Bernie was wrong. I few days ago, he said that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is a very nice guy. I wrote that I disagreed and that there is nothing nice about McConnell. The proof is in, and I was right, Bought Bitch Mitch just told Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Coretta Scott King to STFU!!
Senate Republicans voted on Tuesday night to silence Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who had taken to the floor of the Senate to give a speech opposing the confirmation of Alabama senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Warren began reading a letter written in 1986 by the late Coretta Scott King, activist and wife of civil-rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which was originally written in opposition to Sessions’s 1986 nomination to serve as a federal judge. (King’s letter was written to be sent to the Senate, though Senator Strom Thurmond, who was then the chair of the judiciary committee, blocked it from being entered into the congressional record.) In her letter, King wrote, “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters. For this reprehensible conduct, he should not be rewarded with a federal judgeship.” (Sessions’s nomination for the judicial post was ultimately withdrawn amid allegations of past racist comments, some of which he has denied.)
But Republicans immediately took offense to Warren reading King’s words on the Senate floor. Senator Steve Daines of Montana warned Warren that she was violating Senate rules against impugning another senator. She continued reading King’s letter anyway. “Mrs. King’s views and words ring true today,” Warren said. “The integrity of our Justice Department depends on an attorney general who will fight for the rights of all people. An honest evaluation of Jeff Sessions’ record shows that he is not that person.” Civil-rights advocates and lawmakers have expressed concern over Sessions’s record on race and immigration, as well as statements he’s made in the past. Sessions has been criticized for calling the N.A.A.C.P. “communist-inspired” and “un-American,” and for allegedly calling a black assistant U.S. attorney “boy.”
Warren’s speech came to a halt when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invoked rule XIX, which keeps senators from “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another senator or to other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator.” Warren, McConnell said, “has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama.”…
From <Vanity Fair>
Liz explained it to an MSNBC reporter that was not altogether sympathetic.
What the reporter did not get is this. The purpose of rule XIX is to prevent debate between Senators from descending into flame wars of personal attack, not discussion of issues. It should never have been used to evade the reading of testimony. Sessions (R-KKK) was in the discussion as a nominee being evaluated, not as a Senator in debate.
Furthermore, Bought Mitch Mitch never invoked Rule XIV against the multiple attacks on Senators by Cruz (R-Uranus). I guess IOKIYAR.
RESIST!!
20 Responses to “Shut Up Liz! Shut Up Coretta!”
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After this happened, at least four MALE Senators DID read the entire letter in the Senate without censure. One was Jeff Merkley. Can you spell M-I-S-O-G-Y-N-Y ?
Miscellaneous petitions on Elizabeth Warren –
https://secure.pfaw.org/site/SPageNavigator/action.html;jsessionid=00000000.app30103b?survey_id=11802&autologin=true&utm_medium=email&utm_source=aa&utm_campaign=standwithwarren&NONCE_TOKEN=807AD7F4FF837A576EFCE42402DFFED4
https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/letters/stand-with-sen-warren-send-coretta-scott-kings-letter-to-your-republican-senators
https://durbin.cp.bsd.net/page/signup/let-liz-speak
http://act.faithfulamerica.org/sign/mcconnell_coretta/
http://nm.martinheinrich.com/page/s/stand-with-elizabeth-warren
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-mitch-mcconnell-let-liz-speak
http://act.maggiehassan.com/page/s/20170208_stand-up-to-mcconnell-nd
https://action.seiu.org/page/speakout/coretta-scott-king
And you can call Elizabeth at (202) 224-4543 or (617) 565-3170 to thank her for being a champion of civil rights.
This one's late because it went to spam:
http://co.coloradodems.org/page/s/stand-with-elizabeth-warren
These came in after I posted (not, I guess, that it matters, since the bastard's been confirmed now)
http://www.sherrodbrown.com/landing/e170208pm/
https://secure.dscc.org/page/s/stand-with-elizabeth-warren
These two are thank-you notes direct to Elizabeth so they do still matter:
https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/petitions/add-your-name-thank-elizabeth-warren-for-persistently-speaking-truth-to-power
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/thank-you-elizabeth-warren
This one will give you a button IF you can contribute:
https://action.momsrising.org/donate/she_persisted/
While I am not in favor of misogyny, I am glad to hear, for this first time that Coretta Scott King's words went into the Congressional Record!
