Posted on 05/22/2015 6:07:51 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Two senators have a plane to catch to Cuba, others were hoping to impress Republican presidential primary voters and then there’s Sen. Lamar Alexander, who is slated to deliver a sunset piano performance of “Ol’ Man River” on the banks of the Mississippi.
The Senate’s slow-motion amble toward Memorial Day break threatened all that.
“It’s not the weather, it’s the Senate that’s the problem,” said Alexander, the Tennessee Republican and former governor, as he waited out the impasse in his office Friday. On a borrowed Senate piano, he tapped out “The Memphis Blues,” with a wink, eager to head home for the performance Saturday with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. He’s got seats on two separate plane flights home booked for Saturday.
“I,” he resolved, “will be there.” […]
At issue Friday were extending the expiring provisions in the Patriot Act that give the National Security Agency its surveillance power, extending transportation funding for two months and giving President Barack Obama authority to negotiate a sweeping trade agreement with Pacific nations. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., deployed a well-used trick: threatening to stay in session until the remaining issues are resolved, even if that means taking a bite out of the weekend. …
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Me, too. I have really liked Cruz.
The Senators didn’t even read the TPP. We don’t know what’s in it.
You don’t do this to me or mine.
I yelled at the GOP about this earlier today.
The Ivy League Cartel strikes again.
I look at it like this. Contrary to the idiocy I got from the lesser evil crowd for the past 6 years, I’m not going to either give support or retract it on a whim. I am proudly on the purist end of the spectrum but I understand the only person I’ll ever entirely back is me. Cruz seems to share and stand behind issues well over the traditional 80% figure.
That said, this is strike 1 for me with him because this was no small disagreement over a trivial issue. We are in complete opposition on this. He has two more with me. If he blows it on two more big issues, I vote elsewhere. Again. And with no shame or regret.
Right now he is the only one even close to being worth voting for. Walker is a USCOC buy so he is FULLY on board regardless of what he claims in public. He also flipped Romney style on Immigration so he’s out right there. The rest are open liberals.
So for me it’s Cruz or a write in and as I say, I have ZERO issues with doing a write-in. And I bet a lot of us feel the same way...and will stick to it.
Mike Lee and Tom Cotton seem to be good men.
The others are agents of the government, and they are doing what the government wants, and that’s about it.
They do not represent the people of America at all.
Representative government is a complete failure.
I was wrong on Cotton.
He voted with the majority tonight to pass the damn treacherous bill!
Sessions voted against, along with Collins, Paul, Shelby & Lee.
I simply won’t be bothering to participate in the great 2016 electoral sham.
This vote went well beyond important. This was, in essence, an abdication of power to the executive. A handover of power to someone who I wouldn’t give fast track authority to run a lemonade stand. Once you cut through the BS, it was about increasing the power of the executive for the next 6 years and payback to corporate cronies. The future of the middle class was in essence traded away. And for just shy of 2/3 of the senate, it wasn’t even a hard decision.
I hope Ted Cruz enjoys his 30 pieces of silver.
Hmmm.
Well that’s not good.
I am really having a hard time figuring out Cruz on this one.
I can’t figure out why anyone would want to vote for this, especially considering how it was kept in secret.
I pretty much regret the GOP being in charge at this point.
I liked it better when Harry Reid did nothing and blamed the GOP for stopping everything, which they clearly did not.
Our government is a stinking pit of liars.
Just vote McConnells junk down and go home. Tell Cornyn to go pound sand.
I don’t understand Cruz’s vote either.
Our feckless GOP critters fold like cheap card tables just before holidays.
Obamacare was passed Christmas Eve, 2010. It’s past time for a 2nd Party!
This isn’t even folding. This is playing for the other team, or making it seem so until you realize that there aren’t two teams.
Agreed
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