Dick In A Box
You know, ol’ Rahm Emanuel said that he was going to do this, but having seen how he and Shumer ran around as kind of an Abbott-and-Costello act in the wake of the elections, I didn’t totally believe he’d follow through. And yet, here’s Raw Story:
A group of Democrats made their case Thursday afternoon to cut all funding for the executive branch office of Vice President Dick Cheney on the floor of the House of Representatives. The move prompted a Republican Congressman to ask whether Cheney would get a ‘Katrina trailer’ in place of his official residence.
“I offer a simple amendment that bars the executive branch from being used to fund an office that does not exist in the executive branch, the Office of the Vice President,” said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), Chairman of the Democratic Caucus, who introduced the amendment. “There have been 46 vice presidents in US history, and not one of them…ever claimed [that the vice president was not part of the executive branch].”
Pointing to a four-part series that ran in this week’s Washington Post on Cheney’s role in the presidency of George W. Bush, Emanuel assailed the vice president for having too much power.
“Rather than claiming that he wasn’t part of the executive branch…it sounds like he is the executive branch,” the Illinois Democrat said. “There is no Cheney branch of government…He been held unaccountable for six years, and now he wants to be held unaccountable in the historical record.”
Emanuel’s amendment moved to cut all funding to the Vice President’s executive office, as well as the funds for his residence.
Above: “Not gonna get you a house in the hills…”
[…]
With limited members in the chamber, Rep. Emanuel’s amendment appeared to be defeated by a voice vote. However, the bill is set to receive a recorded vote later in the day. A Democratic leadership staff member told RAW STORY that a party-line vote in favor of the amendment was expected.
There’s no news on that vote yet, if it happened.* And Cheney’s people were already getting cagey about the not-part-of-the-Executive-Branch argument yesterday. But the question of Federally-funded housing is certain to continue occupying much of their time, in months to come.
[UPDATE: It went down 217-209.]
If was done so easily and promptly, why have the Dems done absolutely nothing about extraordinary rendition? Could it be that the Dems and the people who vote for them don’t really care about human rights, and they were just using it as a cheap and easy way to score political points, just like the right-wing claimed?
Just say no to Crashcart.
Hahaha.. it looks like there are enough sane Dems out there to stop your insane ideas like the Emanuel Amendment.
I can’t wait until you idiots concentrate on primarying Democrats for voting to fund the Vice President, instead of focusing on trying to expand your phony majority.
There’s enough Dems who vote our way to win on the truely controversial bills. You can’t legalize gay marriage or pass pro-abortion laws. And in the Senate, your partisan agenda comes to a screeching halt because your inept majority leader, Dirty Harry Reid.
You have the majority, and you couldn’t pass that amendment..
Smooooooooooooooth!
The vote, on an amendment to a 2008 spending bill for the Treasury Department and executive branch agencies, was defeated 217-209.
“We are pleased to see a bipartisan majority reject this political stunt,” said Cheney spokeswoman Megan McGinn.
Meanwhile, the White House called the subpoenas issued by the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 13-3 vote (10 Democrats and 3 Republicans versus 3 Republicans) a political stunt.
217-209 = Bipartisan majority.
13-3 = Political stunt.
Got it.
wow, the dems couldn’t pass this?
jesus are we a worthless bunch of fucking losers. seriously. i’ve seen caterpillars with stronger spines.
Can someone explain how having a 51-49 majority translates to 10 of 16 seats on committees?
Anyways.. it’s nice to see enough Democrats with sense to not go along with the MoveOn wing of the Democrat Party.
oh, and further, i want to say with all due spite to the shitheads who run my party (only cuz i don’t have any other choices, for sure): “gary ruppert was right.”
Sure Gary.
I’m always happy to bring a few facts into your life.
There are 10 Democratic Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 9 Republicans. Three Republicans didn’t bother to show up and vote, a) because they are lazy sacs of crap, and/or b) because the three ranking Republicans were voting with the Democrats.
P.S. Ranking Republicans means those with the most seniority. I am hopeful that these civic lessons will eventually enable and motivate you to become a better citizen.
Nancy “Deer in the Headlights” Pelosi should have gotten Rahm Emanuel to attach some pork-barrel spending to that amendment to get it passed.
After all, that’s what they did with their Surrender bill on Iraq.
