2018 Presidential Election
- Thread starter Marky Bunny
- Start date
I think the best-case scenario for the Dems is that Mrs. Bartlet withdraws herself. Sam overplayed his hand here. He could've said he was seriously considering her, and then nominated his second choice instead, as whoever that would be is likely easier for Senate Repubs to confirm, sort of like what Bartlet originally wanted to do with Chief Justice Lang.
But he already did it. Few things for a president are worse, especially a new one like Sam, than having your people shot down before the senate.
Sam has fallen into the main trap that most politicians, host in this show and in the real world, fall into. They allow their advisors to dictate monumental decisions like who should be VP (CJ pushing Hollis), shifting campaign strategies (CJ v. Josh), and cabinet appointments without taking the time to think through these things on their own.
NBS.COM
Monday February 18th 2019
Rumours that DR Bartlet will withdraw from Secretary of Health & Human Services hearings
NBS understands that Dr. Abigail Bartlet's nomination as Secretary of Health & Human Services is likely to be withdrawn. She is due to go in-front of the Senate Finance committee tomorrow morning.
After what we understand was a heated weekend at the White House, with rumours of arguments and splits within the President's Senior team, that Abigail Bartlet will withdrew her name from the hearings and thus the job. Senate Majority Leader Cody Riley is believed to have had a three hour meeting with Vice-President Jack Hunter, and White House Deputy Communications Director John Edwards. It seems a replacement list of five names was put to Riley, two of those names are believed to be Dr. Millicent Griffith, the former Surgeon General in the Bartlet Administration and Stan Hale, the former Democratic Governor of West Virginia.
White House Press Secretary Cassie Tatum has yet to make comment regards the rumours.
Monday February 18th 2019
Rumours that DR Bartlet will withdraw from Secretary of Health & Human Services hearings
NBS understands that Dr. Abigail Bartlet's nomination as Secretary of Health & Human Services is likely to be withdrawn. She is due to go in-front of the Senate Finance committee tomorrow morning.
After what we understand was a heated weekend at the White House, with rumours of arguments and splits within the President's Senior team, that Abigail Bartlet will withdrew her name from the hearings and thus the job. Senate Majority Leader Cody Riley is believed to have had a three hour meeting with Vice-President Jack Hunter, and White House Deputy Communications Director John Edwards. It seems a replacement list of five names was put to Riley, two of those names are believed to be Dr. Millicent Griffith, the former Surgeon General in the Bartlet Administration and Stan Hale, the former Democratic Governor of West Virginia.
White House Press Secretary Cassie Tatum has yet to make comment regards the rumours.
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Perhaps Dr. Bartlet could be given a position to head a task force on increasing the quality and access of medicine by the poor in the poverty areas of the US -- such as the Appalachian Mountain region (western NY, western PA, WV, TN, KY and N AL) This could also be expanded to the inner-cities (DC, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, etc...) This could somehow be developed from her previous role in working with the DC Clinic back in TWW years. Just another thought.
Both areas (rural areas and the inner cities0 are traditional Democratic strongholds -- and could become a priority for the Seaborn administration to increase the overall health care of the nation's poor and disenfranchised (those not able to receive adequate health care).
nbs.com
Monday February 18th, 2019
As Bartlet nomination flails, Seaborn administration welcomes new Cabinet secretaries
With the nomination of former First Lady Dr. Abigail Bartlet to the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services looking increasingly daunting in the face of a hostile Republican-held Senate, the Seaborn administration had cause for celebration with three new Cabinet or Cabinet-level members being confirmed earlier today. The biggest confirmation success was Karen Kroft, former congresswoman and commission chair of the Michigan Department of Agriculture who was confirmed to the position of Secretary of Agriculture with a strong 87-11 vote. The president's nominee for Secretary of Education, former deputy secretary Dr. Valeria Quintero, received a secure but less overwhelming mandate from the Senate, being confirmed in a 60-38 margin after a strong showing in hearings with the HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee where she held her ground against fierce questioning by Republican senators on her positions on education funding and nationwide curriculum standards. After personal lobbying by both Vice President Jack Hunter and Secretary of the Interior Sean Boone, both Republicans, following rumors that Senate leadership was going to instruct its caucus to reject any nominee the president put forth for the position of administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unless given prior approval by Senate leadership, the Senate approved the nomination of Mary-Beth Shotten, who was working in the New York Department of Environmental Protection, to become the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in a 55-43 vote with seven Republicans breaking ranks to support Shotten's nomination.
White House Press Secretary Cassie Tatum cited the three confirmations and generally smooth confirmation process for the Seaborn cabinet as a flaw in the press coverage. "It's not sexy, but the fact of the matter is that the president has, for the most part, assembled a team that an opposition-controlled Senate has seen little cause to reject. But rather than report on something that politically is almost miraculous, instead we see headlines and breaking news about one or two nominations that have run into problems or been delayed. It's frankly a little ridiculous."
Aside from Dr. Bartlet's nomination to the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services, two more nominees are having Senate hearings this week: businesswoman Sharon Frost for the position of Secretary of Commerce, and former EPA administrator Joan Tanner for the position of Secretary of Energy. Both also face challenges to their confirmation- Frost's vast business portfolio and repeated delay in submitting her financial disclosure paperwork has annoyed and concerned senators of both parties, while Tanner, who served as EPA administrator under Matthew Santos, is likely to come under fire from Republicans for her actions in regulating the coal and natural gas industries as well as past statements urging the replacement of coal-based power generation with renewable sources "as soon as practicable". Two more nominees, former governor Randy Broughton and former senator Dameon Matteo, have yet to undergo hearings for their nominations to be chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and administrator of the Small Business Administration, respectively. Both of those nominations have been predicted to face little opposition from Senate Republicans.
Monday February 18th, 2019
As Bartlet nomination flails, Seaborn administration welcomes new Cabinet secretaries
With the nomination of former First Lady Dr. Abigail Bartlet to the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services looking increasingly daunting in the face of a hostile Republican-held Senate, the Seaborn administration had cause for celebration with three new Cabinet or Cabinet-level members being confirmed earlier today. The biggest confirmation success was Karen Kroft, former congresswoman and commission chair of the Michigan Department of Agriculture who was confirmed to the position of Secretary of Agriculture with a strong 87-11 vote. The president's nominee for Secretary of Education, former deputy secretary Dr. Valeria Quintero, received a secure but less overwhelming mandate from the Senate, being confirmed in a 60-38 margin after a strong showing in hearings with the HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee where she held her ground against fierce questioning by Republican senators on her positions on education funding and nationwide curriculum standards. After personal lobbying by both Vice President Jack Hunter and Secretary of the Interior Sean Boone, both Republicans, following rumors that Senate leadership was going to instruct its caucus to reject any nominee the president put forth for the position of administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unless given prior approval by Senate leadership, the Senate approved the nomination of Mary-Beth Shotten, who was working in the New York Department of Environmental Protection, to become the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in a 55-43 vote with seven Republicans breaking ranks to support Shotten's nomination.
White House Press Secretary Cassie Tatum cited the three confirmations and generally smooth confirmation process for the Seaborn cabinet as a flaw in the press coverage. "It's not sexy, but the fact of the matter is that the president has, for the most part, assembled a team that an opposition-controlled Senate has seen little cause to reject. But rather than report on something that politically is almost miraculous, instead we see headlines and breaking news about one or two nominations that have run into problems or been delayed. It's frankly a little ridiculous."
Aside from Dr. Bartlet's nomination to the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services, two more nominees are having Senate hearings this week: businesswoman Sharon Frost for the position of Secretary of Commerce, and former EPA administrator Joan Tanner for the position of Secretary of Energy. Both also face challenges to their confirmation- Frost's vast business portfolio and repeated delay in submitting her financial disclosure paperwork has annoyed and concerned senators of both parties, while Tanner, who served as EPA administrator under Matthew Santos, is likely to come under fire from Republicans for her actions in regulating the coal and natural gas industries as well as past statements urging the replacement of coal-based power generation with renewable sources "as soon as practicable". Two more nominees, former governor Randy Broughton and former senator Dameon Matteo, have yet to undergo hearings for their nominations to be chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and administrator of the Small Business Administration, respectively. Both of those nominations have been predicted to face little opposition from Senate Republicans.
Atlantis Cable News
BREAKING NEWS
POTUS tweets support for Bartlet, Senate Finance to begin hearing at 10am Tuesday
Washington D.C.- Just minutes ago, President Seaborn tweeted out his support for HHS Nominee, Dr. Abigail Bartlet, signaling his intent to push forward with her nomination despite the mounting pressure for her to withdraw herself. The tweet read "My Administration stands 100% behind Dr. Bartlet. She is an exceptional surgeon and a strong advocate for women everywhere. She will make an excellent HHS Secretary". With the 10am Tuesday deadline looming, many have called on President Seaborn to withdraw the nomination over fears that he will have blown political capital on a nominee that could not make it through the GOP-controlled Senate.
The tweet comes less than 24 hours after a similar tweet from Sen. Nicole Kershaw (D-CA), the ranking member of the Senate HELP committee and close Seaborn confidante, tweeted a cryptic message that non-so-subtly implied that the opposition to Dr. Bartlet was based on her gender. Reading "We will overcome the obstruction from both sides who can't stand to see a strong woman standing up for herself."
