Now DeMint wants the entire Omnibus Spending Bill read on the Senate floor.
It just never stops with these assholes.
by John Cole| 62 Comments
This post is in: Assholes
Now DeMint wants the entire Omnibus Spending Bill read on the Senate floor.
It just never stops with these assholes.
Comments are closed.
Zifnab
Republicans: Claiming government is the problem and then setting out to prove it.
Laura W.
That’s what the omnibusman does, right?
The Republic of Stupidity
I read that at another site earlier this morning, John…
And I almost spit out my coffee…
Simply an astonishing level of gall… blind self-importance… pure, unadulterated asshattery…
Anything to make sure a Dem President looks like a failure, and damn all and any consequences…
I don’t like Democrats anymore, but I’m going to utterly despise and loathe Republicans for the rest of my life…
Bubblegum Tate
They should get John Moschitta to read it.
Chyron HR
Jeez, DeMint, even Sarah Palin can read. Were your parents related or something?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
All it would take is for one major news station to point out why this is happening. Just one station.
On a more serious note, other countries should just really start ignoring us. Then we can watch DeMint throw a fit because no one will treat him like an adult.
jl
Republicans Make Good On Threat To Force Lame Duck Spending Showdown
Brian Beutler, December 15, 2010, 11:25AM
TPM blog
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/republicans-make-good-on-threat-to-force-lame-duck-spending-showdown.php?ref=fpa
fasteddie9318
@Laura W.: If only the Senate had an in-house critic.
Seriously, the reason they can’t hire a speed reader for this purpose is…?
Also too, Harry Reid’s response to this should have been, “OK, Jim, and thanks to you we’re all going to be here through the holidays. Everybody be sure to thank Senator DeMint for keeping us together in this special time.”
The Moar You Know
I’m all for this. Congress has to stay in session 24/7; no breaks, no Christmas, no nothing. They stay and read the bill.
And, of course, since Congress is in session, they can’t swear in the new members of Congress since the old session hasn’t ended yet.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
Shouldn’t DeMint have a different name? Something that sounds less refreshing?
Like DeSewer? DeAcidRain? DeHangover?
Or just DeDouche? DeDouche works.
Dave
On the upside…can we do this in the House for the next two years?
NonyNony
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
It’s really hard to ignore the immature brat of a country that we are when we also have the world’s largest military (by an extreme margin), control the world’s largest stock of nukes, and basically have the world’s economy by the balls due to how oil is priced.
I’m sure the rest of the world would have loved to start ignoring us years ago, but it’s really hard to ignore the Empire even (especially?) when it’s in the throes of decline…
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Laura W.: Waaaaay OT, but your artwork is so lovely! I wish I could buy some myself…. Later! When the whole “getting a regular job” thing works out! In the meantime though, I’ve sung its praises in the TNC Open Thread. Fingers crossed!
JGabriel
I’m so glad the GOP is working with Democrats and not holding up Senate business anymore, now that they got tax breaks for the richest two percent. It’s not as if anyone warned that Republicans would continue to hold up Congress, even after getting everything they demand.
I mean, who could have seen such a thing coming?
.
GregB
Jim DeCrow?
ppcli
Lyndon Johnson (and, if it were in the House) Sam Rayburn would have taken the bill, cut out every last thing that involved money going to South Carolina, and then read the result on the floor and passed it. Then they would have found a way to make sure that every last person in South Carolina who lost a job as a result would know DeMint was to blame.
But the Republicans know that they’re never going to be repaid in kind. Remember back when they were all saying the filibuster was unconstitutional, and an outrage, and should be blown up, and so on, just because Bush wasn’t getting votes for every last one of his nominees? Now they’re filibustering every last little thing, and you don’t hear a peep out of the Democratic leadership. The Republicans investigated every time Clinton sneezed, the Democrats hardly did anything, and on the few occasions when they did do something, just stood by when Rove et al. just ignored subpoenas. Any bets on how things will play out now that the Republicans have the House again?
But you know all this. I’m just venting.
change
Yes, God forbid Congress actually read the bills they pass! Horror!
sven
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: DeMonet?
Corner Stone
I hope everyone is paying attention to assholes like Orrin Hatch. They are coming after spending *hard* after the tax cut deal is done.
No, that’s not surprising at all. But anyone who doesn’t see this deal for what it is better not be all pissypants when the R’s do exactly what they say they are going to do.
Oh, and Hatch was almost giddy this morning on MSNBC when he talked about the Estate Tax deal.
“We couldn’t even get this under a Bush administration.”
Sentient Puddle
@change: They already do.
MobiusKlein
@change: Shut up change. Be an asshole somewhere else.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Yunno if Orrin Fucking Hatch is giddy about something, it’s a bad thing.
Laura W.
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: Emily, thank you. I so appreciate your kind words and more importantly, your kind pimpage!
Dave
@change: The START treaty has been available for months. Stop being a trolling asshat.
