Your United States Government is a football, and Republican Richard Shelby is taking it home. Right after he wrestles it away from all the other right-wing brats. Ahhh, such is public service.
Alabama Senator Shelby levied an across-the-board hold on all of the President’s appointments to the executive branch. Open positions in the government will languish until Shelby gets what he wants, which presumably includes hoppers full of black hair gel.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has put an extraordinary “blanket hold” on at least 70 nominations President Obama has sent to the Senate, according to multiple reports this evening.
Why? The liberal commie government that’s spending the hard-earned taxpayers’ money at a homicidal rate is ignoring Alabama projects:
The two programs Shelby wants to move forward or else:
- A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers. From CongressDaily: “Northrop/EADS team would build the planes in Mobile, Ala., but has threatened to pull out of the competition unless the Air Force makes changes to a draft request for proposals.” Federal Times offers more details on the tanker deal, and also confirms its connection to the hold.
- An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI. From CongressDaily: “[Shelby] is frustrated that the Obama administration won’t build” the center, which Shelby earmarked $45 million for in 2008. The center is due to be based “at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal.”
How big a power-play is this?
While individual holds are not unusual, Gary Jacobson, a congressional expert at the University of California at San Diego, said he knew of no previous use of a blanket hold.
The Senate is always full of assholes, and yet it’s never been done before. Meanwhile, in a related note, the furious tea partiers opened their convention today. And the Republican leadership are there to signal that they will do the teabaggers will:
Tea party convention seeks to put power in motion
…”There’s a clear economic message that’s evolving out of this movement,” Republican strategist David Winston said. “Which direction, in terms of the political activism, does this go? I think we’ll get a sense of that from this convention.”
GOP officials are watching closely, though not participating publicly.
“The Republican Party has always been a grass-roots party, and we respect the healthy debate that is going on in the states,” said Republican National Committee spokesman LeRoy Coleman. “Republican principles of lower taxes, smaller government and less spending match those of tea party supporters and we will continue to work to make sure that tea party supporters recognize our candidates most closely match what they look for in elected officials.”
They say they despise the workings of big government, but they’re lying. They only hate it when it works for you.
