The bill that wouldn't die: The unlikely story behind the criminal justice overhaul

By artappraiser on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 9:25pm |

I just read that there are several Senate votes on this scheduled tonight, so now's the time to read up (and this CNN piece comes recommended by a retweet by Maggie Haberman):

A richly reported piece by my colleagues @JDiamond1 & @arogDC (and yes, they spoke with Kim Kardashian and a slew of members of Congress for this) https://t.co/U8nrzXQRBs
— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) December 19, 2018

URL:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/politics/criminal-justice-overhaul/index.html

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Sen. Booker:

A BIPARTISAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM BILL JUST PASSED THE SENATE!

This was years in the making. Thousands will obtain greater justice and new pathways to liberation as a result of this bill. This is just one step. This is just the beginning. The work must continue. Onward! ✨
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) December 19, 2018

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 10:20pm

Sen. Schatz:

People serving a sentence who are elderly and terminally ill shouldn’t have to wait for compassionate release. Recidivism among these people is very low. Happy my GRACE Act is part of the bill we passed. We show humanity and grace, and save money with compassionate release.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) December 19, 2018

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 10:21pm

In an act of bipartisanship Senators Grassley and Booker hug and shake hands shortly after the Senate passed criminal justice reform. pic.twitter.com/xwv1gmr1Hy
— Sarah Silbiger (@sarah_silbs) December 19, 2018

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/18/2018 - 10:26pm

Cory Booker, Hakeem Jeffries, and Van Jones pushed hard for this. It is a good first step. (For some reason, Booker is left out of the above photo)

Cory Booker and Tim Scott got a bill passed that increases funding for sickle cell disease.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/bipartisan-bill-aimed-fight-sickle-cell-disease-signed-law-trump-n949691

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 8:20am

Booker remains my preferred candidate, even tho early times still - I don't feel anyone else yet with the temperament and governmental experience and say the people's touch.

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 9:55am

Booker may run into voter desire for a fighter rather than someone willing to work across the aisle, Democratic voters may want a person willing to extract a pound of flesh from Republicans. Nancy Pelosi set the tone when she wasn’t afraid to directly confront Trump and label the shutdown the “Trump shutdown”. Trump backed down on the shutdown threat. Booker may come off as a person willing to make deals with the Devil.

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 10:40am

Chuck Grassley's not the Devil. Paul Ryan, maybe.

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 12:29pm

Right, voters will go for more divisiveness. Um, pretty sure bet as far as I am concerned: NOT. And that the only question is what kind of "across the aisle" modus operandi they will like best.

You're already seeing the new paradigm of a GOP Senate, those guys are thinking: well, the thing with the new loony prez and majority Congress is over, we got what we could out of that, really had to debase ourself to get to the end, now new situation: how are those of us up for re-election next going to get re-elected?

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 2:42pm

The GOP is Trump’s party. They fell into line on the reform bill after Jared influenced Trump to support the bill. They did not buck Trump. Trump has 17 separate investigations going. The base still supports Trump policies. There will be no move for impeachment in the Senate. Voters will want to exact payment for the lack of backbone by Republican legislators. Watch for “moderate” Susan Collins to fall. There are still 14K black and brown kids in detention. The GOP base is OK with that. Stephen Miller just said the WH is OK with that. We are still being ruled by a cult.

Edit to add:

Link for kiddie prisons

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/migrant-children-mass-shelters-trump_us_5c1a69d6e4b0ce5184b967f0

Remember they are blaming the death of a 7-year old girl on her parents.

https://www.thecut.com/2018/12/dhs-blames-death-of-7-year-old-migrant-girl-on-parents.html

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 2:58pm

The GOP is Trump’s party.

Really? Didja ever think about what happens if it turns out to be "Pence's party" in like, a New York minute? I bet GOP Senators think about that.

