Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 12/21/2009 9:10:35 AM PST by Servant of the Cross
Why did the Senate gather at 1 a.m. Monday for a vote to move ahead on the Reid Amendment to the Democrats' national health care bill? Democrats blame Republicans. "Everyone knows we're here at one in the morning because of my friends on the other side of the aisle," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said moments before the vote. On CBS Sunday, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu said, "We don't have to vote in the middle of the night, but [Republican Sen. Tom Coburn] is the one making us do it -- not Harry Reid, not the Democrats. It is a Republican obstructionist that is making us vote in the middle of the night."
Coburn has no doubt slowed debate on the bill. But the fact is, there is no reason the Reid Amendment vote could not have been held at a more reasonable hour. One a.m. Monday was the earliest moment that Senate rules allowed a vote, but there is no rule keeping the Senate from voting at some time after 1 a.m. If Reid had scheduled the vote for, say, 11 a.m. Monday, that would have been fine. If he scheduled it for 4 p.m. Monday, or 10 a.m. Tuesday, that would have been fine, too.
But Reid is determined to pass the national health care bill by Christmas, and to do so he has to get the cloture vote on his amendment done at the earliest moment. The timeline is Reid's and Reid's alone. "The bottom line is, Sen. Reid schedules the floor," says one well-connected GOP aide. "He is the only one who can schedule the floor." If Reid had scheduled the vote during business hours on, say, Tuesday, a final vote would not have taken place until the day after Christmas -- an outcome Reid apparently found unacceptable.
This is how it works. Reid introduced his amendment Saturday morning. (It's the one that has the Sen. Ben Nelson Medicaid buy-off and other curious features.) Senate rules say there has to be an intervening day between the introduction of the amendment and a vote on limiting debate on the amendment. That intervening day was Sunday. That meant the cloture vote could be held Monday, or any time thereafter. The rules also say that the vote has to be held at least one hour after that next day has begun. So the Senate's Monday business began at 12:01 a.m., and the Reid Amendment vote could be held at 1:01 a.m. (As it happened, Reid himself spoke last, and his remarks went over the mark by six minutes.)
After the middle-of-the-night vote, there will be a maximum of 30 hours debate on the amendment. Then there will be a 30-hour period for a Republican substitute bill, followed by a 30-hour period on the final bill. Reid's schedule calls for a final, final vote on the health care measure to take place at about 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Voila! The bill will be passed by Christmas. That couldn't be done unless the Reid Amendment cloture vote were held in the earliest hours of Monday morning, setting off the final chain of votes and waiting periods. "This is purely to satisfy a self-imposed, arbitrary deadline," says the GOP aide.
By the way, when the 1 a.m. vote took place, the Reid Amendment had been public for about 36 hours, and the public had not had a single business day to examine it. "Make no mistake," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a few minutes before the vote. "If the people who wrote this bill were proud of it, they wouldn't be forcing this vote in the dead of night." Referring to the Nelson buy-off and other special arrangements in the bill, McConnell said few people would have imagined that the health care debate would have ended "with a couple of cheap deals and a rushed vote at one o'clock in the morning."
But that's what happened. In the end, to no one's surprise, the Reid Amendment moved ahead, 60-40, on a straight party-line vote. Democrats can blame Sen. Coburn and Republicans all they like, but the fact is, there is no reason, beyond the Christmas deadline, that the vote had to take place at 1 a.m.
Rats always come out at night.
That is so true.
The truth is, We The People are the only thing left that obama and his fellow travelers DO fear. The country is his for the taking and he knows it.
When governments prepare and strategize in direct opposition to the overwhelming majority of it's people, as the obama administration is doing, while KNOWING that government has enumerated, specific limits, it is glaring apparent they have become the RULERS of that people. That is where we are. They rule us, we know they rule us and they know we know they rule us, and the line is drawn in the sand.
The Constitution specifically that we are to throw off the shackles of an oppresive government and start over. The monolith has grown to have a life of it's own and will seek to preserve itself, even if people have to die. So what are we going to do? Probably nothing.
