The Obstructionist: What the Nation is Saying About NH’s Senior Senator Judd Gregg

For Immediate Release
Thursday, December 03, 2009

Contact: Zandra Rice Hawkins
603-892-2150

The Obstructionist: What the Nation is Saying About NH’s Senior Senator Judd Gregg

Concord, NH – U.S. Senator Judd Gregg’s obstructionist memo has found a quick audience with Republican colleagues eager to disrupt health care reform but disapproval from other corners:

Gregg Circulating “Obstruction Manual” To Block Health Reform. “Sen. Judd Gregg, (R-NH) has penned the equivalent of an obstruction manual – a how-to for holding up health care reform — and has distributed the document to his Republican colleagues. Insisting that it is “critical that Republican senators have a solid understanding of the minority’s rights in the Senate,” Gregg makes note of all the procedural tools the GOP can use before measures are considered, when they come to the floor and even after passage.” (Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/02/read-it-gop-senator-pens_n_377386.htm)

FLASHBACK: In 2006, Gregg Denounced “Obstruction For The Purpose Of Obstruction.”
“But in 2006, Gregg sang a very different tune about appropriate Senate procedure. At the time, Gregg wanted to form an Entitlement Commission to recommend cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Facing opposition, Gregg blasted Democrats for what he perceived as “obstruction for the purpose of obtaining power”: “Obstruction has become the only thing which the other side of the aisle appears to be able to do, obstruction for the purpose of obstruction for the purpose of obtaining power around here.”” (Think Progress, includes video of Gregg statement: http://thinkprogress.org/)

Gregg, Republican Party Like Children Who Haven’t Finished Homework.
When Intel Dan was in eighth grade, he was scheduled as the final student in his English class to give a presentation one day. Except that Intel Dan forgot that he was supposed to give a presentation that day, and he wasn’t quite prepared. So he, along with a few accomplices, tried to run out the clock before his turn came up by asking an absurdly unnecessary number of questions of the presenters who preceded him. They’d even ask the questions in a noticeably slower cadence, so as to waste even more time. Though the stall tactic actually worked (score!), Intel Dan acknowledges that this was a childish and immature way to behave. It’s also pretty much what the Senate GOP is doing to postpone a vote on health-care reform. (New York Magazine: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/12/the_senate_gop_doesnt_want_to.html)

Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid: It’s the Only Plan Republicans Have Written.
“[T]he Republican plan we’ve waited weeks and months to see [is] not even about health care at all,” Reid said on the Senate floor this morning. “The first and only plan Senate Republicans could be bothered to write up is an instruction manual on how to bring the Senate to a screeching halt. The Senate might be interested to learn that the architect behind this blueprint is none other than the Ranking Member of the Budget Committee, the senior Senator from New Hampshire. It’s worth noting that this Senator – who, more than any other, often speaks publicly about how to properly use citizens’ tax money – has now signed his name to a plan with the explicit goal of wasting the taxpayer’s time and money.” (TPM quote, http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/reid-smacks-back-at-greggs-obstruction-memo.php)

*Read the full memo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/02/read-it-gop-senator-pens_n_377386.html*

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