A Hole In The No-Zone Layer

Josh Marshall notes that the "Sen. Richard Shelby putting a blanket hold on everything" story has a number of interesting dimensions to it.

For Republicans and the Tea Party set you've got pork-barrel spending and earmarks, two catchwords that are frequently abused and used to paint with too broad a brush but in this case seem pretty fairly to describe a senior senator's power to wrestle tens of billions of federal dollars back into his home state.

For Democrats, there's the outrage at archaic Senate obstructionism which has rapidly escalated from annoying to outrageous to pure comedy with a mind-numbing speed. It's the heart of the story about the demise of Health Care Reform, the slow death of so many unobjectionable nominees and much else.

In this case, we're not dealing with a stand on partisanship or ideology or simple political shiv play which I guess can each be respected in their own place. This is more like just a stick up. Gimme my money and I'll give you your Senate back! Worse than a squeegee man and not much better than a bank robber, Shelby is shutting down the president's ability to appoint anyone to anything until he gets his way. In a sense Shelby's gambit is little different from what countless other senators of both parties have done in the past, using the senate rules to get the White House's attention to pry some money free from the federal government. But the scale is unheard and the moment is different. The only mystery about this one is which is more outrageous -- Shelby's hold or the fact that the rest of the senators of both parties allow it.

Perhaps, like so many other times, this will be today's outrage that is the new normal by tomorrow. But this are volatile times. And I wonder if this isn't the live wire in the gasoline. 

I'm not so sure.  On one hand, Ben Nelson essentially did the same thing with his Cornhusker Kickback and is now paying a steep price for it.  (Actually, all of us are paying a steep price for it.)  But Shelby is betting Alabamans are going to applaud his "I'm getting mine, screw the other 49 states" play here to get jobs and money for his state.  I don't see where or how Shelby is going to pay the price.

The GOP hasn't paid a price so far for massive obstruction at every turn.  In fact, the Democrats have been the ones paying the price.  Besides, Shelby's running unopposed in Alabama this year.  The Dems couldn't even find anyone to run against him.

How can he pay a price until 2016 at the earliest?  By then, it'll be the new normal.

[UPDATE 10:58 AM] The Kroog points out the new normal is "You forgot 17th century Poland."

There’s a precedent for all this. In effect, we’ve now become 17th-century Poland:

… with the rise of power held by Polish magnates, the unanimity principle was reinforced with the institution of the nobility’s right of liberum veto (Latin for “I freely forbid”). If the envoys were unable to reach a unanimous decision within six weeks (the time limit of a single session), deliberations were declared null and void. From the mid-17th century onward, any objection to a Sejm resolution — by either an envoy or a senator — automatically caused the rejection of other, previously approved resolutions. This was because all resolutions passed by a given session of the Sejm formed a whole resolution, and, as such, was published as the annual constitution of the Sejm, e.g., Anno Domini 1667. In the 16th century, no single person or small group dared to hold up proceedings, but, from the second half of the 17th century, the liberum veto was used to virtually paralyze the Sejm, and brought the Commonwealth to the brink of collapse.

“Brink of collapse”: get used to that concept.

Our government is broken.

[UPDATE 12:15 AM]  TPM is reporting that Shelby's office is confirming the holds according to spokesman Jonathan Graffeo:

Graffeo lashed out at Obama's decision to cancel the lab, which he says "impedes" the ability of the military and intelligence agencies in their efforts to fight terrorism.

He said the decision was part of a pattern on the part of the White House to put political concerns over fighting terror. Graffeo also suggested the holds were no big deal.

"The Obama Administration wants to read terrorists our Miranda rights and try them in U.S. courts but is impeding the processing of evidence that could lead to convictions," he said. "If this administration were as worried about hunting down terrorists as it is about the confirmation of low-level political nominations, America would be a safer place."

And he's even playing the patriot card.  Teabaggers will eat this up.  I fully expect Shelby to get everything he wants.  Again, he's guaranteed to be in office until 2017 at this point.  He's running unopposed.  How does he lose here?

Answer:  he's already won.