Tag: U.S. Senate

Why Doug Jones will Lose His Senate Seat to a Republican in Alabama

Trish Ponder

When a less chewed up and spit out Jeff Sessions vacated his Senate seat in 2017 to become Donald Trump’s first U.S. Attorney General, it forced a special election in Alabama to replace him. And that’s about the only way a Democrat like Doug Jones was ever going to win in that state.

The reason is straight ticket voting (STV). Alabama (and six other states*) still offer this option for those who have one concern when casting a ballot: party affiliation.
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Mitch McConnell’s ‘Very Expensive Lunch Club’

Buck Banks

“Three times a week the Senate Republicans meet for lunch… And occasionally they walk into that chamber and take a vote or two or three on judges. That is the sum total of the Senate’s work today. Mitch McConnell has effectively turned the United States Senate into a very expensive lunch club.”

— Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), quoted by The Hill.

If Moore Is Elected, Senate has to Seat Him

Buck Banks

“If he is elected, there are no grounds under the Constitution to fail to seat him. The Constitution says you can only look at citizenship, whether they are a resident of the state, and if they are the proper age. So we have to seat him.”

— Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), quoted by CNN, on whether the U.S. Senate would refuse to seat Roy Moore (R) if he wins Alabama’s special election.

Cook: Clinton Wins and Dems Take Senate

Buck Banks

There is a food fight un­der way among many of those do­ing pres­id­en­tial-elec­tion mod­el­ing… It’s not my style or ex­pert­ise to put a spe­cif­ic per­cent­age on Clin­ton’s chances of win­ning, but, suf­fice it to say, it’s a really big num­ber. … The Sen­ate is tough­er to call. The strong like­li­hood of a Clin­ton vic­tory means that the Demo­crat­ic tar­get is 50 seats, a gain of four, with Vice Pres­id­ent Tim Kaine cast­ing a tie-break­ing vote if ne­ces­sary. Right now, I think the odds are highest for a four-seat gain, next likely would be five seats.

— Charlie Cook

Rubio Says Women Don’t Need the ERA

Trish Ponder

Good news, ladies! You might not have noticed it, but your rights in America are totally equal. Your protections are the same as men. Discrimination based on gender is over. Feels good, huh?

Apparently that’s what Sen. Marco Rubio thinks. When he was asked at a rally before he quit his race for president earlier this year if he would support the Equal Rights Amendment, Rubio guffawed. “That old thing?” he seemed to say in a newly released video. “That’s so 1979!”

In fact, efforts continue to this day to enshrine equal protection of rights for women in the United States Constitution.

Now Rubio is back in Florida, running for the U.S. Senate seat he virtually abandoned because he was so convinced America would elect him their president in November. Yet even as he campaigns, he won’t commit to serving the full term, lest he again decide America wants him more than Florida does. How Rubio has any support in his state, and any votes among those of us paying pink taxes is a mystery.

Being a Senator Is Now a Part-Time Job

Buck Banks

110 days

“The U.S. Senate is on track to work the fewest number of days since 1956, a fact that Democrats seized on Wednesday to attack the chamber’s Republican leadership,” McClatchy reports. “Senators returned last week to Washington after a seven-week break. Another recess could come as early as the end of this week or next, freeing embattled senators to return to the campaign trail in their states.”