Oregon House Democrats: Fighting for Oregon #39;s Future
In the 2015 legislative session, Oregon House Democrats will be focused on: Expanding opportunities by investing in education, protecting working families, e...
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Oregon House Democrats: Fighting for Oregon's Future - Video
Levin: Terrible Deeds in the Name of Democrats
In their long War Against Anybody.
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Levin: Terrible Deeds in the Name of Democrats - Video
And a number of top Democrats including Vice President Joe Biden, whose job description includes the title President of the Senate won't be attending.
Netanyahu is expected to use the speech to sharply criticize the White House's efforts to negotiate a deal on Iran's nuclear program and to urge Congress to pass new sanctions on the nation, a position that puts him sharply at odds with the president. On Tuesday, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Netanyahu's decision to speak was "destructive to the fabric of the relationship" between Israel and the U.S.
Related: Tensions rise between Obama, Netanyahu
Related: White House gets confrontational before Netanyahu visit
The expected substance of the speech, coupled with the fact that the White House was not alerted to the invite ahead of time, has Democrats crying foul.
Twenty-seven Democratic House members and four Democratic senators have said in recent weeks they're not going to the speech, many in protest to a move that they say is an affront to the president.
Many more have said they're undecided on whether to attend, and more defections could emerge in the coming days. A full list of the Democrats who have confirmed they're missing the speech follows:
SENATE - 4 members
Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.)
Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.)
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34 Democrats skipping Netanyahu's speech
Democrats are playing a dangerous game with Israel by snubbing the prime minister of Americas staunchest Middle East ally.
Four Democratic senators, as well as almost two dozen House members, have already announced that they wont attend Benjamin Netanyahus speech to a joint session of Congress on March 3.
By doing so, they may curry favor with the White House, but they risk sending a dangerous message to Israels enemies especially Iran.
As recently as November, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that the only cure for Israel is to be annihilated.
Is it any wonder that Netanyahu considers a nuclear-armed Iran an existential threat to Israels very existence?
Israel is the only nation in the world that, from its inception, has been constantly threatened with extinction.
Its Arab neighbors have fought repeated wars to destroy the Jewish state. Terrorist groups have periodically slaughtered Israelis aiming their attacks at innocent civilians, even schoolchildren.
Last year alone, Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel from Gaza. Only the Iron Dome defense system prevented the rockets from killing hundreds if not thousands of Israelis who were Hamas intended victims.
So why on earth have Democrats chosen to pick this fight?
And make no mistake: It is a handful of Democrats who have turned Netanyahus speech into a partisan issue.
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Comforting the enemy: Bottom line of the Bibi boycott
TIME Politics Congress T.J. KirkpatrickGetty Images House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, at center, reads a letter she sent to colleagues in congress, with Democratic leaders including, from left, Rep. Xavier Becerra, Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rep. Joseph Crowley and Rep. Rosa DeLauro at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 27, 2015 in Washington, DC.
With just hours to go before a midnight deadline, Congress passed a one-week extension to fund the Department of Homeland Security and prevent sending 30,000 government employees home on furlough.
The vote ended a tumultuous day in the House as Republican Speaker John Boehner and his aides lost control of their right flank, failing to deliver a three-week funding measure for the department and relying instead on Democrats to pass the one-week measure to avoid a DHS shutdown.
Boehner had hoped the three-week extension would buy his conference time to figure out how to protest immigration measures put forward by President Obama last year, without shutting down DHS. But his fellow Republicans turned on the bill and it failed by a handful of votes late in the afternoon.
The Senate, led by newly elected Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, then calmly passed a one-week extension of funding for the department and sent that bill back across the Capitol to the House. After House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi spoke with Obama, House Democrats opted to vote with Boehner and the Republican leadership rather than allow funding for the department to fail.
The one-week extension in funding for DHS meant that McConnell could technically uphold his promise that there would be no government shutdowns under his leadership. But House conservatives effectively ended McConnells other major promise as leader: that the party would no longer be scary.
On the Senate side of the Capitol, the House disarray brought scorn from Democrats and Republicans alike. Hopefully were gonna end the attaching of bullshit to essential items of the government, Illinois GOP Sen. Mark Kirk, whos up for reelection in 2016, told TPM. In the long-run, if you are blessed with the majority, youre blessed with the power to govern. If youre gonna govern, you have to act responsibly.
The DHS fight originated in November, when Obama announced he would unilaterally, temporarily defer deportations up to five million immigrants who came to the country illegally. While Republicans in Congress were furious at what they called the unconstitutional action, they were faced with few good options to effectively negate Obamas executive actions.
Their best option emerged last week, when a federal judge in Texas ordered Obama to stop his action through an injunction. Still, some of the top legal experts in the country say the presidents actions are lawful. Some Republicans applauded the three-week plan put forward by Boehner Thursday night, saying that it gave time to highlight the ruling.
America should have an opportunity to understand why we object to the presidents action [and] why a federal judge found that the president didnt have the authority, said California GOP Rep. Darrell Issa. So the Speaker has offered a very reasoned way to create space in which to have that debate with the Senate.
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House Democrats Save DHS From Shutdown, Republicans From Themselves