(Image swiped from Culture Catch, at the inspiration of Purple Avenger over at Ace's Place.)
I was outside pulling some weeds and trimming some roses, and instead of being productive and shit, instead I should have been inside glued to the TV with a big bowl of popcorn on my lap.
"...Sen. Coburn demanded that the full text of the 767 page Sanders amendment be read by the Senate clerk...."....followed by (socialist) Bernie Sanders withdrawing his amendment, which itself is questionable (from the Malkin citation above)....
...How Sanders was able to withdraw his amendment is unclear — under the chamber’s rules it appears that a motion to withdraw would not be in order during the reading of the bill. However, the Senate Parliamentarian — in what a GOP aide called “an incredibly bizarre decision” — ruled Sanders’ request was allowable....*And now, the SEIU--whom Zero has leaned on heavily--has backed away from his Healthcare Reform (sic).
And Drudge is reporting under the headline "Pelosi: No Health Care Deal this Year".
Those weeds aren't going to pull themselves, but that said, I hope I have enough popcorn.
* For as much fun as I'm having watching this whole thing self-destruct, there are serious issues here.
- It is clear that Coburn and the Republicans are pulling every trick imaginable to stop this thing. Healthcare Reform (sic) has been at the top of Zero's agenda since the summer, and the more Americans know about the bill, the less they like it. Coburn delivered a shot-across-the-bow with the idea of reading into the record an amendment from a socialist that was never going to pass as a means to test his on-again/off-again threat to have the entire Healthcare Reform (sic) bill read into the record.
- This, of course, plays right into Zero's promise to govern with "transparency" and his campaign promise to debate healthcare on CSPAN.
- The Left and the D's have long claimed that the R's are the "Party of 'No'", and this action makes that claim more valid.
- The R's do risk losing some cred' by slowing the Senate's business to a crawl--even if for a good reason.
- But the D's lose cred' too by taking action through the Parliamentarian to prevent the Senate and Americans from hearing exactly what is in a bill of this import.
- I expect the R's to attempt to get some clarification on the Paliamentarian's ruling here, if for no other reason than to preserve their ability to pull this stunt when the entire Healthcare bill comes up. But it is important to remember: Sanders pulled his amendment to stop the reading. The D's certainly will not pull their entire bill if Coburn and the R's insist that it be read. The R's still have a bullet left here.
- But it's their last bullet, and once it's fired, it cannot be called back. If they do fire it, we should all expect that regardless of which party controls Congress, an insurgent in the Senate can stop the action by simply having everything read into the record.
