Enzi: Solis Isn't Going Anywhere For Now
Mike Enzi (WY), the senior Republican on the Senate labor committee, just revealed some more backstory behind today's seemingly sudden postponement of the confirmation vote on Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis.
Turns out that the Solis delay wasn't so shocking to Enzi, who said he and fellow senators knew last night about $6,700 in California tax liens long left unpaid by Solis' husband. Enzi said Republicans knew this morning that the confirmation vote wasn't going to happen, but that it was left on the committee schedule because senators "wanted answers from the White House."
Now that the tax liens have been repaid, then, is the committee ready to take up Solis' nomination -- even if it has to pass with only Democratic support? Enzi said no. "[There is a] joint effort to make sure we have all the information before we vote," he said. "There isn't enough information yet."
And if you thought the tax liens were the only thing standing in the way for Solis, that's not so -- Enzi said Republicans are still raising questions about her role as treasurer for American Rights at Work (ARW), a labor-allied non-profit group. It's not Solis' service on the board necessarily, Enzi explained, but the possibility that as treasurer, she had jurisdiction over ARW's political spending. The anti-union group National Right to Work explains the GOP's line of attack at length.
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If you think R's go silly over taxes, they go absolutely insane over unions. We're talking humming noises, dilated pupils, the works. I can't even imagine how they're going to react when the EFCA is introduced with an actual chance of passage and signing. Straight-jackets and thorazine will probably be in order.
February 5, 2009 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
So they're just obstructing for the sake of obstructing. Nothing to do with taxes, just because they want to "clarify" Solis' position on the ARW. This is RIDICULOUS.
February 5, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Especially coming from people who had no problem confirming a nominee for the top law enforcement post who wouldn't answer whether waterboarding was torture.
February 5, 2009 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Man, you'd never guess Dems had a huge majority in the Senate, would you? As if the Repugs would ever let the minority Dems make them look like a bunch of pussies!
February 5, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem isn't so much the majority in the Senate and house. It's the anonymous hold issue. This has to be gotten rid of pronto.
February 5, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Chris Dodd put a hold on FISA, which was ignored. The problem isn't the hold, it's Harry Reid respecting the GOP holds while ignoring the Democratic ones.
February 5, 2009 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dodd didn't put a hold on FISA. He attempted a filibuster.
February 5, 2009 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, but you are incorrect.
firedoglake.com/2007/10/18/reid-tries-to-shut-down-dodds-hold/
"Tim Starks of Congressional Quarterly reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to bring the Senate's surveillance bill up for floor debate in mid-November. That's despite the hold that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) plans to place on the measure -- something first reported by Election Central's Greg Sargent."
February 5, 2009 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's no longer a "hold" on Solis, anonymous or otherwise. Read the article. Both Dems and Republicans are demanding "more information." Who the hell is the chair of this lame committee anyway?
February 5, 2009 6:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Dodd is the next most senior majority member.
February 5, 2009 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
screw the repugs.
steamroll them.
they deserve nothing and its clear they have decided to obstruct EVERYTHING!
February 5, 2009 6:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the end the Republicans will hang themselves with this. All I can say is give them more rope.
The Republican strategy is to obstruct and delay and hope for a major disaster to blame on the Democrats. They don't care if they destroy the country in the process or cause suffering for untold millions.
February 5, 2009 6:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Republicans can do this forever. Their remaining core of assclown supporters love what they are doing right now. They will return them to office forever and ever, and the Republicans will keep taking advantage of Democratic courtesy and weakness, until the Democrats learn the rules of the game.
February 5, 2009 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ted Kennedy is the chairman. Anyone know if he's even in Washington right now? I wouldn't be at all surprised if Ted's not available to attend committee meetings, so Enzi is taking the opportunity to make everyone's lives miserable. If that's the case, it's pretty repulsive behavior. But that's today's GOP for you.
February 5, 2009 6:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, he's not. He's in the hospital.
February 5, 2009 10:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am also wondering if Kennedy is around. I would say he isn't because I agree that Enzi couldn't do this if he was there.
