Alaska senator upset with Democrats who left meeting

[Khephra]

Alaska senator upset with Democrats who left meeting

Associated Press


WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens wants an apology from Senate Democrats for walking out of a committee considering two bills sponsored by his Alaska colleague, Lisa Murkowski.

If he doesn't get the apology, Stevens said, he will put a hold on all bills sponsored by Senate Democrats running for re-election.

"They've got to learn a little bit of common sense and particularly senatorial courtesy, or I will teach it to them," Stevens told the Anchorage Daily News on Thursday, the day after the Democratic walkout.

Democratic Sens. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Tim Johnson of South Dakota walked out on the Senate Energy Committee hearing when the Murkowski bills were about to come up. One Republican on the committee had not shown up and the walkout prevented the needed quorum to take action on amendments and send the bills to the Senate floor.

http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/9699156.htm

[hatrack]

1. Do us a favor, Ted - just go and fuck yourself!

OK? Thanks!!

[wurzel]

2. "Senatorial Courtesy" from a Republican?

[rvgwinn]

4. This just another example

of how the boys play games at our expense.

[saigon68]

10. or I will teach it to them

or I will teach it to them

He can't GO FUCK himself he's too busy on his knees doing a Lewinsky on his master President Cheney.

[Catfight]

3. Exactly, "Go Fuck Yourself and your senatorial courtesy," I feel better.

[stevedeshazer]

5. Ted Stevens is an officious bastard

"They've got to learn a little bit of common sense and particularly senatorial courtesy, or I will teach it to them,", or, "the beatings will continue until morale improves."

Typical bully Repub.

[Justice]

6. Like an abusive husband.

How dare you turn your back on me when I am talking to you....

[KennedyGuy]

7. Sure teddy boy

Gotcher apology right here.

[Mel]

8. go for it Teddy

and while your at it wear your Incredible Hulk tie! Frankly, I could care less let him hold the bills Dems can play his game also one day old Teddy isn't going to be in control and we shall see how he likes the tables turned? Besides Murkowski may not even hold her seat this election.
Fiddle on Teddy while America burns whatever you would add to the process will only be fuel onto the fire! Also, while he's at it maybe he can get his VP to release the energy paper meetings (kenny boy lay) that we the people still haven't seen when profiteering Cheney was putting together Energy Policy.

Get real Ted why should Dems play ball with you and your corportista gangsters? Funny isn't it how Ted wants Democracy for his self but he's just fine with dictatorship for the rest of us? I think Dems should dig their heels in on this and on everything until after the election let the chips fall where they may.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. A Republican trying to teach Senatorial courtesy

is like a cannibal trying to teach how to prepare an all vegetarian meal.

[mbperrin]

11. Good for the Dems! Any rigged game needs to be

quit, since the only other option is to be cheated!

Say Ted, why didn't you make Lisa's daddy stand up for her? He appointed her to the seat, after all. Whatsamatter? He don't have no family values? Or are you interested in little Lisa for other reasons? Some people say so! (For instance, I just did!)

(Say, I like this some people say stuff!)

[amber dog democrat]

12. Courtesy is owed, but it works both ways.

If coercion is his first response, then this is not some one you can work with

" he will put a hold on all bills sponsored by Senate Democrats running for re-election."

I know 5 year old kids that act better than that. So much for bi partisan cooperation.

Fuck hm.

:nopity:

[Marthe48]

13. Is Stevens the guy who was picking his nose

as he sat behind Bush during a televised speech a few years ago? Looked like he was drilling for oil ---- courteous hahahahahah

[WiltedFlowerChild]

14. I'm so proud

of my state senator Jeff Bingaman. He really is a stand-up guy.

[Flammable Materials]

15. Bee oh oh, aych oh oh.

[dumpster_baby]

16. Hey, Stevens--EAT SHIT....

and....etc....

[Judi Lynn]

17. Alaska's Ted Stevens: Virtue in Motion

October 1, 2003

PORKER OF THE WEEK AWARD

(Washington, DC – October 1, 2003) — “Every member of Congress and American taxpayer ought to be infuriated by the outrageous power play made last month by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens that will strip thousands of dollars from worthwhile federal projects.

“Unbeknownst to House appropriators, Stevens inserted into the 2004 legislative branch appropriations bill a provision to allow Senate aides who live in Hawaii or Alaska to qualify for a ‘high cost-of-living allowance’ equal to 25 percent of their base pay. Stevens, who serves as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sneaked the provision into the bill without ever discussing it with House or Senate colleagues. His rationale for the provision is that it will help achieve parity with executive branch employees who work in Alaska and Hawaii.

