Guess What Blanche Lincoln Has Been Up To To Make Your Life Worse Since Being Kicked Out Of The Senate?

John Boozman (R-AR) isn't a better senator than Blanche Lincoln was. When she was a congresswoman and then a senator she was generally rated an "F." Boozman is actually worse, although when you get down that low, there's no grade worse than an "F." There's no such thing as an "F-minus" or a "G." Boozman's ProgressivePunch score since he replaced Lincoln is a ridiculous 3.16 (out of 100) and for the current year, he scores a zero. He's generally dismissed as an ineffective backbencher with no influence whatsoever. No one cares what he has to say on the Science Committee or the Agriculture Committee and his role as the ranking Republican on the Subcommittee on Green Jobs and the New Economy (part of the Environment Committee) is to obstruct progress. One senator told me that "unless he's talking about optometry, he doesn't have much credibility on anything. He's a pretty lazy guy and just goes along with his leadership. He's good on issues that relate to eye health... If we ever win that seat back, he could go back to being an optometrist." That isn't likely, though. The Democrats aren't going to take back that seat-- even with Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket in 2016 when Boozman has to next face the voters. And if he does leave office, he'll probably do exactly what Blanche Lincoln did-- whore himself out as a lobbyist. It's what virtually all corrupt conservatives do after their time in Congress is up.

The reason a conservative numbskull like Boozman isn't much of a downgrade from Blanche Lincoln is because she was one of the two or three most Republican Democrats in the Senate. She was always agitating for more conservative, even reactionary, policies inside the caucus and always undermining progressive initiatives in committee (and especially when she was chair of the Agriculture Committee). She was a spokesperson for Big Business and for the wealthy within the Democratic caucus. And that's what she still is-- only as a slimy K Street lobbyist. In the Senate she was always referred to as the Senator from WalMart. She still works for them, now officially as a lobbyist. She also works for other retail groups and special interests looking for special treatment in the Senate-- and a way to plunder American taxpayers. One of her latest clients is the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), which hired her to help them get out of having to obey regulations that put the good of society ahead of greed and avarice. She's heading up their anti-regulatory Small Businesses for Sensible Regulations project. Who needs a Republican when Blanche is still creeping around the Beltway? Her goal is to make sure Business has as much say as possible in the process.

Last cycle, the lobbying firm she works for, Alston & Bird, handed out $495,617 in legalistic bribes to congressional campaigns, including $30,000 each to the DCCC, NRCC, DSCC and NRSC. As far as individual politicians, they gave over twice as much to House Republicans as to House Democrats and over twice as much to Senate Democrats as to Senate Republicans. They know who makes the rules in each body. Many of their biggest investments were wasted as their most favored corrupt politicians were defeated, like Allen West (R-FL) and Charlie Bass (R-NH) who they gave $10,000 each. Other big losers they backed-- all conservatives of course-- were Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Robert Dold (R-IL), Shelley Berkley (D-NV), and Cliff Stearns (R-FL). And, needless to say, they handed out checks to corrupt party leaders like John Boehner (R-OH), Eric Cantor (R-VA), Paul Ryan (R-WI), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Joe Crowley (D-NY) and Miss McConnell (R-KY).

In a post she penned for HuffPo earlier this month, Lincoln claimed her employers are "the quiet engine of our economy." Disgracefully, HuffPo didn't identify her as a lobbyist, just as the head of a "coalition," It's My Business, "giving a voice to the millions of people who have chosen to be entrepreneurs and have the opportunity to build their own businesses." Not a word about how much she's being paid to or by whom. Shouldn't we expect more from Huffington Post, even if they are part of AOL? Meanwhile paid whores like Lincoln are free to come onto their pages and talk about the government "targeting," investigating and prosecuting these quiet engines of our economy. Pure propaganda:

Throughout my career, I have been a staunch proponent for small businesses and entrepreneurs and I fought hard for their rights during my time serving Arkansas in the U.S. Senate. Their contributions to virtually every aspect of our economy simply cannot be overlooked.

It's My Business is carrying that same torch today. We are committed to protecting the right of independent contractors to choose a way of life that works best for them, and the right of businessmen and women to pursue a business model that provides lifestyle flexibility for them and their families and creates jobs and competitiveness for America.

But we can't do it alone. We are asking you to get engaged and take a stand, too. Tell your elected state and federal bureaucrats to stop their attacks on independent contractors. They are the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit in this country, not to mention a powerful engine driving our economic recovery. They deserve our protection. This country can't afford to let them down.

