United States Senate 2

[GreyhoundFan]

Ronnie is challenging Tuberville for the position of stupidest senator:

 

[Audrey2]

1 minute ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Ronnie is challenging Tuberville for the position of stupidest senator:

 

And if it were oil wells killing whales or birds instead of windmills they would be completely for it. They complain about the liberal hippies who think that birds or whales are more important than business, comfort, and profit.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Mitt Romney says he will not seek a second term in the Senate"

Quote

Sen. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 and the only member of his party to twice vote to convict former president Donald Trump in politically charged impeachment trials, announced Wednesday that he will not seek a second term in the Senate representing Utah, saying in an interview that it is time for a new generation to “step up” and “shape the world they’re going to live in.”

Romney, 76, said his decision not to run again was heavily influenced by his belief that a second term, which would take him into his 80s, probably would be less productive and less satisfying than the current term has been. He blamed that both on the disarray he sees among House Republicans and on his own lack of confidence in the leadership of President Biden and Trump.

“It’s very difficult for the House to operate, from what I can tell,” he said in a lengthy telephone interview previewing his formal announcement, “and two, and perhaps more importantly, we’re probably going to have either Trump or Biden as our next president. And Biden is unable to lead on important matters and Trump is unwilling to lead on important matters.”

Romney, elected to the Senate in 2018 with 63 percent of the vote, said he will serve out the duration of his term, which ends in January 2025. His decision not to seek reelection next year is likely to mark the end of a political career that has been notable, especially in the Trump era, for independence and a willingness to stand up against the base of his party that has shifted dramatically in Trump’s direction in the decade since Romney was its standard-bearer.

From the time Trump first became a candidate until today, Romney has been among his most outspoken critics, and nothing about his departure is expected to change that. In the weeks before Trump’s 2017 inauguration, Romney publicly acquiesced, expressing hope for the president-elect’s leadership while he was under consideration to be secretary of state. But his turnabout was short-lived.

Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in the 2020 impeachment trial, which involved Trump’s efforts to persuade Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential campaign and withholding aid to that country. Romney was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict in the second trial, which came weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Both votes, but especially the first, cost Romney politically, at home in Utah and more broadly within a party that Trump has come to dominate. He acknowledged the damage he had sustained, but said, “If there were no cost to doing what’s right, there’d be no such thing as courage. … I think it’s fair to say that the support I get in Utah is because people respect someone who does what they believe is right, even if they disagree with me.”

Republicans have speculated that because of his opposition to Trump, Romney could face a difficult battle to win a second term if he decided to run again. But the senator said fear of losing had nothing to do with his decision. In fact, he said, he was confident that, had he decided to run again, he would prevail. He pointed to a recent poll in Utah that showed his approval rebounding to 56 percent, a sharp rise from the 40 percent recorded in May and numbers showing him well ahead of potential rivals.

The highest-achieving Mormon politician of his time, Romney twice sought the presidency and served as governor of Massachusetts before moving to Utah and being elected to the Senate. His father, George, was a governor of Michigan, ran unsuccessfully for president in 1968 and served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Richard M. Nixon.

Asked about the 2024 presidential election, Romney said he would have liked to help someone other than Trump become the nominee, but “that apparently isn’t going to happen.” He added, “I doubt my support will mean anything positive to any of the candidates at the finish line. I’m not looking to get involved in that.”

He noted that three of the contenders for the nomination — Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — all speak the language of the MAGA (“Make America Great Again”) wing of the party and together account for the overwhelming majority of support, with Trump far ahead of the others.

Candidates toward whom he is more disposed — he mentioned former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, former South Carolina governor and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina — continue to struggle. “It’s pretty clear that the party is inclined to a populist demagogue message,” he said.

Asked how he sees a general election rematch between Biden and Trump, Romney said, “Today I’d say 50-50. If I had to bet, I’d say it could go either way. So much can happen between now and then.” He also said that talk by the centrist group No Labels of mounting an independent candidacy in 2024 was a mistake and would only help to reelect Trump. He said he has spoken “many times” to Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who is flirting with such a bid. “I lobby continuously that it would only elect Trump.”

