I will start by saying, I do not know nearly enough about the policy behind Tester’s Wilderness bill. I cannot even begin to formulate a position until I read up a bit more.
I am; however, bewildered by how the process has played out.
Generally speaking, on Capitol Hill if you want to move a large piece of legislation through with multiple stakeholders, you should have the coalition locked down before you introduce the bill. You do not have your staff draft language, drop the bill, and then go to the stakeholders and ask for input. On controversial legislation you should also have someone in the other chamber to back up your proposal.
In short, if you go it alone, either with limited coalition support or support in only one chamber of Congress, you are asking for failure.
Case in point, Senator Tester’s Forest Job’s and Recreation Act. He started by putting the cart before the horse when he introduced the legislation before seeking public comment. I understand he had a core partnership of 8 or so organizations split between the logging companies and conservation groups, but he left out some big groups like the county governments and motorized use associations among others. Nor did he allow for public questions to be asked at his “open houses” explaining the bill.
He then waited until January 15th to invite Representative Rehberg to a meeting on the issue. That invite only occured because Rehberg held 22 public meetings on the issue over the Holiday break. Most of the press coverage coming from those meetings highlighted shortcomings on the legislation. Tester’s invite looks less like a cordial gesture to join in the process and more like a CYA move. Senator Tester should have included Rehberg, or at least kept his staff apprised of possible legislative language changes, as the summer and fall moved along. Instead Senator Tester shut Montana’s House delegation out of the proceedings.
The Senator hung himself to dry by dictating to people rather than getting input. What a shocker that those groups might push back a little after being left completely out of the process. Senator Tester looks like an amateur and is rightfully being taken to task for how he and his office conducted their legislative campaign on the Forest Jobs bill.
For what it is worth, I don’t really see a point to Representative Rehberg and Senator Tester meeting in Montana on this one. Meet in D.C. Open it to the press, get the stakeholder groups on a conference call, etc. is all fine, but requesting the meeting be back in Montana is a bit over the top with political grandstanding.
Posted in Montana, Politics.
Tagged with Dennis Rehberg, Environment, Jon Tester.
By Mead
– January 27, 2010
Some creative folks out in Ohio mocking the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signs.
If subtlety is not your cup of tea, try the Rehberg approach. Nothing wrong with a little truth in advertising.
Posted in Politics.
Tagged with Economy.
By Mead
– January 27, 2010
Simply a must read article.
Despite President Obama’s long history of criticizing the Bush administration for “sweetheart deals” with favored contractors, the Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned.
The contract, awarded on Jan. 4 to Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc., a Washington-based firm owned by economist and Democratic donor Vincent V. Checchi, will pay the firm $24,673,427 to provide “rule of law stabilization services” in war-torn Afghanistan.
Lest you think Checchi & Company Consulting provides a unique service to warrent a no-bid deal.
Sources confirmed to Fox News that Checchi & Company is but one of a number of private firms capable of performing the work in Afghanistan for which USAID retained it.
For example, DPK Consulting, based in San Francisco and with offices in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere, states on its website that it has contracted with USAID and other federal agencies on more than 600 projects involving “governance and institutional development” across five continents.
Among DPK’s most recent projects are the establishment of a new public prosecutor’s office in Jenin, in the troubled West Bank area of the Palestinian Authority, and the improvement of court facilities in the Kyrgyz Republic in Central Asia. Similarly, BlueLaw International, based in Virginia, was awarded a $100 million contract by the State Department in April 2008 to strengthen the “rule of law” in Iraq.
Once the USAID operation in Haiti has stabilized, Rajiv Shah should be fired. This is a flagrent violation of the sole source exemption rules and makes a mockery of a key pledge by the administration.
Posted in Politics.
Tagged with Foreign Policy, President Obama.
By Mead
– January 25, 2010
The gang over at Electric City Weblog put up a nice summary of the decision.
The bottom line for me is that the FCC needs to be reigned in. The agency is claiming vast authority on the grounds of McCain-Feingold that defy reason. For example, during the case hearing, FCC officials claimed the power to regulate articles or books read via Kindle, since they are set to the user through satellite. Other high points were the claims the FCC could ban books if they directly advocate for a candidate, forbid books from being published if they are financed by unions, and of course prevent movies from being shown on cable on-demand services. I will put it simply, if the Government is claiming the authority to ban books, I am opposed.
A couple other random thoughts;
- I agree with the majority regarding media corporations. Before the decision yesterday, companies such as GE enjoyed an unfair political advantage through their ownership of MSNBC and NBC News. While those networks often disclosed their relationship, GE was free to editorialize on air throughout the campaigns. Companies such as Boeing cannot. That matter of fairness has now been addressed.
- The impact of corporate and union money on the upcoming elections will be overstated. The biggest change for the voter won’t be in the content or number of ads, but how they are paid for. Take PhRMA for instance, rather than create a front group with the SEIU called Americans for Stable Quality Health Care to air their ads, Pfizer can now directly pay for the ad. The disclosure laws are still in place too.
- I would expect a number of corporations to adopt new shareholder rules regarding the amount of money available to be spent on elections. Shareholder rights will decrease under this ruling. Previously, employees, members of a trade association, etc. could elect to opt-in by donating to the political arm of the union or corporation. Now, funds may be spent directly from the general treasury without the express consent of the membership or shareholders. However, I agree with the majority. Such concerns are not enough justification for the outright prohibition of corporate or union spending. Instead, the prudent measure would be for companies to independently set up new guidelines on political spending.
Finally, supporters of this decision need to realize and come to terms with the fact the manner in which this case was handled was “activist.” The Justices dismissed the original Citizen’s United complaint, in agreement with the lower courts, but they then took an additional step to call the two sides back on the issues ruled on yesterday.
