2009

Erick Erickson over at RedState.com has developed quite a good playbook for Conservatives, RINOs, and GOPers currently in Congress. Here's a portion of it:

The Senate, unlike the House of Representatives, has parliamentary rules and procedures that give the minority the ability to stall legislation. In fact, unlike the House, the minority have the ability to virtually paralyze the Senate. Doing so is not something we would want or expect for every bad bill that comes through Congress, but the proposed healthcare legislation is probably the worst piece of legislation ever considered by the United States Congress. It is the most intrusive, most damaging, most costly, most dangerous bill to the economic and personal freedom and liberty of individual Americans that Congress has ever considered. If there is any bill that deserves being stopped by shutting down the Senate, it is this one.

There are a whole series of parliamentary maneuvers that could be used by Republican senators to stop this bill. There is a hard backstop to the current process (Christmas). The Republicans’ goal should be to prevent Reid from passing the bill before that time. If he goes past Christmas and is forced to adjourn or recess, the momentum will shift in favor of those opposing the bill.

How could this be done?

To start with, they should stop constantly agreeing to “unanimous consent” requests from the Democrats. Senate Republicans, to date, have allowed Democrats, by unanimous consent, to process 10 amendments. The amendments that have been accepted – Democrat amendments – did not make the over 2000-page atrocity any better. The Republican strategy of trying to pass their own “message” amendments carries no message unless you consider “no strategy to kill the bill” a message. There are no amendments that could possibly make this bill a palatable piece of legislation – and any amendments the Republicans get passed that supposedly make the bill “better” may just make it easier for the Democrats to get final passage. If the Republicans want the news media to cover what they are doing to educate the American people even further about the atrociousness of this bill, they have to create drama on the floor of the Senate. And the only way to do that is through an all-out fight with no holds barred. They need to look like Braveheart, fighting to the end to save freedom. Because, in fact, it is our very freedom and liberty that is at stake.

The most powerful words in the Senate are "I object." Senate Republicans should have been shouting those two words on the Senate floor early and often from the moment this bill was considered, instead of the complete silence we have heard – other than to constantly agree to conduct business through unanimous consent. Here are just a few ways those words can (and should) be used in a very effective way:

The rules of the Senate require that a quorum be present to transact business. A quorum is 51 Senators. In most instances, outside of roll call votes, there are no more than 4 Senators on the Senate floor. If a Republican Senator suggested the absence of a quorum, Democrats could not transact business on the bill. It is a common courtesy to allow the quorum call to be dispensed with, without requiring 51 members to show up on the Senate floor (to get 51 Senators to appear without a roll call vote is very time consuming). When the Democrats ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with, the Republican should immediately shout "I object."

This is great advice to be heeded by all in the GOP. Read the rest of Erick's excellent post here.

Senator Coburn (R-Okla) was going to have the entire Senate health care bill be read aloud before it was voted on but backed down because the Senator and other members of his party thought that this tactic would play poorly in the press.

Who cares what the press thinks?

The Democrats talk all the time about how necessary this bill is to fixing health care and how it needs to be passed IMMEDIATELY yet a majority of the bill is not enacted until 2013. The most recent analysis of this bill shows us that passing this bill will be worse than doing nothing, so by stopping it we're preventing further disaster. The GOPers in Congress need to grab a microphone and/or a camera and explain this to the American people.

In other words. Fight. Don't bend. Our kids are depending on you.

(Cross posted @ The Alexandria Patriot)

Jim Tedisco in NY-20 is poised to win. He currently leads in polling and has a record of representing views contrary to that of big government.

I’m confident that our heavy hitters that have lined up in support of Tedisco, which include RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Guilliani, and Mitt Romney, will beat our opponent who happens to be a tax-cheating Venture Capitalist. His lineup includes the DCCC (1) (2), the Huffington Post, and Governor Paterson.

Like most Republicans, I want to hear about a candidate’s values, but I’m equally concerned with their ability to win. It is because of Tedisco’s ability as a candidate and the demographics of the 20th District that I have donated some of my time each week to assist the direction of New Media strategy for the campaign.

I know… they need improvements.

Today, in the spirit of the Party of Lincoln and just two days before his bicentennial, we launch an effort called: $20 for NY-20.

