Salem Political Snark

Republican dysfunction on full display today in Congress

I'm so old, I remember when Republicans deserved their nickname as the Grand Old Party, GOP. They were known as solid citizens, skilled in business, dedicated to fighting communism, defenders of freedom, committed to our Constitution, competent leaders.

Those days are gone, at least when it comes to Republicans in Congress. Now the GOP is best known for dysfunction, incompetence, unreliability, lack of a moral compass, fealty only to Donald Trump.

Today was a clear example of this. It was a remarkable Tuesday for political junkies like me. Any doubt that the GOP is better termed the POP, Pathetic Old Party, should have been put to rest by what transpired in the Senate and House.

Over in the Senate, there's every indication that the border security legislation that Republicans demanded accompany funding to support Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan is dead. Or on life support with a dismal prognosis for survival.

Again, this was a Republican priority. The GOP prides itself on being strong on border security. Republicans demanded the legislation because they knew it would be a bitter pill for Democrats to swallow.

And it was.

But after months of intense bipartisan negotiations, a deal was struck that gave Republicans many of their top priorities on border security, while giving Democrats exactly nothing when it came to comprehensive immigration reform, such as a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have been in this country for a long time.

Nonetheless, most Democrats were prepared to hold their nose and vote in favor of the border security legislation because Republicans had made it a condition for approving the aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.

Today, it was crystal clear that because of Donald Trump, the same Republicans who had demanded that border security be part of the foreign security legislation were set to vote against border security tomorrow.

The reason is obvious, since Trump spoke it out loud: he doesn't want anything done to improve conditions on our southern border because he wants to keep border security as a cudgel he can bash Biden with in the presidential campaign. 

Naturally this is horribly un-American. It's beyond disgusting that Republicans are willing to pass on border security legislation that, while imperfect, is much better than the status quo. The union representing Border Control Agents wants to see the legislation pass. 

Doesn't matter. Donald Trump has spoken. Virtually all Congressional Republicans are eager to obey him. So what if the United States is harmed? The top priority of the GOP is to do whatever it takes to please Trump.

Further proof of that took place today in the House, where a vote on impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, was scheduled. Constitutional law experts, including conservative ones, agree that Majorkas hasn't done anything that rises to the level of a "high crime or misdemeanor," the standard for impeachment.

That not-so-minor detail didn't stop Republican leaders in the House from having sham committee hearings where the only valid criticism of Mayorkas was that he's carrying out border security and immigration policies that they disagree with.

Well, that's the nature of politics. Biden won the 2020 election. He gets to pick cabinet secretaries. If Republicans want a different set of secretaries, they need to win the 2024 presidential election. But today House Republicans couldn't even convince the members of their caucus to vote to impeach Mayorkas.

That vote failed when four Republicans voted "no." (One of the four voted that way as a procedural maneuver, so there were only three genuine "no" votes.) Another attempt at impeaching Mayorkas will occur when a Republican congressman returns from getting medical treatment. That attempt has a decent chance of success.

So on the same day, Senate Republicans were saying they plan to vote against a bill to strengthen border security, while House Republicans tried unsuccessfully to impeach the Homeland Security secretary for not doing enough to make the border secure.

Sure sounds like those House Republicans should be impeaching Senate Republicans, since they're the ones who don't want to improve border security, not Mayorkas.

Lastly, the House failed to approve a standalone bill with billions of dollars of aid to Israel.  Biden had threatened to veto the bill, should it reach his desk somehow, since it didn't include aid to Ukraine and Taiwan.

Still, it was an embarassement to Speaker Johnson and the rest of the House leadership team that two important bills went down to defeat today. Whether you love or hate Nancy Pelosi,  you'll have to admit that she could count votes and had much stronger control of her party than Johnson does.

Anyway, I'm sure it won't take long because more examples of Republican dysfunction are evident in Congress. I just hope our country can endure the problem of having one of our two major political parties be so incompetent at serving the needs of the American people.

Recent poll finds Biden in big trouble against Trump. Hamas war is one reason.

I enjoy watching Meet the Press on Sunday. But today's episode disturbed me when results of a new NBC poll were presented by Steve Kornacki. 

For one thing, Biden trails Trump nationally by five points, with his poll numbers steadily declining.

