Fox.com Headline, which has now been changed…
Republicans vow to go to war with filibuster over Hagel
INHOFE’S FILIBUSTER was hilarious in one regard, which was he actually felt compelled to go to the Senate floor to say it wasn’t a filibuster, even though 51, not 60, votes is a majority. It made Republicans look even more foolish, because Inhofe obviously was embarrassed himself.
Sen. Carl Levin helped by rebutting every point his colleague made about Hagel over Iran, Israel, as well as the speeches he’d given.
“Fails” at 58-40… Oh, it’s so ridiculous to have to write it that way.
Senator Harry Reid should have nightmares over this.
#Hagel cloture vote now wont get 60 so senate goes home for recess saddle up for NATO Brussels meeting next week lame duck #SecDef Panetta
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) February 14, 2013
The Democrats had the power to stop this sort of thing at the beginning of the session and they didn’t. Compared to them, Inhofe looks like a genius, and by any measure I can think of, Inhofe’s about as far from being a genius as a politician can be and still find his way to the Senate floor.
It’s going to be a long, disastrous session for Democrats, and they richly deserve it.
I do wonder why Ried did not change the filibuster rules. I also wonder which members of the Democratic Caucus wanted to keep the present rules. I wonder if more than a few Senate Democrats love the dodge of being able to “support” a bill but never having to vote for it.
It’s altogether plausible that Reid couldn’t muster the 51 votes required. That’s one of the reasons I blame this on the Senate Democrats collectively, not just Reid. Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, the bottom line is that Harry Reid still has his Majority Leader job, so he clearly didn’t fail badly enough for the Democrats to replace him.
Looked at either way, just blaming Reid for this ignores some rather glaring truths. Nothing new for today’s progressives, of course, but that’s how the Democrats keep getting away with this crap.