A bipartisan group of senators met Monday evening to continue work on election reform legislation, a new rallying point after Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) voted down Democrats’ attempt to reform the filibuster and pass voting rights bills.
Starting from scratch in order to waste enough time that nothing gets done. I hope they prove me wrong.
Is Manchin the only Democrat in this working group?
Maybe this will prove a triumph, but it’s mighty hard to feel like this isn’t an effort to fix the engines after the boat has sunk.
The success of this legislative effort may hinge on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) willingness to give his members the green light. Collins on Monday characterized his attitude so far as “very open.”
Snapping turtles usually keep their mouths open in the water while hunting for food. On land when they feel threatened or unsafe, they’ll keep their mouths open as a warning signal.
Glad to see that Collins is concerned.
BREAKIING not the NEWS!!!
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January 31, 2022
Photograph by Mario Tama / Getty
WASHINGTON —In a major setback for the former President, constitutional-law experts have determined that Donald J. Trump’s claim of having won the Presidency twice disqualifies him from ever running again.
At a convention of constitutional scholars over the weekend, more than four hundred experts unanimously agreed that Trump’s declaration of two White House victories means that he has reached the Presidential term limit as defined by the Twenty-second Amendment.
“The Twenty-second Amendment clearly states, ‘No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,’ ” Davis Logsdon, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Minnesota, said. “Since Trump claims that he was elected for a second time in 2020, he has eliminated himself from any future White House bid.”
“Frankly, I’m surprised that the people on his legal team, like Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, didn’t look into this,” he said.
Logsdon said that, although Trump has rendered another Presidential bid impossible, he could still make productive use of his years as an ex-President, “perhaps by building houses, like Jimmy Carter.”
In a sharply worded statement, from his home in Palm Beach, Trump lashed out at the authors of the Twenty-second Amendment. “The people who wrote that amendment are doing a terrible job and should be locked up,” he said.
I set my nuclear clock by her consistency.
In the end there will be more proof that rethugs don’t give a shit about voting rights.
“The group is breaking down into subsections to deal with specific issues, each headed by a Democratic and Republican co-chair.”
Given that GOP senators have voted in lock goose step against voting rights so far, isn’t this somewhat akin to breaking down barnyard legislation into specific issues, each headed by a fox and chicken co-chair?
Concern springs eternal.
“…and, we’ve agreed, the coop will only be locked on alternate weekend nights.”
Whatever legislation these meetings produce will need at least 10 Republicans on board to survive the filibuster.
Um, aren’t the Democrats allowed to filibuster it, too, you know, if they don’t like what this bipartisan group of senators comes up with?
The success of this legislative effort may hinge on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) willingness to give his members the green light. Collins on Monday characterized his attitude so far as “very open.”
I think that she actually said “very nope.”
I do the same with my unclear clock.
Yep, there will be a “bipartisan” deal to eliminate the ambiguity that doesn’t exist in either the Constitution or the Electoral Count Act about the VP’s role— which, in the entire history of the Republic has only been to do what the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act actually say: open the box and count the votes.
By doing so, the Democrats will have “agreed” to an ambiguity that doesn’t exist today. More importantly, they will have given away any criminal violation by Trump, because it could not possibly have been criminal for Trump to urge Pence to adopt one “reading” of the Constitution and statute, rather than another one. It’s one thing to fall into a trap. Quite another to have participated in the trap’s design.
it will not be a forum to salvage prized pieces of the Freedom to Vote Act or John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the latter of which sought to repair the Voting Rights Act after it was gutted by the conservative Supreme Court.
“If we relitigate issues that have already been rejected by the Senate, then I think it would be very difficult for us to reach the 60 vote margin,” Collins said.
So Republicans rejected/rejects John Lewis. 
So just what is left?
I guess I didn’t see anything on Manchin’s list that actually gives people a right to vote. So more window dressing. 
