“I am amused with their comments about obstructionism,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview over the weekend with the New York Times. “I wish we had been able to obstruct more. They were able to get the health care bill through. They were able to get the stimulus through. They were able to get the financial reform through. These were all major pieces of legislation, and if I would have had enough votes to stop them, I would have.”

Don't fret Mitch come January you'll have the opportunity to obstruct to your heart's content and to the benefit of the narrow wealthy elite you serve. And let's be frank, obstruct is all you are capable of because a new idea to call your own you have not a single one.

But just for the record let's stroll down memory lane and recall some of Mitch's accomplishments this session. As of July 31st, only 42.8 percent of President Obama’s judicial nominees had been confirmed. No other President in recent memory even comes close to such a dismal number. The next lowest confirmation rate was that of George Herbert Walker Bush who 79.3 percent of his judicial nominees confirmed at 18 month mark of his Presidency.

In the Senate, the GOP has waged a war on any and all Democratic intiatives that makes Sherman's march through Georgia look like a walk in the park. In this Congress, we were treated to Senator Shelby record-setting blanket hold on all executive appointments. At that time Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic wrote that Shelby's move represented "a seminal moment in the evolution of Republican obstructionism." He might have also called it what it really was: hostage taking and extortion. Outside the Senate, those are felonious acts; inside the Senate, it is how the GOP operates.

Worth recalling is the three-page memo that New Hampshire's Judd Gregg penned and circulated to his Republican colleagues, reminding them of various procedural tactics they can utilize to obstruct, delay, and undermine the debate on health care. Sam Stein of the Huffington Post called it "the equivalent of an obstruction manual -- a how-to for holding up health care reform."

The lengths to which the GOP resorted in their aim to derail the President's health care agenda has been extraordinary. Never mind the rhetoric, which was beyond the pale, consider that in December 2009, Republican Senators attempted to block the renewal of all military funding in an effort to halt the passage of the health care reform bill. What can one say when Senators like John McCain and Lindsey Graham are willing to play politics with the welfare of those serving in uniform.

There's more...

On day one of their new 41-59 majority, Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama placed a blanket hold on pending executive nominations on the Senate calendar in an effort to win concessions from the Obama administration. By placing a hold, a single senator can stop the Senate from taking up consideration of a particular nomination. Holds can be overcome, but it takes 60 votes to do so.

According to the Federal Times, Senator Shelby is upset over the handling of an Air Force refueling tanker contract worth up to $35 billion which was originally awarded to a consortia led by Northrop Grumman and EADS (Airbus) last year, but later voided after a bid protest was filed by Boeing. Northrop Grumman has an assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama.

In a written statement, Senator Shelby complained Air Force efforts to build new tankers have been stalled for nearly 10 years and "we still do not have a transparent and fair acquisition process to move forward." The senior Senator from Alabama who was first elected in 1986 as a Democrat (he switched parties in 1994)  also wants the Obama Administration to release funds so the FBI can build a Terrorist Explosive Devices Analytical Center in Alabama, the statement said.

While individual holds are not unusual, Congressional scholar Gary Jacobson, a Professor of Political Science at the University of California at San Diego, said he knew of no previous use of a blanket hold.

This isn't government, this is hostage-taking.

There's more...

There's more...