113th Congress

Speaker Of The House John Boehner: Worst Speaker Of Modern Times!

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Speaker of the House John Boehner faces a vote today on whether he will retain his job in the new 113th Congress.

For so many reasons, he should be repudiated, although the alternative of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is no better!

Why should Boehner be removed as Speaker?

Boehner has presided over the most unproductive, least accomplished House of Representatives since at least World War II, if not throughout American history! The 112th Congress has been a total disgrace, with a public opinion rating of 12 percent!

Boehner has been totally unable to quell the Tea Party Movement within his party, a group that is destroying the party’s future!

Boehner has set a bad example by his drinking, smoking, and tanning habits, all of which are a terrible model for young people.

Boehner has utilized foul language toward Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, despite the fact that he must meet with and work with the Senate leader in the aftermath, and that demonstrates poor judgment and leadership!

Boehner has now indicated that he will NOT have any more personal, private meetings with President Obama, which insures further deadlock and stalemate for the next two years or more, and is a contrast to Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill and President Ronald Reagan, and even Newt Gingrich with President Bill Clinton.

Face it: Speaker Boehner is a disgrace to his office, and should NOT be two heartbeats away from the Presidency under the Presidential Succession Law of 1947!

“The Progressive Professor” Favorites In The US Senate, 113th Congress!

Ronald 5 Comments

With the new Senate coming in on January 3 for the 113th Congress, this author and blogger has decided to indicate who his “favorite” members, those he has real respect and admiration for, and expects great things from for the next two years. The following list is not ranked, but simply a list of the top ten by state alphabetically! At the end, though, the author will list the two Senators he most admires, who he sees as tied for BEST! So here goes!

Tom Harkin of Iowa
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
Al Franken of Minnesota
Sherrod Brown of Ohio
Jeff Merkley of Oregon
Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island
Bernie Sanders of Vermont
Tim Kaine of Virginia
Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin

Seven of the above are incumbents, while Warren, Kaine and Baldwin are newcomers to the US Senate. And seven are men, while three are women.

And my favorite Senators of this group would have to be a tie between:

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, true heroes in my mind!

Notice that FIVE of these Senators come from the Midwest (both from Minnesota, and Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio).

Three come from New England–Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island.

One comes from Virginia and one comes from Oregon.

And both favorites are New England neighbors.

This is the true progressive in action, with the Midwest, the area of progressivism in the past century, and New England as the areas of dominance, but with Oregon and Virginia adding admirable members to this select group!

The author invites commentary on this entry!

Twenty Women In The United States Senate In The 113th Congress: All Time High!

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The 113th Congress will have TWENTY women, the highest number in American history!

The 112th Congress had seventeen women, 12 Democrats and 5 Republicans.

The 113th Congress will have 16 Democrats and 4 Republicans, with Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, both Republicans, retiring!

Five new women will join the Senate—Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts,.Tammy Baldwin of WIsconsin, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Deb Fischer of Nebraska, with Fischer being the lone Republican. Fifteen women Senators will remain, including three Republicans—Susan Collins of Maine, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The twelve returning Democratic women include: Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Diane Feinstein of California, Barbara Boxer of California, Parry Murray of Washington, and Maria Cantwell of Washington.

Also, three states have both Senators being women—New Hampshire, California, and Washington!

And to top it off, New Hampshire not only has two women Senators, but also both House members are women, and the new Governor is a woman, the first state to have an all female representation in Congress and the Governorship!

How far America has come as we enter the year 2013!

The 113th Congress Most Diverse Congress In History

Ronald 2 Comments

One of the greatest results of the Congressional Elections of 2012 is the tremendous diversity that will be present in the upcoming 113th Congress, which begins on January 3.

Just in the new membership, there will be:

4 African Americans
10 Latino Americans
5 Asian Americans
24 Women
2 Hindus
1 Buddhist
1 Non theist
4 openly gay
1 openly bisexual
1 gay of color
4 born in the 1980s

It will include such likely stars of the future as:

Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, whose brother, Julian Castro, is Mayor of that city
Joe Garcia, who is the first Cuban Democrat to represent Miami
Ted Cruz, second Cuban Republican Senator, from Texas
Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, first Hindu Congresswoman
Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, first Buddhist Senator
Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Iraq War hero and diabled from her service in the war
Lois Frankel of Florida, former Mayor of West Palm Beach
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, professor and promoter of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, first openly gay Senator
Patrick Murphy of Florida, youngest member of the new House
Joseph Kennedy III, son of former Congressman Joseph Kennedy II, and grandson of Robert Kennedy

It will be a most interesting Congress coming up in 2013-2014!

