senate race is the closest in that state's history and easily the tightest in the country this year and the latest count has Democrat Al Franken within 221 votes of catching Republican incumbent Norm Coleman.

Minnesota state law mandates a total recount for races with such a close margin.

The current status is that each of the state's counties is conducting a thorough review of the election results and all of those are expected to have their results certified by November 11. The Minnesota Canvassing Board will certify each county's election results on November 18 -- at which point the Minnesota Secretary of State will begin the full recount, which is expected to take several weeks.

Why so long?

Every single vote will be recounted by hand -- remember Florida in 2000? As many as four people will examine each ballot, with the county election judges doing the recounting and representatives from each campaign standing by as witnesses.

“The process of humans creating errors is the same wherever you are on the planet,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. “We’ve built a system that people trust, and that reputation includes being able to administer very large recounts very accurately, and put transparency and accuracy as a top priority in the system.”

And I don’t know if every Republican has a chip implanted in them by the RNC that makes them automatically want to stop votes from being counted, but Coleman is up to the GOP's old tricks of trying to stop the counting of all ballots. Fortunately, a Ramsey County judge on Saturday ruled against Team Coleman in their bid to stop the counting of all Minnesota ballots legitimately cast on election day but that did not reach county offices by midnight that day due to overwhelmed poll workers falling behind schedule.

In other words, there's no question they are legitimate votes but, if you're a Republican, you use any technicality you can to keep them from being counted.

Here's a Franken campaign press conference that explains it better than I can:

Let's see what Coleman's crew comes up with next.

The Saturday Cartoons

2008-11-08T01:15:00.004-05:00

It's a big day for the Saturday Cartoons… Our historic week and the election of President-elect Obama -- love that new title -- has made our cartoonist friends so prolific this week that I'm running more 'toons than I ever have.

In addition, I am delighted to announce that Bill Sanders has joined our line-up after graciously giving me permission to run his work.

A retired political cartoonist for the Milwaukee Journal and King Features Syndicate, Bill has produced thousands of editorial cartoons and appeared in over 200 newspapers and magazines. He has been featured in Newsweek Magazine and on CBS, NBC, National Public Television and Radio and BBC of London.

Thanks to Bill for his generosity… Please pay a visit to his web site and take a look at his latest book "Whopperland II The Last Chapter," which examines the long-awaiting departure of George W. Bush.

And now, on with the cartoons.

* * * * *The Onion scares us this week with two pieces… The first shows what our future may hold in "Voting Machines Elect One Of Their Own As President."

And are we all really… this bad?

* * * * *Thanks to all who have come to visit from other sites -- I'm glad you're here. But please know that this blog is about far more than the Saturday cartoons. They're merely a diversion and provide a humorous take on what's really on our minds. I primarily cover the U.S. Senate but also write about presidential politics and White House activities as well. So please take a look around beyond the 'toons -- and come back soon.

All cartoons are posted with the artists' express permission to BobGeiger.com. Please visit the following sites to see more work from these fine cartoonists:

Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle
Tony Auth, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Jeff Danziger, Syndicated Political Cartoonist
Walt Handelsman, Newsday
Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Morin, Miami Herald
Jack Ohman, Portland Oregonian
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman

Great Picture To End Week

2008-11-07T15:42:00.001-05:00

No further comment required...

DeMint Calls for Stevens' Expulsion From Senate

2008-11-07T15:00:00.004-05:00

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate, is apparently leaning hard on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to give convicted-felon Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska the boot before the 111th Congress even convenes in January.

According to Politico, DeMint is rejecting Stevens' contention that his Senate colleagues should postpone judgment until an appeal is heard on his recent seven felony convictions, while demanding that McConnell show leadership on the issue during November's lame-duck Senate session.

More from Politico:

DeMint, one of the most conservative members of the Senate, is said to be angry with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for tolerating a convicted felon in the GOP caucus.

McConnell called on Stevens to resign last week after the Alaska senator was convicted on seven federal felony counts. McConnell said there was “zero chance” Stevens wouldn’t be expelled from the Senate if he didn’t resign — but he also made it clear that Stevens would have a chance to appeal his conviction first.

Stevens, who has rebuffed calls to quit, claims he has “not been convicted yet” because he still has the right to appeal.

Expulsion of a sitting Senator requires a 67-vote majority and all of this is, of course, predicated on Stevens surviving his election challenge from Democrat Mark Begich -- those votes are still being counted in Alaska.