Also, Trump is seen as more competent than Biden on most policy issues. It's astounding that Biden only has a two point lead over Trump on protecting democracy.

A NBC News story about the poll describes the bad news for Biden.

Despite a growing economy and little opposition for his party’s nomination, President Joe Biden confronts a dissatisfied electorate and a challenging political climate nine months before he faces re-election, according to a new national NBC News poll.

Biden trails GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump on major policy and personal comparisons, including by more than 20 points on which candidate would better handle the economy. And Biden’s deficit versus Trump on handling immigration and the border is greater than 30 points.

The poll also shows Trump holding a 16-point advantage over Biden on being competent and effective, a reversal from 2020, when Biden was ahead of Trump on this quality by 9 points before defeating him in that election.

And Biden’s approval rating has declined to the lowest level of his presidency in NBC News polling — to 37% — while fewer than 3 in 10 voters approve of his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

All together, these numbers explain why the poll shows Trump leading Biden by 5 points among registered voters in a hypothetical 2024 general-election matchup, 47% to 42%. While the result is within the poll’s margin of error, the last year of polling shows a clear shift.

Sure, the election is about nine months away. There's plenty of time for Biden to shore up his support by attacking Trump more aggressively and speaking more forcefully about how well the country is doing economically, even though inflation is still higher than what's desirable.

But some things are unlikely to change, chief among them Biden's distressingly strong support for how Israel has been conducting its war against Hamas. Biden has been letting Israel's right-wing prime minister, Netanyahu, do whatever he wants with the weapons supplied by the United States.

As a result, about 27,000 people in Gaza have been killed since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 of last year, most of them women and children. Most people in Gaza have been forced out of their homes. A majority of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed by Israel. Not enough humanitarian aid is being allowed to enter Gaza by Israel. Netanyahu's right-wing ministers have called for Israeli settlers to take over Gaza with the current Palestinian residents to be expelled. Netanyahu himself has ruled out a two-state solution to the Palestinian issue and says Israel always will control Gaza.

All that is horrendous. Yet the Biden administration is merely urging Netanyahu to be more careful about killing civilians and hopes he will will change his mind about a two-state solution. I can't stand this weakness from Biden, and I'm a strong supporter of his reelection.

Problem is, lots of others who voted for Biden in 2020 will either sit out the November election, or vote for a third-party candidate, because of Biden's decision, so far at least, to give Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing cronies pretty much a blank check when it comes to a more humane and responsible  approach to the Hamas war and Palestinian statehood.

As a Politico story says, the Democratic base is critical of Biden's unwavering support for Israel, which helps explain why the NBC poll found that Biden is tied with Trump among voters 18-34 at 42% support for each man.

Biden aides have clearly absorbed the blowback they got from even friendly Democratic lawmakers for making no mention of Palestinian suffering in official statements they issued marking 100 days since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Indeed, it’s hard to overstate how contemptuous even staunchly pro-Israel Democratic lawmakers have become of Netanyahu.

One House Democrat told me of a dinner last month with about eight other colleagues, a cross-section of the caucus ideologically and generationally. “It was unanimous that this Israel-Gaza war needed to end now and that Biden needed to stand up to Bibi,” this lawmaker told me, before offering his own view.

“This is a disaster politically,” said this House Democrat, who rarely criticizes Israel. “The base is really pissed — and it’s not just the leftists. I have never seen such a depth of anguish as I’ve seen over this Gaza issue. Bibi is toxic among many Democratic voters and Biden must distance himself from him — yesterday.”

Jumping off the page: A recent YouGov poll found 50 percent of self-described Biden voters called Israel’s attacks on Gaza “a genocide.”

Part of the president’s challenge, particularly with younger Democrats deriving their news almost entirely from social media, is they don’t hear of Biden pushing Netanyahu behind the scenes.

“You create political challenges for yourself when your public and private messaging aren’t aligned,” said Tommy Vietor, a former Obama White House aide who now co-hosts Pod Save America and praised Biden for his efforts to free hostages and establish a cease-fire. “People don’t see Joe Biden chewing out Bibi on the phone.”

Biden should cut off further military aid to Israel until Netanyahu and his government agree to: be much more precise in targeting Hamas fighters instead of killing so many innocent people in Gaza; guarantee that Israel won't control Gaza after the war is over; allow much more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza; and commit to engaging in negotiations for a two-state solution to the broader Palestinian problem.

