Kash Patel confirmed to FBI by the US Senate 51-49

 

Pete Hegseth is confirmed to SECDEF 51-50, VP Vance breaks 50-50 tie

 

Republican Senators Murkowski, Collins, and McConnell voted against Pete Hegseth, necessitating the tie-breaking vote from Vice President J. D. Vance.

Hell of a hill for Vance to die on.

Sad!

Hegseth advances to a final vote with 51-49 vote to end debate, with Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins voting against him

 Pete Hegseth’s nomination to lead the Pentagon clears a key hurdle in the Senate

I find myself in small company agreeing with two of the most liberal Republicans in the US Senate, but that's what's become of the men.

OK, she's right, good for her

 Sen. Lisa Murkowski to vote against Hegseth, first Republican to oppose a Trump Cabinet pick 

... senators have remained doubtful of his experience and abilities and the alleged behavior that could lead to reprimand or firing for military personnel he would now be expected to lead. ...

Republican Senators Collins, Murkowski, and Romney vote to confirm soft-on-sex-crime Judge Jackson to Supreme Court

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was clearly a rush to push Breyer out and confirm a candidate before Biden becomes any less competent in office than he already is.

AP Obama's coverage is comic:

Jackson will take her seat when Justice Stephen Breyer retires this summer, solidifying the liberal wing of the 6-3 conservative-dominated court. ... Jackson could wait as long as three months to be sworn in, as the court’s  session generally ends in late June or early July. She remains a judge on the federal appeals court in Washington, but she stepped away from cases there when she was nominated in February. 

When Democrats can't get Lisa Mercowsky to vote with them, you know they really do hate the constitutional order and want it overthrown

It doesn't matter how you spell Murkowski in Alaska. The judge knows who you mean.

Republican traitors in US Senate AGAIN help Democrats pass bill ending border emergency

Senate again votes to end Trump emergency declaration on border wall:

Senators voted 54-41 on a resolution to end the declaration, which Trump used to shift billions of dollars from the military toward wall construction. ...

GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Susan Collins (Maine), Mike Lee (Utah), Jerry Moran (Kansas), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rand Paul (Ky.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.) voted to end the president's declaration. ...

The Senate previously voted to end it in February, with 12 Republicans voting with Democrats, but the House was unable to override a veto.

Sarah Palin shoots one across Lisa Murkowski's bow

That would be an entertaining primary.

John McCain, Liza Mercowskee, and Susan Collins vote against skinny repeal, leaving millions in bondage to healthcare mandates

Bloomberg reports here:

The GOP’s ‘skinny’ repeal bill was defeated 49-51, falling just short of the 50 votes needed to advance it. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski also voted against it. ... "I sadly feel a great many Americans will feel betrayed, that they were lied to, and that sentiment will not be unjustified. You cannot campaign against Obamacare and then vote for Obamacare," Republican Senator Ted Cruz said early Friday.

HR 3762 reloaded in the Senate fails this time 45-55

From the story here:

The Senate on Wednesday rejected an amendment to gut Obamacare without a replacement ready to go, a bill identical to a 2015 measure that passed Congress.

Senators voted 45-55 on the measure, with seven Republicans and all Democrats voting no. The Republicans voting no were Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine, Dick Heller of Nevada, John McCain of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Only Collins voted against the measure in 2015. ...

The bill is identical to a 2015 measure that passed Congress that would gut Obamacare's taxes and mandates but leave in place insurer regulations. The bill would have let Obamacare stay in place for two years while a replacement was crafted. Former President Barack Obama vetoed the legislation in 2015.

These two women voted to repeal Obamacare in 2015, but now they refuse to

Shelley Moore Capito -- WV

Lisa Murkowski -- AK

Turncoats Shelley Moore Capito and Lisa Murkowski said Tuesday they’ll oppose a repeal of the Affordable Care Act

Capito and Murkowski should be run out of the party on a rail. They both voted for repeal last time.

Story here.

McConnell reportedly set to bring full repeal bill like HR 3762 to a vote in the Senate

Here and here for the story.

