The U.S. Senate is broken. With everything requiring 60 votes to begin and end debate, (without actual fillibusters happening mind you, just the threat of them) and with individual members able to place holds (secret or not) on nominees and legislation for any reason, it’s no wonder that nothing is getting done. The Senate, essentially, is where good legislation goes to die. That kind of obstruction was a big part of the reason why we drafted Halter to take on Senator Lincoln, besides her just being a crappy Senator. There is a big push to get some reform of the Senate rules come 2011, but there are still a lot of people standing in the way. Surprise surprise, one of them is our other crappy Senator, Mark Pryor.

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said he recognizes his colleagues are frustrated over the failure to pass measures such as the Disclose Act, campaign legislation that fell three votes short of overcoming a Republican filibuster Tuesday.

“I think as torturous as this place can be, the cloture rule and the filibuster is important to protect the rights of the minority,” he said. “My inclination is no.”

As precious as the rights of the minority party are (and yeah, when we were in the minority we fought to protect the fillibuster) Republicans and a few bad Democrats have taken the country hostage when we’re in the worst economy since the thirties. I know the Senate is supposed to operate on tradition and congeniality and all that bullshit like the country club it is, but frankly the country can’t afford that kind of patrician nonsense. It’s time to get rid of holds, and while we might not want to get rid of the fillibuster entirely, they should at least make them stand and read from the phone book rather than just threaten to do so.

As usual, Pryor has showed himself to be absolutely useless, even more so than our senior senator, who has at least committed to getting rid of secret holds. He’s an agent of conservative obstruction, plain and simple.

Just a reminder, we’re calling Mark Pryor this week and telling him to get tough on BP. Specifically, we’re telling him to sign on to the Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act of 2010.

Here’s the number for his office: (202) 224-2353

Call him and tell us in the comments what his staff said.

Mark Pryor made one of his constituents a promise:

I cornered Senator Mark Pryor immediately after and asked him what he was going to do as our representative to see that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico never happened again. I would not let him go even though he looked a might uncomfortable with my questions. I figured it was cheaper than flying to Washington to see him so I might as well take advantage of the situation.

I explained that I had many years experience from the early ’80s through the 90’s with the oil industry working in exploration, worldwide and domestically. I told him that I went to many OTC (Offshore Technology Conference) meetings in Houston. The industry was seriously working to protect the environment and to prove that they could drill in deep water safely. Since then, the impetus for that research had dried up (as BP stated that the technology they were using was at least 20 years old).

I asked him to please instigate and put forth the legislation that would return those safeguards to the industry and even toughen them up in light of the BP fiasco. He said the first thing was to get the oil flow controlled at the well. I countered with that was a given, we needed legislation NOW to keep it from happening again. He said he would do that. I guess being put on the spot and having witnesses to his response was the cause of his look of discomfiture.

Emphasis mine. Senator Pryor made a promise to one of his constituents here to take on an important problem. In the old days, he could get away with saying one thing and doing another. Now the blogs are here to keep tabs on what our elected leaders say and do, so he can’t get away with that sort of thing. What’s more, he doesn’t have to make something from scratch here. There’s already a bill in Congress to do this, the Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act of 2010 being authored by Senator Jeff Bingaman. It’s a solid bill that already has some bipartisan support that will bring new regulation and updated rules to the drilling industry to help make sure that this mess in the Gulf never happens again. Dailykos diariest RLMiller has a great analysis of what’s in the bill and calls it an example of Democrats going big. Read that analysis, and then call up Senator Pryor and tell him to stand for more regulation of BP. I’m going to as soon as I get done writing this, and you guys should too and keep it up through the week.

So go ahead, call his office and tell Senator Pryor to stand up for regulating BP as he promised one of his constituents. Here’s the number:

(202) 224-2353

Oh, and don’t let ‘em swindel you with talk about how we have to stop the oil first blah blah blah or anything like that. Tell Pryor it’s this simple-he stands up and leads on this issue or he faces electoral consequences in 2014.

