Friday Fizzle, Sizzle + WIDE OPEN THREAD
By SusanUnPC on November 16, 2007 at 12:43 PM in Bush/Cheney, Current Affairs, Democrats, FISA, Joseph Wilson, Plamegate, Valerie Plame Wilson
UPDATE — A Fun Interview with Valerie Plame Wilson on Her Movie Deal: “Plame on spy movies and going Hollywood,” at Politico.com (Tidbits: “We have a powerful script.” … “[T]here’s a story of political intrigue, an espionage story and a love story. It’s about the loss of innocence, about speaking truth to power. And it has some black humor, too.” For director? “George Clooney.” To play Joe? “[M]aybe Michael Douglas or George Clooney.” Read all — and don’t miss page 2, with Valerie’s “reviews” of several films about spying!
762′s Fatal Flaw Mimics That of 43: Barry Bonds “could have walked, free to break Babe Ruth’s record and Henry Aaron’s record without this infamy hanging over him. Americans love a good confession. But the truth is not in Barry Bonds, who is so far outside the limits of reality that he did not see the advantage to a little show of humility, a little flash of honesty.” (George Vescey, NYT) Reminds me of a certain president. And, re Mr. Stuck-at-762: Fans of the game, your thoughts?
Feinstein finally does the right thing, and the Dems have eliminated telecom exec immunity from FISA bill: Californians I know have been in shock that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, known for her great record on civil rights, was for granting immunity to telecom executives as part of the new FISA bill. She has reversed, and majority leader Harry Reid’s aides have confirmed that immunity has been stripped out of the FISA bill.
Bush has dishonored his gentleman’s agreement with Reid on recess appointments, and Reid has stuck it to him (WTG, HARRY!): Last summer, Reid and Bush made a deal that Bush wouldn’t pull his recess-appointment stunts. Bush, typically, didn’t live up to the agreement. Last night, with regular “Broken Government” guest John Dean, Keith Olbermann discussed Reid’s threat to keep the Senate in “pro forma” session through Thanksgiving weekend. Now comes the first word that Reid is going to do it — and this is “breaking news”:
THE STATEMENT of Harry Reid, reported on AmericaBlog:
The Senate will be coming in for pro-forma sessions during the Thanksgiving holiday to prevent recess appointments.
My hope is that this will prompt the President to see that it is our mutual interests for the nominations process to get back on track.
While an election year looms, significant progress can still be made on nominations.
I am committed to making that progress if the President will meet me half way.
But that progress can’t be made if the President seeks controversial recess appointments and fails to make Democratic appointments to important commissions.
As Democratic leader, I recommend nominees to the President for many important commissions like the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
These independent agencies are required by law to have Democratic representation.
As a result, the President has a statutory obligation to honor my recommendations and move on them in good faith.
And, up until recently, the President has generally discharged that obligation.
In the last several months, however, the administration has been stalling progress on Democratic appointments.
This problem existed before the August break.
In an effort to solve it, I worked hard to confirm over 40 administration nominees in exchange for a commitment by the President to make progress on a number of important commissions.
When we reconvened after August break, I also worked to quickly move on the President’s new Attorney General.
I did this despite my own opposition to that nominee.
Even with all this hard work on our side, the commitments the administration made to me before August break were not met.
In the almost three months since that break, we have received no Democratic nominees to full-time commission positions.
For some, in fact, absolutely no discernable progress has been made.
With Thanksgiving break looming, the administration informed me that they would make several recess appointments.
I indicated I would be willing to confirm various appointments if the administration would agree to move on Democratic appointments.
They would not make that commitment.
As a result, I am keeping the Senate in pro-forma to prevent recess appointments until we get this process back on track.
(Special thanks to Susan T in Michigan for e-mailing this announcement to me.)


















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