Sen. Richard Shelby Wins BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite Award for Doing 'Whatever it Takes' to Get What He Wants

Richard Shelby

Welcome back to BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

You've probably heard the standard story about how Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) made the unprecedented move of blocking all of President Obama's executive nominees in order to get some pork for his home state.

Well, bacon is dandy, but it turns out the real story is that this hold was specially designed for his career-long benefactor, defense contractor Northrop Grumman, in a bidding war against rival Boeing:

While by all accounts a Northrop Grumman contract would create significant numbers of jobs in his home state, Shelby’s initiative is also a move to secure funding for a company that has long funded him. The fourth-term Senator has received at least $108,233 in PAC contributions to his political campaigns and leadership PAC from Northrop Grumman’s corporate PACs. This includes contributions, dating back to his first Senate election in 1986, from the company’s political action committee and from the PACs of companies that are now part of Northrop Grumman.

You may be thinking, "That's pretty slimy, but how is that hypocritical? Republicans are always shilling for the military-industrial complex!"
We turn to Think Progress for the two-faced part of the story. It appears that Shelby was very much against Congressional holds back when it was his party's president who was trying to get nominees through.

Shortly after winning reelection in 2005, Shelby put out a release saying "I am confident that the expanded Republican majority will allow the Senate to break the impasse on judicial nominations, giving qualified nominees the up or down vote they deserve so that we can fill vacancies on the federal bench," and added that "Inaction on these nominees is a disservice to the American people."

Think Progress also quotes a 2005 media report that notes how "with at least one Supreme Court vacancy expected in Bush’s next term, some Republicans are considering changing the rules of the Senate to force a vote, and likely confirm Bush’s appointees. Shelby said he’d support that option if Democrats continue to filibuster... Shelby also pledged to do 'whatever it takes' to confirm Bush’s judicial nominees."

After a bipartisan group of senators hammered out an agreement which would allow the chamber to keep the filibuster as well as let some of Bush's nominees through, Shelby was unsatisfied, saying, "I do not think that any of us want to operate in an environment where federal judicial nominees must receive 60 votes in order to be confirmed."

Apparently that's changed, because Shelby created just such an environment times seventy, blocking all executive nominees of the Obama Administration. As Think Progress so aptly put it:

By invoking his “blanket hold” yesterday, Shelby is now forcing Senate Democrats to “secure a 60-member cloture vote to break it, or until Shelby lifts the hold.” Unless, of course, Shelby is still “firmly” in favor of changing the Senate rules so that only 51 votes would be required to break his filibuster.

Of course, as any Republican who's having trouble making sense does, Shelby went for the homeland security jugular. He argued that because he hasn't gotten his pork-barrel project yet, the terrorists are winning:

"Sen. Shelby is fully justified in his concern that the Obama administration is seeking to rescind funds already appropriated for this vital national security purpose," [Shelby's] statement said. "He will continue to work through the appropriations process to ensure that the U.S. military, the intelligence community, and federal law enforcement personnel receive the funding and facilities they need to exploit and analyze intelligence information critical to fighting terrorism and ensuring American security worldwide.

And then he went on to attack Miranda rights as a threat to our security. Yet by holding up Obama nominees at the Pentagon, the Democratic National Committee insisted it's Shelby who's "playing politics with our national security and putting our country at risk."

Even when he lifted the holds earlier this week, Shelby's argument still devolved into hypocrisy. Though he's releasing all of the holds except those related to his earmark requests, he insists that the holds have nothing to do with the earmarks themselves:

Now that he has gotten Obama's attention, [Shelby Spokesman Jonathan] Graffeo said, "Sen. Shelby has decided to release his holds on all but a few nominees directly related to the Air Force tanker acquisition."

...Graffeo denied that Shelby's demands revolved around earmarks. Regarding the Air Force tankers, the spokesman said Shelby "is seeking to ensure an open, fair and transparent competition that delivers the best equipment to our men and women in uniform."

Yeah, that's logical.

Considering this stunning lack of coherence, we can expect that this latest move is not the end of Shelby's hypocrisy loop. As soon as the Republicans are back in power, this guy will be calling for an end to the filibuster, because he'll clearly do "whatever it takes" to get what he wants. And that's why he's our GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.

***

This is Richard Shelby's second GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award; he also won on Dec. 19, 2008. You can see a list of all previous winners here.