Update:Just got off the phone with Senator Pryor’s office. The aide I spoke to, “Hank”, was very knowledgeable of the matter and, I’m happy to say, very responsive and helpful. I expressed my disappointment with Senator Pryor’s votes and representation in the past and said he needed to step up, and told him that we at Blue Arkansas would be watching and holding him accountable. It’s that painless to make this call, and holding them accountable is a part of our democratic process. So yeah, make the call:

(202) 224-2353

This is why we have bloggers:

I cornered Senator Mark Pryor immediately after and asked him what he was going to do as our representative to see that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico never happened again. I would not let him go even though he looked a might uncomfortable with my questions. I figured it was cheaper than flying to Washington to see him so I might as well take advantage of the situation.

I explained that I had many years experience from the early ’80s through the 90’s with the oil industry working in exploration, worldwide and domestically. I told him that I went to many OTC (Offshore Technology Conference) meetings in Houston. The industry was seriously working to protect the environment and to prove that they could drill in deep water safely. Since then, the impetus for that research had dried up (as BP stated that the technology they were using was at least 20 years old).

I asked him to please instigate and put forth the legislation that would return those safeguards to the industry and even toughen them up in light of the BP fiasco. He said the first thing was to get the oil flow controlled at the well. I countered with that was a given, we needed legislation NOW to keep it from happening again. He said he would do that. I guess being put on the spot and having witnesses to his response was the cause of his look of discomfiture.

Emphasis mine. Mark Pryor made a promise to his constituents here and it was recorded for all of us to see. His job now is to keep that promise.

It’s no secret that Pryor needs to seriously shape up his representation of Arkansas. It’s bad when Blanche Lincoln has the reputation as our “good” Senator. This is a way Pryor can deliver, by cracking down on BP. If he fails, he may well find himself in the position Lincoln found herself in this year or worse.

So next week, let’s call Senator Pryor’s office and demand that he keep this promise. Remind him that he made it in front of witnesses at the Clinton Library. Remind him that with the internet around and with bloggers now ascendant in Arkansas he won’t be allowed to forget that promise. And we’re going to keep that action going all through next week.

The Murkowski Resolution that would have banned the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases failed to pass the Senate today with at 47 to 53 vote against the measure. Two days after winning the Democratic nomination, Blanche Lincoln sided with the Republicans and voted to pass the resolution. Bill Halter came out against the measure during the primary.

Update:
Senator Mark Pryor also voted for the resolution despite many calls to his office asking for him to vote against the resolution.

As it stands, it looks like Democrats are going to be bringing a pretty strong Wall Street Reform bill to the President’s desk this year.  However, there are a few amendments coming up for a vote that are threatening to weaken it.  Namely, the Brownback Amendment, which will create loopholes for auto dealers to pursue shady lending deals at their customers’ expense.  The White House is fighting back and even the Pentagon is getting in on the act due to the effects these loans have had on members of the armed services.

But you know who’s sticking up for this amendment?  Our Jr. Senator, Mark Pryor apparently.  At least that’s what his staff seemed to tell someone who recently emailed me:

Senator Pryor’s staff has confimred that he will support a carve out for auto dealers.

So why don’t you contact Senator Pryor’s office and make sure he’s going to stand up for real Wall Street reform and vote against the Brownback Amendment.  Oh, and between this, and voting against the reconciliation bill/student loan reform, Pryor ought to be careful.  His name isn’t that much protection from a primary challenge.

John Brummett has a review of the dabate on Saturday. Since most of us are looking at it through the Youtube lens, it is good to see someone who was there give their opinion.

Brummett

Bill Halter won it by a wide margin on three accounts, mainly:

First, he challenged Blanche Lincoln to back down from mailers her campaign has sent putting his face in a pill bottle and accusing him of “shady drug deals,” and she wouldn’t. Her defense is that independent groups, unions, mainly, have attacked her, and that she must stand up for herself — a point she repeated to me as we discussed this after the debate. But the issue is not that she stands up for herself or fights back. It’s that those mailers were over the line. Innuendo. Smears. Creepy. “Unbecoming a U.S. senator,” as Halter said to her face, and I must agree.

Second, Halter hit her hard for taking Wall Street money while overseeing part of Wall Street’s activity as Senate Agriculture chairman, and Blanche responded, well, indelicately. She said there wasn’t anything wrong with taking money from soybean farmers, cotton growers, rice farmers. Her point was that Ag regulates those, too. But Halter is fairly smart and he knew to pounce on this unintended likening of Wall Street thieves and good East Arkansas farmers. As a matter of political theater, he floored her by saying it wasn’t farmers who brought this country to economic collapse.

