Balloon Juice - Breaking: Senate Majority Leader Schumer Has Advanced Merrick Garland's Nomination To a Final Vote

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You are here: Home / Politics / America / Breaking: Senate Majority Leader Schumer Has Advanced Merrick Garland’s Nomination To a Final Vote

Breaking: Senate Majority Leader Schumer Has Advanced Merrick Garland’s Nomination To a Final Vote

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Alert

Last week, Senator Cotton provided a long and detailed explanation as to why he was holding up Merrick Garland’s nomination to be Attorney General. Despite the long winded justification, the reality is that he was doing it because 1) he could and 2) he’s an asshole.

Senate Majority Leader Schumer didn’t say anything about Senator Cotton’s obstructionism. Instead he waited for his opening, moved to occupy the space once he had an opening, and completely destroyed Senator Cotton’s bad faith efforts.

Why yes, yes he did!

I know everyone likes to complain that Senator Schumer isn’t Harry Reid or that he’s not tough enough or that he’s not good at his job of Democratic leader, but the reality is he’s a strategic thinker, he picks his fights, and when he has the opportunities he takes them. Senator Van Hollen didn’t just stumble into advancing the American Recovery Act yesterday morning, he was there because Senator Schumer had a trusted agent in place to take advantage of Senator Johnson and the other Republican senators caring more about the optics of their stunt to slow down its passage than actually slowing down its passage. Schumer knew, because he knows his Republican colleagues, that as soon as they could flee the Senate floor to relieve themselves, get something to eat, or get some sleep that they would. And that would give him an opening to put the ARA back on track. His invoking cloture as soon as the ARA passed and the Republican senators filed out is the same type of tactic.

Merrick Garland’s nomination to be Attorney General will now proceed. Senator Cotton just got screwed on live television.

Enjoy your weekend.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  3. 3.

    Mathguy

    “Senator Cotton just got screwed on live television.”.

    Should have put it on PPV.

  5. 5.

    Honus

    Schumer actually understands procedure and is an astute at it, unlike “master of the senate” unlike Mitch McConnell who is just a rude ass hole.

  6. 6.

    Omnes Omnibus

    So there might be a reason that the Dem Senators chose Schumer as leader? Go figure.

  7. 7.

    Cheryl Rofer

    LOL, they are gaming this out and are highlighting the weak points and opportunities and then taking them.

    ❤❤❤I LOVE IT!❤❤❤

    ETA: I don’t know why the hearts are green.

  9. 9.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    OT –

    “I am really not a monster – but for this technical challenge, you’ll be using a 350 year old recipe to make pastries that no baker has attempted for 150 years. You’ll make 90 perfect miniature decorated versions which must be visually stunning while tasting delightful, all in the course of an hour and 10 minutes even though my crack Michelin-starred production staff took five hours to make our display version. I’ll also be relentlessly critical of your pathetic efforts toward winning a competition which has a top prize of a vanity engraved cake plate.

    This recipe calls for meringue, which may be a problem given today’s mugginess, and the temperature under the tent is 37 degrees C, which may present challenges on the ice cream and fondant components.

    We’ll be sending Fielding around to disrupt, annoy and distract you with his pathetic attempts of having a wit.

    If there are tears, we’ll make a concerned face and display a pretense of caring for your plight, even though we’re burdening you with tasks that would be difficult for professional, highly skilled and rated patisserie bakers with 40 years’ experience.”

    – Pru Leith, “Great British Baking Show”

  11. 11.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Just saw this tweet and was thinking about sharing

    Brian Beutler @brianbeutler ·5h
    Given a choice between Reid and Schumer, I’d pick Reid, but something I believe in my bones: If Schumer figures out a way to moot the filibuster and pass HR1 and the John Lewis Act, he’ll go down as the greatest congressional leader since LBJ. Either party, either chamber.

    I haven’t always been the biggest Schumer fan, but I think all through the trump/McConnell years he played a tough hand about as well as anybody could expect. I’m hard pressed to imagine how Reid, or even the most apocryphal version of LBJ in all the imaginations of all the Green Lanternists of twitter, could handle today’s politics much better

    ETA: when I heard about this, and saw a different tweet saying that R’s had left in exhaustion, I started thinking about which caucus has the higher average age, but then I thought at least as much as Grassley and Shelby wanted a nap, I bet Cotton, Cruz and Hawley were all bee-lining for the nearest Fox camera to denounce Sosh’lism!