There were 52 "Yeas" for the HR 3762 Obamacare repeal bill in the Senate on December 3, 2015 out of 54 Republicans, which Obama subsequently vetoed. It was the only repeal bill ever to reach Obama's desk:

Alexander of Tennessee

Ayotte of New Hampshire (seat lost to Democrats in 2016)

Barrasso of Wyoming

Blunt of Missouri

Boozman of Arkansas

Burr of North Carolina

Capito of West Virginia

Cassidy of Louisiana

Coats of Indiana (Todd Young)

Cochran of Mississippi

Corker of Tennessee

Cornyn of Texas

Cotton of Arkansas

Crapo of Idaho

Cruz of Texas

Daines of Montana

Enzi of Wyoming

Ernst of Iowa

Fischer of Nebraska

Flake of Arizona

Gardner of Colorado

Graham of South Carolina

Grassley of Iowa

Hatch of Utah

Heller of Nevada

Hoeven of North Dakota

Inhofe of Oklahoma

Isakson of Georgia

Johnson of Wisconsin

Lankford of Oklahoma

Lee of Utah

McCain of Arizona

McConnell of Kentucky

Moran of Kansas

Murkowski of Alaska

Paul of Kentucky

Perdue of Georgia

Portman of Ohio

Risch of Idaho

Roberts of Kansas

Rounds of South Dakota

Rubio of Florida

Sasse of Nebraska

Scott of South Carolina

Sessions of Alabama (Luther Strange)

Shelby of Alabama

Sullivan of Alaska

Thune of South Dakota

Tillis of North Carolina

Toomey of Pennsylvania

Vitter of Louisiana (John Neely Kennedy)

Wicker of Mississippi.

There were two Republican "Nays":

Collins of Maine, who is still there

Kirk of Illinois, who lost his seat to the Democrats.

Now out of 52 Republicans in the Senate we have 48 votes this time for repeal that we had last time, plus 3 Republican freshman in the Senate to pressure to vote for repeal, which would bring the total to 51, assuming Collins of Maine again votes "Nay".

We'll see if they have the guts.

Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Liza Meercowskie of Alaska get bitchy, won't vote for Betsy DeVos for EDSEC

Trump's entitled to his appointments, no matter what anyone says, unless of course one of them is Charles Manson.

Get on with it already girls. You are wasting our time and our money, just like Democrats.

Incumbent Republicans in the US Senate conservatives should primary in 2016

The following pro-amnesty Republicans should be primaried in 2016 by conservatives:

Ayotte of New Hampshire

Coats of Indiana

Johnson of Wisconsin

Kirk of Illinois

McCain of Arizona

Murkowski of Alaska

Thune of South Dakota

Toomey of Pennsylvania.

We'll have to wait longer to get rid of these:

Barrasso of Wyoming

Corker of Tennessee

Flake of Arizona

Hatch of Utah

Heller of Nevada

Joe Miller Concedes to Leesah Mercowsky on Friday

There's a long re-telling of the saga here.

Alaskans get to keep their nepotistic senatrix, and are saved from the unlikely and imperfect Miller, who hails from Yale and West Point but was supported by the Tea Party.

The election will be remembered for the way a judge roughed up the English language, so that "writing in a name on a ballot as it appears on the candidate's certification of candidacy" became "appearing to write in on a ballot the name of the candidate."

Poor Alaska. It only appears to be a state.

Politico.com Fawns Over Senator Murcowskie (RINO-AK)

With photos no less, here.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Which is why we should repeal the 19th Amendment.

Alaska Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Senator Lisa Murcowskie

But she wanted more:

Murkowski tried to make her lead even bigger by arguing that the state should have counted about 1,500 ballots where voters wrote in her name but didn't fill in the oval next to it.

The Supreme Court considered that along with Miller's lawsuit and ruled the state was right not to count those additional ballots for Murkowski.

The full story is here.

Words Mean Whatever I Say They Mean, Says Alaska Judge

An Alaska judge has ruled against Tea Party candidate Miller for the US Senate because the judge doesn't understand the plain meaning of the English language, according to this story in The Anchorage Daily News. The law says a write-in candidate's name must be written in on a ballot as it appears on the candidate's declaration of candidacy, which any educated person would understand to mean that write in votes for Lisa Murkowski should match Murkowski's name on her declaration of candidacy. Instead, the judge ruled it only had to appear to match it, which isn't what the law says:

Miller argued state law doesn't allow misspelling or state judgments of what the voter intended when writing in a candidate's name. The law says write-in votes should be counted if the name "as it appears on the write-in declaration of candidacy, of the candidate or the last name of the candidate, is written in the space provided."

The judge focused on the fact that the word "appears" is a part of a definition.

"The definition of 'appears' in this context does not require perfection or precision, but rather a close, apparent approximation known to the viewer upon first look ... if exact spellings were intended by the legislature, even with respect to the most difficult names, the legislature could have and would have said so," Carey wrote in his ruling.


The judge has imported meaning and intent where it did not exist. A graduate, clearly, of the deconstructionist school of law. He should be impeached.

When the clear meaning of the English language can be manipulated at will in a society, there can no longer be a society, only chaos. Stop no longer means stop. Just ask Senator John Kerry, who is famous for ignoring such signs at intersections, and yacht taxes in his home state.