Posted on 07/18/2007 7:29:45 AM PDT by Valin
So much for forcing Republicans to filibuster all night.
As the clock struck midnight and Tuesday became Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid loosened up a bit on his plans to teach members of the minority that Democrats set the schedule on the debate over Iraq.
Reid made his point with a 41-37 vote to instruct the Senate Sergeant-at-arms to request absent senators to attend Senate proceedings he had promised through the night. More to the point, nobody wanted to be the next Bob Packwood, the Oregon Republican carried feet-first into the chamber under a similar directive in 1988.
Turns out Reid had no intention of enforcing that motion, what with the assortment of senators over 80 who could not be expected to show up through the night for live quorum calls.
Speaking of those mandatory attendance tallies, Reid changed his mind about how many, and when. He had originally planned holding one around 3 a.m. and another at 7 a.m. But that changed during the midnight vote when Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., made the case against senatorial sleep deprivation and implored Reid to push the quorum call back.
Reid, who had his very own cot waiting for him in a quiet parlor off his office, agreed. Next live quorum call, he announced: 5 a.m. With a few cases of bed-head among them, senators rolled in and again passed the same motion to instruct. This time the motion passed 37-23, with dawn beginning to break by the time the tally was completed.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, rubbed his eyes. With the onset of dawn, the senators continued to speak. Reid set a vote later in the morning on whether to advance legislation to withdraw troops from Iraq.
A few hours earlier, most senators hit the hay.
Two rows of cots turned one of the Capitol's most ornate chambers into a dorm room. It could not be confirmed how many senators bunked there, but one male was spotted snoozing there just before the midnight vote. A Senate aide who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information said two more men slumbered there around 2:25 a.m. Members with more seniority also had the option of dozing in their hideaway offices tucked into the Capitol's assorted corners and hallways.
Still others hightailed it to their nearby homes for a few hours of shuteye.
Debate over the legislation continued through the wee hours, with a half-dozen spectators watching from the gallery. Republican presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona finished his speech around 4:10 a.m. He was followed by White House hopeful Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
Off the floor, there was still more back-and-forth — over short memories, mostly.
Democrats pointed out that four years ago, Republicans — then in the majority — launched the last round-the-clock Senate session to force Democrats to make good on their filibuster of President Bush's judicial nominations.
Democrats complained that the Senate had turned from the oft-cited world's most greatest deliberative body into something else entirely — though they couldn't agree what.
A "circus, a "mockery," "Kabuki theater," a "carnival" and a "charade," they complained. Not only that, but "a colossal waste of time." And given the increasingly geriatric nature of the chamber as a whole, the Senate in all-night session amounts to "elder abuse."
What did they expect Republicans to do in the face of such obstructionism, McConnell asked?
"We are having this all-night session in order to call to the attention of the public the fact that this unprecedented obstructionism is going on," declared then-Majority Whip McConnell, R-Ky, in a 2003 interview on Fox News Network. "Most people think that in the world's oldest democracy if you can get a majority you are entitled to move ahead."
Nowadays, Democrats agree. And they run the chamber — all night.
To be sure, the issue this time is about life and death for thousands of Americans and Iraqis. But lofty wartime debate isn't likely to give Democrats the 60 votes needed to advance troop withdrawal legislation blocked by Republicans.
"Tonight is not a stunt, it's a statement," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.
Republicans described it in other ways.
A "political stunt," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. "Petty kindergarten games."
Republicans Call Reid’s Bluff
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/010553.php
Harry Reid kept the Senate in business all night long as a way to publicize the fact that Republicans won’t allow cloture on an amendment for retreating from Iraq. For some reason, Reid apparently thought that this would somehow break the will of the Republicans in a manner that had escaped the Democratic effort to complain about the same cloture rules they used repeatedly to block legislation and presidential appointments when Reid was Minority Leader instead of Majority Leader.
In the end, not only didn’t Reid move the Republicans, he took most of the night off himself:
So much for forcing Republicans to filibuster all night.
As the clock struck midnight and Tuesday became Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid loosened up a bit on his plans to teach members of the minority that Democrats set the schedule on the debate over Iraq. ...
