Thursday, January 7, 2010

Obama and the Vampire Congress

 
Michelle Malkin

Michelle MalkinMeet the Beltway bloodsuckers. They convene in the dead of night, when most ordinary mortals have left work and let their guard down or are lying asleep in bed. Pale-faced and insatiable, the nocturnal thieves do their nefarious business in backrooms and secret chambers. Their primary victims? Taxpayers, the free market, and deliberative democracy.



Democratic leaders have been promising the most ethical, transparent, open, and engaged administration for years. Instead, they have delivered a bleak and creepy legislative environment that could double as a Twilight movie set.

Skulking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rammed the government healthcare takeover package through under the cover of darkness before Thanksgiving and Christmas. House Democratic leaders forbade debate on all but one amendment not authored by themselves. The Senate Finance Committee killed a GOP amendment that would have required Demcare to be available online for 72 hours before the committee voted. Reid and his Volterra-style henchmen cut last-minute cash-for-cloture deals behind closed doors.

And now House and Senate Democratic leaders are reportedly preparing to cut dissenters out of the reconciliation process by bypassing the formal conference committee.

In Hill parlance, this legislative shortcut is called "ping-ponging." A better game analogy: dodgeball. With mounting opposition from both conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats, President Obama's water-carriers must use every trick in the book to speed the final merging and passage of the bill before the end of the month.

The hypocrisy reeks stronger than rotting garlic. In 2006, House Democrats asserted that "House-Senate conferences are a critical part of the deliberative process because they produce the final legislative product that will become the law of the land." That same year, Reid railed on the Senate floor against informal deal-making that circumvented the conference committee process -- and he attacked the use of manager's amendments to avoid public scrutiny:
"Of course, nobody can see the manager's amendment. It is composed of over 40 amendments. How could anyone vote for a piece of legislation such as that -- a manager's amendment with 42 separate amendments? Now, these amendments were not put in a conference committee. People complain about that. But at least in a conference committee, you have people working together, sticking things in....Here, you have one person making a decision as to what is going to be in the manager's amendment. There is no way to know what is in it."
But four years later, it was Reid who snuck his 383-page manager's amendment -- stuffed with payoffs, special breaks, and concessions on healthcare -- into the Senate hopper on the Saturday before Christmas break. Four years later, it is Reid stifling the open, collaborative conference committee process he so fiercely championed.

Where's Barack Obama? As a candidate, he promised repeatedly to broadcast legislative negotiations on C-SPAN "so that the American people can see what the choices are" and "so that the public will be part of the conversation and will see the choices that are being made." But the most transparent presidential administration ever is shrugging its shoulders. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs pooh-poohed C-SPAN's request to allow electronic media coverage of the Demcare negotiations.

Instead, Gibbs thinks Americans should be grateful for what they got last month: "The Senate did a lot of their voting at 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning on C-SPAN....And I think if you watched that debate -- I don't know -- I wasn't up at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning for a lot of those votes, but I think if the American public had watched...you'd have seen quite a bit of public hearing and public airing." And if you missed the middle-of-the-night broadcasts, tough noogies.

Team Obama's contempt for meaningful transparency has been on display from Day One. A year ago this month, Obama broke his vaunted open government pledge with the very first bill he signed into law. On Jan. 29, 2009, the White House boasted that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act had been posted online for review. Except: Obama had already signed it -- in violation of his "sunlight before signing" pledge to post legislation for public comment on the White House website five days before he sealed any deal.

From the stimulus to the healthcare takeover to holiday bailouts for bankrupt financial behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it's been all backrooms and blackouts ever since. The Prince of Darkness at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is perfectly happy with his Vampire Congress. Wraiths of a sunshine-evading feather flock together.

9 comments:

  1. lol....do you have any normal sources, or all just these hack-o-gogues? From Beck to Malkin to whom Hannity next?

    What a shame. You and John and the others here all act like your such profound people who demonstrate such common sense, when in fact your just sheeple to the Hack-erds.

    Sure they haven't lived up to all their promises, but whom has? Bush failed most of us and was re-elected. Its all such a partisan sham. You forget that you sat by and let things go that weren't right but now your upset. lol

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  2. BWAAAAAHAHAHA ... well gosh Joey, I don't know why you don't run for office, since YOU are so "profound". Where is YOUR common sense Joey? Where are all of your original ideas Joey?! I don't recall the time where I acted like I was so profound. And here you are again attacking the messenger. Is that the only way you can respond, by attacking the messenger? That's a pretty weak argument. I guess you automatically discount whatever Malkin says because she's a woman and of Asian heritage to boot. If you have a problem with what is written why don't you back it up with a clearly thought-out response, rather than attacking people? Oh, that's right, because you can't.

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  3. John, once again your coming unglued....

    My suggestions must really bother you, but i am not sure why. Is it that deep down inside you know that i am right? or that you hate to have your sources shown for what they really are?

    Whatever the case may be, i hope you get over it. Think of the conversations we could have once you stop being so defensive and partisan and open your mind. The world is waiting for you brother.

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  4. The left are a bunch of racist bigots. John you called it spot on. And Joe you think you are not partisan and open minded? Joe you are a typical union putz. To prove it what don't you and the UAW agree on? I'm sure it's a short list so lets read it.

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  5. BWAAAAAHAHAHAHA ... What suggestions do you HAVE Joey? Right about WHAT?!?! All you do is say that somebody is a hack. Where in the hell did you "[show my sources] for what they are?!?!

    All you are is hate and negativity and attack. AS I SAID, Where is YOUR common sense Joey? Where are all of your original ideas Joey?!

    I see NOTHING from you Joey. Poor pathetic little Joey. Why would ANYONE want to have a "conversation" with you Joey? You give yourself way too much credit. Again, NOBODY cares what you have to say! Go bore your kids and your wife (if she's still with you ... I have my doubts that anybody could put up with your B.S. for any length of time).

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  6. LOL ... it cracks me up too Joey that anybody who responds to your ad homonym attacks are "coming unglued". We'll just assume that any response from you on anything means that you also are coming unglued Joey.

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  7. JoeC You are Definitely sounding like Bruce! You Attack Opinions and then RUN for COVER with NO explanation of WHAT is SAID here is WRONG! Common Sense is Truth and if YOU dont have one then YOU cant have the OTHER JoeC you should Relax, have a beer,Go to a Michael Moore movie and GO have a Meal. Then Maybe Truth/Common Sense will start to come TOGETHER. To me ALL being a Conservative is,is to KNOW and Understand Common Sense Cause that will be the TRUTH!

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  8. Hey Joey, while your writing your UAW list for anonymous here's another short list you could make out for us: Republicans I Voted for in the Last Election.

    Oh, but then we KNOW only the Democrats have the good ideas, Joey did all the research in his un-biased and non-sheep way. BAAAA BAAAA

    BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA ... what a maroon.

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  9. Joe you sound unstable at best.

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Please keep it clean and nice. Thank you for taking the time to post you thought. It means a lot to me that you do this.