Chaos in Congress

[N.E. Brigand]

It's true: "Not long ago if you had Mitch McConnell, the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and the Chamber of Commerce [not to mention the Border Patrol agents' union] all endorsing a deal negotiated by a conservative Oklahoma senator, it would be a slam dunk with Republican senators. Those folks aren't running the show anymore."

[N.E. Brigand]

Multiple Republican senators have said in the past day that -- notwithstanding Republican claims that the border issues are an emergency -- any legislation like this should wait until after the next election, which is nine months away.

[N.E. Brigand]

The conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal says, "By any honest reckoning, this is the most restrictive migrant legislation in decades."

More from that editorial: "Do Republicans want to better secure the U.S. border, or do they want to keep what has become an open sore festering for another year as an election issue? That's the choice presented to Congress this week with the rollout of the Senate's bipartisan border security bill, and we'll soon be learning what the GOP really wants."

[N.E. Brigand]

The Border Patrol agents' union endorses the bill.

The union of Border Patrol agents endorsed Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

Even though Donald Trump is now saying "blame it one me" that the bill won't pass, I rather expect that they'll endorse him again this year.

[N.E. Brigand]

I see there's a debate brewing among some on the center-left about whether Democrats made a strategic error by agreeing to negotiate in the first place because by doing so they validated the "far right's narrative .... that we face a devastating immigrant invasion". I guess it depends on knowing what the public believed in the first place and how much work it would take to change their minds. I personally don't think that illegal immigration poses a serious threat to the U.S., but I have never found it easy to get people who believe otherwise to agree with me. It may be better for Democrats to say, "We hear you, and we have a solution to the problem, and now Republicans have proved that they don't really care." Or maybe, as the naysayers suggest, that message is just too complicated.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

In yet another stunning sign of chaotic incompetence, the House GOP tried to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas despite there being not a shed of evidence (or even allegation) that he engaged in any impeachable offenses, and then failed, in a vote of 214 - 216. Just an utter clown show.

[N.E. Brigand]

In yet another stunning sign of chaotic incompetence, the House GOP tried to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas despite there being not a shed of evidence (or even allegation) that he engaged in any impeachable offenses, and then failed, in a vote of 214 - 216. Just an utter clown show.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, complained after the vote the Democrats tricked Republicans by "hiding" one of their members. Apparently she's referring to the fact that one Democratic Congressman was in the hospital but returned in time to vote against the measure.

[N.E. Brigand]

And this is reportedly the first time an impeachment vote has failed on the House floor since 1867. I didn't realize that there were two attempts to impeach President Andrew Johnson, one in 1867 and one in 1868. The second effort passed overwhelmingly, and then it came down to just one vote in the Senate, where the vote was 35 guilty to 19 not guilty, but 36 guilty votes were needed to convict. (A much closer margin that Donald Trump's impeachment trials, but Trump has the distinction of being the only President to have members of his own party vote for conviction: Mitt Romney on one of the two counts in the first trial and Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Pat Toomey on the sole count in the second trial.)

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Republicans say they will try again when Rep. Steve Scalise returns. Presumably the impeachment vote will pass then. And the Mayorkas will be overwhelmingly acquitted in the Senate and return to his job.*

*Edited to add: but Democrats might pick up George Santos's former seat next week, so maybe not?

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Also today, the House voted on a standalone Israeli security funding bill that was meant to embarrass Democrats, but it too failed.

[N.E. Brigand]

In yet another stunning sign of chaotic incompetence, the House GOP tried to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas despite there being not a shed of evidence (or even allegation) that he engaged in any impeachable offenses, and then failed, in a vote of 214 - 216. Just an utter clown show.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, complained after the vote the Democrats tricked Republicans by "hiding" one of their members. Apparently she's referring to the fact that one Democratic Congressman was in the hospital but returned in time to vote against the measure.

Speaker Mike Johnson confirms that Republicans timed the vote with the expectation that Rep. Al Green, Democrat of Houston, would not be at the Capitol because he was in the hospital recovering from intestinal surgery: "people show up when they're not expected to be in the building." (Rep. Green had to sign a hospital waiver in order to be able to leave.)

[N.E. Brigand]

This immigration bill debacle more than anything reveals how cultish so many Republicans have become. Senator Lankford, generally regarded as one of the most conservative members of the Senate, approached this bill in a good faith way. At least, while I can't be sure if he thought this bill would really improve immigration issues, I am absolutely positive that he thought it was what Republicans wanted, because it delivers much of what they said they wanted, even what Donald Trump as president said he wanted. And Lankford is politically savvy enough to realize that this was a rare chance, perhaps the only opportunity ever, to get a bill like this passed, because thanks to much-reviled filibuster (certainly reviled by me), Republicans need 60 votes, which means some Democratic votes, to get anything but a budget resolution or a nomination through the Senate. Republicans were able to use the Ukraine aid funding that Democrats desperately want as leverage.

