obstructionist Republicans

Arguably the most hypocritical man to have ever served as Senate Majority Leader in our lifetimes is Kentucky closet queen Mitch ("Miss") McConnell, the architect of the dogged Republican decision to prevent-- for a full year-- the appointment of President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court from being even considered.

In 2008, after Obama won his first term, fully 59% of self-identified Republicans wanted their party’s congressional leaders to work with new president to get things done.

Yesterday, speaking to a fringe right-wing radio show, John Cornyn, McConnell's #2 in the Senate said Republicans in Congress will continue "investigating" Clinton if she's elected.

Chuck Schumer and Jon Tester have recruited some really dreadful hacks to run for the Senate this cycle. In fact, their interference could cost the Democrats dearly. They worked to sabotage solid candidates like Alan Grayson (FL), Joe Sestak and John Fetterman (PA), Rob Hogg (IA) and PG Sittenfeld (OH) so they could please Wall Street with bankster-friendly candidates Patrick Murphy, Katie McGinty, Patty Judge and Ted Strickland.

Here's where you can go to spin The New Yorker's "Trump and the Truth" spin wheel of lies.by KenHere's how this initial version of the "Trump and the Truth" spin wheel (note that it's going to be updated in two weeks) is presented (with, of course, lots of links onsite):

Paul Ryan and his utterly dysfunctional House Republican conference is riven with so much in-fighting and back-stabbing and with so many ideological purity tests that they can't get anything done-- not even the most basic functions of government. The Florida delegation-- both Democrats and Republicans-- have been begging and are now demanding that Ryan call Congress back into session to deal with the Zika crisis.

I've been talking with congressional candidates in swing districts-- and some red districts-- all over the country who are telling me their internal polling numbers show Hillary absolutely crushing the Trumpanzee.

President Obama started asking congressional Republicans for emergency Zika funding in March. BY May they hadn't done a damn thing. We wrote at the time that instead of cooperation, what the House Republican leaders had given Obama instead of cooperation was more deranged right-wing intransigence and more of their crazy, dangerous anomie.

The new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll dug into how independent voters view the two parties. It's just a snapshot in time but 23% of independent voters saw the Democratic Party positively and 37% saw them negatively. Pretty horrible. But it was far worse for the Republicans. Only 8% of independent voters have a positive view of the GOP, while a staggering 52% see the Republicans negatively.

The Republicans have an absolute majority in the House and control every aspect of legislation there. The Speaker is Paul Ryan. The House Majority Leader is Kevin McCarthy. A Republican chairs every single committee and Ryan's office sets the agenda for what gets discussed and what doesn't.