They NEED Susan Collins in the Senate

And Susan Collins needs some good news, because she's up for reelection and Graham Platner is closing in on her.

Craven cowards

Five Senate Republicans broke ranks, voted with Democrats and advanced a war powers resolution aimed at reining in U.S. military action in Venezuela. The measure was specifically crafted to “direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress.”

The bipartisan breakthrough was, however, on a procedural vote. There was still one more Senate vote necessary to approve the resolution. If the 53 members who backed the measure last week stuck together, it would move to the House for consideration.

That didn’t happen.

  MS Now

When five Senate Republicans voted with Democrats last week to advance a resolution to restrict President Donald Trump’s military authority in Venezuela, it looked like a significant rebuke of the administration.

Now, a week later — after two Republicans flipped their votes following intense lobbying from Trump and the White House — it looks like the latest example of GOP lawmakers bowing to the president.

  MS Now

Gee, who were the two wimps?

The turn of events came to fruition after Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana — two of the GOP senators who voted to advance the measure last week — sided with Republicans on a point of order to rule the war powers resolution ineligible for a fast-track vote.

[...]

On Wednesday, Senate Republicans approved a procedural gambit to block the Venezuela war powers resolution from getting a final vote, stopping the bipartisan effort dead in its tracks after it appeared headed for success.

The vote was 51-50, after Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Capitol on Wednesday night to break a tie.

[...]

Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted to advance the resolution last week, still sided with Democrats against the procedural maneuver.

[...]

Hawley and Young said their decisions came down to assurances from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said the U.S. did not have troops on the ground in Venezuela and would not send any without notifying Congress.

Oh, for crying out loud.

In a letter written to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and obtained by MS NOW, Rubio said the deployment of active-duty service members in Caracas “will be undertaken consistent with the Constitution of the United States and we will transmit written notifications.” He echoed that sentiment in a communication to Young.

He didn't even actually say they'd consult Congress. Just that they'd notify them. And worse, yet...

“Should the President determine that he intends to introduce U.S. Armed Forces into hostilities in major military operations in Venezuela, he would seek congressional authorization in advance (circumstances permitting),” Rubio wrote.

"Circumstances permitting."

Last week, Hawley said he voted to advance the resolution because “my read of the Constitution is that if the president feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it.” But after Rubio’s assurances, Hawley changed his mind.

Assurances? What assurances?

“The secretary also told me directly that the administration will not put ground troops into Venezuela,” Hawley said. “They do not seek to occupy Venezuela, but his commitment to abide by the War Powers notification procedures and also the Constitution is directly responsive to my concerns, so I’m inclined to take yes for an answer.”

We all were surprised that Hawley voted with the Dems on this in the first place. Why'd he bother? Trying to reform his reputation as a craven coward? If so, I don't think it worked.

Young expressed a similar sentiment, but he also pointed to the unlikely effort of the war powers resolution ever being signed into law: With a presidential veto all but certain should the measure land on Trump’s desk, the fight was futile.

Perhaps even more craven than Hawley.

“Those who understand how Congress works, the good and the bad and ugly, understand that votes like this, in the end, are communications exercises,” Young said. “They’re important communications exercises, but unless you can secure sufficient votes, not only to pass the United States Senate, but to get out of the House, which is highly questionable, right, and then to override what was an inevitable presidential veto, which is impossible, no one can tell me how we get there, I had to accept that this was all a communications exercise.”

And you have communicated that you're a total pouff.

[T]he reversals from Hawley and Young came after Trump deployed an intense pressure campaign against the five Republican senators who voted to advance the resolution.

Shortly after the Senate voted to open debate on the resolution, Trump unleashed his anger on social media, saying Republicans should be “ashamed” of the quintet and declaring that they “should never be elected to office again.”

And that's the real reason Hawley and Young went scuttling back under cover.

The president also made his frustrations known directly: He called the five Senate Republicans who voted to advance the war powers resolution, according to a source familiar with the call who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversation. The source said the president, who was described as being “very upset, angry, yelling,” berated “more than one senator.”

Then, serious kudos to Paul, Murkowski, and Collins. Collins!

