It's a rather late lunch but you can take a few bites.
Related: Back to Bu$ine$$ as U$ual in Wa$hington
"Immigration dispute erupts at White House lunch" by Nedra Pickler and Erica Werner | Associated Press November 08, 2014
WASHINGTON — A White House lunch aiming for cooperation boiled into a fresh dispute with newly empowered Republicans over immigration reform Friday, with GOP leaders warning President Obama to his face not to take unilateral action. The president stood unflinchingly by his plan to act.
Republicans attending the postelection lunch at Obama’s invitation said they asked him for more time to work on legislation, but the president said his patience was running out. He underscored his intent to act on his own by the end of the year if they don’t approve legislation to ease deportations before then and send it to him to sign.
Mine did with him a long time ago, and he can shove the dictatorship directive.
The Republicans’ approach, three days after they resoundingly won control of the Senate in midterm elections, ‘‘seemed to fall on deaf ears,’’ Senator John Cornyn of Texas said in a telephone interview. ‘‘The president instead of being contrite or saying in effect to America, ‘I hear you,’ as a result of the referendum on his policies that drove this last election, he seems unmoved and even defiant.’’
Great. The delusional narcissist is even more dug in.
‘‘I don’t know why he would want to sabotage his last two years as president by doing something this provocative,’’ said Cornyn. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell earlier this week said the president’s stance was ‘‘like waving a red flag in front of a bull.’’
I do. It's about larger things.
Obama press secretary Josh Earnest said there was no reason that executive action on immigration should kill opportunities for the president and Republicans to find common ground.
‘‘I could stand up here and say Republicans to vote once again for the 50th time to repeal the Affordable Care Act, that that’s playing with fire or waving a red flag in front of a bull. I’m not really sure what that means,’’ Earnest said.
I'm not making the connection. Laws are repealed all the time, and it's part of our system of government. Executive orders are not.
The White House said that Obama laid out three areas where he and Congress could work together before the end of the year — emergency funding to combat the Ebola outbreak, approval of a federal budget, and quick action on spending to fight the Islamic State militant group.
Expansion of empire is biparti$an.
House Speaker John Boehner’s office said he told Obama he would work with the president on a new authorization for military force against the Islamic State if the president worked to build bipartisan support.
Related:
"The president wanted a new authorization from Congress for continuing US military action in Iraq and Syria, which Obama has said will last into the presidency of his successor."
1,500 more combat troops to Iraq right after the election. How disingenuous!
The White House announced soon after lunch ended that the US was sending as many as 1,500 more troops to Iraq to serve as advisers, trainers, and security personnel as part of the mission. Obama is also asking Congress for more than $5 billion to help fund the fight.
No problem. Food stamps, unemployment extensions, other things the people paid for a need? Forget it.
Friday’s two-hour meeting was tense at times, according to a senior GOP House aide. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, about to lose his grip on the upper chamber, barely said a word, the aide said. The aide was not authorized to describe the back-and-forth publicly by name and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
I LOVE IT! He's taking the rejection harder than Obummer!
Publicly Obama’s tone was more upbeat as he opened the gathering. He pledged to work on ending long-running partisan gridlock and said the lunch was a chance to ‘‘explore where we can make progress’’ after Americans showed in the midterm elections that they wanted to see more accomplished in Washington.
‘‘They’d like to see more cooperation,’’ Obama said, sitting at the middle of 13 lawmakers in the Old Family Dining Room set with the Truman china. ‘‘And I think all of us have the responsibility, me in particular, to try to make that happen.’’
Actually, I don't because it will be bu$ine$$ as u$ual. Already is, actually. Elections are nothing but a show to make you think you decided something important, Amurkn!
Reporters were ushered out before any lawmaker spoke or the lunch of sea bass was served.
Obummer doesn't like you?
I'm glad they are eating well while so many Americans starve and go hungry, though.
Republican descriptions of the meeting were provided after they returned to Capitol Hill.
For the record, Boehner’s office said he suggested that the president should back a Republican jobs bill as a starting place for bipartisan action.
