Find out how Cooch took $55,000 from the disgraced "U.S. Navy Veterans Association," in apparent exchange for his promise to get the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs (which had "notified Thompson's group that it no longer qualified for an exemption from state registration requirements") off the group's back. Can we say "pay-to-play?" Find out more.
Let's just say, something tells me that Virginia Senate Democrats are not going to agree with this! The key conclusions: 1) "Contrary to the Democrats allegations, there is nothing in the Constitution of Virginia that limits the Lieutenant Governor's ability to vote on organizational matters;" and 2) "However, I have further concluded that the Constitution of Virginia does limit the Lieutenant Governor's ability to vote on certain other matters." (e.g, the budget, any bills to issue debt, and election of judges). We'll see you in court, Mr. Lieutenant Governor! :)
Friends,
Earlier today I issued an advisory ruling regarding my ability to break tie votes on certain matters that may come before the Senate of Virginia during the upcoming legislative session. I am writing to make you aware of that ruling and the reasons for it.
First, a bit of background information.
As a result of the November elections the Senate of Virginia now has 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats. Because of this equal division my role as President of the Senate will take on added visibility and significance during the upcoming General Assembly session.
For example, with my vote we will be able to organize the Senate with a Republican majority. That means we will have a Republican Majority Leader, Republican committee chairs and Republican majorities on Senate committees.
*Newt's "at 41% [in Virginia] to 15% for Mitt Romney with no one else in double digits. Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry at 8%, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul at 6%, Jon Huntsman at 3%, and Gary Johnson at 1% round out the field.
*"[W]e took a very early look at the 2013 GOP primary for Governor and again find Ken Cuccinelli with a big early lead over Bill Bolling, 44-25."
*"There continues to be very little appetite for a Tea Party challenge to George Allen in the Republican Senate race."
Actually, I'm surprised that Cuccinelli's not leading Bolling by more than 44%-25% Where Cuccinelli's trailing Bolling is interesting: among Huntsman and Romney supporters, among "moderate" Republicans (but oddly, not among "liberal" Republicans, whoever those people are!), and among Democrats. That does not bode well for Bolling in a Republican primary or convention, but we'll see; maybe Virginia Republicans will have moved back a bit towards sanity by then? Naaaaah, who am I kidding?!?
Pat Mullins, Chairman of the RPV, dropped in on Virginia Beach Republicans today to provide perspective on the Virginia elections this fall and update the faithful. His message was simple, direct, and aimed at taking advantage of the vacuum of DPVA leadership; in hiding since 2008.
The elections this year, and you've got all your delegates running, your senators running, what we want you to do is not let anybody currently an incumbent get defeated. Be sure and get out and vote. Even if they are unopposed, vote for them, because if they get 95% or 100% maybe it'll scare people off next time too.
The reason I'm saying this is the whole country is watching Virginia elections this year. I go to RNC meetings and they tell me "We're watching you," just like they did two years ago. After the current occupant of the White House (and I have difficulty calling him President) the current occupant of the White House carried Virginia, there was a fear around the country, "was this going to keep carrying over?" And we said the next year we've already had enough of him. And we voted in Bob and Bill, and Ken; the following year we took three Congressional seats including Scott's in this area and we sent a message.
They're watching this year to see if the blame game being placed on the Republicans, on the Tea Party people, on anybody who doesn't agree, believe it or not, with the White House, is the blame game working? So, they're telling me if we can win the Senate, pick up those two to three seats we need, pick up a couple of House seats, then the word will go out to the country: the blame game isn't working. Virginia is going to be the first state to refudiate (sic) Obama and we're going to carry it through next year.
Now why is that important for next year? Because I've been told that if Virginia's electoral votes don't go Republican, the current occupant of the White House will stay there. If Virginia's votes don't elect a Republican United States Senator, that the Senate is going to stay in the Democrat (sic) majority. So it's that simple. If we want to win, we've got to win this year and send a message: Next year elect a Republican (and any running is better than what's in there right now) and elect a United States Senator to get us a majority we need in the United States Senate.
