Where The Rubber Meets The Road (2/19/10)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week (and I also posted here).

(By the way, the Inky tells us that the House's voting schedule was cancelled due to last week's snow. Also, as long as I'm thinking about it, I should let you know that posting will be particularly flaky next week, even more than usual any more.)

NLRB nomination. Voting 52-33, the Senate failed Tuesday to reach the 60 votes needed to advance President Obama's nomination of Craig Becker as a member of the National Labor Relations Board. This sustained a GOP filibuster against Becker, who has been a professor of labor law and a top lawyer for the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO.

The five-member NLRB has operated with three vacancies since 2008, leaving its two sitting members - one Democratic and one Republican appointee - able to decide only routine cases. Supreme Court arguments are scheduled for March on whether decisions by a two-member NLRB are valid.

Obama said he might use recess appointments to seat Becker and nearly three dozen other of his nominees who are being blocked by Senate Republicans. Recess appointments would be valid until the 111th Congress ends in January 2011.
A yes vote was to advance Becker's nomination.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), and Arlen Specter (D., Pa.).

(By the way, here is the latest on the games the Senate Repugs are playing with holding up Obama Administration nominees.)

And as Wikipedia tells us here, even though a three-member quorum currently does not exist on the board…

...the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, and 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the two-member NLRB's authority to decide cases, while the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals did not.[4][5][8][9] In September 2009, the Justice Department asked the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately hear arguments concerning the dispute, given the high stakes involved.[5] The Supreme Court granted certiorari in October and agreed to decide the issue.[10]

This situation was created when the terms of the members who once held the now-vacant positions expired in December 2007; Dubya didn’t appoint all of the nominees to fill the positions, and the Senate Dems opposed the people he did nominate.

With that in mind, this post tells us that, of the three nominees, the two Repugs nominated by Commander Codpiece in January 2008 were Robert Batista and Gerald Morales. About Batista in particular, Ted Kennedy said the following at the time…

“It’s unbelievable that President Bush would renominate Mr. Batista to the Board, after he led the most anti-worker, anti-labor, anti-union Board in its history,” Kennedy said in a statement…after Bush made the nomination announcement. “America’s hard-working men and women deserve a Board that will uphold their rights, not undermine them. With these nominations, the Administration has again demonstrated its hostility to fairness and justice in the workplace.”

There are days when I really miss that man, I’ve got to tell you.

Obama has nominated both Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to serve on the NLRB (that would fill two of the three openings), but Becker’s nomination has been blocked in the Senate (so what else is new?). As a result, Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, sent out an Action Alert as noted here to tell the White House to appoint Becker and Pearce during the President’s Day recess (yep, to me, it sounds like it’s high time for that also).

So aside from what Becker has done in the past, what exactly does he have to say in his defense?

Well, as noted here…

"The ability to be fair and impartial is, of course, absolutely critical to the credibility of the board,” said Becker, who has represented unions and has taught labor law as a professor. He added, “I completely understand that, if I’m confirmed, the role I will play will be different from those roles.”

OMIGOD, he might as well drive a Saab, listen to Barbra Streisand and visit a Harvard boutique (?)!! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Give me a frackin’ break, people!

Continuing…

Becker said he would recuse himself from any NLRB matters that involve the Service Employees International Union, where he has been associate general counsel, for two years after confirmation.

It was not clear that his overtures had an immediate impact. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) noted that several business groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers, oppose Becker. McCain also said he isn’t satisfied with Becker’s recusal pledge, though he did not say what additional steps he thinks Becker should take.

And it’s not just “Straight Talk” McCain sounding off against Becker; this tells us that “Democratic” Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska has pledged to join a Becker filibuster (hey, bad luck on that “cornhusker kickback” for your health care vote, Ben).

I’ve said this a bunch of times before, and I’m sure I’ll say it a bunch of times again; Bushco did whatever the hell they wanted to do and they dared anybody to try and stop them. And I wish to God I saw an impulse like that from this White House.

Judge Joseph Greenaway. By a vote of 84-0, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed federal Judge Joseph A. Greenaway Jr., 52, of New Jersey, for a seat on the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Republicans had delayed a vote on Greenaway for four-plus months, and then unanimously supported his confirmation.

A yes vote was to confirm the judge.

All Philadelphia-area senators voted yes.

And by the way, best wishes to Sen. Lautenberg as he is treated for stomach cancer (here).

This week, Congress is in recess until the week of Feb. 22. The House then will take up the 2010 intelligence budget and a bill to end the health-insurance industry's antitrust exemption. The Senate will debate a jobs bill.