In a brief statement to the White House Press Corps, White House Press Secretary Cassie Tatum confirmed the President support for Dr. Bartlet's nomination, stating "the President is all in on Dr. Bartlet." The comes as rumors fly that several White House senior staffers (most notably John Edwards & Cassie Tatum herself) have vocally opposed Dr. Bartlet's nomination. Both Edwards and Tatum have denied as much.
Dr. Bartlet's testimony is scheduled to begin at 10am tomorrow.
OOC: Special Thank to @Excelsior for the tweets. His photoshop skills are to be marveled.
McColl launches longshot gubernatorial bid
Hillsboro- Candice McColl, the Democratic Secretary of State, announced her gubernatorial candidacy this afternoon before a small group of supporters in her hometown of Hillsboro. McColl, who was trust into the national spotlight during the Presidential recount fight with Governor Walter Collins, has been rumored to be mulling a gubernatorial candidacy into to, quote "strike while the iron is hot". Despite the events of the recount, McColl still lags far behind Democratic frontrunner, Portland Mayor Mitch DiSarro, in both name recognition and campaign funding. McColl hopes to take advantage of the growing dislike of DiSarro within the Oregon Democratic Party to pull off the upset.
Here's one set of infoboxes I've been working on:
- Most of the info for both political parties (except of course the leaders, seats in Congress and governorships) remains the same from OTL. The total number of seats in state legislatures is the same as OTL, but that doesn't mean that every seat is held by the same party ITTL as IOTL.
- The majority of Fitzsimmons' bio was already laid out in the previous thread. The biggest change is that the Massachusetts Senate seat he held before becoming mayor of Boston didn't exist when he was first elected to the state senate in 1992, so I'm retconning that as him having held a different seat for two years and then running for the seat (Norfolk and Suffolk) he was established as representing after it is reestablished in 1994.
- Most of Mitchell's biography is inspired by both OTL GOP House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy and Freedom Caucus chair Jim Jordan, who luckily both are around the exact same age as Harris is. The most important bit of info is that I'm establishing Muncie, Indiana as Harris' hometown and that he served a term in the Indiana Senate before being elected to Congress. There's a bit of contradictory info about what position Harris was in when the 2010 election happened, and I've opted to follow the posts establishing him as the chair of conservative Republican Study Committee since one of their OTL heads was RL's most famous conservative congressman from Indiana.
Also, a slight bit of retconning since it wasn't mentioned in the thread at the time, but Barbara Layton was replaced by Andrew Casey as the number two Republican in the House after Layton was elected to the Senate in 2016.
Monday, February 18th, 2019
Atlantis Cable News
LA Mayor Micheal Kwan: "We need public transit in the 21st century"
Micheal Kwan at the Los Angeles Fashion show last year
(PB: Steven Yeun)
Los Angeles Mayor Michael Kwan discussed to a town hall meeting of developers and citizens that the Los Angeles Metro needs a modern and adaptive transit system. He stated that the plan his predecessor as Mayor of Los Angeles, Carlos Gutierrez, began along with other mayors in Los Angeles County cities. The metro authority in LA is planning an aggressive program of expansion. The mayor does acknowledge there still be congestion. "It would not be LA if the 405 wasn't a parking lot."
Mayor Kwan is hoping this mero plan will unite a city that has many racial divides, "As the city's first Korean-American Mayor. Born in Busan, raised in Reseda, I have long known the smog and congestion of this city. I hope this plan will make it so people can easily commute from any part of the city or beyond to get to work or go to the beach."
The plan is garnering attention from public transit leaders across the country and even around the world. The Program even is getting some positive input from the MTA Chairman of New York Ricardo Diaz.
Atlantis Cable News
LA Mayor Micheal Kwan: "We need public transit in the 21st century"
Micheal Kwan at the Los Angeles Fashion show last year
(PB: Steven Yeun)
Los Angeles Mayor Michael Kwan discussed to a town hall meeting of developers and citizens that the Los Angeles Metro needs a modern and adaptive transit system. He stated that the plan his predecessor as Mayor of Los Angeles, Carlos Gutierrez, began along with other mayors in Los Angeles County cities. The metro authority in LA is planning an aggressive program of expansion. The mayor does acknowledge there still be congestion. "It would not be LA if the 405 wasn't a parking lot."
Mayor Kwan is hoping this mero plan will unite a city that has many racial divides, "As the city's first Korean-American Mayor. Born in Busan, raised in Reseda, I have long known the smog and congestion of this city. I hope this plan will make it so people can easily commute from any part of the city or beyond to get to work or go to the beach."
The plan is garnering attention from public transit leaders across the country and even around the world. The Program even is getting some positive input from the MTA Chairman of New York Ricardo Diaz.