Seems like Susaan Collins is smart enough to know she's in danger of losing her next election.

Hawley recognized that lobbying when explaining his stance, but said it wasn’t coercion.

“I didn’t feel pressure,” Hawley said. “But I felt a lot of outreach on substance.”

LOLOLOL. Outreach on substance. That's what we're calling Trump's temper tantrums now.

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri was the first to fold, announcing his reversal on Wednesday morning, and Indiana’s Todd Young soon followed suit.

[...]

On Tuesday, during remarks in Detroit, Trump continued to target the senators who’d disappointed him, slamming Paul as a “stone-cold loser” and describing Collins and Murkowski as “disasters.”

  MS Now

Don't worry, Kid Rock is still available

 

A veteran jazz ensemble and a New York dance company have canceled events at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, intensifying the fallout at one of the nation’s pre-eminent arts centers after it was renamed to include President Trump.

The center had previously promoted two New Year’s Eve performances by the Cookers as an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.” But those performances, like an annual Christmas Eve jazz concert hosted by Chuck Redd, are now canceled.

The Cookers did not give a reason for the decision in a statement on Monday that said, “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice.”

[...]

“Our hope is that this moment will leave space for reflection, not resentment,” the statement said. “To everyone who is disappointed or upset, we understand and share your sadness. We remain committed to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”

[...]

Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York dance company, also said on Monday that it was canceling two performances in April that had been intended to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Mr. Varone, the head of the company, said it would lose $40,000 by pulling out.

“It is financially devastating but morally exhilarating,” he said in an email.

[...]

“We can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution,” he said.

[...]

Richard Grenell, the Kennedy Center’s chairman, said in a statement on Monday night that the artists canceling shows were “far-left political activists” and that they had been booked by previous leadership. “Boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” he said.

  NYT

Hmmmm. Maybe Grenell should have considered the likely impact of that desecration naming.

An earlier set of withdrawals and resignations, including the Pulitzer winner Rhiannon Giddens, the soprano Renée Fleming and the singer-songwriter Ben Folds, took place in February after the president pushed out members of the board of directors and replaced them with his supporters.

UPDATE 02/02/2026:  Trump has announced the closure of the Kennedy Center for two years while he guts it and redoes it in his image.  

Susan, Susan, Susan.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  Ever heard that?

 

Platner over Collins

 Collins is "concerned".  Platner is ready to act.

And those are some real fit looking guys.

UPDATE 10/22/2025:  OK, this doesn't look good.

Fuck Chuck

 

Chuck needs to be pressured to retire.

Way to go Chuck

 

Can Chuck just retire, please?  That is precisely the way to get Trump to keep RFKJ.  

More reason...

I’ve been at a loss for anything novel to write about Graham Platner, the buzzy oysterman who’s running for the Democratic Senate nomination in Maine.

[...]

Watching throngs of Mainers heckle and boo Collins, though, and reflecting on her plummeting approval polls, I realized there is a point worth making: Chuck Schumer should accept defeat here. He should stop trying to recruit Janet Mills, the state’s 77-year-old governor, or anyone else to run against Platner. He should definitely not try to recruit Jared Golden—the Maine House Democrat who wants to write the filibuster into the Constitution. He should give up on his dream of recruiting some more seasoned politician of the kind Collins has defeated every six years for a bajillion cycles in a row, and give everyone in the Democratic coalition a fair and unspoiled test of left-populist appeal.

  Off Message

Amen!

If Schumer were to clear the field for Platner—or, simply abandon his effort to run Platner off—it would spare Democrats another recriminatory cycle of factional infighting and give everyone a bit more clarity on where to go from here.

He can beat Susan Collins.  Let him cook.

 

Oh, yeah, Bove's in

 

UPDATE :

UPDATE 07/25/2025:

Do we imagine that will matter?

Anyway, if by some miracle he doesn't make the cut, he can always apply for an acting job as Nosferatu.

\

UPDATE 07/30/2025:

UPDATE 08/01/2025:

Susan Collins is concerned

 

But, Susan, you told us Trump had learned his lesson.

Concerned Susan Collins

 

Oh my! Susan Collins found a line she won't cross

Of course, Lisa Murkowski had to go first, but credit where credit is due.  