Maybe I'm just a cruel person, but the only reason I would like to see Stevens return to the Senate is to see Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) immediately refer this to the Senate Ethics Committee. With that committee chaired by one of our favorites, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Stevens might just take himself out rather than have to answer to her.

Byrd To Step Down As Senate Appropriations Chair

2008-11-07T14:33:00.003-05:00

Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), the longest-serving member in the history of the U.S. Senate and the oldest current member of Congress, announced today that he will resign his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee effective January 6.

"A new day has dawned in Washington, and that is a good thing," said Byrd in a statement. "For my part, I believe that it is time for a new day at the top of the Senate Appropriations Committee."

"I want to stress that this is a decision I made only after much personal soul searching, and after being sure of the substantial Democratic pickup of seats in the Senate. I am now confident that stepping aside as Chairman will not adversely impact my home state of West Virginia."

Byrd, who also served as Senate Majority leader for 12 years, has been in the Senate for 50 years and has been a member of the Appropriations Committee that entire time.

Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), who has also served a lengthy term on the committee, is Byrd's obvious replacement as chairman and the West Virginia Senator strongly endorsed that move.

"Senator Daniel Inouye has stood in line for many years and now his time has come," said Byrd. "He is my friend. He is a genuine American hero. He will be a skillful and fair Chairman of the Appropriations Committee because he is a man of outstanding character and great wisdom."

And Byrd took the time in his announcement to say how thrilled he is with the results of Tuesday's presidential election and to continue serving in the Senate.

"To be serving in the Senate at such a momentous time in our history fills me with enormous pride. I endorsed President-elect Obama because I believed that we had taken the wrong course both at home and abroad. I am delighted with his victory," he said"

"I thank God for the long life He has granted me and for the opportunity He has given me to assist this great country through long service in this magnificent institution, the United States Senate. I look forward to the years ahead and to making a contribution to a better, stronger America."

BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite Of The Week

2008-11-07T09:46:00.000-05:00

Hey, it's Friday, which means it's time to check out BuzzFlash's "GOP Hypocrite Of The Week." As always, it's a grueling process to narrow the selection to just one Republican hypocrite, and this week BuzzFlash went with GOP pundit Bill Kristol for being so incredibly wrong so much of the time and then trying to disown the nonsense he has spewed:

An excerpt:
How many times do you have to be profoundly wrong to lose your line in rotation as a D.C. insider spokesperson?

The damage done by Kristol has been real and deadly. He was a key cheerleader for the Iraq War, for Guantanamo, for the reign of fear in the United States, for going to war with Iran. And it goes on and on.

All you can say is that being around Kristol is like sitting next to a dirty bomb; he's radioactive with failure.

In fact, Kristol is credited with "discovering" Sarah Palin while on a cruise of right-wing honchos who docked in Juneau and met with the Alaskan governor. Of course, as Palin turned out to be a nitwit, Kristol then called for the McCain campaign staff to be fired.
You can read the rest at GOPhypocrites.com and see a historical list of BuzzFlash's other worthy selections.

Reid Statement On Today's Meeting With Lieberman

2008-11-06T16:46:00.001-05:00

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) issued the following statement today following a long-awaited meeting with Joe "Turncoat" Lieberman:

“Today Senator Lieberman and I had the first of what I expect to be several conversations. No decisions have been made. While I understand that Senator Lieberman has voted with Democrats a majority of the time, his comments and actions have raised serious concerns among many in our caucus. I expect there to be additional discussions in the days to come, and Senator Lieberman and I will speak to our caucus in two weeks to discuss further steps.”

I like that…"…his comments and actions have raised serious concerns among many in our caucus."

That's a nice way of saying that many Senate Democrats want Lieberman's ass kicked over to the Republican side of the aisle where he belongs.

Funny thing how supporting George W. Bush on lying us into a war with Iraq and campaigning for the opposition party's presidential candidate, while trashing President-elect Obama at the other side's national convention makes one unwelcome in the Democratic Caucus.

It's just a world gone mad isn't it, Joe?

Merkley Ousts Smith In Oregon

2008-11-06T15:29:00.001-05:00

In another outstanding pickup for Senate Democrats, Jeff Merkley, speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, has been declared the winner over Republican incumbent -- and Bush rubber-stamper -- Gordon Smith in this year's hotly-contested Oregon Senate race. The most recent totals have Merkley at 49 percent to 46 percent for Smith, with a margin of over 43,000 votes for the Democrat.

