White House May Temporarily Bypass Senate on Arms Treaty Agreement with Russia

With the clock running out “on a new US-Russian arms treaty before the previous Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires on December 5, a senior White House official said Sunday that the difficulty of the task might mean temporarily bypassing the Senate’s constitutional role in ratifying treaties by enforcing certain aspects of a new deal on an executive level and a ‘provisional basis’ until the Senate ratifies the treaty,” Jake Tapper reports.

"The most ideal situation would be to finish it in time that it could be submitted to the Senate so that it can be ratified," said White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Security and Arms Control Gary Samore. "If we’re not able to do that, we’ll have to look at arrangements to continue some of the inspection provisions, keep them enforced in a provisional basis, while the Senate considers the treaty."

Samore said administration lawyers are exploring the "different options that are available. One option is that both sides could agree to continue the inspections by executive agreement; that would work on our side. On the Russian side, as I understand it, that would require Duma approval."

For reference, Article II – Section 2 of the Constitution (emphasis mine):

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Schumer Promises Public Option in Final Health Reform Bill

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says the “healthcare reform bill that emerges from Congress this year will include a government-run public health insurance option, regardless of the bipartisan negotiations seeking a compromise in the Senate,” The Hill reports.

"Make no mistake about it, the president is for this strongly. There will be a public option in the final bill," Schumer said on CBS News’s "Face the Nation."

[…]

Despite the bipartisan negotiations going on behind the scenes on the Finance Committee, Schumer pointedly noted that the House and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee have written a public option into their bills. Combined with Obama’s continued support for the proposal, Schumer suggested, that bodes well for the prospects of the public option making into the final legislation the president wants on his desk this Autumn.

A bipartisan group of members on the Senate Finance Committee “are leaning toward setting aside a true public option in favor of establishing not-for-profit, member-owned health insurance cooperatives to compete with traditional insurance companies.”

Though the notion appeals to Republicans and some centrist Democrats, supporters of the public option do not view it as an acceptable compromise.

Partisan Sparks Fly as Examination of Puerto Rican Legal Defense Continues on Sotomayor

Documents released by the Senate show that a “civil rights group on whose board Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor served filed racial bias lawsuits over employment examinations that resemble a Connecticut case in which she ruled against white firefighters,” the AP reports.

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund represented Hispanic sanitation workers in New York City who wanted to stop white employees from getting promotions because, they argued, the qualifying exam unfairly disadvantaged minorities. The case unfolded as Sotomayor chaired the organization’s board of directors’ litigation committee, although there is no evidence that she had any role in the group’s decision to participate in the lawsuits, or in formulating or drafting any of their legal arguments.

The New York case bears strong similarities to a much-discussed lawsuit Sotomayor ruled on last year as afederal appeals court judge, which involved the reverse discrimination claims of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn. They sued after the city threw out its promotion test because too few minorities passed. The judicial panel she joined ruled against the white firefighters in the case, Ricci v. DeStefano — a ruling theSupreme Court reversed last Monday.

The sanitation workers’ case and similar ones that include a series of lawsuits against the New York City Police Department are detailed in hundreds of pages of new material the Senate Judiciary Committee put on its Web site Friday after receiving them from the Puerto Rican civil rights group.

These discrimination suits have “drawn outrage from Republicans who allege they prove Sotomayor has endorsed an agenda of reverse discrimination and racial preferences for minorities.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Judiciary panel, said this week that the Puerto Rican defense group has taken "extreme positions," and his office branded the organization "activist" in a background memo it released on Friday. His aides had accused Sotomayor’s allies of withholding the documents to prevent a thorough investigation of her past before confirmation hearings begin July 13.

Democrats “call the group, now known as LatinoJustice PRLDEF, mainstream, and argue that most of the material has nothing to do with Sotomayor.”

"This well-respected civil rights advocacy organization has cooperated and made an extensive effort to review decades-old records, most of which have no connection to Judge Sotomayor, to provide even more information to the committee," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the Judiciary chairman, in a statement.

Some civil rights leaders “have expressed alarm at Sessions’ intense focus on Sotomayor’s time at PRLDEF, suggesting that it indicates that he’s unfairly targeting her because she’s Hispanic.”

Sessions has "been extraordinarily consistent in his disdain for civil rights and equal opportunity. I don’t know of very many prominent Latino or minority lawyers or judges who haven’t been involved in civil rights sometime in their lives," said Antonia Hernandez, a former president of MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "It’s a message that’s being sent to minorities and Latinos that you cannot participate and be involved in the civic life of your community if you ever want to attain a position like this."

The above statement highlights the potential danger for Senate Republicans as they question Judge Sotomayor later this month.  Democrats will be eager to paint them as anti-Hispanic if the questioning gets too tough or has a racial tinge to it.

McCain Issues Statement on Palin Resignation

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has issued a statement “following his former running mate Sarah Palin’s decision to step down as Alaska governor,” CNN reports.

"I have the greatest respect and affection for Sarah, Todd, and their family. I was deeply honored to have her as my running mate and believe she will continue to play an important leadership role in the Republican party and our nation."

McCain Discusses Iran in Weekly Republican Address

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) gave the weekly Republican address today and said that “Iranians who’ve protested the results of their country’s presidential election are on the ‘right side of history’ as first established by the Declaration of Independence,” The Hill reports.

"Today, we stand with the millions of Iranians who brave batons, imprisonment and gunfire to have their voices heard and their votes counted," McCain said in the holiday address. "We have a moral obligation to do so."

Here is the address:

On balance, President Obama’s weekly address “recounts America’s great history of overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges, and pledges to lead America in continuing that tradition,” according to the official White House blog.

Focusing on creating a clean energy economy, comprehensive health reform, and revitalizing an education system in need of change, the President pledges not to leave these decades-old problems to yet another generation to solve.

Here is the President’s address: