Senators Urge House To Pass China Currency Bill

By Andrea Salazar

A day after the China currency bill passed the Senate, a bipartisan coalition of senators urged House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the White House to join them against China’s currency manipulation. 

“China has a callous disregard for the rule of law,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “They cheat at every turn. They steal intellectual property, they counterfeit goods affecting our defense industries and they manipulate their currency. We don’t have this kind of discussion with normal nations. We don’t have this kind of discussion with democracies. You’re having this kind of discussion with a communist dictatorship with a command and control economy that’s acting like the mob.”

Graham echoed those sentiments and dismissed worries about China’s reaction to the currency bill.

“I’m not worried about the Chinese response because at the end of the day they need us as much as we need them, if not more so,” Graham said. “I’m worried about the idea that American politicians are going to let threats coming from China stop what, I think, is a rational approach to dealing with this.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he expects the bill to pass, despite opposition from leadership.

“We have tried to keep this as non-political, frankly, as possible,” Schumer said. “That’s because we believe in this. I just believe in my bones that this is one of the five ways… to keep America number one over the next several decades.”

GOP Senators Expect More "Hopeless" Policies From Jobs Speech

A group of Republican senators blasted President Obama’s economic policies Thursday previewing his highly anticipated jobs speech.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that he expects more of the same “hopeless” measures from Obama’s speech, but acknowledged that the GOP stands ready to work with him.

“I think tonight you’re going to see, probably, some of the same plays from the same old playbook,” Thune said. “There’s a gap between what [Obama] says and what he does. He says some of the right things but his policies tell an entirely different story.”

Thune was joined by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) who previously opposed Obama’s proposal to spend as much as $300 billion to boost job growth and spur the economy. Sessions argued that spending more would only increase the nation’s debt, something the Alabama Republican said is stalling economic growth.

“The debt is the jobs crisis,” Sessions said. “There’s no doubt about it that the debt of the United States is causing great concern through our entire economy.”

Sessions said he wants to hear the president lay out specifics regarding how Obama plans on paying for his proposals to extend payroll tax cuts and extending jobless benefits that will soon expire. These two measures combined amount to nearly $170 billion in spending.

“I’ll be looking tonight to see if this proposal is, indeed, paid for, or is it just another attempt to gain a sugar high by immediate spending that will increase our debt and will weaken our economy.”

OPINION: Kagan To Bring A 'Center' Court

Elena Kagan was sworn in, and now we have a court that is a bit more to the center.

Kagan is no Justice John Paul Stevens, although my hope is that she will grow into a more liberal justice.
The hearings were as expected, and so was the vote with the more centrist Republicans voting with the Democrats. It went as planned: no huge paper trail, although some on the Right tried to make hay out of some abortion memos she wrote while in the White House counsel’s office.

As Washington D.C. correspondent Victoria Jones said, there was no “Macaca” moment to the Elena Kagan hearings. (Macaca refers to a racial slur by George Allen in his 2006 Senate campaign). What we heard at the hearings was someone who has a very detailed knowledge of the law and who was well prepared from her weeks of practice “murder boards” that took place to prepare her for the grilling.

The hearings and the objections from some of the Republicans were Washington doing what Washington does best: political theater.

During the hearings, Sen. Patrick Leahy, an amateur photographer, was taking pictures. The professional photographers where taking pictures of him.

Kagan was able to breeze past her undergraduate thesis in which she said that justices wield great power for social and economic change when asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Clearly, Kagan knew it was coming and was able to toss the ball out of the park with ease.

She deftly handled the gay marriage issue by saying that is was probably going to come before the court. When Sen. Arlen Specter – with nothing to lose since he already lost – asked her to talk about a current case, she responded that it was something under her as solicitor general. Specter said she was going to be a justice, she responded that she doesn’t count her chickens.

Without a “Macaca” moment, pretty much every senator went into this knowing exactly how they were going to vote. The nominees are now carefully coached on how not to answer questions. It is exasperating to sit and listen to it.