*"In a primary contest between Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Cuccinelli leads 45-21. Cuccinelli is strongest with very conservatives with whom he leads Bolling 56-15..." In other words, the people who actually decide Teapublican nominations these days strongly, overwhelmingly favor Ken Cuccinelli over Bill Bolling. In other words, if Cuccinelli wants the Republican nomination for governor in 2013, it's his for the asking. Sorry, Bill Bolling, looks like you're LG for Life! Heh.
*"George Allen appears to be too far a reach for the Tea Party...Allen takes 68% of the vote to 6% for Jamie Radtke, 2% for Tim Donner, 2% for EW. Jackson, and 0% for David McCormick."
*Also, "When we polled Virginia in late February Allen led a generic 'more conservative' challenger by 27 points at 52-25. Now that margin's expanded even further to 35 points at 58-23. A seriously contested primary for Allen was already a long shot. Now it's looking like an even longer shot."
This one's over, in other words. Felix will be the 2012 Republican nominee against Tim Kaine for U.S. Senate. And yes, the Democratic nominee WILL be Tim Kaine, as everything I'm hearing indicates that Bobby Scott is not seriously considering a primary race against Kaine.
*Finally, with regard to the 2012 Republican presidential contest, it "depends greatly on whether or not Sarah Palin enters the race." Either way, Rick Perry is very strong, as are Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney. Everyone else is trailing, with Tim Pawlenty and John Huntsman barely registering at all. Very interesting.
Governor McDonnell's biggest announcement thus far on his journey through Asia is that he has created a job; in Shanghai. The most mature cooperative venture between Virginia and China, the trade relationship between Waynesboro and Chongqing is off the agenda. But he's exporting a government position from Richmond to China.
"Gov. Bob McDonnell has opened a marketing office for Virginia in Shanghai. The governor is on a two-week job creating and marketing mission in Japan, China and Korea." - The Roanoke Times
This effort underlines McDonnell administration's paucity of business and international experience. While setting up the post hoc ergo proctor hoc fallacies for claims that he has "created jobs" out of this journey, he has arranged visits that are little more than photo opportunities. No substance from any of the dispatches. And he assumed (or his staff is truly incompetent) he could waltz into China and doors would fly open. They didn't and those with a bit of experience in this area can tell you that China sent a very clear message to McDonnell: "Just who do you think you are?" As reported in The News Virginian McDonnell said Tuesday in a conference call from Shanghai that he's "sure something will work out in the future." Yes, that's how those international deals are done: something works out. Ask George Mitchell.
With Republicans in the House failing to produce any jobs bills, Democrats in the minority have decided to propose their own initiatives. This week's episode, season 2 episode 12, focuses on one of those proposals, H.R. 613, the Airports, Highways, High-Speed Rail, Trains, and Transit: Make it in America Act, sponsored by Representative John Garamendi.
What this proposal does, is ensure that projects being funded by tax dollars are purchasing materials made in the US. After their passage of H.R. 3, Republicans in the House are going to have to explain why they find it morally acceptable to spend tax dollars on foreign-made products while so many Americans are out of work and our manufacturing jobs are steadily moving overseas.
Congress returns to Washington, DC this week, and with it returns the debate over the FY2012 budget. Frustrated with the focus on downsizing government and seeing a void of budget proposals that reflect their vision for the country, progressive members of Congress crafted the subject of this week's 90 Second Summary: The People's Budget.
With new episodes each Monday, 90 Second Summaries provides simple, concise explanations of bills in front of Congress. This week's episode focuses upon an alternative to both President Barack Obama's and Congressman Paul Ryan's budgets. However, as seems to be the case with any "adult conversation" these days, the Beltway press assumes that progressives will be seated at the kids table.
If nothing else, the People's Budget represents something radically different from the "austerity" measures proposed by the President and Congressman Ryan. It shatters the conventional wisdom that the only option to fix the deficit is to mangle the social safety net. Yet its exclusion from the greater debate means many Americans will never hear what the proposal is.
While folks online are watching this summary, we will be personally delivering it to targeted offices on Capitol Hill. The People's Budget was never intended to pass on its own, but rather to influence the debate. Our goal is to make a splash today and increase understanding of the People's Budget.