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BBC.CO.UK/Politics
Tuesday February 19th 2019
Tributes as South Shields Labour MP Stan Dove dies aged 86
Tributes have poured in for veteran Labour MP Stan Dove who has died, after a short illness. He represented South Shields since 1979 when he was first elected.
Labour leader Andrea Benn described him as an "independent thinker who was a credit to the party", while the Prime-Minister Richard Samuels released a statement saying " whilst we where from different parties, he was always a gentleman in our dealings and he was a giant of the Labour movement". South Shields Labour Party confirmed in a tweet that Mr Dove died on Sunday, saying he was "a hero and a true legend in the North-East and beyond".
House of Commons Speaker Anthony Walker opened proceedings today by paying tribute to Mr Dove. "Stan was a standing rebuke to those who thought it was vital always to be in the closest possible regulatory alignment with one's whips office," he said. "It wasn't. "He always spoke his mind, he did it his way. He did it with eloquence, with knowledge, with character, and often - as we all know - with great wit."
The passing of Mr Dove will now require a second by-election following last weeks resignation of Liberal Democrat Leader Robert Richardson in Bermondsey & Old Southwark.
At the General Election last September he was re-elected with a majority of 15,134.
Stan Dove, seen here on the BBC's 1987 Election Night Coverage being interviewed by Sir Robin Day.
(photo by Peter O'Toole-original thread casting from 2011)
Tuesday February 19th 2019
Tributes as South Shields Labour MP Stan Dove dies aged 86
Tributes have poured in for veteran Labour MP Stan Dove who has died, after a short illness. He represented South Shields since 1979 when he was first elected.
Labour leader Andrea Benn described him as an "independent thinker who was a credit to the party", while the Prime-Minister Richard Samuels released a statement saying " whilst we where from different parties, he was always a gentleman in our dealings and he was a giant of the Labour movement". South Shields Labour Party confirmed in a tweet that Mr Dove died on Sunday, saying he was "a hero and a true legend in the North-East and beyond".
House of Commons Speaker Anthony Walker opened proceedings today by paying tribute to Mr Dove. "Stan was a standing rebuke to those who thought it was vital always to be in the closest possible regulatory alignment with one's whips office," he said. "It wasn't. "He always spoke his mind, he did it his way. He did it with eloquence, with knowledge, with character, and often - as we all know - with great wit."
The passing of Mr Dove will now require a second by-election following last weeks resignation of Liberal Democrat Leader Robert Richardson in Bermondsey & Old Southwark.
At the General Election last September he was re-elected with a majority of 15,134.
Stan Dove, seen here on the BBC's 1987 Election Night Coverage being interviewed by Sir Robin Day.
(photo by Peter O'Toole-original thread casting from 2011)
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Atlantis Cable News
BREAKING NEWS
Despite Presidential support, Bartlet de-rails before Senate Finance Committee
Washington D.C.- In what seems to have become a daily occurrence on Capital Hill, Dr. Abigail Bartlet once again turned in a poor performance before the United States Senate. Following two disastrous days before the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor & Pensions) last week, Dr. Bartlet had hoped to make a comeback performance today following President Seaborn's public show of support last night. However, today may have been the worst day yet for Dr. Bartlet as the members of both parties tore into her as she testified before the Senate Finance Committee. Despite the efforts of Democratic Senators Nicole Kershaw (D-CA) and Mitch Bryce (D-IL), as well as Ranking Member Ryan Lyndell (D-MA), many Democrats broke from party lines to attack the former First Lady. Unsurprisingly, one of Dr. Bartlet's fiercest critics took the form of Andrew Thorn (D-NY) whom many believe still has not made amends with President Seaborn following their brutal primary last year. During his allotted time, Senator Thorn asked Dr. Bartlet, "how can the American people trust you to run our healthcare establishment while you've been lying to them for years?". Democrats Calvin Bowles (D-KY) and Matt Clausen (D-PA) were also highly critical of Dr. Bartlet, with Senator Bowles indicating that he would not be voting for Dr. Bartlet when it comes to a vote tomorrow morning.
Not to be outdone, the entire GOP contingent attacked Dr. Bartlet without mercy. The most critical blows came from Oregon junior Senator Curtis Ryan (R-OR) who escalated things to another level when he asked "You do understand that prescription drug fraud is a felony?" The flood gates opened after that with the question being repeated several times by other GOP Senators, and nearly all of them using the word "felony" during their questions.
With both the Senate HELP and Finance committees scheduled to vote tormorrow morning, the prospects of Dr. Bartlet seem to be non-existant
So, he is literally going to be a "thorn" in the presidents side then?
....
...
I'll see myself out now.
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