Equipping the grassroots with our case that will lead to victory and an energized rightroots, I believe we can surpass the 352 small donors who have contributed to our opponent through ActBlue. (accessed 2/10/09 12:06am)

Furthermore, this is the first win we’ll be able to take credit for in the 2010 cycle, sorry Saxby. This effort includes every aspect of the grassroots. Chairman Steele has officially brought in the RNC and asked State Parties to contribute $5,000 to this battle. College Republicans and online efforts like Rebuild the Party will organize, in an effort to turn online grunts into offline volunteers inside of the District. Bloggers will turn into activists and ask their readers to participate in a push to crowdsource this campaign.

This will be a New Media victory and one that can be taken to our Republican candidates across the country as a case study. We all have a stake in this.

Join in my friends and invest in this win.

I jotted down most of these just after the election.  I'll be curious as to how I'll do...

Gas prices over $3 a gallon in one year,  (I don't feel as strongly about this one as I did in November but I still think it's a probability.)

No new nuclear power plants will be approved for construction,

Union Card check will pass but surprisingly the decline of unions will not be significantly reversed.

Guantanamo will take a lot longer to close than expected and in the end the people being kept there will merely be shifted around.

In the same way the 16 month pulling out period mentioned by Obama will be adjusted so that the 'countdown' to leaving starts several months from now making it effectively a two or maybe even three year pullout.

The Justice Department is going to go so far to the left that some of even its liberal members will feel ashamed and blow the whistle.  Others will be continue to be shameless and keep the wagons circled insisting that "there's no problem here."

The Fairness Doctrine will not be revived by name but via Executive Order the FCC will create a new set of regulations that have essentially the same effect.  Big guns like Rush Limbaugh will continue to broadcast but local conservative talk show hosts and less popular national commentators will be muzzled.

Despite the fact that adult stem cells are proving to be better than those from aborted babies Federal funding for stem cell research will quickly be passed.The Republican party did not show the voters that it has learned its lesson.  I doubt that it really has.  The party is still wedded to pork.  I wonder if Newt Gingrich will be allowed back in from the cold?

For 8 years a substantial portion of the population lived with and survived the presidency of George W. Bush feeling that his policies were 100% wrong.  They were wrong to feel that way but that's how they felt.  So now the shoe is on the other foot.  We now have to deal with a President who is just wrong on so many policies that it is incredible.

But better a President Obama than a President Biden.  Obama at least will be competent.  Look at the Democrats.  Who do they have waiting in the wings to take over after Obama? 

Biden?  The man's a joke.  Pelosi?  It is to laugh.  Reid.  Never in a million years.  Maybe there's a governor out there who will come out in a few years.   Though I'm not a good one for picking future political leaders.  I certainly was blindsided by Bill Clinton.

Looking at the Republican crop of leaders there aren't many that stand out but there are afew that over time might be able to suit up; Thompson, Palin and Jindal are my favorites.The people who screamed and hollered the loudest about the supposed fascist leanings of the Bush campaign will be the ones calling the loudest for Obama's administration to adopt fascist policies and/or cheering the loudest if the Obama administration adopts polices that do border on the fascist.

Question, does anyone have a list of any of the open seats for 2009?  There must have been some appointments to the Obama administration that have left some seats vacant.  What are the potential or known open seats for the upcoming year? 

Can we start a thread here with any known seats so we can at least start a target list for next year?

Maybe something good can happen in an off year. 

Open Left's Chris Bowers provides some insight into the progressive's perception of the likely Democratic agenda for 2009...

In our attempts to build a large Democratic trifecta in Washington, D.C., what, exactly, are we fighting for? To answer that question, here is a comprehensive list of legislation that is certain to pass if Obama wins the White House, we pick up 20 more seats in the House, and 8 more seats in the Senate...

You can find the full list at his post.  Suffice it to say, from legislation that puts a thumb on the scale for Labor Unions to government price controls for health care to massive regulatory expansion, there's something there to worry everybody.....including elements of the Democratic coalition. 

But this point from Bowers should raise the most concern.

The most exciting bits are the positive, progressive feedback loops around increasing unionization (the employee free choice act) and election reform (D.C. voting rights, verified paper trails). These are laws that will make the country itself more progressive, thus building a progressive majority down the road. If we can get more of these, including sweeping media reform (about which we should be optimistic), real immigration reform, (about which I am not optimistic) and the progressive budget (which might just happen by 2011, if all goes well), then we will be on our way to a progressive majority in America that will last for an entire generation.

Policies that redistribute the media to liberal interests, make the public more dependent on liberal institutions and give the government more largesse to distribute to the public.  Policies that entrench Democratic power.

That's the agenda.