Speaking of those mandatory attendance tallies, Reid changed his mind about how many, and when. He had originally planned holding one around 3 a.m. and another at 7 a.m. But that changed during the midnight vote when Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., made the case against senatorial sleep deprivation and impugned Reid to push the quorum call back.
Reid, who had his very own cot waiting for him in a quiet parlor off his office, agreed. Next live quorum call, he announced: 5 a.m. With a few cases of bed-head among them, senators rolled in and again passed the same motion to instruct. This time the motion passed 37-23, with dawn beginning to break by the time the tally was completed.
So what did this accomplish? Nothing. After midnight, most of the Senate disappeared. It turned into nothing more than a huge bluff, and Reid lost.
Here’s what Reid wanted. He knew that he didn’t have enough votes for a quorum; he only has 49 Democrats available, with Tim Johnson’s disability. Reid counted on Republicans forcing an end to the session by having a single member present to challenge for a quorum. No votes could take place without one, including the instruction motion to the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest recalcitrant members and drag them back to the chamber. That would have allowed Reid and the Democrats to accuse Republicans of dodging the debate, calling them cowards to take the spotlight off of their insistence on retreat.
Many expected the Republicans to do just that, but it turns out that Mitch McConnell is a little smarter than Harry Reid. Instead of denying Reid a quorum, the Republicans showed up for the debate, perhaps charged up by John McCain’s earlier speech on the floor. Once Reid figured out that the Republicans would not give him the satisfaction of walking out the door, he caved. In fact, Reid didn’t even bother to attend his own No Snooze Until We Lose party after the first instruction motion, choosing to hit the sack instead while Republicans took the podium all night long.
The cloture vote has been scheduled for around 11 am this morning. The overnight session has done nothing except to annoy Republicans into a more unified caucus, and to make Harry Reid look like a fool. One might have expected a Senator from Nevada to recognize a busted flush when he saw it.
I sounds like what Jr. High kids in my church do once every year. A lockdown. They all come to church along with the youth minister with their sleeping bags and stay up all night playing games and eating junk food.
Seems the Democrat Woof Pack needed their beauty rest!
Reid’s stunt kinda blew up in his face, didn’t it? My proposal is a campaign to send white flags to all the Democrats except Lieberman and the Republican defeatists. Wonder where I could find a supplier of white flags. Bottom line is this doesn’t make the Dems look very good, should push Congress’ approval ratings farther into the basement.
As dumb as the whole thing was I do think it accomplished its purpose:
demonstrate to the anti war base that Democrats are every bit as crazy as they are.
The anti war pro genocide base needed to hear and see this since they are occasionally haunted by the suggestion that they are crazy.
Why does the term “Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys” keep popping into my head today? :)
Then they're fools. A simple majority is not a mandate, and you can't hang far-reaching matters on one.
I'll rate the Dems...dumb, dumber, dumbest. Pick any one!!
demonstrate to the anti war base that Democrats are every bit as crazy as they are
Hope you’re not suprised.
I could go over to DU, but I don’t feel like banging my head against the wall (which is what happens every time I go there).
Yes, indeed it is a statement. . .a statement that you are absolutely looney.
It has been living in my head, too, along with the word “weasels.”
[Wonder where I could find a supplier of white flags.]
Tie a “Depends” to a stick and send it off in homor to the over 80’s!
Carolyn
Was Kerry there for the whole evening. I heard he made some lame statement yesterday afternoon about someone flip-flopping.
Don’t you wish that someone would give him the message that he has ceasedto be relevant any longer?
Nothing to compare to Mr. Smith goes to Washington.
Reid’s strategy is not going to help the white flag surrender monkeys.
Did you know that John Kerry served in Vie-Nam?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1204481/posts#28
John “kill em all” Kerry
(what I did on my summer vacation)
ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa, went the the twin engines on John kill em all kerry’s boat (real heros have nick names like that). It was a dark and quiet night, John kill em all Kerry turned to his first mate and (in a quiet yet confident voice) said....”it’s quiet...too quiet I don’t like it.
If only we can get a bit farther up river without getting spotted we’ll be able to drop off secret agent x-183”.
In the blink of an eye the calm of the night was SHATTERED KAPOW KAPOW WOOOOSH BLAM BLAM the night came alive with a song of DEATH! They had sailed into a clever ambush set by Charlie (John kill em all Kerry’s long time foe).
