Senator Richard Shelby Blocks All 70 Obama Nominations

Alabama Senator Richard Shelby is holding up every pending Obama nomination until he can get some goodies for his home state. Some of the unfilled jobs are for important national security positions.

The two programs Shelby wants to move forward or else:

– A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers. From CongressDaily: “Northrop/EADS team would build the planes in Mobile, Ala., but has threatened to pull out of the competition unless the Air Force makes changes to a draft request for proposals.” Federal Times offers more details on the tanker deal, and also confirms its connection to the hold.

– An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI. From CongressDaily: “[Shelby] is frustrated that the Obama administration won’t build” the center, which Shelby earmarked $45 million for in 2008. The center is due to be based “at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal.”

Bennett Kelly at Huffpost went to the GOP accomplishments page and shows how today’s Republican Party is at odds with these historical accomplishments:

The first is the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, something today’s Republicans would dismiss as “waste and pork-barrel spending” as they have with high-speed rail funding in the stimulus bill. Similarly, the site touts the creation of the Federal Highway System, but the party has done little since then as the system has fallen into disrepair.

The Republicans also include a list of civil rights achievements, including calling for integration of the military and supporting civil rights legislation. The list abruptly ends in 1957 since Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush both opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and almost all Republicans in today’s Congress get an “F” on the NAACP report card.

The party that first called for integration of the military is now using the same arguments made by those opposing integration to block elimination of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The website also takes credit for the fact that Republican Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion in Brown v. Board of Education, despite the fact that for half a century Republicans have railed against him as the poster child of “judicial activism.”

It’s a party with a great legacy, and a sad present.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.