  12. 12.

    Gemina13

    Tom Cotton is the asshole who held up Cassandra Butts’ nomination until she died, all to stick it to Obama.  Karma hasn’t even begun to come for him.

    Also, I’m beginning to be sorry for doubting Schumer.

  15. 15.

    Mike in NC

    Senator Cotton just got screwed on live television.

    Good! Such a nasty piece of work.

  16. 16.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: My recollection is that Harry Reid hand picked him as his successor over Dick Durbin who was the consensus pick of the caucus.

  18. 18.

    Gravenstone

    So twice thus far the Republicans have been outmaneuvered by simple stamina. They’re going to have to draw lots soon to see who has to stay behind as “rear guard” each day. Although, being the selfish pricks they are, we all know that no one would actually bother to stick around.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    Happy to see this, but the media said Cotton’s stunt would only delay the vote until next week. So what did this buy us?  I’m confused.

  21. 21.

    zhena gogolia

    I CAN’T WAIT FOR MERRICK GARLAND!
    Just as with Biden, it feels as if they had earlier disappointments so that they could be available to meet this moment in history.
    (Which is not to say I wouldn’t rather have him on the Court than Gorsucks.)

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: Sometimes a demonstration of your knife fighting skills is useful.  And sometimes fucking over the GOP might just be a little satisfying.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    Schumer’s biggest problem is that his counterpart is Nancy Pelosi. No way he can live up to that comparison.

    Plus, the Senate is the difficult body to manage.

  26. 26.

    Hoppie

    (Reposted from previous thread regarding appropriate tactics:)

    Also, please note all, if ACA had been passed through reconciliation, it would have expired last year.  Obama got that part right.  (And, in this emergency, reconciliation is the way to go)

    ETA re comment 7: Tamara, mine are red on Chromebook, Ms. Hoppie’s are black on Macbook pro.  Go figure.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Don’t disagree.  I’m just trying to understand the real world impact, if any.  If this even moves it up a day, that’s excellent news.

  28. 28.

    TS (the original)

    Just replied to Mary G on the last thread

    So good to hear this – The GOP decided the Obama SCOTUS nominee should never be heard – pleased that Biden & Schumer had better ideas.

  29. 29.

    Suzanne

    Ehhhhh. Was feeling so good…. my father-in-law texted earlier today that he finally has his Rona shot scheduled for next week. Then we FaceTimed the Spawns with my MIL and she said that no, it wasn’t really scheduled, and then my FIL started having a seizure right there while we were on FaceTime. This is why I am so worried about my FIL…. his seizures have landed him in the hospital before with injuries and he is not in good health. Rona will not be kind to him.

  30. 30.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @TaMara (HFG):

    Right?

    Don’t torment nice people by setting impossible parameters on difficult tasks. Let them finish, maybe subtracting for extra time; I’d love to see the full version of a lot of these, but they’re under even more pressure than the pros are on “Chopped”.

  31. 31.

    MattF

    Cotton apparently believes that tweets and futile  Senate motions will form an indelible impression on the Republican base voter. I… don’t think so.

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kent: He was holding up the vote on Garland – see link in post – and once the Republicans left the chamber after the vote on the Recovery Act, while all the Democrats were still there, Schumer invoked cloture to move the nomination to its final simple majority vote.

  33. 33.

    patrick II

    @Brachiator: 

    They have had 10 years since their last majority to think about it. They were not going to fall for the same stalling B.S. as they did during the first two years of the Obama administration.

  34. 34.

    Catherine D.

    @TaMara (HFG): Yes! I learned to make English muffins from Julia (and adapted my own sourdough version from hers years before sourdough was cool) and also the Jacques Pepin and Julia show. So wonderful.

  37. 37.

    hueyplong

    @Gemina13:  I can wait on karma coming for Cotton so long as the FBI and AG Merrick Garland come for him.

    The only way he won’t be implicated in the Jan 6 doings is if the coupsters didn’t respect him enough to include him.

  38. 38.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gravenstone:

    Ted Cruz couldn’t even stick around in the state he represents and put up with the same inconveniences his constituents were suffering from.

  42. 42.

    Barbara

    @Suzanne:  Wow, I hope he’s okay and that he gets his shot soon. My neighborhood dry cleaners, a married couple, and all four of their kids had Covid. Their son, maybe all of 18 years old, nearly died and faces months of rehab because of heart complications.