WTG, Ms. Warren!!!! A true Warrior! Thank You! Ms. Warren@
I don't tweet/twitter but here's a link to her: #LetLizSpeak.
*Thanks, Joanne for links, I've signed most, but w/go through again, to make sure. 😉
Thanks, Mitch McTurtle for a FANTASTIC campaign battle-cry:
I can not believe that Bernie would characterize McConnell in that way. Perhaps McConnell, in a neutral setting, in person, has some social skills, and having seen Justice Scalia on the Charlie Rose show, I might come up with the same opiniion. Scalia was charming, friendly, well spoken there, but was, nonetheless, still a jackass! McConnell, and his former henchman, Boehner, did a huge amount to create the gulf between congresssional peole on either side of the aisle; more manipulation, and intimidation, perhaps on a quieter level than Rumpy's.
I have to disagree with Liz on this point: the Republicans don't want "The People" to hear the facts!
I went back and watched it again. His actual words were "a decent guy." That's also wrong, IMO and ITCO (he said so), but it's not quite as far out as "a very nice guy." But that's called tact. (Bernie also said something about McConnell being a "mainstream Republican" which was definitely political. A lot of us aren't sure whether to tie the Republicans to Trump, in order to maximize our gains in 2018, or to drive a wedge between Trump and the Party in order to hasten impeachment. Bernie's characterization of Mitch as "mainstream" suggests he has chosen the latter. TC, he has said, favors the former.)
I'm glad you had time to look it up. I didn't, so I was going by memory. My mistake. I think Bernie was being collegial, by Senate tradition. Collegiality is out of place as long as Republicans keep goose stepping in lock step with their Fuhrer.
No problem. Yeah, "collegial," that's the word. I don't think I'm in a good position to tell Bernie what to do.
Nor am I. His opinion as to what's appropriate, which I respect, differs from mine.
Exactly. And I respect you both, and therefore am kind of on the fence, and will accept a combination.
"Sessions (R-KKK) was in the discussion as a nominee being evaluated, not as a Senator in debate." — That was my first gut reaction. Given that some male senators who read the letter were not censured, I think McTurtle and Republicans are afraid of Warren! She is articulate, has integrity, and actually uses facts, something Republicans don't understand.
Resist!!!
That's exactly right!
Beauregard Sessions was putting himself forward as a NOMINEE – he was NOT acting in the role of a senator.
You know democracy, or what's left of it in the banana republic Republicans have turned America into, is going down the drain when the majority prevents the minority from speaking in Congress according to its democratic rights.
The fact that at least four other Democrats read Coretta Scott King's letter without being silenced has me think that these Democrats had coordinated this action and Liz went first as she is the most well known and the most outspoken, and yes, the most feared by Republicans. How feared she actually is became clear when Mitch McConnell had to dig to the bottom of the pit to find an excuse rule to invoke. And as this debate was aired live by C-span and reactions came in almost immediately, Republicans hadn't the guts to gag all Democrats for reading out the letter to resist confirmation of Jeff Sessions. Sessions was confirmed never the less; the 48 Republicans voting for Liz, and democracy, to be gagged was a clear indication that they would stand together no matter what.
RESIST!
I think Lona may have a point. The reason Republicans did not stop the men is that the public outcry against their muzzling Liz was so great that they realized they had stepped in it anf feared compounding the damage. I'd like to think that Democrats planned the controversy by putting the person that threatens the Reich most up front in hopes that Republicans would react without thought.
I have already said Jeff Merkley was one. Sherrod Brown of Ohio was one. Tom Udall of New Mexico was one. I don't know who the fourth was nor whether there were more, which there could well have been. Additions to the list are welcome – they should get credit. If it was pre-planned, I just note it also was likely pre-planned to display misogyny, even if they had to trap them into it.
Aha! Bernie was the fourth.
She had just as much right to read that letter as ANY of those male senators! I call BS and hogwash on all of the male senators!!! Such a crock of s#(? that their eyes are brown!!
Viv, the ones that did werfe working with her, not against her. They all put Republican racism and sexixm on front street.