Please help us spread word about this week's episode: The People's Budget.
(Just remember, the effort to weaken EPA and/or strip it of its power to keep our air and water clean is all part of the right-wing, Dirty Energy, corporate assault on our environment and our democracy. It's extreme and also extremely dangerous. - promoted by lowkell)
A couple weeks ago, we looked at new regulations on greenhouse gases (GHG's) being imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This week's episode focuses on a bill proposed as a response to these new regulations by House Republicans who oppose the EPA's efforts. Contrary to what the title of the bill would suggest, this proposal has absolutely nothing to do with taxes. In fact, aside from the title, the word "tax" does not appear once in the text of the bill. The actual language of the bill shows that the real intent is to strip the EPA of power in the area of GHG's and leave any decision making to Congress.
It should be noted that the EPA has been regulating air pollutants for over 40 years (just missed the 40th anniversary last December). Though regulating GHG's is new, thanks to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that declared GHG's to be air pollutants, this type of EPA authority has been the status quo for a long time.
This week, we explore how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to regulate the emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHG's) after a 2007 Supreme Court ruling declared that GHG's meet the standard of an air pollutant. These new regulations take effect over three phases, the first of which is currently taking place.
This week's summary takes a look at House Joint Resolution 44, the continuing resolution that funds the government through March 18th while Congress continues to negotiate the budget for FY2011. This budget fight is the hot topic in DC, seeing as it will undoubtedly affect every issue going forward.
This week, we examine two proposals that aim to prevent the FCC from establishing or enforcing any rules or regulations on internet service providers. Currently, all bandwidth use must be treated as equal. This standard has long been cherished by activists as a way of ensuring the values of democracy online. Conservatives, however, have begun to question whether or not this regulation goes against free market principles. The two bills we examine, coming out of the House of Representatives, similarly attempt to allow internet service providers (ISP's) to treat bandwidth use as they see fit.
This week, we look at H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, and discuss how this proposal differs from the long-standing Hyde Amendment. Beyond the "forcible rape" controversy, which is expected to be resolved at the next opportunity to markup the bill, H.R. 3 represents the most aggressive attempt to expand upon the Hyde Amendment since it was first enacted in 1976. That is why we chose to summarize this bill as it compares to Hyde (if you need more info about the Hyde Amendment, you can find a link to learn more at the bottom of the page).
And this week's episode comes with a bonus video! David Waldman, the Editor in Chief of Congress Matters and our own Public Affairs Director, speaks in depth about the dangerous precedent that hides in H.R. 3. You can find that video below.
Lastly, in order to properly thank our sponsor without digging into the precious 90 seconds we have to summarize complicated pieces of legislation and other policy proposals, we have added a little bumper time. But we guarantee that every bit of summary fits into 90 seconds, and we introduced a countdown clock to prove it.
What's that you say? Get on with it? Sure thing...
We're back with the Season 2 Premiere of 90 Second Summaries! This season will have double the suspense, double the hilarity, and it just might move you to tears... Okay, not really. Our 90 Second Summaries will be what they always were, a clean and simple set of legislative summaries designed to help folks on Main Street keep up.
To kick off the new season, we are going to roll out a couple summaries of the more interesting provisions of the new Adopting Rules Package of the 112th Congress (then we will take a couple weeks off to evaluate new legislation before us). This week, we are looking at the transparency provisions of the new rules. These provisions are important to understand, if only because it will require pressure to ensure that they are followed properly. Without further ado, we present Season 2, Episode 1:
Last week, in part one of our two-part series on filibuster reform, we examined the Constitutional Option to allow majority approval of rules changes. This week, in the 15th and final episode of Season 1,we look at the most prominent package of rules changes discussed to date. Roughly a month ago, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) circulated a "dear colleague" memo outlining a series of changes that are being strongly considered within current Democratic Caucus deliberations.
Enjoy this first season's finale. It's been a fun season for us and we'll be back in January with a whole slate of brand new bills and other policy proposals to summarize!
*Full disclosure: David Waldman, our Public Affairs Director, is an active advisor to the Fix the Senate Now coalition.