  43. 43.

    mdblanche

    @Adam L Silverman: 

    My recollection is that Harry Reid hand picked him as his successor over Dick Durbin who was the consensus pick of the caucus.

    And that’s why I’ve always been willing to give Schumer the benefit of the doubt.

  44. 44.

    JMG

    Reid was a brawler. Schumer’s a trickster. Either is a fine quality in a Majority Leader.

  50. 50.

    Geminid

    Chuck Schumer was downrated by a lot of people for disappointments when he was minority leader. He was the same in skill and work ethic then, but now he has a majority, albeit razor thin. Speaker Pelosi caught a lot of similar criticism when she was minority leader of the House.

    I never saw Democrats as motivated and unified as they’ve been the last two years. And Citizens United notwithstanding, they have closed the money gap. If Democrats can maintain this level of commitment, they can give Schumer and Pelosi majorities for the rest of the decade, and really take proper care of the nation’s business.

  51. 51.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Fair Economist:

    There’s an episode from the 2020 COVID filming where they gave them a competition on multilayered ice cream cakes with tent temperatures in the mid to high 30s Celsius.

    There were other Pru Leith episodes where it was blazing hot, and she was demanding puff pastry. Contestants were crying about their butter melting.

  52. 52.

    Annie

    I don’t think Schumer would have lasted in New York politics for as long as he has unless he was tough and smart.

  55. 55.

    Procopius

    @Hoppie:

    Also, please note all, if ACA had been passed through reconciliation, …

    Wait, what …??? ACA was passed through reconciliation. That was why some of the mistakes in drafting it could not be corrected in the conference committee. Under reconciliation, the House must approve the bill in the form passed by the Senate, or reject it altogether. Also, you can only pass one bill under reconciliation for each fiscal year, and the contents of the bill have to be described in a budget resolution. If not for this limitation, the filibuster would be moot — it wouldn’t matter, because every bill could be passed under reconciliation. And we’ve seen now that there are more than two Democrats who would vote against killing the filibuster (all the “centrist” Democrats who voted against the $15 minimum wage).

  57. 57.

    Anyway

    @zhena gogolia:

    Black pepper all the way. I spent a couple of summers in Antwerp (early 2000s) and became a huge fan of Belgian beer, chocolate and just Belgian food* in general. My only quibble was they used white pepper. Gack!

    *As good as French food with German portions was the saying

  58. 58.

    M31

    so Biden tried for 1.9T, and got 1.9T

    see, that’s what you get when Larry Summers is not on your negotiating team

  59. 59.

    Benw

    US_SENATE_GROUP_SECURE_CHAT

    Schumer: hey tom you get that pastrami i asked for

    Cotton: oh darn chuck i just forgot

    Cruz: rofl

    Schumer: np

    Schumer: just filed cloture for garland

    McConnell: wtf!

    Cruz: what?

    Schumer: yup final vote next week

    Cotton: but you asked me to pick you up a sandwich

    Schumer: yeah but i knew you’d forget

  60. 60.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Procopius: Parts of it were passed under reconciliation, but the majority of it was not.  Remember having get it through during the brief window during which the Dems had 60 votes?

    ETA:  And your Secret History was full of scurrilous gossip.

  61. 61.

    Jeffro

    @JMG:Reid was a brawler. Schumer’s a trickster. Either is a fine quality in a Majority Leader.

    There’s no substitute for subject matter expertise!  ;)

  63. 63.

    Catherine D.

    @debbie: Watching them bicker over anything was fun! I adore them both. Also learned to make an apple galette from Jacques.

    Jacques Pepin’s restaurant was near where my uncle lived (1970s) and I NEVER GOT TO GO THERE. A grudge against my parents forever :)

  66. 66.

    Mary G

    Don’t get mad, get even!
    I am consumed with glee over everything today. The Former Guy has started his Mafia tactics of “nice party you got here, it’d be a shame if something happened to it, GIVE ME MONEY” act, and that great Master Legislator, Moscow Mitch, has made a rookie mistake not once, but twice on this bill.
    You know that the FG has been stewing in his resentment of MM for his Senate speech calling him a bad person and even without Twitter will make some hay out of it helping the whackos who primary some of his safe seats

     

    ETA Red hearts, Android Chrome.