Honestly, you guys, who cares? The point was made. The entire purpose was accomplished. Did you really think that if this passed the Capitol police were going to go over and kick cheney out of the residence? That somebody would have to hang a “Closed” sign on the VPs offices? It had no real force behind it, but it made the point that cheney was out to lunch when he said he was not part of the executive branch.
Of COURSE he’s part of the executive branch. Relax, ok? Way bigger fish to fry…
mikey
I checked the roll call, and it looks like even John Murtha knew that the Emanuel Amendment was a bad idea.
Here was my worry, should the thing have passed:
Cheney: “Hey, look: the Dems agree with me. I’m not part of the executive branch. I was right on that, and I’m right on the whole no-oversight thing, too. After all, everyone agrees that I’m not part of the executive branch.”
SCOTUS: “What he said.”
When it comes to the subject of bad news, there’s this amendment too
“Amendment offered by Mr. Pence.
An amendment to prohibit the use of funds to be used by the Federal Communications Commission to implement the Fairness Doctrine, as repealed in General Fairness Doctrine Obligations of Broadcast Licensees or any other regulations having the same substances.”
The vote was not even close.. 309 to 115 in support of free-market freedom
113 Democrats supporting freedom, 115 Democrats supporting the Government crushing talk radio.
That’s a pretty good showing for such an amendment. I guess the MoveOn crowd didn’t work very hard there.
Geez, you guys really do have a phony Majority. If our agenda ever got on the floor, it would pass easily due to the Dems in your caucus who will vote with us.
Did you really think that if this passed the Capitol police were going to go over and kick cheney out of the residence? That somebody would have to hang a “Closed” sign on the VPs offices?
Yes. The amendment would have cut off funding for Cheney’s office. It wasn’t a joke, mikey.
Here’s the roll call: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll596.xml.
Among Democrats voting No: David Obey, House Majority Whip, and Jack Murtha.
I think the majority whip is Clyburn.
But seeing guys like Obey and McDermott voting no really amuses me.
You nutjobs are going to go into a frenzy..
Rahm Emanuel is a bandwagoner too. He supported the war until 2006 and now he wants to be an anti-war leader. He’ll do anything to get power.
It’s bad enough that one DaleyBot (Obama) wants to be President, but another DaleyBot (Emanuel) as Speaker is too much.
Speaker Rahmmy Gold.. that’s too much for America
I think the majority whip is Clyburn.
Oh dear. Gary’s right. How often does that happen?
The number of times Rethug trolls such as “Gary Ruppert” appear in a liberal blog thread is in direct proportion to the degree to which his ever-dwindling faction is feeling alarmingly threatened.
Of COURSE it was a joke. It was never designed to pass. Or, put another way, it didn’t need to pass. The real world outcome was going to be the same either way. What the caucus wanted to do was push back against cheney’s obstinance. They did that. They made the point. I mean, c’mon. You think this administration would suddenly, for the first fucking time in history, say to congress “oh, ok, you got me now. Dick? Pack up yer shit, yer outta here”? No, they would re-allocate funds internally with one hand while flipping the bird with the other. Once again, it served it’s purpose. Who cares?
mikey
Blah blah blah and the dustbin of history.
The fact is I’m calling fake Gary, due to the lack of a certain …. something.
Anyways, as Mikey said, David Addington backed down on this “Cheney is the 4th element” cr*p the other day.
Go enlist, fake Gary.
19 comments. 7 of them—around 37 percent— from “Gary Ruppert.” Actually, that percentage is even a bit higher than the current rate of backwash despair (26 percent, according to the last poll I saw).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That such a bill could even come to the floor of the House, let alone garner a close vote, would shame any self-respecting, allegedly democratically-elected administration into resigning for the good of the country. Then again, we’re talking about Chimpy and Darth.
Face it. When you talk up “vote for ANY dem, just cuz that means we get subpoena power.” doesn’t mean your gonna get the Dems you need.”
Gary opines:
BOI-YOI-YOING! A-GOOGAH!
WTF?
Are you telling me that the Right couldn’t get its agenda passed during umpty-ump years of controlling all three branches of government.
Also: What the hell have we been living through for the past six years? This isn’t the result of your agenda?
Holy toledo. The mind boggles at what must be waiting in the wings.
