Heard about the Republican senator who’s trying to extort the federal government for money?
Sorry. Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby is stamping his feet and holding his breath until he gets some pet projects for his home state.
When Democrats ask for money back home, it’s called “pork.”
Anyway, looks like Shelby is holding up 70 appointments until he gets a proposed FBI facility greenlighted in Alabama, as well as a $35 billion Defense Department project for his state.
As Wispolitics reports, the Wisconsin appointments include those of Louis Butler and William Conley for the federal bench in the Western District of Wisconsin, as well the appointment of Winslow Sargeant to be chief counsel for advocacy for the Small Business Administration.
It takes 60 votes to move any of the 70 appointments forward.
It would be funny if Shelby’s tantrum weren’t so silly and yet so serious. The list of appointments affects a slew of federal offices, ranging from the judiciary to the Justice Department to the Department of Homeland Security to the Army.
And Republicans think voters will trust them to govern because they’ll say no to everything?
