It’s just a vote, right? It’s not a guarantee of Bunning’s amendments passing. I hope anyway.

What did GOP leadership want? I don’t get it . . ?

And thanks for reporting this Gregg!!!

I WANT to believe it’s good news?

Haha! Take that you sadistic son of a bitch!

Not good enough. The crank senator probably hurt a lot of people with his little stunt. Time for the faded old baseball celebrity to take his cranky dementia with him to the retirement home where he will without a doubt be fed better than any of the victims of his antics.

According to something I read at TPM, Reid says last week Bunning placed a hold on all of Obama’s remaining nominees (just to be a complete asshole). Any idea if that hold remains in effect?

Citizen ratfood:

One Hung Harry could ignore the hold if he had a pair…but of course he doesn’t.

And why were the Republicans given anything in exchange for shutting Bunning down? They should not be rewarded for the asinine and destructive behavior of yet another cranky old reactionary nutbag busily engaged in attacking the poor. It’s true that the Democrats are a terrible party but the Republicans are an absolute unredeemable disgrace. They are an utterly nihilistic and self-serving bunch and they don’t deserve any “compromise”.

Finally, it seems that we’ve all learned that the Senate doesn’t really give a damn about the plight of most normal people in the country (or anywhere else in the world) and is really just plutocratic patrician’s club. Imagine that some quaint parliamentary tactics could be used to cause so much damage to so many people over the last year. I doubt much that I’ll ever be able to respect the institution or the officeholders much ever again.

I think I’d like to see Harry primaried even more than Blanche. If Dems don’t come up with a better candidate odds are pretty high that they’re going to lose a seat in Nevada.

It’s not that he doesn’t have a pair, its just that he has entirely different allegiances and interests than you and I, and therefore, much higher priorities than anything like the public interest or minimally functional government, etc.

Aren’t there a NUMBER of holds by GOP asshats on any number of appointments?

I’d rather see the seat lost than Harry continue on. Better to have some Republican caveman than some smarmy Democrat who smiles and claims to be your friend while sticking a knife in your back. And Harry is a Democrat, and the Democrats have shown their true colors and capabilities over the last year, and neither Harry nor the Democrats deserve much more consideration than Republicans, anyway.

Buck Funning.

Dude, both parties are bought and owned by the same corporate masters.

No need to confuse who’s better or worse as they all work for the same team. Dem’s may work a bit slower, but they work diligently and our present Congress and WH well demonstrate that point.

What would be nice to see is, assuming that in 2012, a Republican wins, in 2013, the first Senate of the new Republican president’s first term on its first day announces a summary hold of all Presidential nominees subject to confirmation, and a summary filibuster of any or all Republican legislation.

(Yes I am not serious I simply have less respect for the Republican party than I do for your average kiddie pornographer and I really wish they could get a taste of their own medicine.)

All true, couldn’t agree more!

Where is my damn pitchfork?! I have the lit torch already, but I can’t find the pitchfork!

I just noticed that the last link in Gregg’s post is to one by David re: Bunning’s holds on appointees.

Theoretically the Dems were going to force Bunning to mount an ACTUAL filibuster tonight. Didn’t take him long to fold when it looked like he might have to stay up past his bedtime.

He’s so fucking dumb he didn’t even KNOW what a perfect game was when the threw it.

I want a filibuster! They keep promising us one. BRING IT ON! FILIBUSTER!!!!

At least we finally got past the fiction that the Democrats can’t force an actual filibuster. This proves they actually can, and that old men are not good at staying out past their bedtime. This really makes all this nonsense about needing 60 votes for everything look plain silly. And for that I suppose we should thank Bunning.

Bunning demanded a vote on his amendment, despite the fact that he knows it won’t pass and Reid agreed to that last week. Bunning then moved the goalposts and demanded votes on two more amendments, this time in the normal jobs bill and now Reid has granted that. How can this be viewed as anything other than Reid caving in again? Certainly I’m glad we’re going to get a vote and I’m not trying to be all doom and gloom. I genuinely don’t understand how this isn’t just another in a long series of surrenders by Reid and the Democrats to a party with tiny approval numbers and less credibility than Bill Kristol.

I added a bit at the end about that. David was also reporting the blanket holds. It is assumed they are lifted as part of the deal, but I am still looking for confirmation.

I shall never forget pachacutec’s video interview of Harry Reid defending Joe Lieberman: The Senate is a collegial body, said harry. Joe votes with us on everything but the war. I need Joe’s vote. Joe gave me money when I asked him for it.

That was Give ‘em Head Harry in a nutshell.

Bill Kristol has credibility?

Wait, you mean the comic from the 1980′s, right? Billy Crystal?

Heh, if the dem’s DO lose ’12, I wouldn’t mind exactly what you are saying! As long as the people don’t suffer (if that’s even possible).

*G*

Come on people, THAT’S FUNNY!!!

Thanks for a good hearty laugh.

It is just a vote. . . will admit a few nerves about enough Dems wanting to appear “tough” on deficits to give Bunning’s funding swap a chance, but mostly think the party has realized that the campaign cash is in standing against Bunning.

lol!

Yeah, if we the people want any of this fixed it’s gonna take some work, ain’t it.

