Entries Tagged 'Tim Johnson' ↓

I know, there hasn’t been many hints or clues that Brendan is interested in the position, but there have been two recent events that have us wondering. Last weekend Brendan’s father and SHS had a big fundraiser for the SDDP. Brendan also hosted a Clinton fundraiser during the presidential campaign.

There is also the fact that Noem is NOT running for the seat again and leaving it between Republican Dusty Johnson, a possible congressional run by Huether who is now a (Trump sympathizing) Independent. I have told people I believe if the Dems put up a strong candidate, early, they could pull it off. If Huether does decide to run for Congress, he will pull votes from Dusty leaving it a 3 way race where the Dems could pull it off, especially if Trump and Washington are in the toilet when November 2018 rolls around.

Also recently a former Tim Johnson Service Representative Staffer was appointed to the SDDP team;

Appointing Sharon Stroschein as ad hoc senior advisor to E Board (non-voting member)

An insider for Brendan? We will see.

Just muttled through Pitty Pat’s site this morning. WOW. Does he post about anything other then the Johnsons? When does he sleep? Of course, this shouldn’t surprise me, small minded Republicans often obsess about their Johnsons . . . ah . . . I mean ‘The’ Johnsons.

Add some prairie dog gizzards to this shark fin soup, and you will really have a treat

Not sure how talking to Tim Johnson about shark finning is going to do any good since we border no oceans. I suggest January take up another endangered species like Prairie Dogs 🙂

January Jones, who plays the character Betty Draper on the TV show Mad Men went to Washington DC to talk to legislators about her favorite cause: ending shark finning. Shark finning is a practice where fishermen cut off a shark’s fin and throw the shark back into the water, often while it’s still alive. Though illegal, there are loopholes — and Jones showed up in DC to lobby for legislation that would strengthen the law.

Several Senators made time to talk to the star about the issue, including New Jersey’s Frank Lautenberg and South Dakota’s Tim Johnson. She also got a meeting with former presidential candidate John McCain, who tweeted afterward:

“Great meeting and tour of the Capitol with January Jones, who is an advocate for sharks. I’m a huge fan of Mad Men!”

I got a newsletter today from Senator Johnson. I found this pie graph from the New York Times interesting. I wonder how many teabagger heads exploded after reading this. I’m sure something like “Lying Socialists!” was shouted in living rooms across the state. The truth hurts.

Dodd to Remain Senate Banking Chairman
By COREY BOLES

WASHINGTON — Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) is to remain as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, having decided not to take the gavel of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, according to two sources.

Dodd won’t succeed Kennedy as committee chairman
Washington Post
Updated: 09/08/2009 11:50:17 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., has decided against succeeding his close friend and mentor, the late Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., as chairman of the Senate’s health committee, a senior Senate aide said Tuesday night.

Dodd has scheduled a Wednesday news conference for 11 a.m. to announce his decision. His aides did not respond to questions about the decision Tuesday evening.

While Kennedy battled brain cancer for 15 months, Dodd, Harkin and other Democrats on the committee divided up the chairman’s responsibilities, with Dodd overseeing the panel’s health-care legislation. When the Senate takes up that critical legislation later this year, Dodd is expected to continue being the public face of that committee’s effort, a decision that might give him a boost in a tough reelection battle in 2010.

By remaining as banking chairman, Dodd will now oversee a complex rewrite of the regulations overseeing the financial services industry.

(H/T – C & L)

We’re going to have to watch this corporatist tool like a hawk. Not as if we didn’t have to watch Dodd, mind you, but still:

If Senator Tim Johnson ascends to the chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee, the biggest winners will be Wall Street, pay-day lenders and credit card companies. The biggest losers: widows and orphans.

No, really.

In late 2006, the South Dakotan spoke out against an effort by his fellow Democrats to cap the interest rates that members of the military pay for short-term loans. “This time it’s military. Who’s to say it isn’t going to be widows and orphans or other sympathetic groups in the future?” he griped in an interview with the American Banker.

That’s the man who’s next in line to lead the Banking Committee if the current chair, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), as expected, vacates the position to take the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chair left empty by the death of Ted Kennedy.

Meanwhile, Democrats are hoping to push through the most sweeping financial regulations in a generation, including the creation of a government panel that would regulate financial products with an eye toward consumer protection. All of that will have to go through the Banking Committee.

