Boston Herald: Democrats Would Stall Brown to Pass Health Care Reform
There’s and editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal titled “The 60th Senate Vote“. It details what’s at stake in the January 19, special election to fill the Senate seat formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy… in short, should Republican Scott Brown win he be the 41st Republican in the Senate and would deny Democrats the 60 votes needed to end debate and ram through Health Care Reform.
What the Journal doesn’t mention is that Democrats have become so brazenly corrupt that should Brown they may try to delay swearing him in until after the Senate has voted on health care reform:
It looks like the fix is in on national health-care reform – and it all may unfold on Beacon Hill.
At a business forum in Boston Friday, interim Sen. Paul Kirk predicted that Congress would pass a health-care reform bill this month.
“We want to get this resolved before President Obama’s State of the Union address in early to mid-February,” Kirk told reporters at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
The longtime aide and confidant of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was handpicked by Gov. Deval Patrick after a controversial legal change to hold Kennedy’s seat, vowed to vote for the bill even if Republican state Sen. Scott Brown, who opposes the health-care reform legislation, prevails in a Jan. 19 special election.
“Absolutely,” Kirk said, when asked if he’d vote for the bill, even if Brown captures the seat. “It would be my responsibility as United States senator, representing the people and understanding Senator Kennedy’s agenda. . . . I think you’re asking me a hypothetical question but I’d be pleased to vote for the bill.”
~ ~ ~
Friday, a spokesman for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, who is overseeing the election but did not respond to a call seeking comment, said certification of the Jan. 19 election by the Governor’s Council would take a while.
“Because it’s a federal election,” spokesman Brian McNiff said. “We’d have to wait 10 days for absentee and military ballots to come in.”
Another source told the Herald that Galvin’s office has said the election won’t be certified until Feb. 20 – well after the president’s address.
That Democrats would even hint at such underhanded tactics should surprise no one… Particularly after the after the tactics used by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used to effectively bribe Senators into voting for his health care reform bill on Christmas Eve!
Related
- 41st What? – Jules Crittenden
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Video: Jack Cafferty Rips Obama on Failed Openness Pledge
Ouch:
Don’t worry Jack, we will!
Most open and ethical Congress in history… Heh!
Bloomberg: Geithner’s Fed Told AIG to Limit Swaps Disclosure
In a sane world Tim Geithner’s tax troubles would have kept him from being confirmed as Treasury Secretary. Unfortunately, we don’t live sane and those tax troubles pale in comparison to what we’re learning about the Geithner led Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s role in the AIG bailout:
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails between the company and its regulator show.
AIG said in a draft of a regulatory filing that the insurer paid banks, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA, 100 cents on the dollar for credit-default swaps they bought from the firm. The New York Fed crossed out the reference, according to the e-mails, and AIG excluded the language when the filing was made public on Dec. 24, 2008. The e-mails were obtained by Representative Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The New York Fed took over negotiations between AIG and the banks in November 2008 as losses on the swaps, which were contracts tied to subprime home loans, threatened to swamp the insurer weeks after its taxpayer-funded rescue. The regulator decided that Goldman Sachs and more than a dozen banks would be fully repaid for $62.1 billion of the swaps, prompting lawmakers to call the AIG rescue a “backdoor bailout” of financial firms.
“It appears that the New York Fed deliberately pressured AIG to restrict and delay the disclosure of important information,” said Issa, a California Republican. Taxpayers “deserve full and complete disclosure under our nation’s securities laws, not the withholding of politically inconvenient information.” President Barack Obama selected Geithner as Treasury secretary, a post he took last year.
One would think, given these revelations, that Secretary Geithner would be cleaning out his desk now, but this administration’s commitment to transparency, and honest government I wouldn’t hold my breath…As Jim Geraghty notes:
AIG’s liquidity crisis hits in September 2008. The Federal Reserve comes in to rescue them with a credit line of $85 billion, and the big, powerful banks received full cash for their credit-default swaps. But because that aspect of the rescue would be a giant p.r. headache, suggesting that the taxpayer was stepping in to make sure Goldman Sachs and the others didn’t lose anything in their deal, Geithner and his team chose to simply not disclose it to the public.
Bottom line Congressional Democrats and the media have invested a fair amount of time in demonizing AIG and its management and criticizing their bonuses. What we’re slowly learning though is that the problem wasn’t AIG, it was the sneaky and underhanded way that Geithner and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York decided to cover their tracks by using AIG as a money-laundering device to bailout politically-connected private institutions.
Dodd, Dorgan to Retire; Won’t Seek Re-election
The 2010 mid-term elections are still months, but things aren’t looking good Democrats. Two long serving high profile Senators, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota have announced that they won’t seek re-election:
Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a Democratic Party stalwart in the Senate, is set to announce today that he will not seek re-election this year, according to a party strategist familiar with his plans.
Sen. Dodd’s decision was the latest in a string of big-name Democratic retirements revealed Tuesday as the party struggles to contend with a challenging political climate.
Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said he, too, would retire after this year, unexpectedly saddling his fellow Democrats with a wide-open race that could be tough to win in a Republican-leaning state.
In addition to Dodd and Dorgan at least 5 other Senate Democrats are vulnerable, among them Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.
I wouldn’t breakout the Champagne yet, at least not in Connecticut… We may finally be free of Chris Dodd, but things just got a lot tougher for us, Chris Dodd was weakened and vulnerable and ultimately beatable. Now instead of facing a weakened Sen. Dodd we’re facing Attorney General Richard Blumenthal who has announced plans to run for Dodd’s seat. Say what you want to him, but there’s escaping the fact that he’s well known and well liked in this state… My guess is the Democrats will hang on to the seat.
Of course it won’t hurt to remind voters of Blumenthal’s remarks about Sen Dodd’s sweetheart mortgage deal:
Huh??? What??? Dodd was a victim??? It’s a rarity but I’m speechless!
Related
- Colorado’s Gov. Ritter Ends Bid for Re-Election – Wall Street Journal
- Massachusetts governor race another sign of Democratic weakness – Ed Lasky, American Thinker
- Culture of Corruption casualty: Chris Dodd bows out; CT AG Blumenthal to run – Michelle Malkin
- Dodd retiring – Ed Morrissry, Hot Air
- Will Blumenthal Be Sufficient Change for Connecticut? – Jim Geraghty
Democrats Lock Republicans Out of Committee Room
Most ethical Congress in history? Heh…
From The Hill:
Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present.
Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over Towns’s failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage’s reported sweetheart deals to VIPs.
For months Towns has refused Republican requests to subpoena records in the case. Last Thursday Committee Republicans, led by Issa, were poised to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee mark-up meeting. The mark-up was abruptly canceled. Only Republicans showed up while Democrats chairs remained empty.
Republicans charged that Towns canceled the meeting to avoid the subpoena vote. Democrats first claimed the mark-up was canceled due to a conflict with the Financial Services Committee. Later they said it was abandoned after a disagreement among Democratic members on whether to subpoena records on the mortgage industry’s political contributions to Republicans.
A GOP committee staffer captured video of Democrats leaving their separate meeting in private chambers after the mark-up was supposed to have begun. He spliced the video to other footage of the Democrats’ empty chairs at the hearing room, set it to the tune of “Hit the Road, Jack” and posted it on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s minority webpage, where it remained as of press time.
If this is the Democrats idea of transparency and accountability I’d hate to see their idea secrecy… So just what are they trying to cover up?
Here’s the video:
Ouch!
Senate Ethics Committee Clears Dodd, Conrand
As predicted the Senate Ethics Committee has cleared Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd of wrong doing in his dealings with Countrywide Financial:
The Senate Ethics Committee on Friday dropped yearlong investigations into two powerful Senate committee chairmen, Democrats Christopher J. Dodd and Kent Conrad .
The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had filed complaints June 13, 2008, against the senators questioning whether they obtained mortgages from Countrywide Financial under more favorable interest rates than generally available because of their official posts.
Click here for free trial!But the Ethics Committee, which has three Democratic and three Republican members, unanimously dropped its inquiry into the matter. In four-page letters to each lawmaker signed by all six committee members, the panel said it found “no substantial evidence” that the mortgages violated Senate rules after reviewing 18,000 pages of documents and interviewing witnesses.
The committee, however, said the lawmakers “should have exercised more vigilance” in their dealings with the company.
“There was no ‘sweetheart’ or special deal,” Dodd, D-Conn., said in a statement. “The allegations are and have always been false.”
Dodd has been hurt in his re-election campaign for 2010 by charges that he is too close to the financial industry, which he oversees as chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
“I’m confident the people of Connecticut will be glad to know that I’ve been cleared,” Dodd said.
Dodd has refinanced his properties to avoid dealing with Countrywide. On June 1, he got a 30-year loan for $400,000 at 5 percent interest for his home in East Haddam, Conn., through First County Bank. And on Aug. 3, he got a 30-year loan for $417,000 at 5.125 percent interest for his Washington residence from the U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union.
Pfft, who are they kidding, the only reason Sen Dodd or Sen. Conrad got the sweetheart deals they did is because they’re Senators… Birds of a feather flock together (and cover each others tail feathers).
Related
- House Democrat received Countrywide loans: report – Reuters
- Why are Democrats blocking inquiries into Friends of Angelo program? – Hot Air
AP: Dodd, Conrad Told Mortgage Deals Were Sweetened
The Associated Press is reporting that Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd was told from the very start that hes was getting a VIP mortgage discount:
Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation’s largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.
Both senators have said that at the time the mortgages were being written they didn’t know they were getting unique deals from Countrywide Financial Corp., the company that went on to lose billions of dollars on home loans to credit-strapped borrowers. Dodd still maintains he got no preferential treatment.
Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad’s two Countrywide mortgages in 2004 were for a beach house in Delaware and an eight-unit apartment building in Bismarck in his home state of North Dakota.
Robert Feinberg, who worked in the Countrywide’s VIP section, told congressional investigators last month that the two senators were made aware that “who you know is basically how you’re coming in here.”
“You don’t say ‘no’ to the VIP,” Feinberg told Republican investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press. Read the rest…
It’ll be fun to see how Sen. Dodd tries to spin this… My guess is the Senate Ethics Committee will give Dodd and Conrad a pass. California Sen. Barbara Boxer, the committee chairman, asked Mr. Feinberg if Sens. Dodd and Conrad received VIP treatment because they were senators. Feinberg replied that was not the case; they received breaks as other influential people in Countrywide’s “friends” of Angelo VIP program… That’ll be the loophole committee members use to vote against sanctions for Dodd and Conrad.
Regardless of what the Senate Ethics Committee decides Sam Caligiuri is right, if the allegations are true it’s time for Chris Dodd to resign. The people of Connecticut deserve better.
Washington Times: U.S. House Restricts Ethics Probes
I would love to be able to point a finger at the Democrats and say something like ‘Most ethical Congress in history??? Heh!’ But I can’t Republicans are just as culpable as Democrats in fostering the culture of corruption that pervades Washington:
When Democrats made their case during the 2006 elections about why they should control Congress, they offered up Republican lawmakers like Mark Foley and Rick Renzi as examples of the “culture of corruption” they wanted to rid from Washington.
Mr. Foley of Florida resigned after being accused of sending inappropriate e-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page. Mr. Renzi of Arizona faced questions about land deals and accusations that he helped a defense contractor that employed his father.
Convinced that many members of Congress had lost their moral compass, voters sided with Democrats and thrust Republicans from power.
But when the limelight faded, the controversies took an unexpected twist: Democrats, now in control, sought to block or limit prosecutors from gathering certain evidence of corruption against members of Congress on constitutional grounds, complicating the criminal cases against the two Republicans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and the Democratic leadership joined with top Republicans to continue a years-long tradition authorizing the House general counsel’s office to intervene in outside investigations of its members.
Through court filings, the bipartisan coalition sought the exclusion of evidence it said was obtained in violation of Article 1, Section 6, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution. The clause protects the legislative branch from meddling by the other two branches, declaring that “for any Speech or Debate in either House, [senators and representatives] shall not be questioned in any other Place.”
Many see use of the clause as an effort by Congress to protect its own.
“I think the House as well as the Senate tries to overexpand that right,” said Washington lawyer Robert S. Bennett, a prominent white-collar defense lawyer who has served as special counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics in several major cases.
Mr. Bennett said the clause should be used “narrowly” and not “to cover things up.”
“Congress is largely unaccountable. … Ethics enforcement in Congress is largely a joke,” he said.
The problem is not Republicans or Democrats it’s the Washington political culture… A culture that holds itself above the law and that tolerates corruption until it become an embarrassment that can’t be ignored. If we want real, lasting change in Washington we have to change the culture not simply the party that’s in charge.
I’m a firm believer in Congressional term limits they may not be the best answer but they’re a start.
Dianne Feinstein Routed Government Money to Husband’s Firm
The Washington Times is reporting today that Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) took unusual steps to route route taxpayer dollars to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. which had just awarded her husband’s firm a lucrative contract:
On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband’s real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms.
Mrs. Feinstein’s intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn’t a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments – not direct federal dollars.
Documents reviewed by The Washington Times show Mrs. Feinstein first offered Oct. 30 to help the FDIC secure money for its effort to stem the rise of home foreclosures. Her letter was sent just days before the agency determined that CB Richard Ellis Group (CBRE) – the commercial real estate firm that her husband Richard Blum heads as board chairman – had won the competitive bidding for a contract to sell foreclosed properties that FDIC had inherited from failed banks.
About the same time of the contract award, Mr. Blum’s private investment firm reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it and related affiliates had purchased more than 10 million new shares in CBRE. The shares were purchased for the going price of $3.77; CBRE’s stock closed Monday at $5.14.
Spokesmen for the FDIC, Mrs. Feinstein and Mr. Blum’s firm told The Times that there was no connection between the legislation and the contract signed Nov. 13, and that the couple didn’t even know about CBRE’s business with FDIC until after it was awarded.
Most ethical congress in history??? Not! At the very least Sen. Feinstein atcions represent a serious conflict of interest and breach of public trust… What they look like however is sceme to allow her family to cash in on taxpayer-funded bailout money.
Related
- Feinstein routes government money to firm doing business with husband – Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
- Wash Times: Democrat Sen. Feinstein Helped her Husband’s Firm to the Tune of $25B – Kim Priestap, Wizbang
- Connecting the dots in Feinstein’s intervention with FDIC – Rick Moran, American Thinker
- Feinstein Inc. – Don Surber
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