We're nearing the end of our first season and to finish it off we are providing a couple summaries relating to changing the filibuster. Today we look at what is called the "Constitutional Option," which applies only to the first day of a new session of Congress. This is expected to come up at the beginning of the 112th session.
There are several reasons that we decided upon the Tester Amendment to the Food Safety Bill for episode 12 of 90 Second Summaries. First and foremost, the amendment is a significant one that is essential to understanding this piece of legislation (legislation we summarized in episode 7). Not only is it the most substantial difference between the Senate's version of the bill and the House's, but without it the future of the legislation itself would be unclear. Therefore, we think it is important that people understand how this amendment changes the bill.
Another significant influence in our decision was you. When we summarized the Food Safety Bill in episode 7 a number of viewers brought up the issue of protections for small farmers. It was clear to us that this amendment was worthy of a summary.
With 90 Second Summaries, we aim to cover policy items due to receive close attention in the coming weeks and months that are not being properly explained by most of the press corps. As a result, over one third of our episodes cover pieces of legislation that are receiving action or are expected to receive action during this lame duck session of Congress. We did not hit every hot topic on the board, but we got to a good number of them. Without further ado, here's a roundup of the bills we covered that you should know about as the lame duck session unfolds:
A local headline revised from "Official: City, Wanzhou near trade agreements" to "Chinese delegation makes rounds." A trade deal that cannot be made public until finalized. No participation by Bill Bolling. The benefit: an invitation to participate in a year-long garden exposition in Chongqing. Where's the ROI?
"I hope we can develop business relationships and promote better understanding of the Chinese culture and people. We're all human beings living on the same planet." - Waynesboro Mayor Frank Lucente
There are countless visits and relationships like the one in Waynesboro across the United States. Harmless on their face, possibly even beneficial. But you'd bet the Mayor of Waynesboro and his business delegation and their counterparts nationwide haven't read their Sun Tzu. And if the "executive deputy governor" of Wanzhou was present, where was someone representing the Commonwealth? How about the fellow appointed by the Governor as the chief jobs officer? While Wanzhou is not technically a state, it has a population if 1.6 million (a tad bit larger than Augusta county's) and the Chongquing exposition is a function of a direct-controlled municipality; translate: a Bejing economic functionary.
"We have a very good first impression of Waynesboro," said Bai Wennong, executive deputy governor of Wanzhou. "It's very beautiful."
Wennong said the delegates are especially interested in opportunities to import agricultural products from the Valley.
Agricultural products? A trade success? For the Chinese, maybe.
For Episode 7, we look ahead to next month's lame duck session and preview a bill likely to be examined in the Senate in the first week back. The "food safety bill" enjoys strong bipartisan support and is likely to receive over 90 Senate votes if it gets that far, but is being blocked from consideration by Sen. Coburn for budgetary reasons.
Its fate at this point will be determined almost entirely by the amount of floor time Democratic leaders are willing to spend on it. But in case you'd like to nudge them one way or the other and want to learn more beforehand, here's the skinny on S. 510, The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.
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Let's just say, something tells me that Virginia Senate Democrats are not going to agree with this! The key conclusions: 1) "Contrary to the Democrats allegations, there is nothing in the Constitution of Virginia that limits the Lieutenant Governor's ability to vote on organizational matters;" and 2) "However, I have further concluded that the Constitution of Virginia does limit the Lieutenant Governor's ability to vote on certain other matters." (e.g, the budget, any bills to issue debt, and election of judges). We'll see you in court, Mr. Lieutenant Governor! :) 
Hot off the presses, check out 
Pat Mullins, Chairman of the RPV, dropped in on Virginia Beach Republicans today to provide perspective on the Virginia elections this fall and update the faithful. His message was simple, direct, and aimed at taking advantage of the vacuum of DPVA leadership; in hiding since 2008.
Verrrry interesting 
Governor McDonnell's biggest announcement thus far on his journey through Asia is that he has created a job; in Shanghai. The most mature cooperative venture between Virginia and China, the trade relationship between Waynesboro and Chongqing is off the agenda. But he's exporting a government position from Richmond to China.
A local headline revised from "Official: City, Wanzhou near trade agreements" to 
