Spend this time to point out the failings in your fellow commenters and your two hosts.
Great Moments In Political Hackery
This is exceptional:
Buying Time…
…but not much. Rasmussen’s latest survey suggests that the administration has convinced most Americans that we should wait until General Petraeus reports in September before deciding on any change of course in Iraq: 51% hold that view, compared to 38% who disagree.
That’s good, I guess. The problem is that September is right around the corner. How realistic is it to expect conditions in Iraq to change enough in the next eight or nine weeks to convince Americans, most of whom are now pessimistic, that a corner has been turned? If the Democrats were smart, they would have joined with the administration in identifying September as the key date, rather than trying to undermine the surge from the opening gun. In September, it won’t be hard for them to argue that any improvements are modest and the surge, having been given a fair chance, should be terminated.
You see- things are going badly because the DEMOCRATS ARE UNDERMINING our efforts. Just last week, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were spotted placing IED’s near Baghdad.
You will have to forgive Hinderaker for this one. First, he is an idiot and can not control himself. Second, let’s face it- with Bush guttered out at 26%, any time they see a poll number over 50% they are going to get a little full of themselves.
Umm. With What Troops?
Apparently the tinkerbell strategy works so well that if you clap loud enough, more troops appear:
The U.S. military is weighing new directions in Iraq, including an even bigger troop buildup if President Bush thinks his “surge” strategy needs a further boost, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.
Marine Gen. Peter Pace revealed that he and the chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force are developing their own assessment of the situation in Iraq, to be presented to Bush in September. That will be separate from the highly anticipated report to Congress that month by Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander for Iraq.
The Joint Chiefs are considering a range of actions, including another troop buildup, Pace said without making any predictions. He called it prudent planning to enable the services to be ready for Bush’s decision.
Interesting. Anyone have a spare division in their basement?
Even Better News
Harry Reid pulls the trigger on filibusters.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) just moments ago announced that he will immediately file a cloture motion on the Reed-Levin troop redeployment bill and, if Republicans follow through with a filibuster, will place the Senate in a prolonged all-night session Tuesday to force a true continuation of debate.
“Now, Republicans are using a filibuster to block us from even voting on an amendment that could bring the war to a responsible end,” said Reid. “They are protecting the President rather than protecting our troops. They are denying us an up or down – yes or no – vote on the most important issue our country faces.”
Woot. Maybe he reads blogs.
The procedural details of Reid’s move remain a touch unclear to me – while it amuses me that he can use quorum calls to force the Pubs to filibuster the way we did in ye olden days, maybe a lawyer can explain what exactly happens when the 30 hours run out. The text of the relevant rule reads:
After no more than thirty hours of consideration of the measure, motion, or other matter on which cloture has been invoked, the Senate shall proceed, without any further debate on any question, to vote on the final disposition thereof to the exclusion of all amendments not then actually pending before the Senate at that time and to the exclusion of all motions, except a motion to table, or to reconsider and one quorum call on demand to establish the presence of a quorum (and motions required to establish a quorum) immediately before the final vote begins.
Does that mean that the coveted upprdown vote will definitely happen after thirty hours of debate, or am I missing something?
Even if Reid’s move amounts to a pointless stunt it has already put the GOP’s filibuster tic at the top of the news, which is where Republicans don’t want it. Reading the phone book for a day and a half won’t hold up the Senate any worse than Republicans already have done. The only difference is that now we can see whether they will still do it with the country watching.
***Update***
Needless to say, invoking Rule 22 moves the Jumpin’ Joe doomsday clock to roughly fifteen seconds before midnight. Historians can debate whether the minimal political consequences (Reid stays Majority Leader) outweigh the benefit of having the news media stop referring to Lieberman as a “petitioning Democrat,” “Independent Democrat” or any other kind of Democrat. Jump, Joe, Jump.
***Update 2***
As I now understand it Rule 22 doesn’t have all that much to do with an actual filibuster – Democrats will do all the talking while Republicans just sort of sit around and watch. I get the point; if you want to debate, let’s debate. Still, the optics of this don’t really work for me. To most people this could easily look like the Democrats forcing Republicans to sit around and be lectured to, sort-of in retaliation for Republicans invoking a filibuster.
I get the point that a real filibuster would probably end with a rhetorical defeat when Dems eventually tire of listening to Mitch McConnell talk. I also get that gumming up the Senate is what the Republicans want anyway. The basic problem is that with a filibuster Joe teevee consumer can turn on the tube, see some Republican reading from the phone book and he’ll come to the appropriate conclusion. Republicans want to hold up the Senate with a silly procedural move. Maybe he saw Mr. Smith when he was a kid.
Unlike a filibuster, here Joe consumer will see Democrats up front and, honestly, it won’t be that much of a stretch for him to think that maybe some of this Congressional logjam is the Dems’ fault. After all, it’s the Dems who won’t let the Congress go on with its business, right? Look at the podium and you see a Dem talking.
It’s a small point, about as fundamentally inconsequential as the stunt itself. But since the whole thing is theater I wish we could give better theater.
Sorry, Sully
But that isn’t the best line from a movie ever.
Hell, it isn’t even the best line from that movie- my personal favorite:
Hedley Lamarr: Qualifications?
Applicant: Rape, murder, arson, and rape.
Hedley Lamarr: You said rape twice.
Applicant: I like rape.
Tunch Update
Tunch has finally adjusted (and by adjusted, I mean that he has not attacked my feet in two weeks and is eating his food and has stopped skulking around the house bitching at me 20 hours a day) to the switch from Science Diet Lite to Felidae, and I have to say that I really like the results so far:
1.) He appears to have already lost a little weight, and the switch took place just a little bit ago.
2.) His bowel movements are smaller. Why is this important, those who do not own cats might ask? Because he shits in a box in my house.
3.) His fur seems healthier. I brush him every morning (and when it is really hot, I brush him at night, too), and his hair seems smoother and silkier and just, in general, healthier.
4.) He seems less sluggish and more active, and I have noticed his nose is moister and pinker, FWIW.
In general, he seems friskier, more active, happier, and healthier, and these are observations after just a few weeks.
Good News
By filibustering everything from major votes to procedural formalities to the morning prayer, Republicans have managed to effectively shut down the Senate without paying any political price for it. Maybe the media isn’t interested at letting Americans know why even 97-0 landslide bills can’t make it out of Congress, maybe Democrats can’t message. My answer is yes to both. Whatever the reason, it’s hard to deny that the nimrods who spent years weeping about horrible obstructionist Democrats are in a happy place right now.
That’s why I don’t worry too much when the party of NO!! one1!1!! threatens some sort of procedural meltdown over an obscure Bush nominee. In he post-Enron era it would bother me not at all if the GOP chooses to line up behind a rigidly ideological corporatist fruitcake. Better yet, the Senate is basically shut down already even if most people don’t get why. If the GOP wants to jump up and shout about what they’re already doing then I say great. Let ’em.