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Posted on 12.18.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 2:22 pm
With an obnoxious smirk on his face more fitting for Saturday Night Live than the U.S. Senate, comedian-turned-politician Al Franken proved yesterday that he lacks the character to be a leader. The Minnesota Democrat broke with Senate courtesy to deny a colleague an extra minute to make a point. Independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a former Democrat despised by the left, was surprised but accepted the parliamentary jab without a fight. “Really?” OK, I don’t take it personally,” he said, even though he likely suspected Franken’s objection was at least partly personal. John McCain, R-Ariz., wasn’t willing to let the offense go without comment: “I must say that I don’t know what’s happening here in this body, but I think it’s wrong. … I have never seen a member denied an extra minute or so, as the chair just did.” I used to cover the House on a daily basis for Congressional Quarterly, and I was constantly aggravated by the chamber’s willingness to let lawmakers violate speaking time limits and to hold votes open longer than rules permitted. But that’s not what happened in the Senate. Lieberman sought a little more time to finish his point. Senators regularly grant such requests by “unanimous consent” as a collegial courtesy, but Franken chose to break that tradition for purely political reasons. He is no statesman, that’s for sure. Filed under: Government and News & Politics and People and Video Comments:
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Did McCain say it hurts the “comity of the Senate” or the “comedy of the Senate”? Because frankly, the minority party and its smarmy fellow-traveler have turned the allegedly august body into a joke.
Personally, I think Franken made a mistake in not allowing the worm his extra minute to finish up his drone. But if McCain — the former POW whose disgraceful, rightwing-placating Presidential campaign showed him to be America’s foremost moral coward — thinks Franken’s loss of patience with another stalling tactic is the most glaring example of “what’s happened in the Senate” that’s “wrong,” well, he’s just suckling up to the righwingers who despise him anyway.
Surely a far more egregious example of “what’s happening in the Senate” was the Republican effort to filibuster the military spending bill in order to delay consideration of healthcare — holding those in harm’s way hostage to their partisan maneuvering. And if McCain had any moral courage at all, he’d cite THAT as something that’s happening in the Senate that’s more than wrong; it’s reprehensible.
Comment by Jeff O — December 19, 2009 @ 6:11 pm