  69. 69.

    Percysowner

    @Baud: It also buys us an extra week on the statute of limitations to prosecute the Other Guy. He is known for doing everything he can to run out the clock and get away with criminal activity that way.

  76. 76.

    Skepticat

    @TaMara (HFG): I missed that, but now I’ll be writing Sen. Murphy a thank-you note. It’s so nice to see a sensible, intelligent, civil, succinct takedown of Rethuglican stupidity, and I like that more Democrats are doing it.

  80. 80.

    Skepticat

    @Geminid: 

    If Democrats can maintain this level of commitment, they can give Schumer and Pelosi majorities for the rest of the decade and really take proper care of the nation’s business.

    From your pixels to the FSM’s ears.

  81. 81.

    hotshoe

    I haven’t read the post nor any replies and I just have to say YAY OMG YAY AT LAST our Senate is working, thank god

    and thank Georgia, y’all.

  82. 82.

    sukabi

    @Mary G: McConnell’s probably got other things on his mind….like which extradition free country to settle in and trying to rig Kentucky’s election laws to hand pick his successor.

  84. 84.

    Geoboy

    I have to admit, I didn’t think much of Chuck Schumer going into this session, but so far I’m happily surprised and delighted.  My apologies, Senator.  Go get ’em!

  86. 86.

    James E Powell

    @Geminid:

    Josh Marshall argues that Democrats – I think he means all of them, not just the president – need to promote this success & the benefits of the plan aggressively. I agree completely. Despite the haircuts in the senate, this is a great outcome. People will be helped. Democrats need to be very selfish in taking credit for it.

  89. 89.

    Zelma

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Re the ACA, the House and Senate both passed it. At that point, there were 60 Dems in the Senate.  It would have then gone to reconciliation and both Houses would have to have passed the amended bill.  Then Brown won the Mass Senate and it looked like the ACA was a dead duck.  But Nancy realized that the way to save it was for the House to pass the bill that had already passed the Senate.  That’s what they did, by two votes.

    I remember all this because my son was the health care LA for one of the two Blue Dog Dems who put the bill over the top.  He lost his seat in 2010.  My son is the only person I know who has a copy of the ACA on his living room bookcase.

  91. 91.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Hoppie: I mentioned this downstairs too but reconciliation bills don’t actually have to evaporate after ten years. They just have to be budget neutral/positive after ten years which is why they often expire around then.

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Zelma: No reconciliation is a different process than a conference committee that works out the differences between bills passed by the House and Senate.

  96. 96.

    MomSense

    OT

    There is an Indy theater here in Maine that is showing virtual movies.  They are currently showing the movie Stray about a stray dog living on the streets of Istanbul.  It is a beautiful film and costs $12 to stream.  I thought jackals might be interested in this one, but there are others available on their website as well.
    https://www.explorefrontier.com/event/stray/ This pup looks so much like my Korra.

  97. 97.

    debbie

    @zhena gogolia:

    Julia liked white pepper. They were making an egg dish, and Julia said since it was her recipe, she would use white pepper. Jacques shot back, “Pity.”

  98. 98.

    jackmac

    Dick Durbin is my senator and I like him a lot. But Harry Reid made the right call in pushing  Chuck Schumer for Senate Democratic leader. I don’t think Durbin would quite cut it as majority leader. Besides, after having the feckless Miss Lindsey as Judiciary chair in recent years, it’s nice to see Durbin with the gavel of this consequential committee.

  101. 101.

    Hoppie

    @Procopius: If ACA had passed through Senate reconciliation, it would have expired like Shrub’s tax cuts after ten years.  It would be gone now.  That’s what the drama over cloture and Ted Kennedy’s death was about.

    Because of Kennedy’s death, the normal congressional reconciliation process of the different houses’ versions would have meant re-voting in the Senate without the needed sixty votes for cloture, which would have failed, which meant that final passage of the unmodified Senate bill by the House was the only way forward.  Thus, neither version of reconciliation was used for the final ACA bill.

    ‘Nuff said.

  102. 102.

    Suzanne

    @Barbara: My FIL, like, REFUSES to take his medication. He wants there to be a supplement from Whole Foods instead. It is crazy-making.

  104. 104.

    debbie

    @Catherine D.:

    I love him so much!

