White House: Shelby’s Holds A Potential Threat To Our Security
The news that Richard Shelby has placed a blanket hold on some 70 nominees to force movement on defense contracts in his state hands the White House a gift, making it easier to dramatize GOP obstructionism as arbitary, self-interested, and an abuse of power.
Now White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer is going on the offensive, broadening the case against Shelby’s hold, which is also blocking intelligence and national security nominees, by painting it as a national security threat:
Let’s be clear: Sen. Shelby is preventing qualified nominees who will help protect the American people from being confirmed. He’s not alone, though. This is just the latest example of this kind opposition for opposition’s sake that the President talked about earlier this week. This strategy of obstruction is preventing qualified people from doing their jobs on behalf of the American people and it’s preventing real work from getting done in Washington. Every minute spent needlessly blocking noncontroversial nominees, many of whom go on to be confirmed by 70 or more votes or by voice vote (nine of the President’s nominees so far), is a minute not spent on the issues that matter to American families.
As I noted yesterday, this is true of the legislative process, too. The Senate cast more votes to break filibusters last year than in the entire 1950s and ’60s combined, making it nearly impossible to come to agreement on key legislation.
The White House has racheted up the attacks on two fronts, both of which are on display here. They are portraying GOP national security attacks as damaging to the morale of defense professionals, and hence to our security. And they’re beginning to make making an overarching case that GOP obstructionism and filibuster abuse is historically unprecedented, rendering the country quasi-ungovernable.
Expect the volume to only grow louder.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republicans/white-house-shelbys-holds-a-potential-threat-to-our-security/
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