Friday, February 5, 2010

Richard Shelby's Alabama Pork Chop

The idea that individual Senators can declare holds on a president's nominees, requiring a supermajority to let them through, is nuts. The fact that Sen. Richard Shelby has declared a hold on all 70 of Barack Obama's appointees unless he gets more pork is positively crazy.

This is going to be a test of whether Democrats can win a news cycle under the most favorable conditions possible. I know their real talents and interests lie elsewhere. But really, there's easy points to be scored here at no cost. Robert Gibbs is stepping up a little, and I really hope there's more where that came from. I recall that Ezra's been reading some theorists who say that this kind of dealing that really infuriates large numbers of voters, and the emails he's getting bear that out.

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