If Biden doesn't stand up to Netanyahu, he's going to continue to lose support among those who voted for him in 2020 because he was better than Trump.

That approach might work again in 2024, but Biden needs to realize that he's president now, and should start acting like one instead of allowing Netanyahu free rein to indulge his extreme right-wing approach to the Hamas war and Palestinian rights.

Republican state senators who walked out can't run again. Sweet justice!

It was an Oregon Supreme Court decision that made me ever so happy.

Yesterday the court ruled unanimously that a ballot measure passed by voters in 2022 meant that ten Republicans in the state Senate can't run for re-election because they walked out of the 2023 legislative session for ten days.

An Oregon Capital Chronicle story describes the decision. 

Republican senators who participated last year in the longest walkout in state history cannot seek reelection in 2024 or 2026, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday. 

In a unanimous decision, the court rejected arguments from five Republican senators that Measure 113, a voter-approved 2022 law meant to dissuade lawmakers from walking out and shutting down the legislative process, was poorly worded and would give them another term in office. Instead, the court agreed with state attorneys, who urged justices to consider voters’ intent with the 2022 law, which bars any lawmaker with 10 or more unexcused absences from serving another term. 

“Because the text is capable of supporting the secretary’s interpretation, and considering the clear import of the ballot title and explanatory statement in this case, we agree with the secretary that voters would have understood the amendment to mean that a legislator with 10 or more unexcused absences during a legislative session would be disqualified from holding legislative office during the immediate next term, rather than the term after that,” the ruling said. 

The ruling means 10 Republican senators – one-third of the Senate – are ineligible for reelection. Two of the 10, Sens. Bill Hansell of Athena and Lynn Findley of Vale, already planned to retire. Four others – Sens. Daniel Bonham of The Dalles, Cedric Hayden of Fall Creek, Kim Thatcher of Keizer and Suzanne Weber of Tillamook – were elected to four-year terms in 2022 and will serve until January 2027.

And four, including Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, must end their Senate careers – at least temporarily – in January. Knopp and Sens. Brian Boquist of Dallas, Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls and Art Robinson of Cave Junction all tried to file for reelection last year and were waiting on the outcome of the court case. 

Hopefully this will be a wakeup call for Republicans in the Oregon legislature.

You were elected to be part of representative democracy. That's your political job. If you don't feel like doing it, you should resign and let someone serve who actually wants to fulfill their duty to the constituents who voted them in.

Walking out when you can't get your way because Republicans are the minority party in both the state House and Senate is akin to an adult temper tantrum. Childish. Immature. Deserving of a time out. Which is exactly what the ten Republicans who can't run again deserve, and what they're getting.

Astoundingly, Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, one of the walkouts who can't run again in 2024, said on Wednesday in another Oregon Capital Chronicle story that if the Supreme Court doesn't rule in favor of them, Republicans might stage another walkout in the short legislative session that begins next week. 

Knopp, who led the walkout, said Wednesday he thinks Republicans will win regardless of how the court rules: Either Republicans will get to run for reelection, or Democrats will need to provide incentives for lame-duck Republican senators to attend floor sessions. He made his comments during a session preview event hosted by the Oregon Legislative Correspondents Association. 

“If the court sides with us, it’s a clear victory,” Knopp said. “If it doesn’t, I think we still win because our members literally have no reason to show up, and so in order for them to show up, they’re going to want to see that they’re going to be able to make a difference.”

Democrats, who hold 17 seats in the state Senate, need at least three Republicans to attend each day of the legislative session to meet the Legislature’s two-thirds quorum requirement. Otherwise, they can’t pass a single bill. 

That gives Republicans in the Senate – and the House, where Republicans control 25 of 60 seats – leverage to scuttle Democratic proposals by refusing to participate in the month-long legislative session that begins Monday. The session will focus on spurring housing production, something Republicans and Democrats largely agree on as a priority, but also on responding to the state’s addiction crisis and tweaking a voter-approved drug decriminalization law. 

So we'll see. Will Republicans show up to do their job, or will they act like a three-year-old who cries and screams because she didn't eat her dinner but wants dessert nonetheless?

I'm hoping they'll do their job. But if I were to bet, I'd put money on the temper tantrum.