...I wouldn't be supporting Bob Barr for President...
Mitch McConnell has big brass balls. In case you haven't been keeping up with Senate proceedings lately, Red State is reporting that Mitch McConnell has called out Harry Reid's lying bullshit and has effectively shut down the Senate:
Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats pledged to hold a confirmation vote on three of President Bush's Circuit Court nominees prior to Memorial Day, then broke their word and allowed only one to be considered on the floor, thinking that their continued obstructionism in the face of a Republican minority and lame-duck President would go unchallenged and without consequence. Today, Senate Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell (R-KY), began to pay back the Democrats for their obstructionist, bullying tactics.
Mitch McConnell shut down the floor today by forcing the clerk to read all 500 or so pages of Barbara Boxer’s climate change bill, making it essentially impossible for anything to happen in the Senate all day (or, technically, until the reading is complete).
In addition to stopping all progress on the legislation currently on the floor, this action will have the effect of throwing off Reid’s entire legislative calendar (yes, the same one he somehow "forgot" to add those promised pre-Memorial Day confirmation votes to).
There are few things the minority can do in the Senate more disruptive to the Majority than removing their ability to manage the floor. Reid and Boxer (D-CA) have been seen very agitatedly conversing on the floor during the reading (clearly, Boxer neither wants to hear, nor wants anybody else to hear, her bill read in so public a location as the Senate chamber).
McConnell's action is designed to send a very specific message to Reid, Boxer, Leahy, and the rest of the Senate Democrats that Republicans will not stand by while they hedge, obstruct, and otherwise refuse to move on the nominations of qualified judges to the bench.
The effects of the move by Senator McConnell are discussed at length in the article. It has been a small bright spot in an otherwise bleak political season.
Hurrah Mitch McConnell! Labels: brassballs politics senate