Yesterday, The Hill pointed out that "[t]here are several bills now pending before Congress that would overhaul the rulemaking system, ranging from measures that would give lawmakers the power to veto major rules to a push to limit the regulatory authority of certain agencies." Lincoln is worried these Republican measures may not pass and she's hoping Obama will institute some of things her employers want even if Congress does try standing up for the public good and insists there's a "frequent disconnect between regulators and the people who must comply with the rules they write." Business always wants to dictate the rules under which they operate. That's why they pay sleazy people like Blanche Lincoln such huge salaries.

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Nuggets-- Mostly Gun Control

Good news: Ken is out of the hospital and his operation was a complete success. Hopefully, he'll be back in this slot soon. Meanwhile: bit and pieces I missed the last couple of days

Arkansas ConservaDem Mike Ross Is Back

Corrupt Blue Dog Mike Ross is throwing his hat into the ring in Arkansas' gubernatorial race. The Republican in the race is right-wing fanatic Asa Hutchinson and the Democrat running is former Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Ross hopes to position himself in between, just like his entire sordid career in Congress was, where he had the distinction of voting more frequently with the GOP than with the Democrats-- and doing that more often than almost any other Democrat in history. Why doesn't he run as an independent?

Bipartisan Background Checks Defeated

Maybe if 92% of Americans supported the bill, instead of a mere 91%, it would have passed. But the NRA triumphed over the American people in the Senate yesterday. Democrats Mark Begich AK), Mark Pryor (AR), Heidi Heitkamp (ND) and Max Baucus (MT) joined the NRA voters and abandoned their own constituents. Voters in Arkansas, Alaska and Montana will have a chance to react in 2014. The amendment, which needed 60 to get through the GOP filibuster, only wound up with 54 votes (55 if you include Reid). I might add, that in 2008 Blue America endorsed Mark Begich and helped him raise money. Blue America won't be endorsing him for reelection and will leave him to the corporations and right wing interest groups he's been sucking up to to help him raise money. We'll look closely at any Democrat who decides to primary him (and Pryor and Baucus). The Blue America-backed Senate candidates for 2014 all favor serious gun control.

And Speaking Of Obstructionist Filibusters...

This was 2009 gem dug up by Ed Kilgore a couple days ago: "My personal feeling is that supporting a filibuster against your own party and your own party’s president should be treated as a serious and rare measure on major issues of conscience where the sacrifice of some of the prerogatives of seniority are a small price to pay. So maybe that price really should be paid. But at a minimum, the practice of thinking of cloture votes as identical to substantive votes, and tolerating defections on the former as just the same as the latter, needs to come to an end. There is no sixty-Senate-vote requirement for the enactment of regular legislation in the Constitution or in the Senate rules. We don’t need lockstep Democratic unity on policy initiatives. We just need unity on the simple matter of allowing the Senate to vote." Will there be any consequences? From Senate Majority Leader Reid? From the DSCC? From Obama? No, no, no. But from voters? We'll see, won't we?

DCCC Perfidy... Again

Moments after the 4 Democrats voted with most of the Republicans to kill background checks, the DCCC tweeted "GOP just blocked background checks. Disgusting. We can't let this stand. Stand with us now." They are hoping to make money on the vote-- money they will use to help reelect devoted NRA allies and gun control opponents on their Front Line list, particularly Blue Dogs Jim Matheson and Mike McIntyre, each of whom is expecting $2 million from the DCCC this cycle. If you contribute a dollar to the DCCC most of it will be skimmed off the top for the corrupt hacks who run it the operation from year to year. Most of the rest will go to support Democrats who voted with the GOP on issues like gun control, women's Choice, marriage equality, war, and economic justice.

Last Words On Senate Gun Votes

Gabby Giffords wrote a powerful OpEd for the NY Times immediately after the vote yesterday. She started like this:

Senators say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms-- a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.

Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents-- who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.

And she ends ominously: "Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities’ interests ahead of the gun lobby’s. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way."


The most serious bill was Dianne Feinstein's amendment to get military-style assault weapons off the streets. It failed 40-60; the GOP didn't even have to filibuster that one because the NRA controls enough Democrats so it had no chance. Every Republican except Mark Kirk (IL) opposed it; the Democrats who crossed the aisle into NRA-land on that one:

• Max Baucus (MT)
• Mark Begich (AK)
• Michael Bennet (CO)
• Joe Donnelly (IN)
• Kay Hagan (NC)
• Martin Heinrich (NM)
• Heidi Heitkamp (ND)
• Tim Johnson (SD)
• Angus King (I-ME)
• Mary Landrieu (LA)
• Joe Manchin (WV)
• Mark Pryor (AR)
• John Tester (MT)
• Mark Udall (CO)
• Tom Udall (NM)
• Mark Warner (VA)

Kind of takes your breath away, huh? The anti-democratic, anachronistic Senate should be abolished or turned into an advisory body like the House of Lords. Members should wear powdered wigs.

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