The White House actually supported Solis today and said that the tax problems were her husbands and she is not involved in his business. Shouldn't that be sufficient for democrats, some democrat, any democrat to call Enzi out on this?
Can't one Senator attack, or at the very least, admonish the minority party for beginning a dirty war over EFCA? Sherrod Brown, Russ Feingold, Debbie Stabenow where are you?
February 5, 2009 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think we as Democrats need to be clearer about what we're really trying to fix by opposing lobbyists. We're trying to fix the undo influence of money power.
Solis is being held up over the nonsense that she worked in a non-paid capacity on the board of a non-profit that lobbies Congress.
By simply using the lobby word they make it sound like that's the same as a guy who makes $100,000 a year working on K Street getting legislation through for big oil.
Advocating what you believe for free is not the lobbying we're trying to stop. That's just Democracy. It may be interest group democracy when it involves a non-profit, but it's not paid democracy or lobbying for something in which you perssonally have a financial interest. It's just advocacy for a cause. If someone once worked, for free, on the board of the NRA, which lobbies for gun rights, that doesn't make them a lobbyist. That just makes them a participating citizen.
February 5, 2009 7:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortunately, Kennedy is not in DC from what I hear.
February 5, 2009 7:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought the American people deserved an up-or-down vote on nominations. Whatever happened to the Gang of 14? The nuclear option?
February 5, 2009 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
While despicable, this is in no way surprising. Ever since the Obama victory was a certainty, right to work for less coalition has launched an all out assult on the unions and EFCA. All that talk about the UAW during the bridge loan hearings was all aimed at this. Do you think Bob Corker or Mitch McConnell care whether the auto industry got 17 billion when they had just dished out 700 to the financial services sector? I am slightly confused however that if there is no hold, why they don't just call the vote. Due to Kennedy's absence?
February 5, 2009 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
mike enzi. what a dbag. i'm moving to wyoming to work against his re-elect in 2014. right. now.
February 6, 2009 12:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, bipartisanship!
February 6, 2009 12:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
We just voted out corrupt, incompetent clowns with major lacks of judgement and ethical standards. I'm sorry, but I cannot condone replacing these scoundrels with more of the same.
I cannot believe that we as a nation of 300 million people are not capable of finding hard working tax paying ethical human beings who DO"T have issues with the IRS, past acquantances, hidden agendas, secrets not known until already approved for jobs, etc.
It's sickening to portray standards until one minute after the elections and then revealing the same standards as the other mobsters...
February 6, 2009 1:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is case-in-point why our country is in the shitter.
WE have to take this and RUN WITH IT.
Call your representatives/senators, call the media, get mad, we are being drowned out while the country is suffering.
This cannot be tolerated.
February 6, 2009 9:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
$6,000? GTFOOH!
February 6, 2009 9:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Harry Reid is weak. So was Daschle. But it's the rest of the Democratic Senators who chose these men to lead them who are really to blame.
I'm a Democrat. I have just about lost all hope for the Senate Democrats. They continue to allow themselves to be slapped around by a minority party who, when they were a majority, enacted policies and provided leadership that got the country into a needless and costly war, ruined the economy, redistributed wealth to the already wealthy, weakened our military, debased the good name of the U.S., corrupted and degraded government, crippled the Afghan war effort by redirecting resources to the needless Iraq war, spyed on U.S. citizens, squandered the national treasure and, last but not least, failed to protect the country from the attacks of Sept 11.
This should be such a simple case to make to deservedly discredit the Republicans and their ideas and to govern in a way reflecting the recent election results. Why can't they make it? What is wrong with them? I'm so disgusted.
February 6, 2009 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone remember when Palin didn't pay any taxes on her kids air plane rides and the $60 per diems? She flashed a conclusory letter from her attorney saying it was in good faith, never paid any taxes on the sums, and the MSM (and the Dems) gave her a break all the way to Nov. 4. Yeah, richeous hypochracy is still alive in the Repugnant party.
February 6, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink