The Party of Waaaaa!

Because they couldn’t get their way in defeating big bad Obama and bwinging about his Waterloo, the poor widdle Wepubwicans are having a big cwy!

As they did yesterday, Republican Senators once again refused to consent to allow Senate hearings to proceed. Sen. Leahy, who had a Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled today to consider (long) pending nominations, released this statement (via e-mail) which reads in part:

Senate Republicans’ tactics of obstruction and delay know no limit. They have objected to reasonable timetables to consider President Obama’s qualified judicial nominees, and now they are objecting to allowing the Judiciary Committee to conduct hearings in connection with these nominations.

Senate Republicans continue their ill-advised protest of meaningful health reform legislation by exploiting parliamentary tactics and Senate Rules, to the detriment of the American people and, in today’s instance, at the expense of American justice. I urge them to reconsider and allow this hearing to proceed as scheduled. I have accommodated requests from Judiciary Committee Republicans to delay the Committee’s hearing to consider Professor Liu’s nomination. 

I had intended to hold this hearing two weeks ago, but instead scheduled a hearing for Judge Robert Chatigny, a nominee to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  When Republicans who had agreed to proceed on the Chatigny nomination then reversed themselves and asked that I postpone the hearing on that nomination, I did so as a further accommodation to them. Those accommodations have met with the same Republican stonewalling we have seen in our efforts to consider judicial nominees since President Obama was elected, including the stalling of 22 judicial nominees favorably reported by the Judiciary Committee and awaiting final Senate approval. Sixteen of those judicial nominees were voted out of Committee without opposition and yet the delay and obstruction continues.

What other hearings have been scuttled? TIC had the full list of what the Senate had scheduled. Here are some highlights of what Republicans refuse to let happen:

 

Committee	Date	Time	Purpose
Appropriations	Wed, 3/24	10:00 am	Subcommittee on Defense: Hearing on FY 2011 Guard and Reserve Budget
Commerce, Science & Transportation	Wed, 3/24	10:00 am	Business mg to consider S.773…to provide for the development of a cadre of information technology specialists to improve & maintain effective cybersecurity defenses against disruption; Nominations: Robert J. Papp Jr., to be Commandant, US Coast Guard, Dept. of Homeland Security
Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs	Wed, 3/24	10:00 am	Nomination of Maj. Gen. Robert A. Harding, USA, Ret., Asst. Sec., Dept. of Homeland Security
Armed Services	Wed, 3/24	2:30 pm	Hearings to examine U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. Strategic Command, and U.S. Forces Korea in review of the Defense Authorization request for fiscal year 2011 and the Future Years Defense Program…
Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs	Wed, 3/24	2:30 pm	Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight: Contracts for Afghan National Police Training

In addition to the Liu nomination, Republicans aren’t letting a number of national security related hearings proceed…[emphasis original]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

These items have nothing whatsoever to do with health care reform.  What we see here can only be seen as small, selfish children having a hissy fit, because they didn’t get their way.