Point one: this wasn’t a filibuster, it was a denial of unanimous consent- the Senate’s way of passing massive amounts of legislation without pesky voting records to be used as campaign fodder later. Without unanimous consent there has to be an up or down vote on the measure and, depending on the structure, any accompanying amendments.
Point two: ALL of this could have been avoided. Sen. Reid knew when the unemployment benefits were going to expire. His staff knew. McConnell’s staff knew. The Secretary of the Senate knew. But, they scheduled the passage of the measure for extension under unanimous consent AFTER fighting tooth and nail on the “jobs bill” boondoggle because they thought they could just slip one in- again.
They do this ALL the time. They thought that denying consent would be a political poison pill and no one would try it. They forgot that Bunning doesn’t give a sh** about what people think. He’s following his conscience and making a stand- something we’ve been shouting for our elected officials to do for years!
Point Three: Lots of folks here and on other conservative forums have long decried Republicans being out-maneuvered on the Senate floor. Bunning just forced everyone to go on record voting for specific measures of this extension. We now have the very campaign fodder they tried to deny us. Bunning handed Tea Partiers fiscally damning votes on a silver platter.
Y’all might try saying thanks.
OT.....I don’t have a story link for this breaking news.....
HOWEVER......
“Long-time Congressional Democrat Charlie Rangel to give up chairmanship of powerful House committee as early as tonight - NBC”
http://twitter.com/BreakingNews
Agree. It is often forgotten that politics is the art of the possible. Ideological purity is great when you can get it, but over-reaching is even worse. Ya think the Dims would have liked a do over for 2009?