Senate

Clothes Make the Man

Featured image More accurately, clothes reflect the man. John Fetterman dresses in a manner that is deliberately slovenly and inappropriate, and that appears intended to mock the institution of which he is a member. But it’s not just that: the rest of his conduct is similarly inappropriate and demeaning to the office he holds. When Fetterman speaks, his brain damage is evident, and he can be an object of sympathy. But when »

(D., Lower Slobbovia)

Featured image Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has unfettered John Fetterman. Undoing the Senate’s sumptuary code, Schumer disclosed that staff for the chamber’s Sergeant-at-Arms will no longer enforce a dress code on the Senate floor. Schumer left the neck of the Democratic Party unmentioned, but everyone understands that Fetterman is the inspiration for Schumer’s initiative. Now Fetterman can freely wander the Senate in his accustomed attire of hooded sweatshirt and shorts. Cartoonist »

¿Quien esta mas impedido?

Featured image The Washington Free Beacon has compiled the video below contrasting the media treatment of John Fetterman’s stroke-related brain damage with Mitch McConnell’s something-related “freeze” (related story here). ¿Quien esta mas impedido? John Fetterman’s stroke-related disability appears to be a credit to the human spirit and to the United States Senate, formerly known as the world’s most exclusive club. By contrast, McConnell’s most recent “freeze” gets an unsympathetic, i.e., realistic treatment, »

Mitch McConnell Suffers a Second ‘Freeze’

Featured image Speaking to reporters in Covington, Kentucky, on Wednesday, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 81, was asked if he plans to run for reelection in 2026. After McConnell failed to respond, an aide repeated the question to him. “I’m sorry you all, we’re going to need a minute,” the aide said, winking at the group as McConnell remained silent. The senator experienced a similar “freeze” in July during a Capitol »

Feinstein Watch

Featured image It has been obvious for quite a while that Dianne Feinstein is not capable of discharging her duties as a senator. Earlier today Feinstein became confused in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing and began reading a statement instead of casting a vote. An aide tried to help her, and Patty Murray audibly said, “Just say ‘aye.'” I haven’t paid much attention to the Feinstein saga because it is not surprising »

GOP senators peeved over number of constituents who believe 2020 election was stolen

Featured image Several Republican senators told The Hill this week that more and more frequently, they are being “confronted by constituents who buy into discredited conspiracy theories such as the claim that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election or that federal agents incited the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.” The Hill spoke to at least three GOP senators, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and two others who requested anonymity.  »

Senator Grassley inquires

Featured image Senator Grassley worked over the weekend to crank out some questions for United States Attorney David Weiss in connection with his shambolic “investigation” of Hunter Biden. Senator Grassley has posted his July 9 letter to Weiss online here. The operative principle governing the Weiss investigation seems to have been that no harm was to be done to Hunter or the Biden family business. Indeed, no one was to look too »

A Painter passing through, Senate edition

Featured image University of Minnesota Law School Professor Richard Painter holds himself out as an ethics guru. During the Trump administration, for his numerous appearances on MSNBC, Painter also held himself out as a Republican critic of Trump. When he undertook a campaign for the United States Senate in 2018, however, he challenged incumbent appointee Tina Smith as a Democrat in the DFL primary. Indeed, he ran to Smith’s left. Painter is »

Sen. Grassley unredacted

Featured image Senator Grassley took to the floor of the Senate to make a statement with several notable items in it on the investigation of the Biden family business and the related FBI’s coverup. The statement is posted here. This is the heart of it (emphasis in original): With respect to the 1023 shown to that House Committee, from what I’ve been told by folks who’ve reviewed it, it’s filled with redactions. »

Thanks for clearing that up

Featured image Back from the treatment for depression that followed on his stroke, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman pretends he is capable of doing his job. Earlier this week Fetterman questioned Silicon Valley Bank executive Greg Becker during a Senate Banking Committee hearing about SVB’s March collapse. Steve Hayward posted this pathetic video clip. This is just sad. pic.twitter.com/q1NKwUWcMR — Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) May 16, 2023 See if you can follow »

Sheldon Whitehouse plays Elmer Fudd

Featured image Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is a fool. He nevertheless thinks extremely highly of himself. His vanity is only one component of his clown show. To borrow a line from Bob Dylan’s “Idiot Wind,” it’s a wonder he still knows how to breathe. Heritage Foundation scholar Diana Furchtgott-Roth contributed the latest episode in Whitehouse’s long-running Looney Tunes saga when she testified on Wednesday before the Senate Budget Committee on “the real price »

Dr. Chen, call your office

Featured image Students of ancient history may recall that the campaign of then Democrat Senate candidate John Fetterman released two letters from physicians who vouched for Fetterman’s fitness to serve following the stroke he suffered last year just before the Pennsylvania primary. The first such letter was released on June 3 under the signature of Dr. Ramesh Chandra. The second such letter was released just before the general election in mid-October under »

The Fetterman blues

Featured image I was extremely disappointed when Dr. Oz won the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate GOP primary over David McCormick — by 900 hundred votes out of nearly 900,000 cast, with the invaluable support of Donald Trump. I was inspired to express my disgust by adapting the famous translation of one of the Roman poet Martial’s epigrams to fit the occasion when McCormick conceded on June 3. What a farce. Pennsylvania conducted its »

Lowlights of the Day

Featured image It wasn’t a great day for news. Here are a few of the lowlights: * Feckless Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg blamed Donald Trump for the East Palestine train derailment and consequent chemical spill: We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we »

Notes on the Twitter Files (11)

Featured image Matt Taibbi posted two more Twitter Files threads yesterday afternoon. They are the eleventh and twelfth such threads posted by the journalists to whom Elon Musk has opened the files of old Twitter. Taibbi has taken the lead in documenting The eleventh thread includes 33 tweets that can be accessed via the first (below). 1.THREAD: The Twitter FilesHow Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, »

Dynamics of the omnibus

Featured image Seeking to provide a perspective other that might contribute to an understanding of the massive omnibus spending bill Congress is about to pass, I asked a knowledgeable source about the dynamics underlying Republican support for it. This is what I understand to be the Republican case for the bill on the Senate side. I pass it on for the sake of those trying to gain some perspective on what we »

Sinema’s sayonara

Featured image Politico’s Burgess Everett reports this morning that Senator Kyrsten Sinema is leaving the Democratic Party, changing her party affiliation to independent. In so doing, she is “delivering a jolt to Democrats’ narrow majority and Washington along with it.” Reading Everett’s account of his interview with Sinema, I can’t figure what difference her departure from the Dems will make: In a 45-minute interview, the first-term senator told POLITICO that she will »