The Washington Post has discovered that – zut alors! – Mitch McConnell’s Party of No is basically filibustering any legislation that has do with Iraq. This isn’t really news for two reasons.
* One, president Bush has already made clear that he will veto any bill that contains Iraq language that he doesn’t like, regardless of the cost to the country. Overriding a veto takes 67 votes so any bill that can make it past the president’s veto will easily surmount a filibuster. Conversely, a bill that can’t beat McConnell’s obstructionism obviously cannot beat a veto.
* Two, Republicans these days filibuster everything that passes through the Senate. The filibuster the bills, they filibuster the conference committees and they filibuster procedural steps in between. This Senate has already had thirteen cloture votes, compared with four for the previous two Congressional sessions combined. There’s no reason why Republicans shouldn’t gum up Iraq legislation when they already filibuster everything else.