Merkley said that the Republican called him this morning to congratulate him and offer help in the transition.

"This is the beginning of a transformational change for America," Merkley said at a news conference at Portland State University today, adding that he would work closely with President-elect Barack Obama "to put this nation back on track."

"I am deeply humbled by the trust you have put in me. It is tremendous. Thank you," said Merkley on the front page of his campaign web site today. "Thank you for your support and for your vote. I am deeply humbled to be your next U.S. Senator."

"Onward for change"

Yes, indeed.

Two Million Visitors

2008-11-06T14:52:00.000-05:00

At 2:38:23 pm this afternoon, someone from beautiful San Francisco became the two-millionth visitor to this web site.

This milestone isn’t that big a deal to the multi-blogger sites like the wonderful blogs Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake and AmericaBlog but to a sole proprietorship like mine, it's a good feeling.

Thanks so much for all of your support and for continuing to come back and tell your friends.

With President-elect Obama and widening majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, things look a lot brighter than they did when I started doing this.

And now, on with the show.

Alaska Senate: Alaskans OK With Convicted Felon

2008-11-06T13:55:00.003-05:00

Let me be blunt: What the hell is wrong with people in Alaska?

Just weeks ago, their Republican-incumbent Senator Ted Stevens was convicted on not one, but seven felony corruption charges for lying on Senate ethics forms and yet at this point it looks like the majority of them still decided the crook should represent them in the United States Senate.

I guess in a heavily-Republican state, being a convicted criminal puts one in the mainstream of political life.

The race is not yet decided with the latest results from the Alaska Secretary of State's office showing Stevens with 48.1 percent of the vote and Democrat Mark Begich, the Mayor of Anchorage, coming in at 46.6 percent.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, the election remains undecided because there are still more than 60,000 absentee and questioned ballots to be examined and counted and, as small as Alaska's population is, that's a sizable percentage of the total vote and the outcome could easily change.

The final count may not come for days and the Elections Division has up to 15 days after the election to count the remaining ballots before certifying the count.

Everyone understands that Stevens is a pork-toting hero to people in Alaska -- the state Legislature even named the Anchorage airport after him -- and that his spot on the Senate Appropriations Committee has allowed him to direct billions of dollars to his state so it looks like even felony convictions won’t try the loyalty of some people.

But the amazing part of this is that even if Stevens manages to get reelected, he will almost certainly be expelled from the Senate immediately upon the 111th Congress convening. It takes a two-thirds Senate vote to kick a sitting Senator out of office and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has made it clear that this will definitely happen.

"The reality is that a convicted felon is not going to be able to serve in the United States Senate," said Reid in a statement. "And as precedent shows us, Senator Stevens will face an ethics committee investigation and expulsion, regardless of his appeals process."

Even the Senate's Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, says Stevens should not come back to the Senate, saying that "if he is re-elected and the felony charge stands through the appeals process, there is zero chance that a senator with a felony conviction would not be expelled from the Senate."

And John McCain said it is clear that Stevens has broken his trust with the people and should step aside.

I suppose we can look at this and say these are the same people who elected Sarah Palin their leader so what can you expect? But for all the rugged individualism Alaskans like to brag about, where's a little thing called self respect?

Minnesota Senate Update: Franken-Coleman Deadlock

2008-11-06T10:36:00.004-05:00

Republican incumbent Norm Coleman continues to fight for his political life in the Minnesota Senate race with the contest still undecided as of this morning. The count still stands at 1,211,644 for Coleman to 1,211,167 for Democratic challenger Al Franken -- or an amazing margin of only 477 votes out of over 2.4 million ballots cast.

(Isn't it astounding that anyone would still think after this and so many other incredibly close races that everyone's vote doesn’t matter?)

The tight vote difference falls easily within the requirements for Minnesota's mandatory recount law, that states that a recount must commence if the margin between the top two candidates is less than one-half of one percent.

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said the recount won't begin until the middle of this month, will likely stretch into December and involve local election officials from around the state. Ritchie said that the recount will happen at about 100 locations and that county election officials will team with counterparts from larger cities to go over each and every ballot to determine voter intent -- much like we saw in Florida after the 2000 presidential election.

"Our goal is to ensure that every vote is properly counted," said Franken in a statement Wednesday. "The process, dictated by our laws, will be orderly, fair, and will take place within a matter of days. We won't know for a little while who won this race, but at the end of the day, we will know that the voice of the electorate was clearly heard."