Third, Lincoln spent much of her time hammering that Halter won’t say yes or no on card check, or the Employee Free Choice Act. But Halter is right on this that card check is history and that negotiations have since turned to an incremental reform to give unions a better or fairer chance. Mark Pryor could confirm Halter on this, but he’s for Blanche and probably will say something on Blanche’s side instead in a few days. You see, Blanche wants to make sure the state Chamber of Commerce is sufficiently afraid of this union man in a right-to-work state. But they’re plenty afraid already.

Brummett makes some good points. It is also good to see Brummett highlight the differences in the negative advertising. I believe that is a very important distinction between the candidates. Halter had a few great lines at this debate, including the one about Wall Street vs soy bean growers. I hope that Mark Pryor isn’t willing to go so far as to lie to protect Blanche Lincoln. We’ll see.

Arkansas Blog has an image showing that the (Arkansas) NAACP gave the majority of the Arkansas delegation, including Blanche Lincoln, an F for their inability to work for black Arkansans.

Click to see original:

She gets the F in part due to her not giving a single black nominee to the president for judgeships in Arkansas and for voting against the reconciliation health care package that will benefit many low income people who need health insurance. A large portion of those people are African Americans. Her wish-washy position on the EFCA and the black farmers settlement issue didn’t help either. Other lawmakers recieving F’s were Mark Pryor (for the same reasons), Mike Ross, Marion Berry, and John Boozman. Mike Ross and John Boozman were distinguished for having received not just an F, but a 0. They didn’t even bother to turn in their homework.

Vic Snyder of AR-02 got an A though. Showing that you can get elected in Arkansas and still do what is right. Democrats need to make sure that AR-02 follows Vic Snyder’s example. It would be great if the rest of the state could get on that boat too.

A story over at TPMDC brings up the constantly contradictory behavior of Blanche Lincoln over the past year. This includes both contradictions in her voting record and the effects on her campaign.

Brian Beutler

…

The streak continues: Lincoln has taken to attacking “Washington, D.C. unions” for supporting Halter in the primary–but only after publicly soliciting their support herself.

All of these examples point to the fact that for the past year, Lincoln has been thinking only one step ahead–and when confronted with unforeseen circumstances, abruptly switches course, without regard for the lengthy paper trail behind her. It’s been a bumpy journey.

All in all, though, it’s unclear how Lincoln’s swerving has affected her re-election prospects. Recent polling data indicates that her lead over Halter is shrinking and her disapproval ratings remain sky high. But they also show her gaining ground on her likely general election opponent, state Rep. John Boozman.

…

I am glad he calls her out for her obvious sore loser tactics in attacking national unions after having lost their endorsement to Halter. She is all for them when they endorse her, but when they choose someone else, they are the source of all that is wrong in politics according to her. This is really becoming a pattern for Lincoln. She betrays a base of her support, they don’t take it lying down, then she attacks her former allies as the source of all that ails us. She is losing a lot of allies in a very important time in her political career.

What allies she is relying on is the Arkansas Democratic political establishment. This can be seen most directly in Mark Pryor’s strange vote against the reconciliation fixes to health care reform:

Brian Beutler

…

Also in January, with the fate of health care on the line, Lincoln leapt to the front of the pack to announce her opposition to using the reconciliation process to fix the Senate bill, which serves as the basis of reform. This put her in the strange position of having voted for a major health care overhaul–complete with controversial provisions like the ‘Cornhusker Kickback’–only to turn around oppose the one viable effort to make the bill more popular.

Early on it looked like several conservative Democrats might join Lincoln in opposing the reconciliation route, but when it came time to vote, almost all Democrats voted to pass the package of fixes. The exceptions were Nelson, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Lincoln herself. After the vote, Pryor issued a statement arguing that the reconciliation bill wasn’t in Arkansas’ best interest. But Senate aides say his vote was designed to give Lincoln cover. She had dug herself in too deeply change course.

…

The report suggests that Mark Pryor voted against taking out the “Cornhusker Kickback” just to try to deflect some blame from Lincoln because she had already committed to voting against the bill (even though it made the bill more popular). If this is true, both of our U.S. Senators actually supported the bill. Blanche Lincoln only voted against it because she had already taken a right wing turn she couldn’t go back on. Pryor only voted against it to help out someone else in the Arkansas Democratic establishment. This is exactly what this primary election is about. Arkansas was simply not being represented in the Senate for this vote. Even though Arkansans and Arkansas Democrats in large margins (and apparently the Senators themselves) supported the fixes, they voted against the bill for purely questionable political reasons.

