Mitch McConnell Just Filibustered Himself

[Direckshun]

Not even shitting you. This actually happened today.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell puts up a bill to weaken Congress' ability to raise the debt limit -- mostly as a ruse, intended to prove to Harry Reid that Reid didn't have the votes to pull it off.

After conferring with his caucus, Reid decides to calls the bluff, and scuttles the bill in for a prompt vote.

Which McConnell immediately has to filibuster.

Again, not even shitting you.

http://fatlip.leoweekly.com/2012/12/...rious-fashion/

Mitch McConnell makes Senate history, in hilarious fashion
Posted by jsonka on December 6, 2012 at 3:04 pm.

We all know that Sen. Mitch McConnell is quite fond of the filibuster. Sure, he used to be for reforming and weakening it, but that was before he was in the minority and used it like an Uzi, spreading over 380 filibusters all over the Senate chamber in recent years.

But today, McConnell broke yet another milestone in the history of the filibuster, and did so in spectacular fashion.

With Republicans now threatening to play a repeat of last summer, when they held the economy hostage by threatening not to raise the debt ceiling, today McConnell attempted a stunt by offering up the Democratic debt ceiling plan for a vote. Yes, this happened to be the exact same plan that McConnell himself came up with last year (and wasn’t used), where it would take a 2/3 majority to override the president’s ability to lift the ceiling.

But Harry Reid then called McConnell’s bluff, and allowed the vote to proceed.

That’s when comedy ensued, and history was made:

McConnell brought up the legislation Thursday morning. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) initially objected, seemingly proving the Republican leader’s point that it cannot pass the Senate. But then Reid ran it by his members and, in the afternoon, agreed to hold that same vote. This time it was McConnell who objected.

“The Republican leader objects to his own idea,” Reid declared on the floor. “So I guess we have a filibuster of his own bill.”

*****

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) scoffed at that notion that a senator would ask for a vote on a bill in good faith while requiring that it be “filibuster-proof.”

“This may be a moment in Senate history, when a senator made a proposal that, when given an opportunity for a vote on that proposal, filibustered his own proposal,” he said. “I don’t think this has ever happened before.”

Yes, McConnell loves filibusters so much that he’s taken the unprecedented step of filibustering his own bill, which includes his own idea that he now thinks is outlandish tyranny.

Or perhaps the filibuster Frankenstein that McConnell created has become self-aware? I think I saw a movie about this kind of thing once…

*****

UPDATE: For your viewing pleasure:

[Ebolapox]

[Shaid]

[mnchiefsguy]

You would think he would be smart enough to at least get one of his fellow R's to filibuster it for him...jeez.

Sometimes when you play politics, you get burned. He deserves it in this case.

[whoman69]

Please tell me again how the filibuster is a useful tool and that Republicans haven't abused it.

[Pitt Gorilla]

What a clown.

[Taco John]

It's a defunct party. There's a crisis of leadership. It's mostly because nobody know what it means to be a Republican anymore.

It will probably be 12 years before we ever see a Republican president, and I would be surprised if 10 of those years aren't with House and Senate democrat majorities. And that's without mentioning the Supreme Court. The next century will be a leftist century. Just like the last one, I suppose.

[BigRedChief]

I cant believe this actually happened. And not a R in here to rush to his defense?

[penchief]

Originally Posted by Taco John

It's a defunct party. There's a crisis of leadership. It's mostly because nobody know what it means to be a Republican anymore.

It will probably be 12 years before we ever see a Republican president, and I would be surprised if 10 of those years aren't with House and Senate democrat majorities. And that's without mentioning the Supreme Court. The next century will be a leftist century. Just like the last one, I suppose.

You mean a real Republican like Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, or Dwight Eisenhower? I'd be down with any one of them...

[penchief]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

I cant believe this actually happened. And not a R in here to rush to his defense?

It just exposes the complete and utter obstructionism that republicans have been guilty of.

They have shamefully placed partisanship above the good of the country.

[|Zach|]

This is incredible.

[Mr. Kotter]

Originally Posted by penchief

You mean a real Republican like Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, or Dwight Eisenhower? I'd be down with any one of them...

Yep. When TJ joins in, with the ridicule...the GOP should know they are really screwed.