United States Deputy Attorney General

The Senate Convenes at 2:00pmET May 9, 2011

At 2:00pm, Senator-designee Dean Heller will be sworn in as Senator from Nevada.

Following any leader remarks, there will be a period of morning business until 4:00pm with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

At 4:30pm, the Senate will proceed to Executive Session to consider the nomination of James Cole, to be Deputy Attorney General.

At approximately 5:30pm, the Senate will proceed to a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Cole nomination.

There will be no further roll call votes today.

Votes:

67: Motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of James Cole, of DC, to be Deputy Attorney General; Not invoked: 50-40

Unanimous Consent:

Discharged Foreign Relations and adopted S.Res.153, recognizing the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with a Lugar amendment.

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The next meeting in the House is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on May 10, 2011.

A deputy attorney general in Indiana on Saturday suggested on Twitter to “use live ammunition” against protesters in Madison, Wisconsin. In a back-and-forth with a writer for Mother Jones magazine, he followed up, “You’re damned right I advocate deadly force.”

There’s one word for this: Unacceptable.

http://www.pfaw.org/take-action/call-for-indiana-deputy-attorney-general-jeff-cox-s-immediate-firing

The fact that a public official is comfortable calling for the shooting of peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights is terrifying. Unfortunately, it’s not surprising since the political Right has moved so far away from supporting democratic norms.

The right-wing movement — from its politicians to its media outlets — has taken sides against the working people of Wisconsin and is trying to paint peaceful protesters and unions as “thugs.” In doing so, they are aligning themselves with some of American history’s worst villains — the politicians and robber barons of the late 1800’s and early 1900s who would call in private security firms and militias to break union strikes and intimidate workers with outright violence, and sometimes mass murder.

We remember the violent actions and rhetoric of some of the Tea Party congressional candidates in 2010 — Sharron Angle with her “Second Amendment remedies,” Joe Miller with his private security guards who roughed up and illegally detained a reporter. Now we’re faced with public officials who are falsely trying to portray public workers who are under attack and their supporters as violent … and advocating real violence against them just for standing up for their basic rights!

Don’t let it stand. Speak out now.http://www.pfaw.org/take-action/call-for-indiana-deputy-attorney-general-jeff-cox-s-immediate-firing Tell Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and AG Greg Zoeller to immediately demand Deputy Attorney General Jeff Cox‘s resignation and address calls for violence within the AG’s office.

We apologize for today’s increased email traffic from us, but this is clearly an important and urgent matter, and we did not feel it should wait. Please speak out now.

— Ben Betz, Online Communications Manager