New Hampshire: Judd Gregg

May 15, 2009 - 10:36 am
NEWS FEED: Drew Cline

Obama steals Judd Gregg’s lines

For months, Sen. Judd Gregg has been using the word “unsustainable” to refer to the massive federal debt piled up by President Obama’s spending. In his town hall meeting in New Mexico yesterday, Obama stole Gregg’s lines. He said:
During a recession of this severity it is important, as I explained, for the government to step [...]

May 1, 2009 - 05:10 am
NEWS FEED: Blue Hampshire

Open Thread: Judd Gregg, Victim of Tyranny Edition

The denouement of the career arc can sometimes be melancholic:Senator Judd Gregg, alluding to the recent encounter between President Obama and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, accused the White House and Congressional Democrats of abusing their power. "I can understand shaking Hugo Chavez's hand, but I can't understand embracing his politics," said Mr. Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Budget Committee.Poor, poor Senior Senator. If only he knew what it was like for us when he enabled his friend George W. Bush's real extra-constitutional behavior.

This is an Open Thread.

April 30, 2009 - 03:44 pm
NEWS FEED: Blue Hampshire

Carol is there for NH families

Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter has just introduced a bill to protect families.
WASHINGTON, DC. - Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter demonstrated her unwavering commitment to workers and families by introducing the Family and Medical Leave Restoration Act. This bill repeals certain restrictive rules regarding the use of Family and Medical Leave that were enacted during the previous administration.

"The Family and Medical Leave Act helps ensure that workers do not have to choose between keeping their job and caring for a loved one or themselves," said Congresswoman Shea-Porter. "My bill will restore the Family and Medical Leave Act to its original intent and spirit."

more below the fold

Specifically, the Family and Medical Leave Restoration Act will:

Restore protections that prevent an employer from forcing an employee from using more incremental FMLA leave than is medically necessary;
Reverse limitations placed on the use of accrued paid leave while on FMLA;
Restore the prohibition on denying attendance bonuses as a consequence for taking FMLA leave;
Restore protections that prohibit the waiving of an employee's FMLA rights without review and approval by the Department of Labor or the courts;
Restore protections that prohibit an employer from approving or denying FMLA leave based on compliance or non-compliance with employer leave request policies;
Restore employee privacy by reversing regulations that would allow an employer to directly contact an employee's medical provider;
Restore previous "fitness-for-duty" certification rules for employees who take intermittent leave;
Direct the Secretary to revise the Bush regulations to revisit the new, burdensome treatment and recertification timelines imposed by the previous Department of Labor, and
Direct the Secretary to revise the provided medical certification template to include the definition of a "serious health condition.

March 26, 2009 - 04:47 am
NEWS FEED: Blue Hampshire

Congratulations, Senator Judd Gregg

I've been hair-on-fire pleading for some prominent Democrat - any prominent Democrat - with parallel media power to fight back against Judd Gregg's 24/7 media assault on Obama's budget and the health care, environment, and education priorities contained within it.

And this is what we got.

Congratulations Senator Gregg.  You know how to play the game well for your interests.  While it's incredible to me that in 2009 I still have to look to the other side of the aisle to admire political strength, I will admit: well done, sir.

Update: Harry Reid, of all least likely people, offers a glimmer of hope. This is also good in that I was beginning to think Evan Bayh was the new majority leader; I figured maybe I missed a press release or something.

March 20, 2009 - 04:59 am
NEWS FEED: Blue Hampshire

Judd Gregg's Priorities

Taxpayer money to bankers: good.
Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, predicted Congress's efforts to rescind the bonuses through higher taxes would be thrown out in court. He said the legislation violates the Constitutional ban on bills of attainder, which restricts lawmakers' ability to punish individual Americans.

"It's basically targeted on a small group of people," Gregg said. He also said the bill may exceed lawmakers' power to rewrite existing contracts. He said "of course" the government ought to try to rescind the bonuses "but we've got to do it legally."

Taxpayer money to others: bad.

"With so many sectors of our economy hurting, I seriously question why auto part suppliers deserve billions of dollars, especially when the automakers still haven't yet made all of the reforms necessary to be sustainable over the long term," said Gregg, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee
One one sheds taking anything any politician says at face value, an easy thing to do with Judd Gregg in particular, given his recent series of self-revealing fiascos, things become much easier to understand.

March 18, 2009 - 07:41 pm
NEWS FEED: Blue Hampshire

Evan Bayh's Dopey Little Club Not the Real Danger

Just to be clear since the chatter is growing: I couldn't care less that Jeanne Shaheen is a member of Evan Bayh's dopey little club.

Jeanne Shaheen is a moderate Democrat.  There is nothing at all surprising about this, even for someone like me who didn't get invested in New Hampshire politics until after her gubernatorial career.  What is surprising - and wonderful - is how often I have been happy with her votes in the short time she has been in the senate.

That Shaheen meets with moderate senators is not cause for alarm. It's not cause for anything.

What is cause for alarm is

March 11, 2009 - 06:41 pm
NEWS FEED: GraniteGrok

'Grok official motto: We thank'm when they're right and spank'm when they're wrong. 

This is the thank'm part (emphasis mine):

I appreciate the chairman saying that, in the second five years of this budget, the debt levels are unsustainable, because they are.

And the cost of this budget is unsustainable. And the tax burden is unsustainable. The chairman didn't say that. I added the second two categories. ...

The problem is that that effort to try to stabilize the economy has been used as a straw dog for the purposes of expanding the size of government in the out years exponentially, moving it to the left in a way that has never been projected or seen before, should it be successful.

March 5, 2009 - 06:44 pm
NEWS FEED: Blue Hampshire

Greedy Gregg: No health care for you

Greedy Judd Gregg is fine and dandy with directing federal funds toward projects that benefit his own family, but apparently he's uncomfortable letting you spend your own money on any public option for health care that would be -- dare I say? -- more affordable for the average family.

What's the problem, Gregg - would it make health care too accessible to the average hard-working American?

Today, health care advocates eagerly anticipated a White House summit planned to address the need for health care reform. For a quick re-cap, this is basically how the day went:

The Voice of the Future:

President Obama, 3/5/09 - President Obama on Thursday called for a comprehensive overhaul of the U.

March 4, 2009 - 07:50 pm
NEWS FEED: Blue Hampshire

Things I Learned

Things I learned from the write-up on Jennifer Horn and her talk to Franklin Republicans.

* According to the Mayor of Franklin, if you love your country, your family, and God, then obviously you couldn't be anything else than a Republican. Which, logic would dictate, means that we all here hate our country, our families, and God.  Nice.

* According to Jennifer Horn, the Republican party was the driving force behind civil rights.

* If the NHGOP get on Twitter, they will win more elections.

* Jennifer Horn joins Judd Gregg in defying GOP Maximum Leader Limbaugh's call for Obama to fail.

March 4, 2009 - 06:36 am
NEWS FEED: Blue Hampshire

Uh,Oh. Who's Going to Tell the Supreme Leader?

A cherry on top of what can be charitably called the worst month of Judd Gregg's senate career:New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg , however, disputed the notion that GOP lawmakers want Obama's fiscal policy to fail. He suggested Reid's comments were prompted by a flap within the Republican Party over statements made by conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

"Most of us want to see the president succeed because this country's in such dire straits, that unless this administration's successful, we're not going to get out of it," said Gregg, who was Obama's first pick to head the Commerce Department but withdrew from consideration.

But who will tell him?

(Of course, Gregg's self-serving quote is preposterous, as is shown by his forceful opposition so far to the Administration's economic policy. But the line in the sand to RNC Virtual Chair Limbaugh remains.)