But then some Republicans realized that anything that actually improved the immigration picture could bolster President Biden's popularity, so they started spreading lies about how it would allow 5,000 immigrants to enter daily and so on. They totally "forgot" everything they said before. And then Donald Trump picked up on it, and now it seems to be impossible to get the average Republican member of the public to understand the truth.

In light of Toby Keith's passing yesterday, I've naturally been thinking about the Dixie Chicks and how they were smeared and had their records burned* by supposed conservatives who were mad that lead singer Natalie Maines said in early 2003, as regards the impending and misguided U.S. invasion of Iraq, that she was ashamed to be from the same state as U.S. President George W. Bush. I guarantee you that many of those same people now follow Donald Trump in reviling the Bushes (although they probably don't know that Trump, himself a tepid supporter of the war when it started, said in 2008 that he was disappointed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not impeaching Trump) and cite their disgust at America's "endless wars" as part of their support for Trump. Do they remember that they supported the Iraq war and mocked those that didn't? Do they remember that they said the Dixie Chicks deserved the approbation?

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*And speaking of burning things:

[N.E. Brigand]

Well, it failed:

"Senate Republicans block bipartisan border deal and foreign aid package following months of negotiations" (CNN).

"Senate Republicans block bipartisan border package, scuttling deal they had demanded from Democrats" (AP).

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The Border Patrol agents' union endorses the bill.

The union of Border Patrol agents endorsed Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

Even though Donald Trump is now saying "blame it one me" that the bill won't pass, I rather expect that they'll endorse him again this year.

Chief Jason Owens, who leads the U.S. Border Patrol, appeared on Fox today to share his disappointment that this bill won't become a law: "We are languishing in the same situation."

So both management and the union supported it.

(To be fair: the Fox reporter commenting at that link does argue that Pres. Biden could do more to detain immigrants under current law. I'm not convinced they havd the resources.)

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Sen. Lankford says "The worst case is the status quo."

[N.E. Brigand]

While the long-negotiated and now-failed immigration package was mostly a gift for the Republicans who threw it away, it did include some things Democrats wanted:

--250,000 new green cards
--immediate work authorization for many migrants awaiting hearings
--lots more funding for asylum adjudication
--legal representation for child migrants
--protection of parole programs that admit 30,000 migrants per month

[N.E. Brigand]

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the former Democrat turned Independent from Arizona and a co-author of the immigration bill, actually sounded reasonable today:

"After all those trips to the desert, after all those press conferences, it turns out this crisis isn't much of a crisis after all. Sunday morning, it's a real crisis. Monday morning, it magically disappeared." Sinema says she has a message to "anyone using the southern border for staged political events: Don't come to Arizona. Take your political theater to Texas. Do not bring it to my state."

Sinema is supposedly up for reelection this year, but she's apparently raised and spent very little money on a campaign.

[N.E. Brigand]

In yet another stunning sign of chaotic incompetence, the House GOP tried to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas despite there being not a shed of evidence (or even allegation) that he engaged in any impeachable offenses, and then failed, in a vote of 214 - 216. Just an utter clown show.

And this is reportedly the first time an impeachment vote has failed on the House floor since 1867. I didn't realize that there were two attempts to impeach President Andrew Johnson, one in 1867 and one in 1868. The second effort passed overwhelmingly, and then it came down to just one vote in the Senate, where the vote was 35 guilty to 19 not guilty, but 36 guilty votes were needed to convict. (A much closer margin that Donald Trump's impeachment trials, but Trump has the distinction of being the only President to have members of his own party vote for conviction: Mitt Romney on one of the two counts in the first trial and Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Pat Toomey on the sole count in the second trial.) Republicans say they will try again when Rep. Steve Scalise returns. Presumably the impeachment vote will pass then. And the Mayorkas will be overwhelmingly acquitted in the Senate and return to his job. (But Democrats might pick up George Santos's former seat next week, so maybe not?)

Rep. Mike Gallager of Wisconsin, one of the three Republican House members who voted against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, announced a couple days ago that he won't seek reelection in November.

House Republicans are expected to hold another impeachment vote today, and I think they'll succeed this time.

Here's what they plan to impeach Mayorkas for:

The first of the two charges accuses Mr. Mayorkas of replacing Trump-era policies, such as the program commonly called Remain in Mexico, which required many migrants to wait at the southwestern border for their court dates, with “catch and release” policies that allowed migrants to roam free in the United States. Republicans charge that Mr. Mayorkas ignored multiple mandates of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which states that migrants “shall be detained” pending decisions on asylum and removal orders, and acted beyond his authority to parole migrants into the country.