Consumer advocates and backers of a regulation overhaul are deeply concerned that handing the committee to Johnson would be a death sentence for reform.

“He’s got a long track record of supporting small predatory loan companies, pay-day loan companies,” said one longtime consumer advocate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he would have to work with Johnson as banking chair.

In 2003 and again in 2005, Johnson intervened with federal regulators on behalf of pay-day lenders, sending a letter to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,

I was glad to see Johnson supports the public option, and I hope he builds a fire under Steffy to support one too. We already know, Ironic Johnny is bought and paid for by the Healthcare industry, so we know what he ‘thinks’.

But, Johnson added, that doesn’t mean the federal government shouldn’t introduce a public option that he said would help contain health costs and guarantee coverage to people who don’t have insurance. Johnson, speaking with the Argus Leader Editorial Board, said he favors a public option based on Medicare, the government program for the elderly.

I was also glad to see Johnson calling out the opposition’s scare tactics and bullshit:

While the vast majority of South Dakotans are polite, he (Johnson) said, others have called him a “Nazi” for supporting health reform. “My staff tells me it is very ugly among a few South Dakotans,” he said.

Well, not sure if I would support Hitler’s healthcare plan.

Liberal Democrats in the House have threatened to turn against any reform effort that doe

All three of them? Not sure who these liberals are they speak of?

Though I think most of the people whining and bitching at the healthcare townhalls across the country are misinformed and, well, f’ing stupid, I still support their right to dissent. For those of us that were against the failed experiment in Iraq, we should have been this vocal. But I see, our Washington delegation is chickening out as usual and not holding any public meetings.

Sen. Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin would be most likely to bear the brunt of any angry opposition to the health reform plans driven by their party leaders in Congress. But they won’t be holding any town halls on the subject.

I think the best way would be to get all 3 of them on a stage together so they can hear it from both sides, I know I have a few things I would love to ask all 3 of them. No surprise though, especially from Johnson (Mr. dodge debates). I remember last 4th of July when he was running he was in the SF parade and a certain poster here (wink-wink) approached him before the parade started and very politely asked him NOT to support FISA. Him and his wife acted surprised that a constituent would encoste him before the parade. They act like they are freaking untouchable. We elected you, it is time you listen to us, even the batshit crazy ones among us.

As expected, the credit card reform bill passed the senate. In fact, the vote was 90-5.

Our senators showed us all who really owns them by voting ‘no’ on needed consumer protections, and in fovor of the credit card industry.  Johnson was the only democrat to vote against the bill, and Thune was one of four republicans – all from states that play a major part in the banking industry – to vote no.

The CC industry has now threatened that  consumers will have a harder time obtaining credit as a result of this bill:

The goal in the legislation should be to obtain the right balance: providing protections, while maintaining the important role of credit cards in providing loans to consumers and small businesses. Unfortunately, we believe the bill does not achieve that balance and will therefore cause an unnecessary decrease in credit availability.

But really, they have to be bluffing here. If you ran a business that had both customers who paid on time and customers who were total deadbeats, which group would you rather alienate; the ones who bring in steady revenue, or the ones who pay sporadically if at all?

If you are unable to responsibly use a credit card, having access to one will only make your financial problems worse. Maybe going back to the days when only responsible people had credit cards will be a good thing.

I have to roll my eyes at the local CC companies crapping their pants about jobs being effected. If you can’t find a way to turn a profit in the CC business without screwing your customers over, you shouldn’t be in business.

One more reason why I have trouble supporting the Democratic party and their candidates. They continue to take money from lobbying groups that are bad for society. And Tim Johnson is no exception, taking money from one of the most crooked (legal) groups, Pay day loan centers;

A newer player representing Internet payday lenders — a growing segment of the market — also ramped up its lobbying and political giving efforts. The Online Lenders Alliance, formed in 2005, nearly quintupled, to $480,000, its lobbying expenditures from 2007 and 2008. It contributed $108,400 to candidates in advance of the 2008 elections compared to about $2,000 in the 2006 contests. Gutierrez was among the top House recipients, getting $4,600, and the top Senate recipient was Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., a Banking Committee member who got $6,900.

Of course, this is no surprise, but extremely disappointing considering the economy and the devasting affect these places have on lower income families, especially in South Dakota. Johnson should have known better.