And I DON’T mean in a violent way . . . just mobilize millions of millions of bodies on and on, work strikes, boycotts. Legal civil disobedience (as long as it’s legal, cuz they are passing laws we don’t even KNOW about, soon any disobedience might be cause for incarceration under Patriot Act provisions).

Sigh.

Thanks for the info.

Thanks hoss, I’d missed that . . . . *G*

Heh, the dem’s were really gonna make Bunning stay up late? Kewl!!! Or was it all staged . . . . ??????

Re-read the comment. Bill Kristol was the person with the LEAST credibility I could think of.

They want to grandstand on deficits. The amendments are about funding/PayGo, but I don’t have the details.

I am coming to the conclusion myself that real change would take the Holy Grail of non-violent activism meaning the The Unattainable Nationwide General Strike.

Yeah, given he couldn’t have HIT anyone for that, bet he was in a bad mood after!!!!

I was merely surprised you could assign him any credibility at all … really, Billy Crystal has more credibility! Without a doubt!

Oh geez . . . if not lifted that would be brutal. Are there other GOP holds out there for appointee’s? I thought there were many . . .

They don’t like forcing a filibuster. Takes time to get the necessary security clearance for all the hookers.

*G*

I think the GOP decided to let lame-duck Bunning be designated scapegoat.

Ok, thanks, and thanks for all you do Gregg . . . I love this town! *G*

That IS what it would take but with no real employee rights AT ALL (compared to EVERY other industrialized nation), folks would be too fearful to ever support it.

Thing is if it happened, and it worked, then we wouldn’t have trouble going that route for other issues. It could change the whole dynamic.

But this is America. Not. Gonna. Happen.

Took even Ghandi more n a few years, didn’t it . . . and MLK, also, and those before him and after.

Hell, I suppose a realistic view would be to understand it’s never over, and we’re always being disobedient, or we lose.

Bunning would routinely shake off catchers’ pitch signs that he knew to be signaled into the game from the dugout by Mauch. This would have the effect of irritating Mauch, who broadly applied the practice of signalling pitches from the dugout to his catchers at a time when this was not typically done

If I ever had known that I long forgot it . . . great bit of info, thanks!!!!

Can’t seem to reply to you on this one . . ?

Meant to show smiley icon. *G*

Maybe they could sneak them in with the caterers.

Unreservedly conceded! Even as Miracle Max, Crystal was way more honest.

IIRC, Harry ignored fellow Democrat Chris Dodd’s hold on a telcom immunity/FISA bill.

To be fair, Harry really wanted immunity for the big Telcoms which were data mining all communications.

Representative Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) will voluntarily give up his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, according to a Tweet by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. The move could come as early as Tuesday night.

hot news
also

Rangel update: The Ways and Means gavel may end up in Pete Stark’s hands after all & NOT Sander Levin according to another leadership aide. less than 10 seconds ago via Ping.fm

You left your pitchfork in the compost pile. It needs to be sharpened.

That’ll shake up the whores!

Poor Harry Reid. He’s an old-line senator who still lives in the days of congeniality in the senate. Either he doesn’t realize, doesn’t want to accept that whatever remained of comity after the Bush years is now dead, dead, dead, or he refuses to come down to the level of the Republicans to play the new game, disagreeable as it is. In his speeches on the floor this afternoon regarding Bunning’s intransigence, Harry kept referring to “my friend, the senator from Kentucky.”

Your insistence that the Republicans are your friends, Harry, in the face of their continuing to make your life as Majority Leader a nightmare, is threatening not only the Democratic platform but also your job come November. Your continued capitulation to your political opponents is costing all of us dearly.

If Obama is insisting that you keep giving Republicans their way on every issue, even in the face of their obstruction, just tell us. At least then we would know for certain where to direct our daily boundless outrage.

Well said !

Harry is congenial, collegial and still plenty crooked. He knows how to work the ropes to perform magic in the Senate when he wants – like when he wanted that retroactive immunity for AT&T, Verizon, et al.

He’s more skeevy than the prostitutes he knew (as a kid, growing up he says) at the hotel swimming pool.

I shall cherish the day when I no longer have to listen to this leader’s timid voice.

Posted elsewhere, but Nice: Laura Swarmy Ingraham spent her morning praising Bunning, his courage, and dedication to returning America to her glory and what we stand for…Can’t be spending any more of America’s money we do not have… Saying he should get an award…wonder if it will have to be returned….

Furthermore, Reid has made this his specialty act – acquiescing to the demands of Rethuglicans in every case – minority or majority. Rhambama needn’t have to ask. Its what Harry loves to do.

All that money Dubya spent, putting the fix in to crash the economy, was never an issue. War spending – never an issue – even now.

Laura longs for the good ol days when she was young, as she posed as as naked patriot – her legs unfurled like the wings of an eagle.

Eli is upstairs!
Why Is This Man Smiling?

She’s going to be on Today Show on Friday, so she’s preening. Let’s urge lots of folks not to watch….starting now. She is really mean, I hate to say. Judges and criticizes everyone…

Like his GOP colleagues, he is a millionnaire and ought to pay the unemployment and COBRA costs to everyone he cheated.

This tells us that the weird rules in the Senate have to be changed.