Democrats have pushed back forcefully, noting that Mr. Mayorkas has the right to set policies to manage the waves of migrants arriving at the border. That includes allowing certain migrants into the country temporarily on humanitarian grounds and prioritizing which migrants to detain, particularly when working with limited resources.

The second article accuses Mr. Mayorkas of breaching the public trust by misrepresenting the state of the border and stymieing congressional efforts to investigate him. Republicans base those accusations on an assertion by Mr. Mayorkas in 2022 that his department had “operational control” over the border, which is defined under a 2006 statute as the absence of any unlawful crossings of migrants or drugs. Mr. Mayorkas has said he was referring instead to a less absolute definition used by the Border Patrol.

They also accuse Mr. Mayorkas of having failed to produce documents, including materials he was ordered to give them under subpoena, during an investigation into his border policies and evading their efforts to get him to testify as part of their impeachment proceedings. Administration officials have countered that Mr. Mayorkas has produced tens of thousands of pages of documents in accordance with the panel’s requests. He offered to testify in person, but Republicans on the panel rescinded their invitation for him to appear after the two sides encountered scheduling problems.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Border Patrol agents' union endorses the bill.

The union of Border Patrol agents endorsed Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

Even though Donald Trump is now saying "blame it one me" that the bill won't pass, I rather expect that they'll endorse him again this year.

Donald Trump took credit for killing the immigration bill, which is indeed his fault, but voters are blaming Joe Biden.

After offering some useful explanation in that New Republic story of the current situation and what the bill would have done:

Congress requires the executive to give an asylum hearing to most migrants picked up on U.S. soil who ask for one. That requires a judicial process. But Congress underfunds the system, creating backlogs, so migrants await hearings for years. Something must be done with those migrants. Congress would never appropriate the resources required to detain them all. Expelling them to Mexico risks horrific humanitarian outcomes. The alternative is releasing many into the interior, which creates scenes of disorder the public dislikes.

No matter how many times Republicans insist the executive can “shut down the border” by himself, the Great and Glorious Donald J. Trump also presided over numerous border crises and even released huge numbers of migrants. Congress largely created this situation. It could make all this better, but as last week showed, it won’t.

Greg Sargent goes on to argue that:

Democrats must do more to communicate that Republicans are sabotaging the country because Trump told them to. Democrats spent a few days pointing out that Republicans themselves admitted they iced the deal to help Trump politically. But they mustn’t let this drop. Keep saying it. What if Biden did more in coming days to highlight the fact that the Border Patrol—which endorsed Trump—supported the deal that Trump killed?

The party could also be making far better use of a stable of young, energetic Democrats from southwestern and border states, who could act as surrogates. Now is the time to do exactly that.

[N.E. Brigand]

In yet another stunning sign of chaotic incompetence, the House GOP tried to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas despite there being not a shed of evidence (or even allegation) that he engaged in any impeachable offenses, and then failed, in a vote of 214 - 216. Just an utter clown show.

And this is reportedly the first time an impeachment vote has failed on the House floor since 1867. I didn't realize that there were two attempts to impeach President Andrew Johnson, one in 1867 and one in 1868. The second effort passed overwhelmingly, and then it came down to just one vote in the Senate, where the vote was 35 guilty to 19 not guilty, but 36 guilty votes were needed to convict.

Rep. Mike Gallager of Wisconsin, one of the three Republican House members who voted against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, announced a couple days ago that he won't seek reelection in November. House Republicans are expected to hold another impeachment vote today, and I think they'll succeed this time.

And the stupidest impeachment ever just happened: by a vote of 214-213, Republicans have voted to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, for nothing. All 214 yes votes were cast by Republicans. The same three Republicans as last week joined 210 Democrats in voting no. Two Democrats and two Republicans each didn't vote, and there are currently four vacancies.

Mayorkas will easily be acquitted in the Senate.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The NY Times has already called the NY 3rd Congressional District (Santos' seat) for Democrat Tom Suozzi.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... ecial.html

[N.E. Brigand]

Nice little summary of Santos's short Congressional career:

[N.E. Brigand]

So what do we think the big Russian space secret is? Something like the Three-Body Problem? Has Vladimir Putin invited an alien civilization to invade the earth?

[N.E. Brigand]

So what do we think the big Russian space secret is? Something like the Three-Body Problem? Has Vladimir Putin invited an alien civilization to invade the earth?

Wait, is it Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk who have partnered with alien invaders?