So fucking true. They have no shame. They are truly oblivious to the blood on their hands. To the harm they have done. To the voices of the dead, of the lost, of the homeless refugees, of the children sick because the water’s no good. They are not haunted by the ghosts of their victims, they do not wake up at night, soaked in sweat, sobbing uncontrollably. They cannot see the pain. They cannot feel the suffering. They cannot hear the cries.
They’re right about one thing. There is evil in the world, evil that needs to be confronted, and defeated. They cannot, however, recognize that the evil is THEM…
mikey
Holy toledo. The mind boggles at what must be waiting in the wings.,
Oh, you might not seen it year ago when Gary was explaining how the Democrats in the minority were somehow using magic to prevent the majority republicans from enacting their “agenda”.
Hey Gary? How are the polls looking for your boys?
Between Cheney, the coming fight over subpoenas, and the big fuck-you your party just gave to Hispanic voters, the GOP is going to be the minority party for the next 10-20 years.
Have fun with that, fucktard.
Something needs to be done. Seriously, Dick Cheney basically declared himself above the oversight of the government, and not just recently, but for quite a while now. The entire Bush administration has been the same way, but Cheney has the special taint of evil that really makes it important to confront him on his bullcrap.
I know how politics goes; I remember with some satisfaction when the Senate failed to get the requisite votes to complete Clinton’s witch hunt with the Right Wing Wet Dream of Impeachment over the Dread Blowjobbery. I also remember how many wingnuts were besides themselves with fury when it happened, and they too gnashed their teeth and called their senators spineless.
The congress is very finely divided, and unlike the Republicans, all of whom bear the Mark Of Bush on their heads and hands, we have conservative Democrat as members. Some of whom do meet with Republicans and may have a hundred reasons for voting the way they do. Ok, politics yada yada yada.
When I say that none of this corrupt and incompetent administration will ever get their comeuppance in this lifetime, I mean it. Bush will stand for a century as the model of a disastrous presidency, and may well have diminished the Republic in the affairs of the world. But he and Dick will never stand under oath for the crap they pulled. Ever. There’s too much money invested in them to ever have that happen.
So, for the next few weeks, we’ll have this new item tallied against us, and assloafs like Kevin, Gary and Misha will have yet another chuckle at how we were stopped from getting justice, again, as if they had anything to do with it. Let’s give them all a golf clap and a “well played, shitstain” for their troubles, while they jerk off to the war they don’t have the guts to participate in, and wipe their dicks on the 4th Amendment, just because it’ll rile us even more. At the end of the day, at least we tried to hold the goatfuckers to their oaths. What’s your excuse for giving up on America, Gary?
The disconnect with reality is fascinating. Benny and the Jets – er, Gary and the Wingnuts cannot for one moment BELIEVE that the vast majority of the people in the world might not agree with them. Just can’t grasp it. Of course, if they read anything but talking points, if they cared more about carrying humanity than carrying water, if they had some exposure to interpersonal violence outside of “Grand Theft Auto”, they would understand that the suffering of human beings outweighs corporate profits. They might even understand that politics isn’t just a game where score is kept by legislation passed, and crimes gone un-indicted. That the real world fallout from their greed, hatred, blood- and power-lust is lives broken, people killed, injured and damaged, families destroyed and hope lost.
I often wish life could be a “Twilight Zone” episode. An episode where a tired old ex-soldier could take them on a journey, show them the suffering that their policy, and at the same time their LACK of policy creates, the disease, the homeless, the widows, the orphans, the blasted landscape, the hunger, the poverty, the tragedy on such a scale it just seems impossible to grasp. And, of course, they would wake up, and, well, if not accept the progressive agenda in all ways, at least begin to understand that their actions have far-reaching consequences, and a sobbing widow in Mesopotamia lessens us all.
Destroying isn’t a policy. If you can’t explain how what you’re doing is good, not on some large scale view from fifty thousand feet way, but good in a hooch by hooch, village by village, family by family way, then what you are doing is self serving and criminal. It’s really not too much to ask, Gary, that your policies not kill the poorest, the youngest, the most vulnerable EVERY FUCKING TIME, GODDAM IT!
Fucker…
mikey
Well said, Mikey, but I’m afraid you put way more thought into that than the conservative drones ever will.
