Saxby Chambliss

Partisan Rancor? Chambliss Blames C-SPAN

David Taintor | March 30, 2012, 11:08AM

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) on Morning Joe.

Partisanship in the Senate has grown worse over the years, and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) knows who to blame: C-SPAN.

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Debt Ceiling

Democrats Eye Potential GOP Supporters Of Reid's Debt Limit Bill

Brian Beutler | July 29, 2011, 4:38PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

John Boehner's debt limit bill, dead-on-arrival in the Senate, is on autopilot for passage in the House this evening. If as expected he sends it over to the upper chamber to be killed, he will actually speed up the process by which the Senate can pass its final debt limit bill, for parliamentary reasons outlined at the bottom of this post.

So the great guessing game in the Capitol right now is figuring out 1). Which Republican Senators will ultimately support Harry Reid's debt limit bill, and 2). What changes will have to be made to it between now and midnight to make sure enough of them are on board so the bill doesn't go down in flames in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Right now, Democrats are looking to about 11 gettable GOP votes: Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bob Corker (R-TN), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Scott Brown (R-MA), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Tom Coburn (R-OK). The last three were the Republican members of the Gang of Six deficit reduction group.

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Afghanistan

Panetta Sidesteps Barrage Of Questions On Afghan Drawdown

Susan Crabtree | June 9, 2011, 12:06PM

Leon Panetta, tapped by President Obama to succeed Robert Gates as defense secretary, attempted to dodge the most critical question facing the military and the administration right now during his nomination hearing Thursday.

Panetta faced a barrage of questions about the upcoming drawdown of troops in Afghanistan after signaling that he backed the President's call for a "significant" reduction of U.S. troops beginning in July.

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Gang of Six

Source: Coburn Ditching Gang Of Six Over Plan To Cut Medicare

Brian Beutler | May 17, 2011, 5:30PM

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)

Not since David Lee Roth left Van Halen has a defection augured so poorly for team success. On Tuesday, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) told reporters he was stepping away from the Gang of Six negotiations -- a bipartisan working group of senators putting together a plan to reduce the deficit and debt -- over their inability to agree on entitlement spending cuts.

After a bit of confusion over Coburn's status in these talks, his spokesman John Hart confirmed the departure in a statement, "He has decided to take a break from the talks."

A source with knowledge of the negotiations says Coburn ultimately broke ranks after members of the group rejected his proposal to introduce a global cap on Medicare spending that would have cut $150 billion from current beneficiaries.

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Navy Seals

Sen. Ayotte: I've Seen A Photo Of Slain Bin Laden

Susan Crabtree | May 4, 2011, 2:16PM

US Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)

Update at 3:47 p.m.: Sen. Saxby Chambliss' office says he didn't show Ayotte the photo and he has not seen it himself.

Amid reports that the White House will not release a photo of a slain Osama bin Laden, a photo of bin Laden is circulating among some senators.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) tells TPM another senator showed her a photo of a deceased bin Laden with the understanding that it was an authentic photo the Navy Seals took of him after he was killed.

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Social Security

Parsing The Game Of Six: Will They Try To Cut Social Security Benefits?

Brian Beutler | April 21, 2011, 1:17PM

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

The bipartisan group of six senators privately drafting a debt and deficit reduction plan have been unusually tight-lipped about their negotiations. That's probably necessary internally if the group's goal is to come to an agreement. But it's led to intense speculation about what's on the table, what shape their policy options are taking, and whether progressives will get a raw deal.

Of the six -- Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mark Warner (D-VA), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Mike Crapo (R-ID) -- only Durbin could be fairly described as a progressive. So the race is on to figure out where his bright lines are, and to what, if any, extent he's willing to walk away if the final agreement completely undermines progressive interests. But while his public statements in recent weeks don't lay out exactly what those bright lines are, he's tipped his hand in two important ways.

One big tell was his official public response to the House Republican budget, which doesn't meaningfully touch Social Security but basically obliterates Medicare and Medicaid, while not raising any new revenue, and lowering taxes on wealthy Americans.