Romney said he doubted that the criminal charges pending against Trump — a total of 91 felony counts in four cases and jurisdictions — would have much political effect one way or the other. So far, the indictments have appeared to strengthen Trump in the nomination contest.

“People respond to new news,” Romney said. “They don’t respond to old news. I mean, January 6th is old news. The documents, it’s old news. The call to Raffensperger, it’s old news.” He was referring to the charge that Trump illegally retained classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and to his call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, in which he encouraged him to “find” enough votes to change the 2020 election results in that state.

Instead, Romney said, the investigation of Hunter Biden is newer news and therefore has the potential for political impact that could harm the president, although he said he would “be surprised” if the president had benefited personally financially from his son’s business dealings abroad. Asked whether he was equating Trump’s legal cases with the Hunter Biden investigation, he said, “No, no, no. I’m just looking at the political impact of them.” Romney has said Trump deserves the presumption of innocence but has called him unfit to serve as president.

He spoke as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) directed House committees to begin an impeachment inquiry into the president. Romney said he had no doubt that McCarthy was acting under pressure from members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus. “This is not an impeachment,” he said. “This is an inquiry, and I have heard no allegations that rise to the high-crimes-and-misdemeanors standard of the Constitution.”

Instead of involving himself in the presidential campaign, Romney said he will remain as active as he can be in the Senate through the end of next year. “I’m not going out on a farewell tour,” he said. “I’m not leaving the party, not retiring.” Even after he leaves the Senate, he said, “You cannot expect me to hit the beach. I’m going to be as productive as I possibly can be.”

Romney said that he sees three overriding challenges for the country and that they require presidential leadership. Senators can do only so much, he said, adding that because he doubts either Trump or Biden is prepared to take on some of these issues, “I don’t think the next seven and a half years in the Senate would be productive.”

One issue, he said, is the need for a comprehensive strategy to deal with the authoritarian leaders abroad, specifically Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. A second is the lack of a strategy to deal with global climate change, “not just feel-good things here in the U.S.” The third is dealing with the nation’s fiscal issues — debts and deficits. “You’ve got both Biden and Trump saying we won’t touch entitlements,” he said. “I think, ‘How irresponsible is that!’”

Romney was born in Michigan, where his father was chief executive of American Motors Corp. before serving as governor. He settled in Boston, becoming wealthy through work in private equity as a co-founder of Bain Capital. He began his political career in 1994 in an unsuccessful effort to defeat then-Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). After helping to rescue the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, he was elected as governor of Massachusetts in 2002.

Romney stepped down after one term to seek his party’s presidential nomination in 2008. That campaign ended in failure, but he won the nomination four years later, ultimately losing to then-President Barack Obama in a campaign that many around him believed he would win. He returned to the business world but got the itch to return to politics, briefly exploring a third presidential run in 2016 and seeking the Senate seat in his adoptive state of Utah in 2018. He said he had been told that as a former governor, he would be frustrated with life in the Senate. “The reality is my expectations were vastly exceeded, and perhaps I got spoiled,” he said.

Romney said he was proud of the work he has been able to do as a senator and pointed to a long list of items as evidence, including bipartisan work on a covid-19 relief bill when Trump and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) were far apart and on infrastructure during the Biden administration. He also cited provisions for religious liberty that were attached to a bill mandating federal recognition of same-sex marriages and the reworking of the Electoral Count Act.

Romney, a traditional conservative, acknowledged that the Republican Party of 2023 is quite different from the party that nominated him for president in 2012. He said his wing of the party is now “very, very small” in comparison with the Trump wing. But he declined to call the GOP irretrievably broken. “If it can change in the direction of a populist,” he said, “it can change back in the direction of my wing of the Republican Party.”

He said he has been asked by many people how he can continue to remain in the party. “Well,” he said, “because I want to get it back.” The party could realign again, he said, but only if Republicans learned to compete for and attract young voters, who today side heavily with Democrats. Romney himself struggled to win over young voters in his 2012 campaign. “Young people care about climate change,” he said. “They care about things that the MAGA Republicans don’t care about.”