For them, the world is reduced to four simple words. “BUSH MAD! BUSH SMASH!”
Aw, damn. Gary Ruppert had to go down for his nap before he could ‘splain to everyone about Chinese toothpaste and the wonders of free market capitalism.
Gary,
Will you please take your clothes out of the dryer, your mother wants to do her laundry.
Come upstairs and get a decent meal…you can’t live off of Cheetos and Mountain Dew.
Dad
Here’s the original title track, cause you know you were thinking about it.
How is this for a bumper-sticker, Freeway blog sign: Support House Resolution 333…to get rid of the 666!
It’s definately fake Gary.
“You can’t legalize gay marriage or pass pro-abortion laws.”
Well, Gay marriage is a state issue, not federal. So okay. Same with abortion, which the Federal government has already passed.
“Dirty Harry Reid.”
Naming someone after one of the most bad-assed cops ever isn’t REALLY an insult.
Hello, sockpuppet.
Looks like Gary satisfied the “touchback” provision of the immigration bill.
What a bunch of pussies!
There’s enough Dems who vote our way to win on the truely controversial bills. You can’t legalize gay marriage or pass pro-abortion laws.
…or restore habeas corpus, or bring back due process, or obey congressional subpoenas…or any of that other liberal crap that our founding fathers set up.
I often wish life could be a “Twilight Zone” episode. An episode where a tired old ex-soldier could take them on a journey, show them the suffering that their policy, and at the same time their LACK of policy creates, the disease, the homeless, the widows, the orphans, the blasted landscape, the hunger, the poverty, the tragedy on such a scale it just seems impossible to grasp.
Screw that episode. I want them to wake up and find themselves as Iraqis on the wrong end of a US inspection…
Personally, I’d be happy with them just waking up and finding out they’re on a plane with a goblin on the wing, and nobody believes them because they’re Hitler. And possibly their eyeglasses fall off and break so they can’t read Drudge anymore.
IT’S NOT FAIR! IT’S NOT FAIR!
Dorothy–
Sad but true. These days, even the Democrats’ excuses have excuses.
Maybe the guys who do maintenance on the old bastard’s house can fuck up his plumbing.
What a pathetic act of desperation.
Geez, this just summoned all the old crap trolls out of the woodwork.
Shit, why all this dickering. Impeach, investigate…
When the Executive Branch eventually goes back to the Democrats, the Vice President will still get paid AND they’ll have all those neato-torpedo privacy-demolishing domestic spying powers and other stuff the Patriot Act allows. Some Democrats just realized that we’re not going to have Republican presidents until the end of time, which the GOP just doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge. “Don’t talk that way, Dad. You’re going to live forever!”
Not enough Dems know the formula…
1: “Cut a hole in a box”,
2: “Put your junk in that box”,
3: “Make her open the box… and that’s the way you do it!”
OK, I can’t believe there is a wikipedia refence to this
I still crack up when I see this…
this is pure time-wasting… emanuel and schumer are far more dangerous than the famously right-wing dems like lierberman. they’re more powerful, and they’re even more right-wing. this kind of silly partisan slap fight sounds radical but is specifically designed to have no effect. i hope they all drown.
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Mikey – it’s not a Twilight Zone episode but how about a flick about Iraq vets that come back as zombies and eat Republicans?
Trolls and spam? Great.
Sigh…..a perfect shot for a cheap joke, and no one went for it. My heart is broken.
When Gary Ruppert says:
How did y’all resist the temptation to point out that Gary and his ilk have already been kind enough to publish their agenda in book form?
Psycheout said,
June 29, 2007 at 6:26
When you play the morons on your blog it’s funny, when you do it here and EVERYBODY knows you’re a faux troll…not so much.
..try HARDER.
Normally I’m not crazy about my congressman, Rahm Emanuel. He really doesn’t give a rat’s ass about most of the things that I care about. This bill was a pretty good idea, however, and I’ll call up his office and say thanks for it. I just wish he had pushed it harder, so that it had actually won. Emanuel certainly has the influence within the Democratic party to get a lot of things through, if he applies himself well, and twists the right arms. I wish he had done that here, instead of just floating it as a warning, or a dare, or something that comments on Cheney but doesn’t really threaten Cheney.