One Step Closer

President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill came closer to becoming law, as it was passed in the House by a thin margin.  My guess is that it will pass in the Senate with all Democrats on board,  and once it gets through, bipartisanship on other issues, such as infrastructure, should get a little but easier.

I would advise President Biden, however to take nothing for granted as this COVID legislation proceeds and any future legislation is considered.  Republicans smell blood, as they are only seven House seats away and one Senate seat away from tying his hands, just as had happened to Bill Clinton in 1994 and Barack Obama in 2010.  But what helps make President Biden's path less treacherous than it may be expected to be is that the GOP is going off the deep end as more mainstream Republicans become independents while the party goes farther and farther to the right.  And that didn't start with Trump.  And even if he isn't the 2024 presidential nominee, it won't end with him either. 

Obama Turnaound?

If and when Barack Obama's Presidency turns around, we'll only know the moment that it did from hindsight, but I have a sneaky suspicion that it may be coming soon or may have already happened. On his listening tour of key Midwestern states, the President defended his health care reform plan and even tried to turn the phrase "Obamacare" from a pejorative to a badge of honor, saying that it means that he cares about people's health coverage and that his opponents obviously don't. But that's not the moment that will possibly be seen as his turnaround moment.

On the issue of jobs, Obama, says he plans to announce a sweeping jobs program (including, I assume, infrastructure repair) and dare the Republicans to oppose it, as many in the Democratic party base and the media have urged him to do. But he won't offer it until September, even though Chris Matthews seems to think that it would be wise for Obama to call Congress in session now. But Obama may be wise to wait. Who follows politics in August anyway? I mean, apart from Matthews? Right after Labor Day - a day honoring workers - would be a perfect time to galvanize his base and get people's attention, when everyone's settling into their regular routines. As for passing a jobs bill now, that's not going to employ the jobless any faster than passing it in September would. But that doesn't matter, as Republicans seem hell-bent on taking the dare and blocking it. And what better time to make them take the dare to oppose a jobs bill than when people are just beginning to focus on Washington again?

Meanwhile, Republican attempts to have two Democratic state senators in Wisconsin recalled failed, as both Democrats fended off GOP challenges yesterday in the second round of recall elections there. So, despite coming up one seat short of taking over the state Senate, Wisconsin Democrats have won four out of five recall elections and may have one Republican senator, the aforementioned Dale Schultz, on their side in opposing Governor Scott Walker's most extreme reforms. And they have more of an impetus to get Walker to face a recall election in 2012. So if this is a victory for the reactionaries (don't call them "conservatives," it's a misleading label suggesting that the American right shows restraint), I'd love to hear how.

And I'd love to hear from Mitch McConnell how the idea of the U.S. becoming more like European countries - and getting public medical insurance, paid family leave, paid child care, low homicide rates, quality public transportation, superior public education, and the opportunity to buy a Volkswagen Polo - is a bad thing.

Nuclear Politics Go Ballistic

President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a new and historic strategic arms reduction treaty in Prague yesterday, which seeks to begin a process toward the gradual elimination of nuclear weapons. The treaty calls for the reduction of 1,500 developed weapons, 700 deployed missiles and 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers. Furthermore, Obama has said that he is resolving not to threaten non-nuclear nations with atomic weapons as long as they have been proven to comply with international agreements involving nuclear weapons, so excluding Iran, even as he and other world leaders are trying to get Iran to stop developing a nuclear bomb.

So who on earth could be against this reasonable, balanced policy?

Oh, right. . . .

Well, the Queen of the Last Frontier came out against Obama's refusal to threaten non-nuclear states with the bomb, comparing it to letting a schoolyard bully hit you in the face without retaliating. But then she knows a thing or two about going after defenseless creatures.

It's not just Alaska's half-term governor emeritus who opposes Obama's nuclear policy, and they're not just against Obama's refusal to threaten non-nuclear countries with our arsenal. They're against the treaty itself. Many Republicans have charged that a large nuclear stockpile is not only necessary but desirable, as it's there to show other countries to think twice about messing with us. One conservative blog even compared it to male sexual prowess. "You see," an anonymous blogger wrote at AlterNet.com, "a nuclear weapon is like a large erection. George W. Bush’s foreign policy was like a large erection. Ally and adversary alike were cowed and impressed by these large erections. Obama is taking the blood out of our impressive foreign policy and system of deterrence. When it comes time to criticize a Democratic President’s foreign policy, the first thing is to accuse him of having a limp d**k."

This is the kind of stupidity that no amount of education reform can eradicate.

Commentary from these bullying high school dropouts notwithstanding, the treaty is expected to be ratified by the Senate despite a two-thirds majority required by the Constitution. Only eight Republicans are needed to join the Democratic caucus, and Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), a leading figure on the issue of nuclear proliferation, is expected to use his influence to find enough support on his side of the aisle.

Republicans such as Olympia Snowe of Maine should support this treaty, and even Scott Brown of Massachusetts is a possibility for a "yes" vote. Don't expect John McCain of Arizona to be any help - despite his support for arms control in the past, he's facing a tough re-election campaign in his state's Republican Senate primary and may want to avoid offending the right-wing rank and file who likely oppose this treaty without having even read it.

And if McCain's old running mate should ever be President, maybe we won't have to worry about a nuclear war. Hey, she should get along with Medvedev easily - after all, their practically neighbors! ;-)