“The provision will benefit more than three dozen aides to Stevens, his home state colleague, Senator Lisa Murkowski, and Hawaiian Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka. The senators will pay for the salary increases from their own office budgets, which will now need to be increased to accommodate the staff pay raises. If President Bush signs the bill, as expected, the cost-of-living adjustments will go into effect immediately.

“This back-handed, behind-closed-doors maneuver is a prime example of pork-barrel politics, and it demonstrates exactly what is wrong with the appropriations process. Senator Stevens arrogantly decided that a handful of people need salary adjustments without giving any consideration to the opinions of his House and Senate colleagues or the American people. Senator Stevens gets my ‘Porker of the Week’ Award.”

http://www.house.gov/hefley/porker_2003/Porker031001.html

Nice work if you can get it!

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. One thign about this pork barrel

Alaska and Hawaii ARE very expeinsive, but 25%, GOOD LORD!

Now iamagine if we extended this to the military... who also get a cost of living adjustment, and his employes as well as the Senators already get Cost of Living Adjustments

DAMN,

By the way Stevens neesd to learn manners... and he can go chenney himsself

[fob]

19. "One Republican on the committee had not shown up..."

If Ted's got anythting to bitch about it should be about hiss fellow repugnican. The Dems SHOWED UP, it's not their fault the repugnican has no common sense or senatorial courtesy. I demand Ted Stevens RESIGN for such assholery, and thte other repugnican who couldn't be bothered to show the fuck up as well.

[havocmom]

20. Don't like it when Dems take a page from Newt's textbook, do they?

Tough scoobies. That is how it works. Give and take only works when you prevent one side from doing all the taking. If you have to leave the room to prevent being skinned, tis foolish not to walk.

[Eloriel]

21. Yep. There are rules for Dems and then there are rule for Repugs

and ne'er the twain shall meet. Dems are expected to play fair (so they can be steamrolled). Repugs just get to play, and play, and play, with no accountability, no consideration for the rules, no conscience, no adherence to the truth.

It's a GREAT system.

[havocmom]

22. Ya know, Eloriel, sometimes I think this is a male/female thing going on

We know the neocons want to return to some twisted memory of the good ol days of the 50s, when men were men and women cleaned house in crinolines, high heels and pearls, waited by the door with a cold martini and hot nether regions when they came home from running things...

They wanna go back to a time before Ike made his warning...

They think they are the manly men and get to push the women & girlie men (that'd be us progressives) around.

Seems like it always boils down to their inability to accept that women and people of color are citizens, entitled to a voice in and a piece of the American pie.

[neverforget]

23. Do as I say, not as I do!

[fishface]

24. Hey Teddy...blow me..nt

v

[thecrow]

25. Hmmm I remember when the Democrats were LOCKED OUT

of a meeting and the Rethuglicans had to call the Capitol Police to restore order a couple years ago...
Turnabouts fair play, eh?

[Judi Lynn]

26. That was memorable. A new low for Republicans

They deserve to lose their chokehold on our Congress and Senate. They are unbelievably crude, ungracious, and grabby when they hold the majority. They act as if they own the world. Hope we show them it's not true.

Concerning that nasty lockout, Buzzflash captured it well:

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
With a Little Help from Our Readers

Yes, on July 18th, Soviet style Republican thug, House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, called the Capitol Police to stop Democrats from protesting his Brezhnev style committee dictatorship. But, of course, Thomas (who had an adulterous affair with a pharmaceutical company lobbyist while writing Medicare prescription legislation a couple of years back) wouldn't have called the cops without the okay of the Stalin of the U.S. Congress, the "Toxic Psychotic" Tom DeLay. (As we've noted many a time, Denny Hastert is just a figurehead. He was chosen because he was the only Republican who had no sexual skeletons in his closet. Denny is more interested in a turkey leg than the leg of a woman. Tom DeLay figured it was better to pick a guy for house speaker who had gravy stains on his tie than a guy who had panties -- or jock straps --in his desk drawer.)

Here's what two Democratic congressmen had to say about Thomas's KGB style behavior:

"My friends, this is how tyranny begins," said Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, a Ways and Means Committee member. "It is our responsibility to stand against a police state, to stand in favor of open dialogue rather than to permit a bill to pass with only the votes of one party, and move toward a one-party state."

"I never thought, as a member of Congress, that I would be threatened with arrest in the library of the Ways and Means Committee," Lewis said during the House debate.
(snip/...)

http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/03/07/19_soviet.html