tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post5143960963729214155..comments2023-09-15T04:27:57.129-04:00Comments on Commentarama: Scott Brown In Another RaceAndrewPricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312364467936820986noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-54628506909448237682010-02-05T22:16:47.345-05:002010-02-05T22:16:47.345-05:00HamiltonsGhost: The simple answer is "no.&qu...HamiltonsGhost: The simple answer is "no." The committee vote is still contingent on the production of the revised and current ethics paperwork. That alone could take weeks. When it is produced, the committee can choose to re-investigate or turn it directly over to the full Senate. Either way, there's now going to be considerable debate and ongoing vetting. <br /><br />The political landscape is changing dramatically for Democrats in "up-for-grabs" districts, and they no longer have their filibuster-proof majority. Much will change between now and then, including my guess that Becker may be forced by the administration to withdraw his nomination for "personal reasons" rather than face a full, public and angry debate over his confirmation. God love Scott Brown, the tea party movement, and the American people.LawHawkRFDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17800255923675295515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-8725393734513019822010-02-05T22:07:11.072-05:002010-02-05T22:07:11.072-05:00Lawhawk--Does the favorable vote from the committe...Lawhawk--Does the favorable vote from the committee mean that the full Senate is ready to vote the nomination up or down?HamiltonsGhosthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04221388870143101954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-49709457911075931212010-02-05T22:02:31.978-05:002010-02-05T22:02:31.978-05:00UPDATE After a motion for reconsideration on the ...<b>UPDATE</b> After a motion for reconsideration on the Becker nomination, the special committee vetting him reversed the earlier favorable 15 to 8 committee vote. Unfortunately, the second vote still reported the nomination out favorably to the full Senate, but this time the vote was 13 to 10, a substantial change given the political makeup of the Democrat-controlled committee. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ark) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo), ranking member, brought the motion, and each then voted against the nomination after this public outcry.<br /><br />The two were able to bring the nomination back for a vote on the grounds that Becker's ethics disclosure paperwork was out-of-date, a requirement for confirmation. The new vote was along strict party lines, all Republicans voting "no." Too bad it took this long for the will of the people to become apparent to the two former "yes" Republican voters.<br /><br />Enzi also made a statement about his disapproval of the Democratic majority's stall on Scott Brown which resulted in the confirmation of another, earlier unqualified nominee, Patricia Smith, along strict party lines by a filibuster-proof 60 to 32 vote of the Senate. Scott Brown's confirmation and the exit of his predecessor two days earlier would have brought the Democratic majority down to 59--not filibuster-proof.LawHawkRFDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17800255923675295515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-11689472490754529822010-02-05T16:48:38.407-05:002010-02-05T16:48:38.407-05:00Tennessee: I've had a visceral distaste for u...Tennessee: I've had a visceral distaste for unions most of my life. Industrial unions served a genuine purpose from about the time of the Civil War through perhaps as late as the early FDR years. Now we are stuck with them, and the majority of union workers who <i>aren't</i> in the heavy industries. The SEIU particularly is a cancer on the body politic, and represents people who are as replaceable as your dirty underwear. But just <i>try</i> to replace one of them and see what happens. And many of them are here illegally. <br /><br />The sector that makes me want to become a bomb-throwing capitalist is the public employee unions. They not only get civil service job protection, but then they get to join a union, making them nearly impossible to get rid of (we've all seen how efficient these former "public servants" are). They start with the "prevailing wage" for jobs in private industry, then negotiate the price upwards. That's a lie heaped on top of a pile of lies. There is no comparable private industry, because no private company could survive long with deadbeats like the public servants working for them. <br /><br />In San Francisco, the average City file-clerk earns $52,000 per year (not including the outrageous sick time, comp time, numerous holidays and bankrupting Public Employees Retirement System). The average file-clerk (in what few inefficient companies there are left that use file-clerks) makes $20,356 in the private sector, and it's only that high because San Francisco has a minimum wage that's $1.79 per hour higher than the state minimum wage. And that assumes a 40 hour week, which is rare in the private sector, but guaranteed for the City employees.LawHawkRFDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17800255923675295515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-52320351681051285382010-02-05T16:23:06.470-05:002010-02-05T16:23:06.470-05:00Great post, Hawk. This may turn into one of those ...Great post, Hawk. This may turn into one of those litmus test issues {sic} how did candidate X vote on the Becker nomination?<br /><br />Of course I was appalled that the temporary custodian was still voting (the debt ceiling vote) even when it was apparently illegal. There was no Republican stink about it so maybe the votes weren't there to defeat it anyway.<br /><br />I am probably as ardently anti-union as Barrack and Becker are pro-union. Growing up around Philly, unions always represented thugism to me.<br /><br />Big Labor is like government healthcare. The dogs don't like the dogfood, but The Labor/Socialist Party (oops, I mean the Democratic Party) is determined to foist it on us. The presence of unions in government sucks, nothing less. I was always incredibly glad we were able to keep unions from gaining a toehold in the insurance industry.Tennessee Jedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10604275115906776992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-46195450111875204252010-02-05T13:09:17.210-05:002010-02-05T13:09:17.210-05:00CalFed: Each state will be different, so this ans...CalFed: Each state will be different, so this answer applies largely to California and those states where labor and the Democratic party are in charge currently.<br /><br />There would probably be no change at all in California at first. The current labor board is heavily pro-union, and always cites the federal law as well as state law in its decisions. That means most will continue to go to the state board since there are many more offices, the arbitration procedures are simpler, and the local unions are cozier with the local arbitrators. For the sake of argument, if California suddenly had a Republican landslide, and several openings at the state board level, the dynamic might change. And even at that, if a state board is pro-business (or the claimed goal, neutral), and issues a ruling that contradicts provisions of the NLRA, the federal board or court will make the final decision anyway. There's that federal supremacy "preemption" doctrine again. Another reason to declare collective bargaining unconstitutional, but don't hold your breath on that one.LawHawkRFDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17800255923675295515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-7539618585045943812010-02-05T13:00:36.447-05:002010-02-05T13:00:36.447-05:00LawHawk. Here in California, a union member (only...LawHawk. Here in California, a union member (only through his union reps, though) can choose arbitration through the state labor board or the federal labor board, particularly when the issue is those unfair labor practices you mentioned. Would Becker's appointment cause most of them to choose the federal board?