In the 2024 presidential race, former vice president Mike Pence has appealed to traditional conservatism. Romney said that Pence has no chance to win but discounted Pence’s prospects as a true test of sentiment on traditional conservatism vs. Trumpian populism. “I don’t think he has … any delusions that he’s going to become the nominee,” he said. “I think he’s running for other reasons, one to repair his legacy. … What he’s saying is important to be said. … I’m glad he’s running and saying those things. I respect that.”

What leverage do those like Romney have in a party so dominated by Trump? “I think we have the leverage of being right,” he said, “and in the final analysis, right will prevail.”

Romney said he is alarmed by some of what he sees in the party concerning foreign policy. “I listen to some of the people in the Trump wing … talk about how we should be ready to, you know, to just push against China in the Taiwan Strait, and I ask, ‘Are you really willing to go to war with China’” while opposing sending more aid to Ukraine in their war against Russian aggression?

Romney was early in pinpointing Putin’s Russia as a major threat to U.S. security during his 2012 campaign, and gave credit to Trump for instituting a tougher approach to China. But in contrast to many in his party, he was not sharply critical of recent efforts by Biden administration officials to engage with China.

“Our posture relative to China has been significantly strengthened by Russia’s weakness in Ukraine and the support we’ve given Ukraine and also by strengthening of NATO,” he said. To dissuade China from its current course, requires the United States and other nations to stand together, he said, adding, “I have a lot of confidence in [Secretary of State] Tony Blinken. I believe he understands that and is endeavoring to do that.”

Romney said he remains worried about the state of democracy in the United States. “I think it’s of paramount importance to maintain our commitment to the Constitution and the liberal constitutional order,” he said. “And I know that there are some in MAGA world who would like Republican rule, or authoritarian rule by Donald Trump. But I think they may be forgetting that the majority of people in America would not be voting for Donald J. Trump. The majority would probably be voting for the Democrats.”

Among his parting thoughts at the end of the interview was an affirmation of his belief in the United States’ resilience. “I do believe that our institutions, while under constant barrage, are strong,” he said, “that our court system is strong and that, fundamentally, the American people stand by the Constitution and the constitutional norms.”

 

I'm no fan of Romney, but it's sad that one of the few non-MAGAts is stepping away.

[Xan]

The Atlantic has a longish passage from his book.  It's an interesting read.  Apparently, he called McConnell to talk about the security situation unfolding on Jan. 6 and McConnell wouldn't take the call.  He also remembers McConnell agreeing with him that Donald was an idiot but now Mitch has no memory of doing that.

I love how much Romney hates J. D. Vance.  Yes, there are major areas in which I disagree with Romney but he's not wrong about Trump or Vance.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/mitt-romney-retiring-senate-trump-mcconnell/675306/

[GreyhoundFan]

Lindsey is terrified that TFG will speak out against him.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Chuck Schumer has relaxed the senate dress code. Some of the reactions have been interesting.

[Becky]

Gonna be honest, I am not a fan of Schumer's choice to do away with the dress code.  Personally, I think appropriate attire should be required on the floor as a measure of gravitas and respect for the institution.  As I understand it, this is to accommodate PA senator John Fetterman, who apparently wants to wear his signature hoodie and cargo shorts to work?  I mean, I would not hire a lawyer who wears a sweatshirt to court. 

Oh, god help me, this opinion aligns me with the likes of MTG....  

[fraurosena]

4 hours ago, Becky said:

Gonna be honest, I am not a fan of Schumer's choice to do away with the dress code.  Personally, I think appropriate attire should be required on the floor as a measure of gravitas and respect for the institution.  As I understand it, this is to accommodate PA senator John Fetterman, who apparently wants to wear his signature hoodie and cargo shorts to work?  I mean, I would not hire a lawyer who wears a sweatshirt to court. 

Oh, god help me, this opinion aligns me with the likes of MTG....  

I have to agree with you. I don't think a dress code needs to be extremely strict, but it should contain a bare minimum of propriety and gravitas. If you can't even take the trouble to dress seriously, how can anyone take you seriously? You need to show you're willing to make an effort- and that starts with the way you present yourself. And shorts and hoodies don't exude that in any way. What's next, short shorts, bare belly buttons, partially covered boobs? (Wouldn't Lauren Boebert simply love that).  Or-- and I shudder at the image-- a bikini as Susan Collins suggests? 