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 3:30pm

p.s. Lookee here:Senator Susan Collins: Nothing wrong with Republicans challenging Trump in 2020

@ TheHill.com, Dec. 16

focusing your reading on Dem party partisan agitprop is not what smart political operatives do. It's one reason I think very poorly about most of your advice for Dems when I see you try.

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 3:39pm

Susan Collins ‘splaining her Kavanaugh vote. The Confederate Hyde-Smith is supporting her there on the right.

Yeah you can always trust Collins.

Edit for some reason the image did not post from my iPad

The picture can be seen in the link to an article from the Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/10/why-susan-collins-voting-brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court/572341/

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 4:32pm

You are doing your straw man thing now. I did not say "you can trust Susan Collins". (BTW:The picture you posted showed, it's just not loading for you. But FWIW I will throw in my opinions: what the picture says to me: this is a woman trying to keep her seat and eventually get re-elected at the same time as doing what she thinks best.)

I was pointing out she is encouraging primarying of Trump. Not 100% Trump's party. Just that simple, that is all. She's been in power longer than him, been in the party longer than him. Therefore: more a party person. Just facts. Full stop. Not that I support her nor the GOP, wasn't getting into that at all.

If you don't understand where your opponents are at, you got no business advising the Dem party. And I don't think you get it at all. You just like having a simplistic enemy tribe. The politicos (not to mention Russia) love having your type to manipulate, they wouldn't have a job without you.

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 5:06pm

Collins votes with Trump a majority of the time, that is an opponent. She went to the Confederate to back her stand on Kavanaugh.

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 5:14pm

votes with Trump

What does that even mean?! He changes position on so many things every day.

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 5:22pm

It means that she is a hypocrite. Take the example of child separation. She says separation is “traumatizing”. She then opposes a bill that would end the practice.

https://splinternews.com/susan-collins-opposes-family-separation-policy-also-op-1826906273

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 5:26pm

You have a deluded childish vision of what goes in the halls of Congress:

Listen: Senators Collins and Reed caught on hot mic ‘worried’ about ‘crazy’ Trump

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 5:33pm

.... And then they bow to his will on most issues. I suspect a majority of Republicans think Trump is mentally ill. We still won’t see the Cabinet suggest the 25th Amendment or the Senate Republicans support impeachment.

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 5:39pm

Graham in May 2016

“If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it” is a genuine quote from Senator Graham that was originally posted to his official Twitter account on 3 May 2016

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lindsey-graham-nominate-trump/

Graham in September 2016

The US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says he will not be supporting his party's presidential candidate Donald Trump. He told HARDtalk's Sarah Montague that at present he didn't feel able to vote for him and he would not vote for Hillary Clinton either.

He said: "I think judgement, temperament are his biggest problems right now...

"The Republicans should win this year because in our country it is very hard for one party to control the White House for 12 years. There's some Obama fatigue. But his inability to convince the American people as an individual he can deal with a crisis that comes with being Commander-in-Chief is the reason he's losing, and if he can overcome that then he could actually win this election."

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-37278045/lindsey-graham-why-i-am-not-backing-donald-trump

You can trust Graham to hold his ground

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 6:02pm

You don't see what a hack you look like by trying to turn a news thread about a bipartisan bill success that got passed with help from Trump to "but we can't focus on this, because we must always present Trump and the GOP as evil"? Your goal of always wanting to create black vs. white images ironically mirrors a lot of your comments about race. I'm done with this, going to leave you with: think again what you are going to do when your bete noire is no longer president. Meanwhile, more and more people are turned off by the partisan spin every day.

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 6:27pm

Dictators can make trains run on time. Trump signed a justice reform bill. There are at least 17 investigations into Trump’s misdeeds.

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 9:39pm

P.S. And how come you haven't commented on this thread: Ocasio-Cortez and friends would like to see Hakeem Jeffries primaried. Which one is the true Dem party? So much for unified party and unified minority voice. Reality is rarely so Manichean as you seem to like to present it.

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 5:19pm

Barbara Lee wanted the post that Jeffries won. Some more Progressive members may take a shot at Jeffries. Jeffries is well liked. He can now use his action to get the justice reform bill passed to quiet dissent. He is a person considered to be in line for Speaker when Pelosi puts down the gavel.

I have no problem with Barbara Lee. I have no problem with Hakeem Jeffries. We’ll find out about Ocasio-Cortez when she reaches Congress. She criticized Democrats for not paying interns a living wage. I don’t have problem with her making political moves. The normal maneuvering of Lee, Jeffries, and Ocasio-Cortez has nothing to do with the rot in the GOP.

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 5:36pm

Actually no, they pivoted out of Bush's trainwreck into Tea Party madness, and then Trumpian gonzo absurd criminality. They'll find another segue after this, don't worry. Look at turtle Mitch McConnell - he ain't going anywhere, the SoB. Or as AA notes, maybe Pence as their next evil warlord.

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 3:30pm

Right now, it’s Trumps party

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/opinion/donald-trump-reagan-nixon-midterms.html

Edit to add:

Trump’s base defines the party and the party is shrinking

538

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trumps-base-isnt-enough/

Jonah Goldberg

https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/jonah-goldberg-trump-s-base-isn-t-enough-now/article_11c0f125-2638-5bf2-8b06-d347a311a087.html

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 4:27pm

There are several ways one can characterize this. You chose divisiveness. Others call it softball or hardball. The left has long seen republicans as playing hardball while democrats play softball. Is a bill a compromise or a capitulation? Many saw Obama as so willing to compromise that it felt more like surrender. That has long been my view. For example when Woodward reported the proposed debt deal between Obama and Boehner I thought Obama had given up so much that I was glad the far right caused it to fail. (tried to find a link to the proposed deal but could only find a debate over why it failed)

I'd like to see policy enacted to deal with problems and that requires compromise. At some point compromise can give away to much to the other side. When that line is crossed is certainly a matter of opinion. My opinion is for too often democrats have been willing to give away far to much for me to consider it a fair compromise. I think democrats need to be willing to adopt some of the hardball tactics used so often by republicans. I don't see that as advocating divisiveness. Your view may differ.

by ocean-kat on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 3:09pm

‘It got a little heated’: GOP infighting almost killed criminal justice reform

Even with Trump’s support, a split among Senate Republicans nearly tanked the bipartisan bill.

Current headline story @ Politico.com, by Burgess Everett & Eliana Johnson, Dec. 19, 1:25 pm

Just hours before the Senate passed major reforms to the criminal justice system, Mike Lee and Tom Cotton were still bickering.

At a private party lunch, the two young Republican senators argued one last time: The libertarian-leaning Lee defended a bill the hawkish Cotton had derided as a “jailbreak” for violent felons, while Cotton accused Lee of overseeing a sloppy process that included last-minute revisions to the bill, according to multiple sources familiar with the interaction.

“It got a little heated, on his part,” Lee said.

Asked to respond, Cotton laughed and replied: "He thought that was heated? He needs to toughen up."

The dispute neatly encapsulated why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was so reluctant to put the bill on the floor in the first place and publicly split his party. But even the skeptical GOP leader could not ultimately stop the bill: President Donald Trump supported it, and McConnell himself wound up voting for it [....]

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 4:06pm

From the article

On Dec. 7, Trump unleashed a tweet asking McConnell to make good on his word: “Go for it Mitch!,” the president urged the GOP leader.

Three days later, McConnell indicated to Cornyn that the bill would come to the floor, the end of a yearslong saga to finish work on one of the few issues that seems to unite most in both parties these days.

“He’s a man of his word,” Cornyn said of McConnell. And every bit of pressure from Trump helped, too: “We all see his tweets.”

Trump’s party.

by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 4:17pm

So I got a call from Kim Kardashian last night... https://t.co/317qs63DwX
— Brian Bennett (@ByBrianBennett) December 21, 2018

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/21/2018 - 7:14pm

The bill that wouldn't die: The unlikely story behind the criminal justice overhaul

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