UPDATE 01/25/2025:

This country is a fucking joke.  And it's not funny.

So ... he didn't "learn his lesson" after all?

Is she not running for reelection?

Whaaaat?

We'll see.

Asked if she could see herself endorsing Trump if he wins the nomination, Collins replied: “I do not at this point.”

[...]

Collins said she didn’t formally endorse Haley at the outset of the race because she was friendly with other candidates like former Vice President Mike Pence, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) as well as with Haley and “didn’t want to choose among them.”

  The Hill

So what's stopping her now?

And "at this point" is her "out". Like I said. We'll see.

Susan Collins is concerned

I guess he didn't learn his lesson after all, eh Sue?

Fucking GOP

Who were the other Senators who scuttled the bill?

They don't care about people.  They only care about power.  

A surprise deal on health care and environmental policies announced by Senate Democratic leaders Wednesday afternoon produced an unexpected casualty: the comprehensive toxic exposure legislation veterans advocates expected to pass this week.

The Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — better known as the PACT Act — had been up for a procedural vote in the chamber with an expectation of final passage before the end of the week.

The measure is the culmination of years of work by advocates to improve health care and benefits for veterans suffering injuries from burn pit smoke, Agent Orange spraying and other military contaminant exposure.

[...]

The measure passed the Senate by a comfortable 84-14 vote in early June, and by a 342-88 vote in the House two weeks ago with significant Republican support.

But on Wednesday, after technical corrections sent the measure back to the Senate for another procedural vote, 41 Senate Republicans blocked the measure, leaving its future uncertain.

[...]

Eight Senate Republicans — including Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kansas — voted for moving ahead with the bill.

  Military Times

And why did those SOBs block the bill?

The legislation, known as the Honoring Our PACT Act (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act), would expand treatment eligibility, and it has plenty of champions on Capitol Hill. Indeed, it cleared the House yesterday — though it did not pass unanimously.

The final tally was 256 to 174, with 34 Republicans voting with all House Democrats in support of the bill. That means, of course, that 174 GOP lawmakers voted against the legislation — roughly 82 percent of the House Republican conference. That includes every member of the House GOP leadership team, each of whom knew the bill would pass, but opposed it anyway.

[...]

The Washington Post reported:

Republicans who voted in opposition argued that the measure, which has a $300 billion price tag over 10 years, would add too much to the country’s deficit and exacerbate backlogs at VA.

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, who’s both a physician and a military veteran, argued, “We are not doing right by our veterans by being fiscally irresponsible in their name.”

In other words, the House GOP minority believes Democrats wrote a bill that’s too generous when it comes to veterans’ care.

  MSNBC

Three of the region’s four U.S. senators decided Wednesday to hold sick veterans hostage to their own anger. It’s appalling and childish. The senators — Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Roger Marshall of Kansas — voted against blocking a filibuster of the PACT Act, a measure designed to provide funding to treat veterans exposed to toxins and burn pits.

[...]

The three senators voted for a virtually identical bill in June, which passed overwhelmingly. Blunt even bragged about it.

[...]

Senate Republicans were furious at a budget deal, announced just moments earlier, between Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Manchin agreed to support a budget bill raising corporate taxes to pay for deficit reduction and climate change mitigation. The tax and budget bill would need a simple majority to pass, not 60 votes. That made Republicans mad.

[...]

The vote to end the filibuster was 55 yes to 42 no (Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer switched his vote to “no” in order to bring the measure back later.) In the Senate, of course, it takes 60 votes to open a can of bean soup, so the bill remains unpassed, while veterans suffer and die.

[...]

In a fit of pique over an unrelated compromise, Senate Republicans punished veterans struggling to breathe.

[...]

Comedian and activist Jon Stewart, who came to Kansas City this summer to urge progress on the PACT proposal, was equally furious. “Not one of these stab vets in the back senators should get to leave for the Summer til this s*** is fixed,” he tweeted. “Not one.”

[...]

Sens. Blunt and Marshall should be disinvited from any Veterans Day service or Memorial Day observance until the PACT Act is signed into law.