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02284025222779154243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-1105625201146419732010-02-05T12:23:48.555-05:002010-02-05T12:23:48.555-05:00HamiltonsGhost: You have it right. And this nomi...HamiltonsGhost: You have it right. And this nomination is among the worst. Unlike say, a Van Jones, what Becker does will have the force of law, and it is extremely difficult for the Congress either to monitor or undo his actions. As I mentioned earlier, he's very smart, and that makes him even more dangerous. <br /><br />He's a successful litigator and a former law professor (a real one, unlike his ultimate boss), and he knows how to manipulate the law and the regulations to suit his purposes. He is clearly of the ilk who "know what's best for us," and that includes the unionization of every single worker in America, whether they like it or not. He believes in the "living Constitution," and knows how to write rules and enforce decisions which ignore both original intent and original wording.LawHawkRFDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17800255923675295515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-61890315283422654572010-02-05T12:15:27.362-05:002010-02-05T12:15:27.362-05:00Lawhawk--Bureaucracies and regulations are bad eno...Lawhawk--Bureaucracies and regulations are bad enough. When they're determined to undermine the will of the people, they're even worse. Becker is a doctrinaire labor unionist, and a danger to the democratic process.HamiltonsGhosthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07777000856977635480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-61327490559485477852010-02-05T11:52:35.094-05:002010-02-05T11:52:35.094-05:00WriterX: Wherever and whenever possible, we try t...WriterX: Wherever and whenever possible, we try to cover an event in full, and in the process we occasionally catch twists that more traditional sites miss. The blogosphere has been on this story for some time, but the necessity for the push to get Brown in place is at least somewhat better explained when you know about all those currently pending Board decisions which will be cast in concrete if Becker is installed in office quickly and can get all the pro-union decisions voted on favorably. Brown and the Republican leadership were sharp enough to pick up on what the real game was, and I commend them.LawHawkRFDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17800255923675295515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-45277000668686132842010-02-05T11:46:47.062-05:002010-02-05T11:46:47.062-05:00Patti: The truly sad part is that they do what...Patti: The truly sad part is that they do what's best for them (at least in the short-term) solely because they are so wrought up in their crazed doctrines that they believe it is what's best for America. It's like Randian philosophy after it's been put through a cuisinart.<br /><br />The price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and this administration is proving that, in spades.LawHawkRFDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17800255923675295515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-39397944930888696782010-02-05T11:42:55.133-05:002010-02-05T11:42:55.133-05:00Andrew: It's amazing, isn't it, how Obama...Andrew: It's amazing, isn't it, how Obama can appoint these horrendously bad people, and just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. Becker is worse than most (one step away from a Van Jones) because he's smart, doctrinaire, and simply doesn't care about procedure, democracy, or the will of the people. There's a good chance he'll be confirmed, but at least we're getting the warning out.LawHawkRFDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17800255923675295515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-59934467376260658762010-02-05T11:38:49.203-05:002010-02-05T11:38:49.203-05:00StanH: "Raging arrogance" is probably t...StanH: "Raging arrogance" is probably the best description I've heard yet of this administration and its allies in Congress. Most viruses only make the host sick, in order to preserve their own existence. The Obama virus is like ebola, it kills both the host, and ultimately, itself.LawHawkRFDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17800255923675295515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-10499575116909961682010-02-05T10:49:08.313-05:002010-02-05T10:49:08.313-05:00LawHawk, thanks for posting this. As usual, it...LawHawk, thanks for posting this. As usual, it's not been reported very actively by most news organizations. All the more reason to be suspicious.Writer Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16505411188186283813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-41731100832093217062010-02-05T10:27:25.925-05:002010-02-05T10:27:25.925-05:00just when i think i have reached my anger limits, ...just when i think i have reached my anger limits, i read something like this and POW! seems that there is no end to their arrogance and determination to do what they deem as fit for them at the expense of america as a whole.<br /><br />this truly will be a fight to the end of this administration; we must be vigilant on every front. <br /><br />great article.pattihttp://www.notawonk.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-73179442969626646542010-02-05T10:16:56.686-05:002010-02-05T10:16:56.686-05:00They've been jamming every agency they could f...They've been jamming every agency they could find full of labor hacks. People were wrong about Obama being an Alinsky disciple, he's a union stooge.AndrewPricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11312364467936820986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425587034622601550.post-32855528135198034992010-02-05T09:52:18.898-05:002010-02-05T09:52:18.898-05:00The raging arrogance of these people is nothing le...The raging arrogance of these people is nothing less than breathtaking. In their stupidity of all things business, they could do more damage to the working class, that’s never been seen, before or since. I’ve been in the room more than once, when a business was being forced to unionize and the decision was made to close the company down stateside, and move overseas…”if you can’t beat’em - join’em,” attitude. Downward pressure on manufacturing (due to China, Mexico, etc.) in the past thirty years have put the profit margins next to nothing, try to impose unions on business, and it will be ugly for the remaining American jobs. The looters, and the moochers, will run the producers off, another illustrative metaphor, the parasites will finally kill the host! WOW!StanHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07395708786509590321noreply@blogger.com