The crew strickened with fear and unable to move turned as one to the one man who had the courage, the skill, the WILL to save them.
John kill em all Kerry like a coiled spring leapped into action (That’s what heros like to do in these kind of situations) with a sneer on his lips John kill em all Kerry THRUST the throttle forward and mzzz teraza (hero’s like john kill em all Kerry like to have names for their boats) LEAPPED like a mighty stallion BAAATTLE STATIONS he shouted! Wakeing as from a dream John kill em all kerry’s band of brothers charged to their stations.
BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA sang the quad 50s in a tune that sang death and destruction for Charlie and his commie stooges, BRRRRAAAAAPPPP the 60’s spat out a curtain of lead, BOOOOM BOOOOM the 300mm mortars adding their song to the aria of war!
Now the dirty commies would pay for DARING to attack John killl em all Kerry and his All American band of brothes! With a ferral grin John kill em all Kerry shouted DIE COMMIE SCUM! (see hero types like John kill em all Kerry say things like that, they teach them that at hero school).
Just when it looked like one more (glorious) victory for John kill em all Kerry and his gallant band of brothers, KABOOOOM commie frogmen had placed a mine (the sneeky dirty underhanded Khmer rouge bast*rds) on the sleak and deadly mzzz teraza! In a bat of an eyelash john kill em all Kerry knew his gallant little steed was done for,
Flinging the little mzzz teraza at the nearest nest of vipers John kill em all Kerry CHARGED straight into the muzzels of death.
Afraid? Not he, John kill em all Kerry didn’t know the meaning of fear
{fear(Function): noun Etymology: Middle English fer,
from Old English f[AE]r sudden danger; akin to Latin periculum attempt, peril, Greek peiran to attempt
Date: 12th century
1 a : an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger
b (1) : an instance of this emotion
(2) : a state marked by this emotion
2 : anxious concern :
SOLICITUDE
3 : profound reverence and awe especially toward God
4 : reason for alarm : DANGER synonyms FEAR, DREAD, FRIGHT, ALARM, PANIC, TERROR, TREPIDATION mean painful agitation in the presence or anticipation of danger. FEAR is the most general term and implies anxiety and usually loss of courage .
DREAD usually adds the idea of intense reluctance to face or meet a person or situation and suggests aversion as well as anxiety .
FRIGHT implies the shock of sudden, startling fear .
ALARM suggests a sudden and intense awareness of immediate danger .
PANIC implies unreasoning and overmastering fear causing hysterical activity .
TERROR implies the most extreme degree of fear.
TREPIDATION adds to DREAD the implications of timidity, trembling, and hesitation.}
The boat rammed into the den of inequity, and leapping from the galllant but doomed craft a 50cal in his right hand his (trusty) M-16 in his left a 5in. cannon strapped to his back John kill em all Kerry LEAPPED into the very heart of the enemy AAAAHHHHHH he cried all the while dealing death to the left and right (hero types do stuff like that all the time, that’s why they’re hero types)
The (dirty) commies quaked in fear at this (magnificent specimen) All American hero type in a blood lust cried “It’s kill em all Kerry! Please don’t kill us, John kill em all Kerry would have none of that! Not after their dastardly attack and mortal wounding of his (beloved) mzzz teraza, DIE YOU DIRTY COOMIS RATS, I’LL TEACH YOU TO MESS WITH MASSACHUSETTS!
And oh the carnage the ensued, So terrible was his (awesome but sensitive) wrath that soon after those above him (being jealous of his superior combat skills and the love his band of brothers had for him) sent him back to the good old US of A.
Stay tuned for more advetures of John kill em all Kerry.
I called my Senator (Alexander) this morning - told the phone puke that I hope the Senators got a good discount on the 100 two-man horse costumes they seemed to be wearing, because they only used the hiney half.
Also told her that there is a reason for the way the military is organized into a COMMAND structure instead of committees. The military has on obscene name for a war fought by committee, one that I can’t say to you, but ask a veteran about a “Charlie-Foxtrot.”
Neither the Baker-Hamilton Committee nor the body of 100 preening, pompous, popinjays that just put on this all-night circus performance is capable of managing its way out of a paper bag.
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