More Senate Hot Stove League Action
Duane Patterson, Hugh Hewitt's radio producer, sure must have a lot of free time on his hands to spend so much time monitoring C-SPAN II. I don't know whether to envy him or pity him. But it does afford him the opportunity to watch small GOP victories that nobody will ever know about and will never get them anywhere.
The latest such pyrrhic triumph began yesterday morning. Harry Reid called for a vote on a John Ensign amendment to the State Children’s Health Insurance bill, or SCHIP, that had not a prayer in hell of passing, unlike this little slice of socialized medicine, which didn't have a prayer of being defeated. However, Dirty Harry, as is his want, bungled the vote by not telling a dozen senators tied up with Homeland Security Committee business it was being held, then refusing to hold the vote open longer so they could all come huffing & puffing into the upper chamber to get their votes in, then reversing himself, only to be overruled by his own caucus out of acute embarrassment at his incompetence. A rather odd reaction since nobody outside of Hugh Hewitt's blog audience (even combined with mine) will ever know about it.
For whatever reason, Reid left the Senate floor, and therefore left the floor open for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who unassumingly swooped in and offered an amendment of his own to the SCHIP calling for a "sense of the Senate" vote on the record on whether the nomination of Leslie Southwick to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which the Donks have been outrageously throttling in the Judiciary Committee for the past seven months, should be given an up-or-down floor vote. A particularly opportune piece of timing, that, since Judge Southwick is about to be thrown under the Dem bus by his home state senators, Thad Cochrane and [drumroll, please] Trent F'ing Lott in favor of a "compromise" candidate "acceptable to the Democrats". Which is complete and total BS, since it is the President who makes appointments to the federal judiciary, not hubristic cabals of U.S. senators with delusions of godhood.
Back dashed Senator Pencil-Neck to try and table McConnell's amendment, a lunge which evidently failed out of fear that scotching a motion to put his party on record as brazenly shafting a nominee that has been given the ABA's "unanimously well qualified" rating and numerous African-American endorsements might just attract the public scrutiny they don't want.
Today Judge Southwick got another vote in the Judiciary Committee. And, wouldja believe it, his nomination was approved, 10-9, thanks to the defection of Dianne Feinstein of California.
Ya gotta love DP's description of Chucky Schumer's reaction:
In McConnell's own colleagueal, comitous, civil way, he told Reid and Schumer and the rest of their bottom-feeders to "bite me" - and made 'em do it. Judge Southwick's chances for confirmation in the full Senate can not unreasonably be said to be at least decent, provided Reid allows a vote. If he doesn't, McConnell can be presumed to have all manner of disruptions planned that will utterly paralyze the Senate and leave Dirty Harry looking like an even bigger boob. If the Dems filibuster Southwick, well, gee, that'd be awfully public, and would be a rather naked admission of impotence since that's what they resorted to as the minority.
The impression that the Democrats don't give a rat's ass about actually governing, but are instead obsessed with bleeping George W. Bush up the ass with hot fireplace pokers is beginning to settle into the public collective consciousness. That's not the kind of thing that appeals to swing voters, whose fickle support helped put Harry Reid on his spindly throne, and could, at least theoretically, boot his scrawny butt right back off it again in the not too distant future.
That's the message Senator McConnell is sending with escalating regularity. DiFi seems to have read it loud and clear. Time will tell if she's the first, or the last, to do so.
The latest such pyrrhic triumph began yesterday morning. Harry Reid called for a vote on a John Ensign amendment to the State Children’s Health Insurance bill, or SCHIP, that had not a prayer in hell of passing, unlike this little slice of socialized medicine, which didn't have a prayer of being defeated. However, Dirty Harry, as is his want, bungled the vote by not telling a dozen senators tied up with Homeland Security Committee business it was being held, then refusing to hold the vote open longer so they could all come huffing & puffing into the upper chamber to get their votes in, then reversing himself, only to be overruled by his own caucus out of acute embarrassment at his incompetence. A rather odd reaction since nobody outside of Hugh Hewitt's blog audience (even combined with mine) will ever know about it.
For whatever reason, Reid left the Senate floor, and therefore left the floor open for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who unassumingly swooped in and offered an amendment of his own to the SCHIP calling for a "sense of the Senate" vote on the record on whether the nomination of Leslie Southwick to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which the Donks have been outrageously throttling in the Judiciary Committee for the past seven months, should be given an up-or-down floor vote. A particularly opportune piece of timing, that, since Judge Southwick is about to be thrown under the Dem bus by his home state senators, Thad Cochrane and [drumroll, please] Trent F'ing Lott in favor of a "compromise" candidate "acceptable to the Democrats". Which is complete and total BS, since it is the President who makes appointments to the federal judiciary, not hubristic cabals of U.S. senators with delusions of godhood.
Back dashed Senator Pencil-Neck to try and table McConnell's amendment, a lunge which evidently failed out of fear that scotching a motion to put his party on record as brazenly shafting a nominee that has been given the ABA's "unanimously well qualified" rating and numerous African-American endorsements might just attract the public scrutiny they don't want.
Today Judge Southwick got another vote in the Judiciary Committee. And, wouldja believe it, his nomination was approved, 10-9, thanks to the defection of Dianne Feinstein of California.
Ya gotta love DP's description of Chucky Schumer's reaction:
While she was reading her statement, the camera showed New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the man who last week indicated that President Bush should not get any more judicial picks because he says so, showing an expression that went from stunned to bilious.
In McConnell's own colleagueal, comitous, civil way, he told Reid and Schumer and the rest of their bottom-feeders to "bite me" - and made 'em do it. Judge Southwick's chances for confirmation in the full Senate can not unreasonably be said to be at least decent, provided Reid allows a vote. If he doesn't, McConnell can be presumed to have all manner of disruptions planned that will utterly paralyze the Senate and leave Dirty Harry looking like an even bigger boob. If the Dems filibuster Southwick, well, gee, that'd be awfully public, and would be a rather naked admission of impotence since that's what they resorted to as the minority.
The impression that the Democrats don't give a rat's ass about actually governing, but are instead obsessed with bleeping George W. Bush up the ass with hot fireplace pokers is beginning to settle into the public collective consciousness. That's not the kind of thing that appeals to swing voters, whose fickle support helped put Harry Reid on his spindly throne, and could, at least theoretically, boot his scrawny butt right back off it again in the not too distant future.
That's the message Senator McConnell is sending with escalating regularity. DiFi seems to have read it loud and clear. Time will tell if she's the first, or the last, to do so.
posted by JASmius at 4:25 PM
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