Bring Out the Cots

But what if there’s another Kentucky basketball game?
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Sen. Bunning already complained that he had to miss the one against South Carolina, and it would be the epitome of mindless partisanship to make him miss another SEC game.

I was so disappointed when Dick Durban said on Friday that they would be withdrawing the bill, then some sorry, sorry words to those who would be really hurt by this and warning Bunning that they would be back this week. I trust the later was said in a scary, scary tone.

Those of us complaining about Reid’s leadership might realize that Durbin might not be any better.

Make ‘em Filibuster!! What wimps. This is a perfect issue as well – doesn’t have the subtle factors in HCR. Good chance for someone to ask Bunning where he was for the past 10 years.

kevin, that’s just the price he would be willing to pay (not without complaining, of course) for doing what’s important for the country.

Help me out, Ivy: Is a Press Release more or less threatening than a Strongly Worded Memo?
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What about compared to saying something “in a scary, scary tone” as you suggest?
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Hard to keep track of the nuances of the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body…

It sounds great to say make them filibuster, but you need to read http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-filibuster-one-more-time.html to see why it’s really not going to help.

B–

Technically correct, but….the public spectable of Senate business held up to deny a majority vote on extension of unemployment benefits–or health reform, for that matter–would be devastating politically. At least, that’s what happened when Bill Clinton called the Republicans’ bluff on closing down the govt in 1995.

Unbelievable that one right-wing GOP ideologue would pull such a stunt of such staggering malice.

Even more unbelievable that the rest of the Senate – especially the leader of the majority – is letting him get away with it.

Okay, here’s an idea: Change the rule so that instead of giving one Senator the ability to hold the government hostage, require 40 votes to filibuster a piece of legislation, cloture vote, whatever.

“I mean, if you really care about American workers, you should be willing to risk some all-night inconvenience.”
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Why is it that no matter what Republicans do, it’s always the Democrats who are held responsible? I’m actually OK with that reality, just make sure you spell out that it’s because Democrats are the only grownups in the room.

They started to do it Friday night, when it looked like it was only Bunning going to the mat for this obstruction and he started getting angry and delusional. However, when a few other Republicans (Corker, Sessions) showed up to help out Bunning, it was apparent that keeping 50 Democrats on the Senate floor all the time while 1 Republican at a time came to the Senate floor and helped their buddy wasn’t going to work.

The filibuster lays all the pain on the majority.

Here is the backstory (by the awesome Dave Dayen) about Bunning’s back-up:

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/02/27/merkley-stabenow-explain-why-bunning-succeeded-in-blocking-uicobra-benefits/

That said, Democrats should have had the decency to keep up the charade long enough to indict Bunning’s co-conspirators like Corker and the racist Jeffrey Sessions.

“Bring out the cots” and “Send in the clowns”…
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Sounds like the makings of a hit song to me…

I think the public spectacle of one Senator holding up unemployment benefits would make it worth making him go through with it. For healthcare reform in general, I think the GOP would love to be able to grandstand for day after day about socialism, death panels, etc, with the added bonus of preventing the Democrats from accomplishing anything else. I think HCR would be popular enough to cause a backlash if people actually understood what was in the bill, but that would be even less likely with the minority having the floor. Maybe we could get the right kind of attention by piling up the bodies of people that died during the filibuster due to lack of healthcare right outside the senate chamber.

Joe: Shhh. Don’t get the crazies riled up again. Twice in the last couple of weeks Drudge has posted your online comments and set loose his mad hordes.
Maybe you could post under annonymous. It worked before.

This isn’t a filibuster, but a hold, and I read a few weeks ago (IIRC) that Reid, any majority leader, can pull the plug on a hold at will. Just overrule it. I’d like to think I’m remembering that wrong, cause even if I don’t hate Harry as much as many of my bloggy brethren and sistren, I can’t imagine he’d pull a bill because a half-senile old fool, who was never that bright to begin with, is acting out. Then again, I can imagine it all too easily. David Broder would accuse Reid of heavy-handed partisanship, and Claire McCaskill and Jim Webb would trample each other in a quest to get to a TeeVee camera to call on Reid to slow down and respect the process.

Pull the bill to the floor and demand a vote and when they threaten to filibuster, call them on it and make damn sure there is a quorum call at least every hour. Be sure it is in time to make the morning newspapers as well as the 24-hour TV news. Americans are hurting and it is damn well time that some of them also feel the pain. And besides, I want to see whether the cots have rotted from lack of use and lack of a Democratic back bone!

http://ikejakson.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/more-ikepedia-for-sstorm-and-others-%e2%80%a6/