[Xan]

Fetterman has issued a statement about wearing a suit.  He said that if the Republicans will stop trying to shut down the government and fully support Ukraine, he'll put on a suit.

[GreyhoundFan]

George always has a fun take on things:

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

Tuberville is such an ass:

 

[Audrey2]

8 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Tuberville is such an ass:

 

So many thoughts about this one.

First Tommy, did you allow the races to mix it all when you were a football coach? Or did you have an all-white team. Before you answer I know the answer. Or if you had a white quarterback and everyone else on your team was African-American did you allow the quarterback to eat at the same table and build relationships with his players. You know the relationships that are so important in order to make a good team work.

Second Tommy, I hate to tell you this but the armed services integrated right after World War II. 

Third, tuber, if you don't want the races to mix in the military then I have a solution for you. Starting in 6th grade, PE classes should be all male or all female. The all male classes should be 5 days a week every semester until they graduate in order to prepare young males for military service. Since you only want to pick the white ones then every white male must serve unless they have a legitimate issue. Trump's bone spurs would not exempt him. His grandsons would have to serve under this plan. I don't know what young males you have in your family but all of them would be required to serve as well. Since you don't want an integrated military these white young men must serve between the ages of 18 and 22. The Mormon church will really love you because they sent their 18-year-old missionaries out, who are mostly white. Young men of other races may go to college. If I really want to be sadistic I'll say that young men of other races can go to college and have ROTC as part of their college program so when they exit they can be officers while you're white candidates are just the grunts.

[GreyhoundFan]

I love Fetterman trolling that idiot Comer.

[fraurosena]

RIP Diane Feinstein.

 

More info:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, an 'icon for women in politics,' dies at 90

Quote

Senator Dianne Feinstein has died at 90 years old, ABC7 Insider Phil Matier has confirmed. Her career was one of many firsts. She was the first woman president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the first woman mayor of San Francisco, and one of two of the first women elected to the U.S. Senate from California.

"Dianne Feinstein, right from the start, was an icon for women in politics," said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Senator Chuck Schumer adds, "She's a legend. A legend in California as the first woman senator. A legend in the Senate. She was the leader on so many different issues."

Born Dianne Goldman in San Francisco on June 22, 1933, she was raised by a Russian Orthodox mother and Jewish father. She worshipped at Temple Emanuel Synagogue and graduated from San Francisco's Convent of the Sacred Heart, a Roman Catholic all girls' high school. She was in the glee club, ballet, camera club and athletics.

Feinstein went on to study at Stanford University where she graduated in 1955 and was later married three times.

She had her only daughter, Katherine, with her first husband, who she divorced after three years.

In 1962, she married her second husband, Bertram Feinstein, who died in 1978 of colon cancer, just months before Feinstein became San Francisco mayor.

In 1980, Feinstein married her third husband, investment banker Richard Blum. She remained with him until his death from cancer in 2022.

Feinstein's first foray into politics came in 1960 when then-Gov. Pat Brown appointed her to the California Women's Parole Board. But it was in 1969, at the age of 35, that Feinstein first held public office, winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was in the state Senate at the time. He recalled meeting Feinstein during those years.

"I remember that I was trying to get a house here in San Francisco, when they wouldn't allow Black people easily to get houses," he said. "And there was a demonstration and this angular tall, great looking white woman pushing a baby stroller with a little kid in it, who nobody knew anything about, came out to participate in the protest. That was Dianne Feinstein! And it was that long ago, and so I am a great admirer."

In the 1970s, while serving as the first female president of the Board of Supervisors, Feinstein ran twice for mayor, but lost. She had decided to not run again, when tragedy struck the city.

The tragic assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone by Supervisor Dan White in 1978 put Feinstein in the job. In 1979, Feinstein won her first full term as mayor and began reshaping the city.

During the decade she served, she survived a recall attempt, lead mostly by detractors of her proposal to ban handguns in San Francisco. She oversaw the remaking of the city's skyline, which some decried as the Manhattan-ization of San Francisco, also oversaw a raucous 1984 Democratic National Convention and saved the city's cable car system.

"The cable cars still running!" Brown exclaimed. "Cause of Dianne."

