Don’t get me wrong. I am not a Jim Webb (DINO-VA) supporter, even though he’s far better that what he replaced: George Allen, aka Macaca Man. Webb is a DINO. In the video that follows, he even brags about being a DINO. It makes me sick! I hope he faces a primary challenge. However, when someone I oppose does something right, I give them credit for it. If Joe LIEberman, whose name I consider so foul that I would not write it on toilet paper, lest it soil my pristine arse, did something right, I would even give him credit for it, because I don’t get to make up my own facts. On the issue of Prison Reform, Jim Webb is right.
Another month, another dismaying example of a smart measure stymied in Congress by Republican intransigence. This time, 43 GOP members of the Senate blocked passage of legislation that would have created a new National Criminal Justice Commission, a bipartisan group designed to help figure out how to bring some order to the chaos that currently exists in the nation’s criminal justice systems. The cops supported the bill.
The American Civil Liberties Union supported it. But Senate Republicans wouldn’t even allow a merits vote on it. On October 19th, they filibustered.
Predictably, the primary sponsor of the measure, Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), was furious. One of the more conservative members of the Democratic caucus, and someone with legitimate street cred when it comes to law and order, Webb took to the Senate floor Tuesday and delivered these biting remarks…
…Serious issues of actual governance. Sen. Webb is right — that’s what this legislation was and is; a necessary and practical effort by the federal government to address a serious problem that is bad and getting worse. And yet for all the senator’s work, and all the bipartisanship the idea garnered beyond Capitol Hill, he could not overcome persistent Republican hostility.
I would call it "mindless" hostility since it’s so destructive but, of course, it’s not "mindless" at all. It’s all part of some grand political plan to make Democrats look inapt and inept.
You use the Constitution as sword when you want to. You use it as a shield when you want to (Sen. Coburn’s remark above is priceless). And no matter what you figure out a way to do nothing that would benefit the American people. The demise of this legislation ultimately will cost the country a ton of money. And the absence of necessary recommendations from a blue-ribbon Commission will guarantee further injustice to thousands of Americans in the justice system. This is your Senate today — snatching defeat from the jaws of victory… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <The Atlantic>
As most of you know, I was in prison last Thursday doing volunteer work there. Both the prisoners and the correctional officers, with whom I discussed this, were appalled that Republicans obstructed this bill. I can guarantee you that something is terribly wrong when the cons and the guards are on the same side if an issue.
14 Responses to “Webb Slams GOP Over Prison Reform”
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Sen. Jim Webb spelled it all out for the RepublicanTs about how they are holding this country back. He gave a wonderful speech and I commend him for it. I don’t usually agree with his viewpoints or votes either. But this time he was spot-on!
My point, exactly.
There’s a great deal to admire about Sen. Jim Webb – although his voting record in aggregate is probably not among them. However, I can guarantee you he will face no primary challengers because he’s vowed to serve only one term : http://www.npr.org/2011/03/13/134466767/one-term-only-for-sen-jim-webb
I knew that, and had forgotten all about it. Thanks, Nameless. Good catch!
It’s a new day in politics! I hope that Americans can remember this obstructionism and the idiocy of the campaign reality show next November, but who knows? I don’t have much faith in the public any more than I do in the Congress – hope for sanity to prevail!
Hope for sanity is difficult, Lee, but I’m committed to helping to make it happen.
The obstructionism of the GOP Tea Baggers and their ilk know no limits!! make no sense–
Too true!
It needs to be spread far and wide that it is NOT President Obama that has failed, nor his policies. It HAS been the Congress and Senate that has failed the American people, and notably within those two bodies, it HAS been the REPUBLICANS who have failed the country most. Why can’t the American people see that??? I do not care for Webb either but on this he is dead on and his bill shoulld have passed but nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Once again the Rethug Terrorists have held another good bill hostage and will not even let it be brought up to vote. Such great lawmakers we have….NOT!
Terrie, while i cannot honestly say that Obama deserves no criticism, you are right!
I, as an outsider, have no knowledge of this Jim Webb. But what he says makes sense and he calls out the Republican/Teabagger obstructionists for what they are. He lays bare their stated goal.
It is up to the American people to face the music — Republican/Teabaggers are obstructionists and the longer they are in office, the worse things will get.
Perhaps the Republican/Teabaggers are afraid that the revolving prison doors will hit them in the ass when they enter for their next term, so they obstruct.
I don’t think it’s that, Lynn, because reform would probably entail reducing sentences for nonviolent crimes.
You mean that the killing of inmates with death sentences, seniors with lack of social security and medicare, and the poor for the same reasons by Republican/Teabagger’s policy is not Classified as ‘violent crime’? Oh, pshaw! Something has to be done about that!
Hell, they aren’t even classified as crime… YET.