Corporate tax cut coming.
Obama said at the start he was interested in ‘‘hearing and sharing ideas’’ for compromise on measures to boost the economy, then mentioned his personal priorities of college affordability and investment in road and building projects. He also touted improved monthly job growth numbers out Friday as evidence his economic policies are working, saying, ‘‘We’re doing something right here.’’
This guy's rhetoric has become so stale.
Briefings on Ebola and the Islamic State from Pentagon officials dominated much of the meeting, and the immigration debate lasted about half an hour.
Why am I not surprised by that? Got right back to the war agenda.
Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, said Republicans told Obama that any executive order, particularly on immigration but any issue, would be a ‘‘toxic decision.’’
‘‘He still hasn’t come to grips with the reality of the election and the consequences of the election,’’ Barrasso said. ‘‘His tone and tenor didn’t seem to reflect that of somebody whose policies were just significantly rejected all across the country just three days ago.’’
That's scary! A messianic president that is so self-absorbed.
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Related: ‘‘I want a president who is not corrupt, has a good standing, and understands foreign policy.’’
Couldn't have said it better myself. I mean once you understand the plane, those who are enabling it, and the ultimate goal, all this war propaganda is quite distasteful.
This won't go down easy:
"Congressional power shift lowers New England’s clout" by Noah Bierman, Matt Viser and Cat Zakrzewski | Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent November 08, 2014
WASHINGTON — There won’t be many New England accents when some 300 Republican lawmakers gather in the new Congress this January. Only four members from the region will be part of the GOP caucus that will seek to shape the nation’s agenda.
New England’s minimal presence — it mostly went Democratic in Tuesday’s election amid a Republican wave nationally — has raised concerns that the region’s six states will be left grasping for influence on an array of vital issues.
**********
Republicans gained one House seat in both New Hampshire and Maine, joining two Republican senators and doubling the region’s GOP membership in Congress. But the New England lawmakers are still mostly Democratic, and the lack of a strong Republican presence could be felt more profoundly because Republicans won the Senate and expanded their grasp on the House.
New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen was a rare Democrat in the Senate to survive a strong Republican challenge, and Republicans failed to capture seemingly winnable House seats in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Four of the New England states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont — sent no Republicans to Congress.
Even the change to a Republican governor in Massachusetts could be a negative for the region’s clout. Governor Deval Patrick’s close relationship with President Obama left him a phone call away from the White House.
For example, Patrick spoke several times with Obama over the last two years to help secure $35 million in disaster relief for the region’s fishing industry, according to Richard Sullivan, Patrick’s chief of staff.
Charlie's fish tale all forgotten.
Patrick will be replaced by Charlie Baker, a moderate Republican who has distanced himself from the national GOP.
Some of the region’s Democrats will lose chairmanships and other perks of majority power. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman who led debate over gun control and reviews President Obama’s court nominees, will pass the gavel to Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
One of the most intriguing impacts of the power shift revolves around Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat. With Democrats facing a power vacuum, she may feel freer to shift more to the left and become a leading voice of the opposition. That could further enhance her national profile although she has said she has won’t run for the White House in 2016.
What left?
In the short term, at least, being an even stronger national voice for Democrats could make it even more difficult for Warren to compromise with Republicans and win passage of legislation beneficial to the region. Warren declined an interview request.
Like she got a whole lot passed under Reid. Her bank bill was never even brought to the floor, and she even voted against the college loan bill they passed.
You want to impress me, Liz? Filibuster!
The region’s loss in power has been years in the making, with population shifts shrinking the size of delegations and events such as the death of senior lawmaker Edward M. Kennedy or John F. Kerry, another senior lawmaker, resigning to become secretary of state.
“The most important thing is setting the agenda,” said Representative Michael Capuano, a Somerville Democrat. “We’re playing defense again for another couple of years. We’ll see how that works out. But if both parties are led by people who want to compromise, then we’ll gets things done.”
Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said this week that he did some of his most important work while serving in the House minority after Newt Gingrich swept into power, following the Republican takeover of 1994. His signature law, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, was passed while he was in the minority, working with his Republican counterpart.
His signature stripped regulations and allowed media conglomerates to consolidate and run wild.
Part of his success came because the issue was not seen as especially ideological, unlike the issue of climate change, another Markey priority.
Related: “Winter is Here.”
You wouldn't know it from reading a Globe.
“If people are willing to work together, I think there’s a real reason that finally the gridlock can end,” Markey said.
The shift in power will put an added burden on the New England’s quartet of Republicans to advocate for the region and could serve the role of bridge-builders if the two parties seek compromise.
Republicans captured one congressional seat each in New Hampshire, where Frank Guinta reclaimed his old seat, and in Maine, where Bruce Poliquin was elected to a seat Democrats held for 20 years.
Yeah, except it is NOT HIS! It's OURS! You know, the VOTERS!
That's a slight semantical difference, but an important one when realizing the self-internalized values of ma$$ media reporting.
Senators Kelly Ayotte, of New Hampshire, and Susan Collins, of Maine, are the only Republicans in the Senate from New England.
Collins will become the most senior woman in the majority party and is in line to lead a key subcommittee that controls highway and housing funding. Ayotte, a rising star in her party elected in 2010, will take control of a subcommittee that signs off on military base closings, currently led by Shaheen, which she could use to protect the Portsmouth Naval Yard and other posts.
David Tamasi, a Republican lobbyist at Rasky Baerlein, a Boston-based firm, said the reputations of Collins and Ayotte would now be crucial to the region’s interests, especially their ability to balance national and local concerns “so people don’t just view them as narrow parochial issues.”
Related: Ayotte's Off Year
Yeah, she's got some $queaky-clean reputation.
Ayotte said she meets regularly with Massachusetts companies that employ New Hampshire residents, including Raytheon, the defense contractor. She said she also has an interest in protecting Hanscom Air Force Base, which also employs her constituents.
Related: Raytheon buys Blackbird Technologies for $420m
The buy ‘‘expands Raytheon’s already-established footprint in the intelligence community market while helping to grow cyber operations and special missions support to the Department of Defense, and will help expand its surveillance and cybersecurity services to clients.’’
“Even if there are only two of us in the Senate,” Ayotte said, referring to herself and Collins, “I think both of us will be very strong, vocal on behalf of the states and therefore the region.”
Collins said Maine would be her first priority, but that many important issues cut across the region.
For example, she noted that she has recently secured funding to rebuild bridges that transport workers among the states.
“It’s obviously more fun to be in the majority because you can set the agenda,” she said. “But I’m also cognizant of the fact that we don’t have 60 votes in the Senate on the Republican side, and one of my strengths is to be able to put together coalitions of Republicans and Democrats.”
Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, has tried to build a reputation for bridging the parties. He announced this week that he would continue to caucus with Democrats, rebuffing GOP overtures. He argued that having Collins in the Republican majority and him aligning with the President’s party would enhance the state’s clout. (Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is also an independent who caucuses with Democrats.)
“I think it is in Maine’s interest to have a Senator in each camp,” King told reporters this week.
Then why aren't you a Democrat?
Maine GOP picks new Senate president, leaders
Oh. Maine went Republican, huh?
Just following their conscience, I guess.
The outlook of Representative James McGovern, a Democrat from Worcester, meanwhile, provides a dose of political reality. While McGovern said he could find Republican allies on questions of military intervention, jobs bills, and even immigration, he also plans to retain his role as one of the most outspoken liberals in Congress.
He's mine and he ran unopposed so I left the ballot blank there.
“On the issues, we still represent where the mainstream of America is,” said McGovern. “I don’t think this is the time to roll over and surrender. This is a time to stand up for our principles.”
Yeah, maybe, but HA-HA-HA-HA! Why have you guys waited so long?
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Also see: Several state legislative races still too close to call
Cambodian-American becomes a first in Lowell
Just be careful backing out.
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Mass. residents tell Charlie Baker what they want fixed