Feinstein rose to power as a crisis gripped the city's gay community. A disease that would later be called AIDS, killed thousands of gay men. Hoping to save lives, Feinstein ordered the city's bathhouses closed. A risky move, considering the political power of the gay community at the time.

Under her watch, the city's health department created the global standard for AIDS healthcare at San Francisco General Hospital. In 1990, Feinstein set her sights on a higher office, running for California governor. She lost to Republican Pete Wilson, but still made history again as the first woman in the state to win a major party's gubernatorial nomination. Then, in 1992, there was a turning point.

During what was dubbed the "Year of the Woman," Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate, alongside Bay Area Congresswoman Barbara Boxer.

In Congress, Feinstein served as the first woman to chair the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee. She authored the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, leading to a 10 year restriction on certain semi-automatic weapons. The legislation was prompted by the 101 California Street shooting, when a gunman opened fire at a law firm in San Francisco's financial district, killing eight people.

"I worked with Republican and Democrats alike," said Feinstein in an interview with CSPAN. "Ten Republicans along with 46 Democrats voted in favor of the amendment."

Brown adds, "Dianne Feinstein is the only member of Congress either on the Congressional side or on the Senate side who's ever been able to get a controlled weapons ban signed into law. Dianne got that."

In 2014, Feinstein released a report revealing how the CIA was detaining and interrogating potential terrorists, sometimes torturing the suspects. The release of the report, led to anti-torture legislation.

"This program was morally, legally and administratively misguided," she said in an interview with CSPAN. "This nation should never again engage in these tactics."

Feinstein's legislative legacy also includes:

Creating federal coordination of Amber Alerts, the national child abduction warning system

Passing the California Desert Protection Act, which protected millions of acres of California desert and created the Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks

Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, to protect women from domestic violence and sexual assault

Authoring the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act, to enshrine marriage equality into federal law

In an interview with CSPAN she said, "Simply put, Americans should be free to marry the person they love regardless of sexual orientation or race."

At times, Sen. Feinstein faced criticism from some in her own party.

Some of the worst came in 2018, after she initially declined to make public a letter from Bay Area professor Christine Blasey Ford during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanagh. Ford had said Kavanagh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school.

Two years later, some Democrats also criticized Feinstein for appearing too cozy with Republicans during the confirmation hearings for conservative Supreme Court appointee Amy Coney Barrett.

Still, throughout her career, Feinstein was seen as a trailblazer for women. Someone who broke barriers, juggling being a wife and mother while navigating a career in the male-dominated field of politics.

"Dianne is unbelievable in how she sets her mind and her program on doing something and it gets done," Brown said. "

In Feinstein's later years in office, concerns were raised about her mental fitness and ability to serve. She was the oldest sitting member of Congress.

In late February of 2023, at age 89, she was hospitalized with shingles. That health scare came the same month Feinstein had announced she would retire from the U.S. Senate when her term was up in 2024. She told reporters it was time.

"You know, there are times for all things under the sun, and I think that will be the right time," Feinstein said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Feinstein teared up when she told her Democratic colleagues about her decision.

"And she got a standing ovation that lasted minutes and minutes," he said. "One of the longest I've ever seen. Which shows the love our caucus, and the country have for this wonderful, wonderful leader and legend, Dianne Feinstein."

 

[Loveday]

Rest in peace, Senator. You served your country well. 

[fundiewatch]

I really felt as if she needed to retire awhile ago. RIP but let’s reform how this thing goes. 

[thoughtful]

Hoping that the good work she did in her prime will come to be Feinstein's legacy, rather than her inability to let go and retire when she should have done so.

[Dandruff]

This country could use a lot more women like her.  RIP.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

He’s right

[GreyhoundFan]

I couldn’t agree more:

[GreyhoundFan]

[fraurosena]

17 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

She seems like a good choice. Will she also be appointed to Feinstein's Senate committees, or will McConnell get a chance to prevent or stall that in some way?

Edited October 2, 2023 by fraurosena
PS, to be clear, I know Newsom doesn't appoint to committees, but that the Senate does

[GreyhoundFan]

If there’s something he can do to make things worse or be ugly, Mitch will step right up.