When Sen. Herbert Kohl, D-Wis., asked her about who she admired on the court and got a non-answer, he shook his head and said “Oh my oh, my oh.” A conservative constitutional lawyer said to me that the carping about her was a way of raising money from the base for the 2012 elections while at the same time most of the GOP senators were pretty happy that even though she self-described her political viewpoints as “progressive,” her actual actions and memos were not.

The handouts that were given to the press by each side reflected the complete political nature of this constitutionally mandated “advise and consent” role. There were letters from law school deans praising her for the compromise reached on campus military recruiters.

The Republicans, knowing that the base hates gays in the military, came back with their own set of papers that they hoped would show how anti-military she is. They expected to stir up the base and get more money.

It didn’t work.

The only reason to have these hearings is to make sure that the nominee is not a complete idiot or lunatic and won’t lose their cool. It also is the only chance that the public has to see and feel what a future justice is like. Other than that, it is scripted and a waste of time. The votes were set, and the only role of any future justice is make sure they don’t say anything that is going to nix the nomination.

This charade of hearings will most likely happen again quite soon. Justice Ginsburg had a second cancer operation in 2009, and three other justices are in their ’70s. It will happen again exactly the same way. A president will appoint someone who is political and doesn’t have too long of a paper trail. The candidate will not say anything controversial.

What a waste of time and energy. Too bad we can’t do better. The only thing better staged is a real-estate open house.

FBI Director Defends Bureau Against Hard Line Of Questions

By Sarah Mamula - Talk Radio News Service 

Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday the bureau has a broad range of national security and criminal threats it is currently working to alleviate.

Some members of the committee, including Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (D-Ala.), said they were “taken back” by the apparent policy of the FBI to try arrested individuals in federal civilian court instead of transferring them to the military. 

“The presumption needs to be that persons coming from al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations should be held in military custody,” said Sessions. 

Mueller did not elaborate on the bureau’s alleged policy but said “our authority is somewhat limited in that regard.”  

Mueller explained that after the bureau makes arrests, the president has the authority to direct the FBI to turn over individuals to a military commission. When Sessions asked if presidential authority was absolutely necessary for transfers to occur, Mueller said, “That’s a type of question, in my mind, that should be answered by the Office of Legal Council.”

The FBI has also been criticized for its growing reliance to outsource to independent contractors, an issue that Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) showed growing concern over.

“We of course use contractors,” said Mueller. “We, for several years now, have undertaken to reduce our reliance.”

According to Mueller, the FBI is working to decrease the amount of contractors in the information technology sector. Despite wanting to use in-house personnel for duties, Mueller also stressed the necessity of outsiders for their expertise in “discreet” arenas.

Mueller faced gruelling questions from committee members over allegations that FBI agents cheated on an exam that tested their knowledge of the limitations of the bureau’s powers to conduct surveillance and open cases without evidence that a crime has been committed.

Mueller defended his agents but said he nor the Inspector General would know the number of agents involved in the investigation.

“I do believe our workforce absolutely understands what can be investigated in this day and age,” Mueller said.

Graham Criticizes Senate Confirmation Process In Announcement Of Support For Kagan

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted today to approve Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. The approval was widely expected; only Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) broke with his Republican colleagues to vote for Kagan. All the Democrats on the committee voted in favor of Kagan’s nomination.

Senator Graham chastised the other committee members and the Senate as a whole for the politicization of the nomination process, noting that only 21 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Congress. Graham said that the Senate has a role in protecting the independence of the the Judicial Branch, since the Supreme Court does not have a “political voice.”

Graham read a portion of a letter Kagan had written in favor of Miguel Estrada, whose 2001 nomination to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals had been filibustered by Senate Democrats. Estrada, a conservative, had written a letter in support of Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and during Kagan’s confirmation hearings earlier this month Graham asked Kagan if she would write a letter in support of Estrada. Graham said that he was not sure if the cross-ideological support meant something, “but it makes me feel better.”

Graham said that criticism by senators of specific Supreme Court decisions was the cause of the increased politicization of the nomination process and therefore the cause of the increased politicization of Supreme Court decisions. “Are we living in an age of legislative activism?,” Graham asked, before repeating that “elections have consequences” and announcing his support for Kagan’s confirmation.

Kagan’s nomination will go to the Senate floor where it is expected to be approved, likely next week.