    Another great argument was when they were both making their recipes for eggs florentine. Julia boiled her spinach, while Jacques quickly sautéed his. She’s looking over his shoulder and complains that the spinach won’t be cooked, that it won’t be tender. Jacques says he’s preserving the nutrients, and Julia is appalled. “Nutrients! Who needs nutrients?”

    I loved their back-and-forth bickering.

  106. 106.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @debbie:

    Spinach should always be sautéed and never boiled. I’ll die on that hill.

    ALSO – most vegetables, green and otherwise, are far better when roasted. I have only a couple of exceptions to this rule related to Arabic/Greek/Eastern Med dishes I know from my grandmother.

  109. 109.

    Bill Arnold

    @M31:

    so Biden tried for 1.9T, and got 1.9T
    see, that’s what you get when Larry Summers is not on your negotiating team

    Yep. Still not quite as large in inflation-adjusted dollars as the stimulus Reagan pushed through, but much better than in 2009.

  110. 110.

    Chris T.

    @Cheryl Rofer: I don’t know why the hearts are green

    They’re black.

    (“White and gold, or black and blue?”)

    Seriously, in my browser rendering (Firefox on Mac) they’re black hearts on a white background. (Text in between is red)

  111. 111.

    Ohio Mom

    One thing I don’t get, how do those geezers in Congress still manage to function after staying up all night? I used to be able to do that, not any more.

    Suzanne:
    Ah, that answers my question, I was concerned that his epilepsy meds were so ineffective. I can’t imagine how frustrating it is that he refuses to take any. I’d be tempted to give him a nicely gift wrapped helmet.

  113. 113.

    Ken

    @Major Major Major Major: I’m thinking of adopting a Unicode code point. Can’t decide which.

    My worry is I’ll pick one, then they’ll start filling one of the unassigned planes and I’ll regret my choice.

  115. 115.

    Elie

    @Suzanne:

    Wishing your uncle well.  If he was not admitted, or still in the ER, encourage the folks to take him for shot tomorrow anyway.  He HAS to get that shot.  (Just my two cents)

  116. 116.

    Ohio Mom

    The Thin Black Duke @112:

    What? If true, Why today just gets better and better.

  117. 117.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Bill Arnold:

    stimulus Reagan pushed through, but much better than in 2009.

    But I thought “government isn’t the solution. Government IS the problem” according to old Raygun

  118. 118.

    Ohio Mom

    Thin Black Duke @112:

    Sadly, I do not see anything on google confirming McConnell is stepping down. Oh well. It’s still a great day.

  121. 121.

    Hoppie

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Prolly TBD is responding to reports Mitch is pushing the KY lege to take away Andy Beshear’s (good D he is) duty to name Mitch’s replacement in the event Mitch, er, leaves us prematurely.  Prophylactic, you might say.

  122. 122.

    Another Scott

    Good for Chuck.

    I know everyone likes to complain that Senator Schumer isn’t Harry Reid or that he’s not tough enough or that he’s not good at his job of Democratic leader …

    I’m so old that I remember that everyone liked to complain about Harry Reid because he was so bad at his job and wasn’t LBJ.

    (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)

    Maybe the Democratic Senators that elect him (and Reid before him) Majority Leader do so because the have good reasons to do so?? Maybe they know more about what it takes to run the Senate effectively than blowhard critics whose jobs aren’t on the line if we make a political blunder??

    (sigh)

    Keep it up Chuck!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  124. 124.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @JMG: Reid was a brawler. Schumer’s a trickster.​

    I knew there must have been a good reason that on my smartass phone “Schumer” would consistently autocorrect to schemer…

  125. 125.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: ​ Senator Tom Cottonmouth (Snake – AR), c’mon down & meet your new inseparable companion, Ben Dover!

    (You may now assume resume The Position…)

  126. 126.

    Another Scott

    @The Thin Black Duke: The only thing I’ve seen recently is this (from 3/3):

    Republican lawmakers in Kentucky pushed ahead Tuesday with a bill to remove the Democratic governor’s ability to make his own choice if a U.S. Senate seat should become vacant.

    The bill — which passed the Senate and now goes to the House — reflects the GOP’s commanding position in attempting to reset terms for senatorial succession if a vacancy occurred. Republicans dominate the state’s legislature and hold both U.S. Senate seats from Kentucky.

    In the event of a vacancy, the measure would put strict conditions on Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in picking a temporary replacement. The governor would have to choose from a three-name list provided by party leaders from the same party as the senator who formerly held the seat. The Senate seats are held by Republicans Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.