Posted in Politics.
Tagged with 2010 Elections, Supreme Court.
By Mead
– January 22, 2010
Today, the Supreme Court, of Chief Justice John Roberts, in a decision that might actually have more dire implications than “Dred Scott v Sandford,” declared that because of the alchemy of its 19th Century predecessors in deciding that corporations had all the rights of people, any restrictions on how these corporate-beings spend their money on political advertising, are unconstitutional.
No.
Or to elaborate; I do not believe that the decision to nullify the 30-day blackout period for advertisements prior to an election will have as a dire of consequences as a decision to rule that one man can legally be the property of another.
Take a break Keith, I think what little is left of your mind was broken on Tuesday.
Update: Alan “Republicans Want You Die!” Grayson hopped on the hyperbole train with the same comparison. Basically, what I am left with here is that in far-left land corporations being able to fund issue ads within 30 days of an election = slavery. Seems reasonable.
Posted in Politics.
Tagged with Alan Grayson, Gasbags.
By Mead
– January 22, 2010
I am sure one topic of conversation in the aftermath of Massachusetts will be what happened with the 18-29 vote?
While the rest of the state turned out at a 57% rate, just 15% of young people showed up at the polls. A staggering drop off from the 2008 election.
A couple cautionary notes on those numbers. The special election was held on January 19th. Massachusetts is a college heavy state and many universities had not yet returned from winter break, those that had held their first day of classes on Tuesday. This timing also meant the GOTV operations largely missed the campuses since no one was there. Given young people trend towards the Democratic party it ended up hurting Coakley more than Brown.
Those are just my impressions. It does not fully explain where the 22-29 year olds were at, but it is something to consider.
Posted in Politics.
Tagged with 2010 Elections.
By Mead
– January 21, 2010
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to overturn a 20 year old ruling which restricted how corporations and unions could finance campaign expenditures.
The five conservative justices joined in the majority while the four liberals dissented.
As important as this ruling is in upholding free speech, it is important to note, the prohibitions on direct contributions to candidates from corporations or unions are still in place. This ruling only applies the use of general treasury funds for political purposes.
I am not quite sure what I think will be the effect going into this year’s midterms. Politico, in their write up, briefly mentioned the strange bedfellows involved in this case.
The chamber, as well as the GOP-aligned National Rifle Association, filed briefs in the case supporting the conservative non-profit group challenging the rules, though so did the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations or AFL-CIO.
All in all a good day for free speech advocates.
Posted in Politics.
Tagged with Supreme Court.
By Mead
– January 21, 2010
Thank you to all of our servicemen and women deployed to help out Haiti. I cannot fathom the conditions on the ground.
I have read that some organizations are complaining of U.S. military involvement on the island, that somehow our uniformed personnel are making decisions that will needlessly cost lives. I realize it must be frustrating for groups like Doctors Without Borders, but what our troops are doing is nothing short of amazing in my book.
Port-au-Prince has been averaging 130 inbound flights a day since the earthquake. Air traffic controllers must land, park, unload, and refuel these aircraft without the help of really any infrastructure at all. They have only five forklifts to unload, no radar to help on approaching planes, and no advanced electronics to assist with logistics. In short, the fact that only one out of 150 flights was diverted on Monday is astonishing.
I agree with Secretary of Defense Gates, I really cannot imagine what else the United States could do to improve the situation. I mean that with a sense of pride. This country has raised millions of dollars in aid contributions and has the most people on the ground in Haiti trying to get their government back up and running. My hat is off to those helping our hemispheric neighbors.
Posted in Politics.
Tagged with Foreign Policy.
By Mead
– January 20, 2010
January 22, 2009
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Promising to return America to the “moral high ground” in the war on terrorism, President Obama issued three executive orders Thursday to demonstrate a clean break from the Bush administration, including one requiring that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within a year.
I am sure it will be Bush’s fault that no solution could be found within the incrediably tight deadline of one year…
Posted in Politics.
Tagged with Foreign Policy, President Obama.
By Mead
– January 20, 2010
Well that was sure exciting. I think Senator Brown will do a great job for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I am not; however, pulling a Drudge and thinking he will run for President in 2012. One week ago hardly anyone knew who Scott Brown was and I would wager most people still don’t. So lets be happy, elated even, that Massachusetts voted in a Republican Senator for the first time since 1984 and leave it at that.
I would like to thank Senator Webb and Representative Frank, among others, for standing up and saying lets wait for Brown to be sworn in before moving on major ticket items like health care. I am sure some level of political posturing weighed in on their decision to speak up, but I am thankful nonetheless.
Finally, Congressional leadership needs to get their act together. Speaker Pelosi wants to pretend that last night’s vote had nothing to do with the health care debate in Washington. Then you have conservative Democrats coming out and saying the party should scrap health care and pivot to jobs.
To me, neither argument makes any political sense. Abandoning health care now would depress the liberal base and all but assure Republicans take back the House. Pretending either the current Senate or House bill are popular will be disastrous with independent voters as seen in Massachusetts. Democratic leadership has pinned themselves in a corner politically, I think what they will ultimately do is move forward on a limited insurance reform package, get a handful of Republican votes in the Senate and declare the issue dead for this cycle.
Who knows though? Seven days ago the talk was about having a bill to the President by his State of the Union, now the talk is about if there will be a bill at all.
Congratulations to Senator Brown. You ran a great campaign and it was a lot of fun working on it.
Posted in Politics.
Tagged with 2010 Elections, Healthcare.
By Mead
– January 20, 2010
