Feel the post-partisanship: Cornyn gives Hillary a parting stab
By David Neiwert Tuesday Jan 20, 2009 6:00pm
MSNBC's Chuck Todd notes how Sen. John Cornyn, R-Blood Meridian, decided to play the naysayer to confirming Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State today -- just because he could.
And Kelly O'Donnell then confirms that Clinton and Cornyn had some words in the Rotunda this morning.
The New York Times has the details:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s smooth ride to confirmation as secretary of state hit a small bump on Tuesday as one of her Republican colleagues blocked a vote on Mrs. Clinton’s nomination, citing ethical questions arising from donors to her husband’s charitable foundation.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas objected to including Mrs. Clinton’s name in a unanimous consent vote for several Cabinet nominees, scheduled for hours after the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, plans to hold a roll-call vote on Mrs. Clinton’s nomination on Wednesday, which she is expected to win easily.
A spokesman for Mr. Cornyn, Kevin McLaughlin, said, “this is not an effort to scuttle or block the nomination, but a legitimate policy difference. Senator Cornyn’s goal is to create transparency on all levels of government.”
Mrs. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed an agreement with the Obama transition team, putting some limits on foreign donations to his foundation, as well as stipulating annual disclosure of new donors.
But Senator Cornyn, in a letter to Mrs. Clinton last Friday, said he remained worried that her diplomatic activities would be compromised “unless tighter foreign fund-raising restrictions and transparency protocols are adopted.”
A spokesman for Mr. Reid, Jim Manley, said, “it only takes one person to object to a vote.” He added, “She’ll be confirmed tomorrow with an overwhelming bipartisan support.”
They're all mouthing the right platitudes now, but it will be only a matter of days before Republicans start digging up even the most picayune of excuses to screw Democrats and play the obstructionists. In fact, it seems to have started already.
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Sen Cornyn believes in transparity at every level that means he will vote for real dick to come clean on all his secrets lets take a vote and see
roberts?
scalito?
KBR?
boosh?
chainey?
halliburton?
torture?
surveillance?
transparency?
say what again?
I hope barack is taking notes..
I mean it can we? The Gop do not care for this country all they care about is makeing democrats look bad in hopes of regaining power. No amount of pandering to them By the then 2006 Congress, or the now President Obama have or will stop them from this wave of Obstruction. The only way to stop them is to force them, you do that by showing they don't have the power they think they do.
just one.
after that,..............
fuck 'em!!!!!!!!!
I feel like I'm watching a train wreck in slow motion, and I can clearly see passenger "our country's future" through a window.
The Texas Democrats were running a perfectly good candidate for that seat. Rick Noriega, an army vet. But the idiots in my state voted for the guy who denied further medical coverage for children under S-Chip.
What does he expect to run on next, taking candies from babies?
He's fighting the Wingnuts' fight against Hillary.
He's already announced that he will fight the Wingnuts' fight to deny Al Franken his legally won Senate seat.
"What does he expect to run on next, taking candies from babies?"
The question is not "What" but "When": I think this piece of S-H-I-T is already angling for the GOP nomination in 2012.
I'm surprised they're not accusing Bubba of having Chinese donors.
But they have an amazing lack of interest in who are donating to the boosh library.
You mean like the Saudi's? Daddy Bush is making sure of it.
Sen, Cornyn has always been so concerned about transparency...as Dubya's "yes" man. Cornyn is an embarrassment, even to texas!
Why are there 3 Ann Coulter ads on the main page?
[See our FAQ on this here-Sitemonitor]
For the ad revenue. You can think, can't you? Take her money, just don't pay any attention to her crap. Ha, ha.
Because she's the most effective ad for liberalism EVAR!
As for progressivism...it's not safe to come out of your foxhole yet. Keep your head down, because the bullshit is still flying over at FAUX NOISE. Apparently both Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush were progressives.
Now I get it that I'm at my desktop. Visited the site from my laptop earlier. Don't have adbuster on it. Funny that the ad company would throw up 3 ads right next to each other. Not much bang for your buck there.
IRT Topic:
I'm hoping I'm pleasantly surprised at the number of Republicans willing to work with Obama. I'm guessing a few of them are already weighing options and sizing up the issues to see if riding Obama's coattails will get them something.
I hope President Obama (that sounds so good) takes notice of the Rethugs new found bi-partisanship. And acts accordingly. With all the problems in the world now, and the need for a FUNCTIONING Dept of State (after 8 years of Powell's lies and Condi's shoe shopping) this As*hole from Tex-ASS sabotages the start up.
Let's cut with the bi-partisanship crap and recognize these bastards for what they are, and what we have known them to be for so long. Rotten Bastards from Hell.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. President Obama said it best today. "what the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them." No shortage of cynics.
Fuck Cornyn. He's irrelevant. Obama is really trying to go all post partisan. He means it.
Just another Texas A-Hole
I'm Texan.
I'm sure we can all agree liebermann is a Connecticut sphincter cavity.
One of the few he has in the Senate. Even Kay Bailey Felon holds Bush at arms length because she has state political aspirations after she leaves the Senate.
Senator Cornyn’s goal is to create transparency on all levels of government.
Now this so funny as Senator Cornyn worked with the corruption of Bush/Cheney and now he's all about transpaerency. Cornyn wont be around much longer as Eric Holder get's his investigations started.
Many will fall in step if not only for the American people they serve.
David Neiwert: ".. it will be only a matter of days before Republicans start digging up even the most picayune of excuses to screw Democrats and play the obstructionists. In fact, it seems to have started already."
Republican Senators and CongressPersons are the legal representatives of the MOB that has run clandestine operations all over this planet, toppled democratically elected governments, assassinated world leaders, initiated the slaughter and displacement of untold millions, diverted trillions to banks, investment houses, arms dealers and manufacturers .. just to name a few of their criminal enterprises.