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'Obama's Wars'

McCain, Graham Lead Effort to Strip Holder of Detainee Authority

Susan Crabtree | March 10, 2011, 3:47PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Six senators, led by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), are pushing for sweeping changes to the nation's laws governing detainees and the war on terror, including one that would strip Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department as a whole of the power to make decisions about where to try suspected terrorists.

The group of senators, which includes Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Scott Brown (R-MA), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), are working with Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee on a bill that would usher in comprehensive detainee policy changes and would, among other things, affirm the military's right to detain, hold and interrogate detains at its discretion without the involvement of the Department of Justice or Holder.

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CIA/DNI/Intelligence

CIA Official: Obama Was Briefed On Egypt Instability Late Last Year

Susan Crabtree | February 3, 2011, 4:50PM

Associate Deputy Director of the CIA Stephanie O'Sullivan

The U.S. intelligence community warned President Obama about instability in Egypt late last year, according to a CIA official.

Stephanie O'Sullivan, the President's nominee for principal deputy director of national intelligence who currently serves as associate deputy director of the CIA, told the Senate intelligence committee Thursday that the agency briefed Obama. She did not indicate how specific the information they provided was.

"We warned of instability but not exactly where it would come from [and in what form]," she said. "That happened at the end of last year."

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Kirsten Gillibrand

Republican Senators Chase World Cup, Praise America's Immigrant History

Megan Carpentier | July 2, 2010, 2:30PM

USA and Slovenia play in the World Cup, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) wants to bring the tournament to the States.

After the failure of Team USA to beat Ghana and advance in the World Cup tournament, most thought that Americans would wait until 2014 until they started paying attention to soccer again. But Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and a number of Republican colleagues aren't wiling to let soccer fade into obscurity!

She and a few colleagues from both sides of the aisle sent a letter to FIFA President Sepp Blatter today to try to convince him to allow America to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022. Part of their sales pitch is America's vast immigrant population, and their dedication to watching their home country teams battle it out on U.S. soil.

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Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | April 23, 2010, 3:29PM

Austan Goolsbee, Chief Economist on the Economic Recovery Advisory Board

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: White House Economic Adviser Austan Goolsbee, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN).

• CBS, Face The Nation: National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers.

• CNN, State Of The Union: Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

• Fox News Sunday: National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Co-Chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles.

• NBC, Meet The Press: Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL).

Financial Reform

Why The GOP Suddenly Let Up On Financial Reform

Brian Beutler and Christina Bellantoni | April 21, 2010, 3:18PM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)

Within 48 hours, the Republican line on financial regulatory reform went from "filibuster" to "we're very close to a deal." Why the shift? Republicans and Democrats will offer up spin all day, chalking up the progress to their own doggedness, but in the end it comes down to a simple reality. Key Republicans, sincere about passing new rules for Wall Street, but intimidated by the notion of blocking financial regulatory reform, let it be known to their leadership that, at some point, they would side with Democrats to break a filibuster. Maybe not on round one, or even round two. But eventually.

"Folks on our side of the aisle want a bill," Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) told TPMDC and a few other reporters Monday night. "I know that. I just [had a] discussion with some of our leadership on the floor. You know, we want a bill."

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Blanche Lincoln

Lincoln Takes Populist Turn On Wall Street Reform

Brian Beutler | April 13, 2010, 6:53PM

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) surprised many observers today when she announced she'd introduce legislation to tightly regulate the derivatives market, as part of a broader financial regulatory reform bill. Lincoln's one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, and the White House had been pressuring her not to cede too much to the GOP on the issue. In the end she not only did as they asked, she took them to task for not going far enough to regulate banks.

"Proposals that I have seen from the administration have not gone far enough to prevent bailouts of 'too big to fail institutions' and could contain loopholes," Lincoln said. "If we pass reform, it needs to be real reform. My proposal will go further than any other congressional or administration proposal to prevent future bailouts."

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