Another example of her attacking her former allies is the speech/question she gave to Obama about how we need to stand up to “extremists” in our own party, like the League of Conservation Voters who dared to question her commitment to the environment when she consistently voted against its best interests.

The most glaring example is her double back on the public option, going from a supporter of the policy to so adamantly against it that she is willing to filibuster the entirety of health care reform to stop it. The switch was so stark that her website still declared her support for the public option as she announced her intent to filibuster health care reform over it in late November. I recall her voting against the public option earlier than that though. She voted against it in the Senate Finance Committee (by proxy of course) and neglected to say why she did so. She did that while she was still on the record as supporting the public option. I called her office and was told by a higher up that she only voted against it because she didn’t think it could get the votes. So, either she never intended to support the public option or she changed her mind over time, but I am pretty sure the answer I received was a blow off since they just didn’t really want to explain her reasons for opposition. Maybe it has something to do with all those donations from the health insurance industry?

Beutler notes that Blanche Lincoln has gained on the Republicans, but so has Bill Halter. This is as I said over a month ago when a particularly bad poll for Democrats came out.

February 2nd, 2010

We must assume that things will change as time moves on. Any Democrat will close this gap with Boozman unless they run a horrible campaign.

The success of the Health Care Reform bill (despite Blanche Lincoln) will help Democrats in November by both increasing Democrats’ likelihood to turn out and by showing they are able to govern. The content of the bill will also be a plus for those who supported it and may help win over some independents in the long run.

Anyway, the point here is that it wasn’t Lincoln’s swing to the right that helped her against the Republicans. The positive movement in the polls is better explained by an improvement in the view of Democrats in general, reflected in Halter’s even better upwards movement. The swing to the right does alienate her base. This is reflected by Halter’s ease of picking up strong momentum against an incumbent Senator in such a short period of time. That would likely also effect turn out in November if Lincoln is the nominee. But as the polls show, Halter also has the advantage over Republicans even without the turnout argument.

These points just further show Lincoln’s inconsistency and tendency to turn on her former allies. The Arkansas Democratic establishment is doing its best to protect her, but the more people hear about Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, they more they like, giving him the momentum.

The Senate voted to pass the Reconciliation fix tonight, with only three Democrats voting against it, two of them being both of our Senators.

So let’s get this straight…both Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor are FOR the cornhusker kickback.  They’re also against the student loan reform.  Pathetic representation we have here in Arkansas.  At least we can do something about half of it this May 18th…

A large group of organizations is mobilizing today to get 1,000,000 people to call congress and let them know that we want them to pass health care reform. Over 400,000 have done their civic duty so far today (as of 11:20 CST). (Over 500,000 as of 12:13 CST)

I signed up and gave a call to both Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. I told both that they should support passing Health Care Reform through reconciliation and told Pryor that he should support adding the Public Option back into the bill through reconciliation.

A neat little flash app shows you how many people are currently calling from each state:

Arkansas is showing about 2-4 people calling at a time. I think we can do better than that!

Arkansans have a greater influence on these votes since we have a lower population to senator ratio and because both of our senators are possible swing votes. Please make an effort to call today.

Sign in here – they will give you all the info you need:
http://pol.moveon.org/virtualmarch10/action.html?rc=vm.fb.11

You might also use their tools for posting it on facebook and twitter to spread the word.

Update:
Seems like word is getting around now as we are up to 2-8 Arkansans calling at a time. Try sending an email, updating your facebook and twitter status, or sending a message to your facebook friends. (Over 680,000 at 1:45 CST)

Update 2:
They hit 1,000,000 people! This was supposed to be a two day event, but they got there in one. I suspect they will keep it going through tomorrow. Maybe they can get 2,000,000 by tomorrow evening.

While Arkansas was not asked these questions, the pattern is clear:

http://act.boldprogressives.org/cms/sign/poll_national_20100220/

* In Nevada, only 34% support the Senate bill, while 56% support the public option.

* In Illinois, only 37% support the Senate bill, while 68% support the public option.

* In Washington State, only 38% support the Senate bill, while 65% support the public option.

