My Senator (he says with a sigh) is planning to “run out the clock” on financial reform. The American Banking Association calls it good strategy:

“And from the Republicans’ point of view, every week that passes is, say, Senator Shelby, more leverage. And a lot of what this is about is leverage to get your best deal.

“So it’s in the interest of the Republicans to slow things down because that gives them more leverage to negotiate.”

I would counter that Republicans can spend six weeks making themselves the party of big banks if they want to. Six weeks of opposition to Dodd’s “watered-down” consumer protection and Wall Street reforms will be great for Democrats. In fact, let Bunning go ballistic again. Let them defend the status quo during the biggest recession in 70 years.

Keep going, Republicans! You’re doing great!

Republicans have blinked on appointments. The wheat-from-chaff technique requires a hard shake every now and then:

“Mitch, this is unprecedented,” the president said, gesturing forcefully on the Cabinet Room table, according to aides. “If you don’t move any, I’m going to do some [recess] appointments.”

The 27 confirmations mean no recess appointments will be needed during this break, top administration officials said. Recess appointments, which a president can make when Congress is not in session, are temporary and generally last to the end of the year.

That Hail Mary pass Richard Shelby wanted to throw Parker Griffith never actually got thrown; the play ended in a sack. The GOP has started the string of losses they’ll be taking into November, and the first will be the Republican establishment candidates. Expect Parker Griffith to spend gobs of money just trying to get through the primary.

I expect the wingnutosphere to try and make this an example of Obama’s “arrogance,” but it’s only going to make independents like Obama more. I think middle America is ready to see strength from him — they’ve had a year of bipartisanship outreach that was unreturned.

The hold means no nominations can move forward unless Senate Democrats can secure a 60-member cloture vote to break it, or until Shelby lifts the hold.

And what, pray tell, does Shelby want to extort from the administration? The Mobile Press-Register reports:

- 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.”

The story of the tanker planes is ridiculous. Northrop wants to team up with Airbus to build them in Alabama; rival Boeing wants to build them in Washington. Now Northrop wants the Air Force to change its criteria for selection or else it will take its football and go home.  The second one is new to me, but just how bad is the problem of improvised explosive devices in the United States? Because I don’t see the FBI deploying to Pakistan anytime soon.

Maybe I’m wrong; maybe Northrop/EADS should have the contract and the FBI desperately needs this facility to be in Huntsville. Or maybe Shelby is just a pig at the trough in Washington taking “the party of no” to petty extremes. As I noted back in September amid the “czars” nontroversy,  the GOP obstructionism is aimed at hampering Obama’s ability to govern. Effective leadership consists of delegation to competent subordinates; block the subordinates, and you block the leader. As of August, Obama still didn’t have half his team in place:

While career employees or holdovers fill many posts on a temporary basis, Mr. Obama does not have his own people enacting programs central to his mission. He is trying to fix the financial markets but does not have an assistant treasury secretary for financial markets. He is spending more money on transportation than anyone since Dwight D. Eisenhower but does not have his own inspector general watching how the dollars are used. He is fighting two wars but does not have an Army secretary.

He sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Africa to talk about international development but does not have anyone running the Agency for International Development. He has invited major powers to a summit on nuclear nonproliferation but does not have an assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation.

All of which suits Shelby and the GOP just fine, I’m sure. After all, they were willing to block Obama’s nomination for head of the Transportation Security Administration just to keep the people at the x-ray machines from unionizing. The funny thing is, I remember when Shelby was the Democrat who unseated Denton by accusing him of overconsuming pork.

Admitted that voting patterns seem to show a different story (white southerners turned out in droves to vote against Barack Obama), the GOP began losing the South in November. Paraphrasing Bob Kincaid over at Head-On-Radio a few months ago, the first domino fell in South Carolina. In losing one southern state, the Republican Party can no longer count on a ‘solid South.’

Knocked to their partisan knees, the Grand Old Party has doubled down on obstructionism. They have met Obama’s attempts at bipartisanship with venom. Striking at Obama early was supposed to reveal his ‘weakness’ and set the stage for their comeback.

They are doing this because God tells them to, because they are afraid of the world, and because they’re shameless.

What they don’t understand is they are dealing with a whole new kind of president:

Here’s what Redeye had to say at Left In Alabama:

To be clear, this is what Sessions and Shelby in the Senate and Griffith, Bright, Aderholt, Bacchus and the entire Bama House delegation (sans Davis) voted against on behalf of the Alabama citizens;

Impact on Alabama

• Creating or saving 55,000 jobs over the next two years.
• Providing a making work pay tax cut of up to $1,000 for 1,770,000 workers and their families
• Making 70,000 families eligible for a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable.
• Offering an addition $100 per month in unemployment insurance benefits to 247,000 workers in Alabama who have lost their jobs this recession.
• Providing funding to modernize at least 156 schools in Alabama so our children have the labs, classrooms and libraries they need to compete in the 21st century economy.