Sorry to be so pessimistic, but this is reality.
You're far too kind, Jim.
Satan and all of his willing followers.
To that wisdom I would add the dark rumination of Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor.
In the story, Jesus returned to Earth at the height of the Spanish Inquisition. Not long after He returned and started preaching his “heresies”, he was brought before the Grand Inquisitor. You have come to make people free, the Grand Inquisitor said, but people do not want to be free.
We Are Those People
Robinson Jeffers
I have abhorred the wars and despised the liars, laughed at the frightened
And forecast victory; never one moment’s doubt.
But now not far, over the backs of some crawling years, the next
Great war’s column of dust and fire writhes
Up the sides of the sky: it becomes clear that we too may suffer
What others have, the brutal horror of defeat—
Or if not in the next, then in the next—therefore watch Germany
And read the future. We wish, of course, that our women
Would die like biting rats in the cellars, our men like wolves on the mountain:
It will not be so. Our men will curse, cringe, obey;
Our women uncover themselves to the grinning victors for bits of chocolate.
I had been thinking it would get interesting once we find out what is in this actual bill which has been written behind closed doors. We don’t actually know what’s in it, do we?
Our rulers in washington recognize there is nothing that will motivate the american citizen to revolt. They can operate with impunity and do what ever they wish to enrich themselves and enslaves the subjects. The people have already demonstrated they are willing to bend over and take whatever comes without any limit
This article by Byron York does just that, refute it! If Coburn took the floor to refute it who do you think would cover it? WP, NYT, the networks? All you would hear is silence.
That being said, I hope he does and I will be happy to be wrong if it is reported.
not if you happen to be a politician looking to implement martial law and make himself PRESIDENT FOR LIFE. That is EXACTLY what you'd want. It isn't like he and the rest of his accomplices would be in any danger.
Nah the reality is the Constitution provides for elections and the Democrats won. We will have elections again and if the Republicans don't get their brand back on the shelves, things could repeat. Maybe Obama ignoring voters could do for the Democrats what Bush did for the Republicans. Elections have consequences.
If the Republican party is where our hopes lie, it IS over. THEY think the Constitution is a “living, breathing document” too.
You seriously think the republic can stand under 3 more years under the treasonous leadership of the democrats? I don’t and those elections you mention won’t matter. By then obamacare will be reality and the Supreme court will be re-packed with ultra-liberal activist judges.
It’s pitchfork time, but the American people don’t have the stomach for it. And finally, the Repulbicans don’t even know what their brand is anymore, let alone what to do with it.
I do not share your sanguine, insouciant attitude. I do not see this as the give-and-take of an orderly constitutional republic.
We passed many milestones over the past seventy years that indicated that we were becoming ever more like the decadent empire that the Founders deplored. In fact, it started around the time that the image of Columbia, or Liberty, was removed from our coinage and replaced with dead Presidents, as if they were laurelled emperors of a bygone golden age. The virtue of a republican polity still exists in pockets, but powers an principalities are everywhere victorious. I see no worthy alternative to a reboot.
YES HE IS
But he is effective. He runs rings around the clueless “leadership” on the other side.
That in a nutshell is the problem. One side plays to win the other side plays to prevent.
” cheap deals “
I don’t care what party they’re from! Only a Congress critter could say something like that!
And, though I applaud, and share, your energy and commitment,,,
“the shekels of tyranny.” is kinda funny! ;^)
One of you needs to do the "Liar!" shout, and be a man!
You can be sure the GOP is quite pleased with themselves. They watch a humongous tax, spend and control the subjects bill move further down the track and not one of them had to vote for it and take responsibility for it. Yet, as crooked politicians, they will reap just as many benefits from it as the dems. All and all, a nice charade acted out for the benefit of the ignorant citizen on the part of both parties. I'm sure they are all laughing about their performances today behind closed doors.
I wonder about the timing, myself.
They pulled this on the Solstice which is often observed with pagan ritual sacrifice.
I do not believe in coincidences.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.