They're not going to play nice, and they're not going to just go away.
Let them have their procedural hyjinks...
Dems have the White House, both houses of Congress, and HEARTS and MINDS of the vast swath of Americans.
Good luck, obstructionists!
Because so far, all I have seen are efforts by Obama, Reid and Pelosi to cater to the GOP sensitivities...
The predicament for Obama is that he has made his success dependent, partially, on the collaboration of those people (the GOP) who least benefit from him being successful. Some people here think that somehow a brilliant political move, I think it is incredibly stupid. As usual, I hope to be proven wrong for our sake.
That being said, today is at least a day to rejoice. Bush is gone, so at least... we have that going for us. What a nightmare we have lived for 8 long years.
Why are we not surprised?
Maybe it's my old border guard blood from Hadrian's wall. But I'm Texan.
Once you get us crazy us Scots (Pictish in my case),in your allegiance that pact becomes almost only marginally less than to our own kin.
I thought it more droll to think of it as a parting thrust.
Let's not time warp this time. I couldn't stand to see another Bush anywhere near the White House.
once again, no one at the helm in the Senate... the quote from Harry Reid's desk is, "it only takes one vote to block" when A TRUE LEADER would have stopped, suspended the vote, questioned Cornyn's motives at length, demanded he go along with the voice vote in a sign of bi-partisanship everyone is blathering about, or face full retribution in any number of ways.
Teh Repugnants have nothing to lose by not playing ball. So TAKE IT TO THEM. Policy MUST be aggressively defined and we have the votes. Nuclear option in the Senate; leadership of new committee chairmanships in the House.
Senate Democratic caucus needs to VOTE NO CONFIDENCE IN HARRY REID, now, before we find ourselves in July with nothing done.
what else could we expect.
I sent old Harry a nasty gram when last I received his Give 'em hell, Harry email. Fuck him. No confidence would work for me, but not gonna happen. Pelosi needs to go, too; again, not gonna happen.
Hey, CIP, darlin'. Long time no see, sweetheart!
b there!
cornyn should have a look at this and so should all the Dems.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/pres...
actually, this merits its own thread.
After 8 silent years on the subject, Senator Cornyn’s suddenly wants transparency. Bet he had his epiphany at 12:01 PM today, too. I’m sure this ‘transparency’ includes any future legal action concerning Bush’s missing emails. Right John?
Cornyn, John – (R – TX)
517 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202)224-2934
http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fus...
I’ll say it so C&L doesn’t have to. Be nice. Personally I find letters to be more effective. We need to start letter campaigns every time one of these idiots pulls this crap. It’s time to keep the heat on and not give them a chance to regroup.
Face it, in the scheme of life, Hillary is not a good choice for the position of Sec. of State. Unfortunately for her she made her bed when she married Clinton. They carry too much baggage and will compromise what Obama need to get done in the world.
She will be (hopefully) implementing Obama's policies.
We may not like this or that about either Clinton, but the world loves Bill. There is no denying that. SoS is a world position.
I disagree with your assessment.
Senator Cornyn’s goal is to create transparency on all levels of government = Senator Cornyn's goal is to distract the public from the a-holes and d-bags he takes money from.
a freeper gets his wings.
Where has Cornyn been the past eight years when our nation's treasury and financial system was being looted?
Cornyn has always been an ass, but this latest stunt just displays more Republican desperation. They must be in great pain as they watch their evil, fear-based stranglehold on America rapidly slip away.
The new coalitions formed this year have the chance to transform American politics for decades to come.
A gentle warning to Obama: Expect that desperate people will take desperate measures to regain power. I wouldn't trust them for a minute.
You can bet Corny , Bitch , the Boner and the rest will do everything they can to obstruct and sabotage , you can count on it . I hope Obama can win over enough moderate Republicans to render them totally irrelevant .
I forget if it was Tweety, but someone said this was more "insult than injury" to Clinton and if that is so, then Cornyn really is a petty WATB. I hope this hurts like he stepped on a rake, because she's going to be SOS and he looks like a jerk, esp. while all this pageantry is going on and Obama is saying put away your childish things and such. WATB.
I don't much care for playing the 'how can you object to this when you didn't object to that" game...but criminy.
Where was he when brother Bush was flying around on WPEs international junkets selling his software to foreign heads of state.
I don't think that word 'transparency' means quite the same thing to blind to corruption Cornyn as it does to thee and me.
So what did Cronyn think of the ethics of Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris and Antonin Scalia during the 2000 presidential race? Any moral dilemma in W's brother and Florida campaign manager joining forces with Daddy's supreme to anoint the winner? Ok then, John, call it what it is, not ethics but situational ethics. That's what you really advocate.
Where was Cornyn asking for transparancy when Bush was sending billions to Iraq unaccounted for to give to Companies like Blackwater and Halliburon?
Give the Republicans one chance to do the right thing. If they cannot behave, them squash them in a parliamentary manner.
John Cornyn = "small bump."
concerned about a Senator that is doing his job...you know- like he is getting paid to rubberstamp?...Vetting a person that has a national security conflict and a history of problems with the truth???
Let one of the lillylivered step up...the rest will abiducate anyway !!
As, to a clintoon cabinet...she would never have picked most of these...she does not handle 'real strong women or men'!!!Only those she has some power over or something on!!!
I just called Cornyn's DC Office to let him know that his plea for *Transparency* should've come sometime over the last *8* years ... if he wants to be taken seriously - now it just smacks of Right Wing partisanship.
Call his office and give'em a piece of your mind!
Washington DC
517 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Main: 202-224-2934
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