Josh Hawley? No need to worry. If he sees an upset veteran approaching, he’ll run the other way.

  Kansas City Star

And it's not just the veterans they're dumping on. They're talking about scuttling other progress.

“I just think the timing could not have been worse and it came totally out of the blue,” [Republican Susan Collins] the Maine senator told HuffPost Thursday about Senate Democrats’ unveiling of their bill to raise taxes on some companies, boost IRS enforcement and spend the resulting money to fund anti-climate change efforts.

[...]

Collins [also] warned that the manner in which that victory was secured, where it appeared Democrats kept Manchin and Schumer’s negotiations under wraps until a separate bipartisan computer chip production incentive bill was passed by the Senate, hurt the effort to gather support among Republicans to bring the gay marriage bill to the floor.

“After we just had worked together successfully on gun safety legislation, on the CHIPs bill, it was a very unfortunate move that destroys the many bipartisan efforts that are under way,” she said.

[...]

The news that West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) had arrived at an agreement broke like a thunderclap over official Washington early Wednesday night. The bill still faces hurdles, including ensuring all Senate Democrats are on board and will be available to vote on it when it comes to the floor. But if Democrats pull it off, it could be a big political victory for the party and the White House.

  HuffPo

We're looking at you, Kyrsten Sinema. I think she's taking the opportunity to steal Manchin's position as the most powerful Senator in Congress. 

Republicans are so mad Mitch McConnell got played.

The key point, Lemire stressed, [...] is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) got tricked into giving up all his leverage.

[...]

"It doesn't happen often, but Mitch McConnell appears to publicly have been played," said Lemire. "A couple weeks ago Senator Manchin suggested there's no deal for reconciliation, so McConnell gave the okay for the CHIPS bill. House Republicans said they'd support it, too. The White House has given its blessing, now we see McConnell and other Senate Republicans going across to their colleagues in the House, you have to oppose something you previously just a few days ago were for and also have to explain that vote if this bill goes down, seem to be beneficial to China. It's a spiteful action."

  Raw Story

Get rid of the filibuster.  And get rid of the Republicans in Congress.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:  Freely admitted.

UPDATE 8/3:

Mitch couldn't let the Democrats get all the photo ops

Guardian

The visit comes as a $40bn US military aid budget has stalled in the Senate over demands issued by the Kentucky senator Rand Paul for a watchdog to track the spending.

In a rare bipartisan request, McConnell and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, offered Paul a vote on his amendment to the package. That offer was rejected with Paul saying he wanted changes to the underlying bill.

  Guardian

Rand Paul will always be a dick.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Line 'em up

Not sure they'll have the votes. I'm guessing they won't.  But it will certainly put Senators on the record.  It will be interesting to see how those who have said they favor keeping Roe twist up a defense of voting no.

UPDATE:

Susan Collins has concerns - again

Poor, Susan.  Duped again.

UPDATE:

Dear Nancy, every Democrat Senator who ignored the issue of federal judge appointments for decades need to explain themselves to the American people.

UPDATE:

Cue the screaming me-mes

The misogynists and religious right will be boycotting and picketing Amazon.

Looks like it will be happening:

The draft decision  is truly full of bullshit.

UPDATE:

A tweet from Scotusblog, a respected news and analysis site, said it was “impossible to overstate the earthquake this will cause inside the court, in terms of the destruction of trust among the justices and staff. This leak is the gravest, most unforgivable sin.”

  Guardian

Agreed.* Except for the part about it being the most unforgivable sin.  That would be manipulating the appointment of judges.  I'm looking at you, Mitch McConnell.

But are we dismissing the possibility that one of the justices is the leaker?** Highly unlikely, but still possible.

UPDATE:

Not good enough, Dick.

Poor, Susan.  Duped again.

*  It's not the first time, of course.  Check out this thread for previous SCOTUS leaks.  It includes an instance of one of the justices doing the leaking.

**The case for a "pro-life" leaker

UPDATE:

You would think Jeffrey Toobin had embarrassed himself enough.

And then there were two three

Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.  You think Judge Jackson will get any more Republican support?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  

Susan Collins finally steps up

Since the vote hasn't happened yet, I hope I didn't jinx it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.