Hawley is blocking quick confirmation of Alejandro Mayorkas for Homeland Security. I know nothing about Mayorkas, but based on this information alone I assume that he is eminently qualified for the job.
Well, that alone is reason to block him, amirite? 
I meant that the fact that Hawley is trying to block him tells us he’s the right man for the job.
Ah, true. I get it.
Once Harris is sworn in as VP and Democrats officially take over the Senate, Hawley can at most slow down the confirmation by a few days but he can’t stop it (assuming Democrats all stay in line, that is). Still despicable behavior given the importance of the job and the threats we face, but more of a tantrum than a genuine obstacle.
Metaphor alert:
I lived in Des Moines in 1993 when torrential rains led to flooding that wiped out a good portion of the city, closed the downtown and shut down the water plant. I still remember when the TV news asked a city leader what the first steps would be to recovery.
“First,” he said, “it’s got to stop raining.”
Folks, it’s finally stopped raining.
Jeff Bezos, who is certainly not my favorite person, has just given CFSG a huge Fuck You:
Jeff Bezos has some kind of grudge or something with Trump? Who knew? :LOL:
Yeah, its not like Trump has displayed any animosity towards his fellow billionaire…
I’m sure Amazon will be appreciating many purchases from John Barron.
Someone told me there was a press conference this morning?? No headlines, no shocking revelations, no upsets, no new crises (just the same crises)? And no tweets!
Oh God… this feels so good. Knowing I/we don’t have to keep an eye on him every single minute.
Only three days but his executive orders and speeches so far after the inauguration indicate he’s governing to the left of his campaign except on the issue of eliminating the filibuster. I’m happy with the early moves but I hope he reconsiders his stance on the filibuster since there’s only so much you can do with executive orders and the rest of the party are pretty united on removing the filibuster to not have obstructionism.
Isn’t the filibuster purely a Congressional matter? What role does the POTUS have?
It is but if he came out and endorsed it we could potentially see some action to put it to the vote rather than pussyfoot around it.
Biden’s playing this exactly right. Right now there’s no reason to eliminate the filibuster – the Republicans haven’t filibustered anything yet. So he’s making a big show about wanting to work with Republicans because that’s what voters like to see. And then when they filibuster some vital piece of legislation like COVID relief, he can furrow his brow and shake his head and say that he tried – really tried – but in the face of Republican recalcitrance on an issue so vital to American families, he has to regretfully agree that the filibuster must be eliminated.
My understanding is that Manchin has already said no on that one. Could be he could be persuaded otherwise with some backroom arm-twisting/ego-stroking or if he gets pissed off at Republican intransigence (nod to flurb’s post above). But until then if you don’t have the votes, you don’t have the votes. No point in losing momentum by pushing a guaranteed fail.
There’s an excellent article in the Atlantic about how Biden & Co. are strategizing to work with Republican obstructionism. Spoiler: They won’t be following in Obama’s footsteps. (Paywalled but non-subscribers are allowed four free articles per month.)
From that article: “The trick, says Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, will be lowering the expectations of an impatient Democratic base”
Sure, that’ll work I guess.
WaPo has a slide show of the Vice-President’s residence where the Bidens lived before the Pences. Check this out. Caption at the bottom.