* In Missouri, only 33% support the Senate bill, while 57% support the public option.

* In Virginia, only 36% support the Senate bill, while 61% support the public option.

* In Iowa, only 35% support the Senate bill, while 62% support the public option.

*In Minnesota, only 35% support the Senate bill, while 62% support the public option.

* In Colorado, only 32% support the Senate bill, while 58% support the public option.

Consistently, swing states show that the removal of the public option from the Senate bill has been disasterous for public support of the health care reform effort, despite “centrist” claims otherwise. Fortunately, that can be remedied through reconciliation. While Senator Lincoln has declared herself against the popular public option, Senator Pryor needs to hear from us that we want him to support passing health care reform through the reconciliation process and that the public option should be a part of that.

Call Pryor Now:
(202) 224-2353

Update:
Openleft is keeping a count on Senators for passing the public option through reconciliation. So far, there are 24 yes votes, 8 maybe votes, and 5 no votes with many yet to comment. Mark Pryor is listed as a MAYBE vote. That means we can have a major impact on this one.

Finally, after letting the House and Senate muck things up for a year, President Obama has stepped forward with a health care proposal to reconcile the difference between the House and Senate bills, which you can read here.

Now, the bad news. The bill doesn’t include a public option, at least not as of yet. Harry Reid, however, is willing to craft a public option that will pass through the reconciliation process (being a budgetary process, reconciliation requires some special legislative mojo). That’s why it’s so important to pressure Senator Pryor now!

Call his office:

(202) 224-2353

Tell him to support health care reform and the public option through reconciliation.

It’s time to start calling Senator Mark Pryor’s office and to keep calling through the week.  The goal is simple-get him to support reconciliation for health care reform.  Here’s his number:

(202) 224-2353

Don’t know what to say?  It’s simple.  Just speak from the heart.  If you have a health care story of your own, and most of us do by now, share it.  Tell his staff that you want Pryor to support the budget reconciliation effort on health care reform so that the bill can’t be fillibustered, and while you’re at it tell him the importance of having a public option to guarantee competition, and that it’s not right to have an individual mandate that forces us all to buy insurance without a public option to keep the costs down.  Make it clear that you will remember this vote and tell them it’s a matter of siding with us or with the big insurance companies.

We have a window of opportunity here.  It looked as if health care reform was dead after the election in Massachusetts.  Now we’re finally doing what we should have done in the first place, passing the bill through reconciliation over the howls of Republicans, big insurance companies, and Blue Dogs like Blanche Lincoln.  (Can you imagine the look on her face if we get Pryor to issue a statement of support?)  Remember, people in need are counting on all of us to keep the pressure on and get this done.  Their lives are literally depending on it, and that’s why we can’t give up.

So call Senator Pryor.  Tell him to stand with us and the people of Arkansas.

Harry Reid is officially open to passing health care through reconciliation, with a public option.  But for that to happen, we have to get to fifty votes.  We can officially scratch off th forty one Republicans, plus Lieberman and  Ben Nelson.  I’d wager Mary Landreu is on that list as well.  And of course we all realize by now that Blanche Lincoln is a lost cause.  So, assuming all other Democrats vote as a block, we’d have fifty five votes.  But we can’t afford to risk losing any.  That’s why we’ve got to push for Mark Pryor to get onboard.

As I said, we all know we’re not going to get anywhere with Lincoln, so let’s not waste our breath on her.  Instead, let’s focus on our other senator, the one that’s kept his head down and stayed out of this mess for the most part.  Now I will be the first to say that Pryor is of about the same stripe Lincoln is, though to different degrees.  Pryor is more conservative on the abortion issue than Lincoln, but in other areas he hasn’t demonstrated a willingness to lurch near as far to the right.  Granted, that’s because he isn’t up for reelection in 2014, but hey, we’ll work with what they give us, right?

So let’s put some pressure on our junior senator to get this bill passed, with a public option.  There is a good chance that it won’t pay off, but we should still try as the people depending on reform are counting on us.  Pryor has been generally supportive of health care reform so far, so there is some hope that we’ll get through.  As such, we have to make an effort.  And if he won’t stand with us, we’ll be prepared to find someone else who will in 2014.

So, starting Monday and going through the week, let’s try to get Pryor onboard with the effort.  Here’s his D.C. office’s number:

(202) 224-2353