John Tyler, Andrew Johnson, And Barack Obama

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When one looks at American history and the conflicts that arise between Presidents and Congresses, it is clear that all Presidents have battles with Congresses over some issues, even when their party is in control of both houses of Congress.

Some Presidents are more effective than others in accomplishing legislative goals, and of course, some Presidents face an opposition party Congress control in both houses, and much more rarely, in one of the houses of Congress.

But when one looks at the depth of hatred and refusal to cooperate of the Republican majority in the 112th Congress, and probably likely to continue in the 113th Congress in 2013-2014, it makes one want to look back and see when did such hatred and refusal to cooperate become a general reality in our 224 year history?

The answer is twice before the present situtation with President Barack Obama–the times of President John Tyler (1841-1845) and of Andrew Johnson (1865-1869).

Both were Democrats put on the Presidential ticket of the Whig Party (in the case of Tyler), and the Republican Party (in the case of Johnson), to bring Democratic party votes to Whig William Henry Harrison in 1840 and Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1864.

Both Presidents Harrison and Lincoln died within weeks of their inauguration–Harrison after a month from pneumonia, and Lincoln by assassination six weeks into his second term.

When Tyler and Johnson, therefore, became President by succession, the party that had put them on the ticket as a balancing act electorally, totally turned against cooperation with both Presidents, considering them to be illegitimate successors, although constitutionally, legitimate.

So Tyler had battle after battle with Henry Clay and other Whigs, who were furious that he was President, and very little could be accomplished without constant battle,. There was also a motion to impeach Tyler, which, fortunately, went nowhere.

In the case of Johnson, things deteriorated quickily, and eventually, Johnson faced an impeachment trial on flimsy grounds, was found not guilty by the Senate, but had been weakened and repudiated, nevertheless.

In both cases, their major accomplishment was the acquisition of Texas under Tyler, and of Alaska under Johnson, the two largest states in land area.

The difference now is that Barack Obama legitimately won a majority of the popular vote twice, and still is rejected and mistreated by the Republican House, in a way not seen since the time of Tyler and Johnson!

Allen West Goes Rogue: Calls 80 Democratic House Members “Communists”! The Rise Of A Black Joseph McCarthy!

Ronald 3 Comments

Florida Congressman Allen West, who defeated Congressman Ron Klein in 2010, and went on a rampage against Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, head of the Democratic National Committee, insulting her in the most despicable terms, is running for a new term in a newly created Congressional district in Northern Palm Beach County, as well as Martin and St Lucie Counties further north.

Holding a town meeting, the former Army Lieutenant Colonel, forced out of the military for his inappropriate behavior against an Iraqi detainee in 2003, went off the deep end literally, accusing 80 members of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives of being “Communists”, bringing back the ugly reminder of Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, who ran rampant from February 1950 to December 1954, accusing everyone under the sun of being a Communist or sympathetic toward Communism, promoting the Red Scare, and in so doing, undermining the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations for nearly five years, until he was finally censured for his misbehavior after nearly five years of demagoguery!

Allen West is a literal wingnut, a whacko, a mentally ill person who has had undiagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and is behaving in a dangerous, aggressive manner, which requires complete denunciation by the House leadership of Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, as well as GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney!

But will this happen? Of course NOT, and the conservative radio talk show hosts and Fox News Channel will take advantage of his irresponsibility to spread the conspiracy theory and try to connect it to Barack Obama as well!

The lunatic fringe of the party is backing Allen West as a possible Vice Presidential nominee, with Sarah Palin and Herman Cain endorsing West for VP. Is there a need to say anything after that statement, that these two leading examples of totally unqualified political leaders would endorse someone just as dangerous and reckless as they are?

Were Romney to pick West, which he will not do, then we would have to order men in white coats to take him forcibly to a mental hospital for observation and testing!

Romney is not that impractical and crazy, but a repudiation by Romney and a censure of West in the House of Representatives, and a chorus of criticism from party members in the US Senate should be seen as a question of character and legitimacy, if the Republican party is to retain ANY respect with the American people!

Allen West needs to be silenced by the voters of his new congressional district, who have the great alternative of Patrick Erin Murphy to represent them in the 113th Congress!

Everyone, no matter where one lives, needs to contribute to Murphy to save that district and the nation any more public attention paid to this lunatic, dangerous, unstable, reckless excuse for a Congressman! The defeat of Allen West needs to be on the front burner for the next seven months!