    […]

    I’m not surprised that he’s planning ahead to foil Democrats (he probably has similar conditions in his will), and wouldn’t be surprised that he’s thinking about leaving early (it’s no fun being demoted), but that’s all I’ve seen so far.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  129. 129.

    Sloane Ranger

    @The Pale Scot: 

    The term “British gourmet food” had me in stitches

    Actually, British food, when it uses fresh, locally sourced, meat and veg compares with the best in the world. People who slang off British food are at least a generation out of date. WWII and post war rationing created a food desert for a couple of decades after they ended but we’ve come roaring back since.

    If anyone doubts, try watching any of the YouTube videos of Americans trying British food for the 1st time. Hell, they even think that Frey Bentos meat pies are better than any comparable US product. And Frey Bentos is what you eat if your housebound for some reason and its the only thing left in the cupboard!

  131. 131.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: To be fair, Pru Leith and Paul Hollywood had this conversation in one episode of GBBO when they pointed out that the contestants were set the tasks weeks in advance and they have no way of knowing what the weather will be like on the day of filming. It’s the UK for God’s sake!

  132. 132.

    karen marie

    @zhena gogolia: I was always of the same impression until recently when I learned what white pepper is – it’s the inside of the peppercorn and has a milder flavor.

    I am also now a Maldon (flaky) salt fan. The stuff is fantastic to use when making, for instance, DIY cheezits. The flaky salt works better than kosher salt and looks really pretty.

  133. 133.

    karen marie

    @Gretchen: What did you put on them going into the air fryer? I did a baked potato in mine – 40 minutes and absolutely terrific

     

    Did I kill this thread?

  135. 135.

    TriassicSands

    @Honus: …unlike Mitch McConnell who is just a rude ass hole.

    When I read that, my mind automatically inserted a different word in place of “rude.”

    …unlike Mitch McConnell who is just a ruthless asshole.

    They both work, but there’s a reason my mind went to “ruthless.”

  136. 136.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @TaMara (HFG):  I figured the Dems set the price tag of the ARA at $1.9T for a reason. About time one of them mentioned the reason.

  137. 137.

    opiejeanne

    Adam, I don’t know if you realize this but you scooped EVERY news outlet on the Merrick Garland cloture vote. The only other place it has started showing up is a couple of Twitter posters.

  139. 139.

    Another Scott

    @Anya: It looks like they have the votes to over-ride him easily.  But he’s taking them to court on other new laws that limit the governor’s powers.

    Courier-Journal:

    FRANKFORT — The Kentucky General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s vetoes of six priority bills of the Republican supermajority, most of which scaled back the power of the governor.

    Shortly after the veto overrides that evening, Beshear filed a lawsuit to stop three of these bills that would restrict his emergency powers to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from going into law.

    […]

    To override a veto of a specific bill, more than half of members in both the state House and Senate must vote to do so.

    Background: Beshear vetoes 5 bills, including 3 that limit emergency powers

    Republicans have a dominant 3-to-1 advantage over Democrats in each chamber, and the override votes Tuesday closely followed party lines.

    […]

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  140. 140.

    AnotherBruce

    @Another Scott:  I call bullshit. How does a federal politician get to pick what a state governor does?  I think the courts are going to have a say in this. Is it as likely that a governor overrule McConnell to take his senate seat. We have this thing called the separation of power.

  142. 142.

    Ramalama

    Dan Pfeiffer from Message Box (and Pod Save America) urges people to spread the word::

    Here are some assets to share on social media to help flood the zone with the good news of the American Rescue Act:

    • A video from President Biden discussing the provisions of the American Rescue Plan.
    • A chart from the Center for American Progress breaking down what’s in the bill.
    • A graphic from Senator Bernie Sanders to share with your progressive friends and family dissatisfied with the final outcome.
    • A lot of research from the 2020 cycle showed that the more specific the information the better. This thread from Eric Levitz of New York Magazine has a lot of good information about the impact of the bill.
    • A lot of people are sharing images and news about their family and friends getting vaccinated. Let’s include a thank you to President Biden and Democrats and use the moment as evidence that elections matter.

    I’ve found it easier to complain about shizz but am surprisingly shy about promoting positive things. I usually post gripes and then humor. I need to fix that tendency, stat.

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