It's really hard to let that corruption go, once you've tasted it's sweetness.

FTA: Updates From TPM Coverage Today:

- Shelby confirmed the holds, and lashed out at Obama over the Alabama programs.

- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office first doubted the story was true. Later, after Shelby confirmed it, McConnell's office refused to talk about the holds.

- White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the Shelby holds "silliness" in this morning's gaggle with reporters.

- An interview Shelby gave to a TV station in Alabama earlier this week offers some more insight into why Shelby is holding up Obama's nominees -- he thinks the White House is biased against Alabama.

McConnell's gonna get to the bottom I bet!

"McConnell's gonna get to the bottom I bet!
#2 | Posted by greeneyedguy at 2010-02-05 06:28 PM"

Looks like he's pretty much there already:

This is Democracy in 2010. What a sad state of affairs.

Boycott Alabama.

Didn't Obama do the same thing as a Senator?

Didn't Obama do the same thing as a Senator?

Posted by mysterytoy

No. This is the first time a blanket 'no' has been issued by a single Senator on all administration appointments unless he gets his pork.

This is the first time a blanket 'no' has been issued by a single Senator on all administration appointments unless he gets his pork.

Weren't there a couple of senators who had to be bribed with pork to get their vote for the health care bill?

Boycott Alabama.

#5 | Posted by ichiro

Don't Boycott Alabama, Boycott Shelby.

The tea-bagging racist assholes that have always run the state are still in charge. I know, I was raised there. The good people of alabama have effectively turned their backs on the corruption in montgomery and in DC. This wasn't the smartest thing in the world to do but it was the easiest.

Just last week or so, the governor appointed anti-gambling commissioner (the same ones that tells the local talibaptists that they will go to hell if they use the lottery) was in Mississippi .... gambling.

So in response, the governor has targeted all the bingo halls. The irony is just too thick for me. Two of the best states, Alabama and Texas, both have corrupt state governments and our washington representation does everything but represent the views of it's citizens.

Blocking a single bill to get Medicaid paid for in your state is not in the same league as a blanket block of every single appointment (over 50) necessary to running an administration.

Weren't there a couple of senators who had to be bribed with pork to get their vote for the health care bill?

#8 | Posted by goatman

the Nebraska senator and the one that had heavy union obligations.

They don't even try to appear honest anymore.

Excuse me. Shelby's holding up 70 nominations necessary to run the administration in a prudent manner.

That's not blocking a single bill. It creates a vacuum at a time we need the administration running on all cylinders while we try to pull out of a deep recession.

Lieberman, the other cog-in-the-wheel, is in the pockets of the insurance industry, who are huge in Connecticut. His state already has Charter Oak - a (GASP!) 'public option' with 3 affordable plans to choose from. Why should be give a flying flip about the rest of Americans?

That's not blocking a single bill. It creates a vacuum at a time we need the administration running on all cylinders while we try to pull out of a deep recession.

Personally, I don't go for the, "But the other guy does it on a grander scale" when talking about political malfeasance. But if the bills are that important to get out of the recession with real fixes and not band-aids (questionable, IMO) cloture shouldn't be hard to obtain.

"The hold means no nominations can move forward unless Senate Democrats can secure a 60-member cloture vote to break it, or until Shelby lifts the hold."

Excuse me, but this is fucking ridiculous. Maybe we should just put our lives on hold until this asshole is done jerking off.

We gotta get SIXTY to vote the same way or ONE to fucking grow up.

We gotta get SIXTY to vote the same way or ONE to fucking grow up.

#15 | Posted by TedBaxter

All the little piggies have lost their teet. There are their hungry little mouths smacking and crying for the mother government to feed them.

and so was this sort of thing ALSO so anti democracy when nelson was holding out on heatlh care vote?
and landreu was counting HER millions

and tHe fuckin unions....thier support was linked to getting MILLIONS for union workers and the rest of workers would have to PAY medicare taxes FOR THEM...

so when did some of you get so worried about this shit?????

Rumor has it one of the positions that is on hold is the 3rd highest position at the Pentagon. Isn't that a threat to national security?

so when did some of you get so worried about this shit?????

#17 | Posted by afkabl2

Jan. 20th, 2009

And are some of you really going to defend this guy? Afk, you ramble about "pork" all the damned time. This guy is being honest about it--so maybe that makes it okay in your book? Any person on this list who has _ever_ railed about earmarks (especially in relation to Ben Nelson) should be lining up to add his/her voice to the excoriation of Shelby. If you're not, you're a fucking hypocrite. Regardless of one's political alignment, this man's behavior should be deemed absurd and obstructionist. He's not standing on principle--he's being greedy. This is even beyond the usual horse-trading (which is what those talking about "buying votes" for healthcare are talking about--the way deals get made).

So folks, how do we change the system? 'Cause the system is allowing this bullshit.

.It creates a vacuum at a time we need the administration running on all cylinders while we try to pull out of a deep recession.

#12 | POSTED BY AMERICANUNITY AT 2010-02-06 08:35 AM | REPLY | FLAG:

Since when would Republicans care about the country?

so when did some of you get so worried about this shit?????

#17 | POSTED BY AFKABL2 AT 2010-02-06 11:59 AM | REPLY | FLAG:

Oh lookie, part of the Deficits Don't Matter crowd is no all of a sudden concerned about spending.

Where you been for 2001-2008?

Oh yeah, defending your $7 trillion dollar baby.