"We are lucky enough to live in a state with built-in protections to ensure that in close elections like these, the will of the people is accurately reflected in the outcome."

Georgia Senate Update: Run-Off Election Coming?

2008-11-06T09:28:00.003-05:00

While I predicted that the Georgia Senate race between Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin would go to a run-off contest on December 2, I didn’t think Chambliss would come this close to the 50-percent vote requirement to win the race outright on Tuesday.

The latest report from the Georgia Secretary of State shows Chambliss with 49.9 percent of the vote with 46.7 percent for Martin -- this is with 96 percent of precincts reporting.

Thousands of votes were still being counted late into Wednesday night but with many of those coming from Democrat-rich Fulton County -- which Barack Obama won with 69 percent of the vote -- the chances are slim that Chambliss will be pushed over 50 percent and avoid the run-off election mandated if no candidate hits that mark.

This will hopefully lead to part two of my prediction, which is that the next 28 days will leave time for a load of Democratic money to flood Georgia and, more importantly, a whole bunch of visits by high-profile people like President-elect Obama to help Martin close the gap and win it the second time around.

The December 2 runoff will not be officially called until Tuesday's vote is certified -- that could happen by tomorrow or maybe not until next week -- but both candidates believe that will occur and are staying in full campaign mode for that likely outcome.

"We're going to win on December 2nd, because this race is going to be about helping President-elect Barack Obama get our economy back on track and making the economy work for the middle class again," said Martin on Wednesday. "This isn't going to be a difficult race for anybody to figure out. I'm going to do everything I can to help Barack Obama get off to a fast start and Saxby Chambliss has promised to do everything he can to stop Barack Obama from succeeding."

Hannity.com: Is Obama Rightful Winner?

2008-11-05T19:57:00.002-05:00

OK, gang, it's no surprise to anyone outside of Fox News' troglodytic core viewership that Sean Hannity is to intellectual honesty what George W. Bush is to presidential integrity, but I sometimes still torment myself by going to Hannity's web site to see what crap he's pushing to his followers on a given day.

His little online polls are often good for a laugh -- or a good shot of disgust to keep you going during campaign season -- so for some reason I wandered over to Hannity.com this evening to see what he was asking his single-digit-IQ fans about in the wake of President-elect Barack Obama's historic ascension to the White House.

Are you ready? Here's what Hannity asked in today's online poll: "With ACORN fraud, military ballots missing, and people voting more than once, do you believe that Obama would have won this election without all those situations?"

Nope, I'm not kidding. Have a look:

There's not much point in breaking down the sheer idiocy in any right-winger even having the nerve to question voting integrity, given their support of GOP-sponsored stolen elections or the fact that there was no link between the Obama campaign and ACORN… Or the fact that any ACORN issues had to do with voters registered, and not those actually being allowed to vote. Or that Obama blew McCain away in total electoral votes by a huge margin and won the popular vote by well over 7 million votes.

But then, over 80 percent of respondents to Hannity's ridiculous polls also believed two weeks ago that all the pollsters were wrong about Obama's big lead over McCain:

On a day when America is celebrating a new beginning and a historic election that has us feeling hopeful and the rest of the world looking at us in an entirely new light, Hannity chooses to imagine foul play, smear the rightful winner and act like the big crybaby we've always known the Republicans to be.

So there you have it… Among life's certainties, there's death, taxes… and Sean Hannity being an enormous tool.

The Cartoons: President-Elect Obama Edition

2008-11-05T15:53:00.001-05:00

The cartoons normally come to this site on Saturdays but this is no normal day and our talented editorial-cartoonist friends wasted no time in expressing our collective joy, relief and pride -- and thus this special edition of the cartoons.

Enjoy.

* * * * *In one of her wonderful animations, Ann Telnaes captures the moving out of Bush and Cheney that's now so close.

Click on the screenshot above or go here to see it.

* * * * * All cartoons are posted with the artists' express permission to BobGeiger.com. Please visit the following sites to see more work from these fine cartoonists:

Tony Auth, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Justin Bilicki, City Pulse
Matt Davies, NY Journal News
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol's World
Steve Kelley, New Orleans Times Picayune
Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jack Ohman, Portland Oregonian
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman
Ann Telnaes, Syndicated Political Cartoonist

A New Beginning

2008-11-05T11:13:00.000-05:00

It's Time

2008-11-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

Vote… And hope.

Special thanks to Renere Lopez of Renere Studios for this beautiful graphic.