U.S. Senate

Holding his own constituents hostage:

“I think we’ve got to offset everything; anything that’s not allocated has got to be offset these days. It shouldn’t delay it,” Burr told POLITICO. “There’s hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse that could be accessed like that.”

Aside from the fact that you're (once again) throwing people who depend on you under the bus, if it takes a fricking hurricane for you to focus on waste, fraud and abuse, then your own public "service" falls into that "waste" column. And we keep sending him back...

John Ensign slinks away after two years of dodging:

Nevada Sen. John Ensign (R) announced Thursday he will resign his seat on May 3, due to a Senate ethics committee investigation over his extramarital affair with a former campaign aide.

His parents reportedly wrote a $96,000 check to his former mistress...It was later revealed that Ensign may have violated Senate ethics rules by arranging for his former mistress's husband to take a job as a lobbyist with a Nevada consulting firm in an attempt to hush the matter up.

Let the Right-Wing deflections begin: "John Edwards!" "Clinton!" "JFK!" "FDR!" "Martin Van Buren!" (I just made that one up)

U.S. Senate takes a year to come to unanimous decision:

The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Charlotte Judge Albert Diaz to the U.S. Court of Appeals on Saturday, ending what had become the nation's longest judicial wait and giving North Carolina its third judge on the 4th Circuit.

Diaz will be the first Latino on the Richmond-based court.

Occams Razor: In the absence of any other logical reason for such a long delay (obstruction), that last sentence above contains the most likely answer.

And wonder of wonders, Richard Burr helped:

Eight Republicans bucked their party in backing the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy, potentially risking a backlash from the conservative base while giving the historic vote a stronger bipartisan finish than many expected.

The Republican senators voting “yes” with the Democrats on repeal were Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mark Kirk of Illinois, John Ensign of Nevada, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, George Voinovich of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine.

Hat tip to Ed Cone for the link.

But before you are tempted to slap a "Maverick" label on Burr, this quote is very telling:

When cloture was passed, that settled that

Translation: The battle was lost, so I decided, "What the hey?", I might as well hop on one of the floats in the victory parade.

When 53 vs 36 is not a majority:

Senate Republicans have blocked legislation allowing taxes to rise on upper income taxpayers on Jan. 1. The vote Saturday was 53-36 - seven short of the 60 needed to advance the measure.

Without action by Congress, all income tax cuts enacted when George W. Bush was president will expire at year's end. The legislation backed by Senate Democrats would have kept the cuts in effect except on incomes over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.

I'm not so sure that lede is correct. Four Democrats (Feingold, Manchin, Nelson and Webb) voted against cloture, and they need to answer for that.

I first met Elaine Marshall while we were both at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. We are both still fully committed to bringing about the hope and change that swept the nation during that amazing year. If you're also still interested in seeing our America's highest democratic ideals come to fruition, then I ask you to support Elaine Marshall for U.S. Senate.

Heads up from Elaine Marshall:

Over the last few days, over 17,000 North Carolinians called on Senator Burr and his buddies in Washington to stop blocking the small business jobs bill. Thanks to those efforts, the Senate has now stopped Burr in his tracks and ended the filibuster!

Even though the bill does not add to the deficit and will account for 500,000 jobs, Senator Burr still voted against it - that just shows again why we have to retire him!

Of course he voted against it. His whole campaign is centered around obstructing progress and punishing the American people (including Burr's constituents) so they'll be desperate enough to trust the untrustworthy.

Adding her signature to a letter sent to the leader of the Senate:

“We believe the scale of this challenge dictates the need for a comprehensive solution that includes making polluters pay through a price on greenhouse gas emissions,” wrote Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Roland Burris of Illinois, Al Franken of Minnesota, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Ted Kaufmann of Delaware, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mark Udall of Colorado, Tom Udall of New Mexico and Mark Warner of Virginia.

And I believe you're right.

Last Thursday, the Senate voted 53 to 47 to defeat the Murkowski resolution that would have undermined the EPA's ability to reduce global warming pollution. The vote provides a useful guide to how senators might act on a climate vote.

Of course, it is not a clear-cut comparison because some people voted against the flawed resolution to make a point about process or simply to support the science. It is significant to note that we have 10 more votes in favor of reducing carbon emissions than we did the last time climate change was discussed on the Senate floor two years ago.

Check out http://www.news-record.com/blog/54431/entry/89433

Historically, run-offs can be won in NC but usually the opponents are only 1% or 2% apart, not 10%. Cal is wasting a lot of time and money just to lose, as the News-Record said, “bad move” Cal. We need to stand united in order to take down Burr in November. Cal, it is time to put personal ambition aside and do what is best for NC, drop the runoff.