You Don't Say
OK, this is what I don’t get: the electorate is reportedly sick of politicians in DC not working together, but why oh why do they blame both parties equally? Why aren’t Republicans reviled in the electorate at large? Why aren’t the Republicans paying a price for this shite?
fasteddie9318
@change: People have asked before, but we’re still dying to know: are you really this fucking stupid or are you just playing at it?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@change: As it’s been pointed out, they’ve had the bill for more than eight months. They’ve had plenty of time to read it, especially since there were hearings on it.
“Sorry, teacher, I’m going to need that book you assigned to me read in class before I will do my project.”
Elizabelle
NYT banner: Senate passes Tax Compromise Package 81-19
dmsilev
I’m OK with that as long as DeMint is physically present during every minute of the reading. And there is a rotating set of clerks so that the reading continues 24/7 until finished. And that he is forced to remain awake, with his eyelids strapped open for the whole thing. Beethoven’s 9th on continuous loop in the background, of course.
dms
Sue
Are they planning on planting a Stealth Intern in the White House when the Govt shuts down? I don’t believe they will get the expected result, but that won’t stop them from holding hearings. Once you get Sarah Palin to speculate on what might be happening in the Oval Office, you’re good to go.
I’m only partly kidding.
Rosalita
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:
how about DeTurdInTheLitterboxOfLife?
Chyron HR
Change, round two:
JPL
@change: When given a brief, do most lawyers ask for time to read it before the judge or do they prepare beforehand?
In 9th grade, I imagine my English teacher would not appreciate it if I asked for time to read “A Tale of Two Cities” aloud.
hueyplong
So what was DeMint’s position on reading the Homeland Security bill before having a vote on it?
jacy
DeMint should be more original and in the spirit of the season insist that the bill be acted out in a Christmas pantomime.
Either that, or read by Sir Ben Kingsley dressed as Ebenezer Scrooge.
Mike Goetz
How normal people are viewing the tax deal:
“I don’t know if he has any other choice” but to compromise, Rita Antebi, 81 years old, a lifelong Democrat and retired kindergarten teacher from South Brunswick, N.J., said of the president. “He’s doing what he can before we get a Republican government.”
Arthur Bullock, 53, who sells office equipment just outside of Washington in Silver Spring, Md., said November’s historic electoral loss has made Mr. Obama go “outside the box and go outside the Democratic line.”
“I know you can’t please everyone all the time,” Mr. Bullock said. “But you’ve got to find that middle ground. Great presidents do that.”
Cris
Reportedly. That’s what the President keeps saying, and you know, I think he misunderstands what the electorate wants.
Working together is only as good as what they’re working on. We don’t want them to work together if they’re working together to shove rebar up our rectums. That’s bipartisanship, but I personally don’t care for it.
I’ll take less bipartisanship and more doing what’s best for the electorate.
ChrisS
Sure they can start reading right now before they vote on the tax cut deal.
Third Eye Open
Change, I can’t find a spoken version of “My Pet Goat” but I am sure someday your parents will stop free-basing long enough to read it aloud to you. Happy Holidays
Alex
How does this interact with Kyl talking about how repressed Christians are for being forced to work after Christmas in the Senate?
licensed to kill time
change gets a little burst of stars at every response to it’s inanities.
Don’t play the changes.
LGRooney
Can I volunteer to read? My office is a 15 minute walk from the hill and I could do a 3am – 6am slot… and I can read very quickly aloud. If they keep the Senate open, can they use volunteers to read to make sure we don’t kill sleepy time for the precious millionaires in the Senate? I’ll be happy to fill a slot just to get it out of the way.
NonyNony
@You Don’t Say:
You’ve got it wrong – not your fault since most of the media consistently gets it wrong too.
The electorate is sick of the country not working and they want someone to fix it. They could give a rat’s ass about how the change happens – they just want it fixed. If it gets fixed by politicians working together then great! If it gets fixed by a cage match between Jim DeMint and Harry Reid then great! If it gets fixed via a reality TV show starring Paris Hilton and Donald Trump then great! As long as it gets fixed nobody cares about the procedure that you go through to fix it.
The reason why it looks like people want politicians to “work together to fix things” is because our basic 8th-grade level understanding of politics in this country says that the only way that fixes occur is … when politicians “work together to fix things”. This is in fact false – fixes in this country have historically occurred when we’ve reached a breaking point and we need to do something to stave off catastrophe. But our Schoolhouse Rock understanding of politics says that change occurs when 100 Senators up in the Senate get together and hammer out their differences and produce legislation that fixes things. So that’s how people respond to the survey question when it gets asked.
What people really want are jobs and security. They want to believe that they’re going to have a job tomorrow, that they’re going to be able to pay for their house and their car, and that in the long run their kids will be okay too. Anything beyond that that people talk about is them imposing their opinion of how such a thing is going to happen onto the situation. And most Americans are hopelessly uninformed about how our government actually works to have anything close to an intelligent opinion to offer on the subject.
(And that’s mostly by design too – locally operated school boards have no interest in stirring up controversy by having teachers really explain how politics in the USA works. It might lead students to believe that we don’t have The Greatest Government Evar, and that would make certain parents very upset. )
fasteddie9318
@Cris:
Not only is it bipartisanship, it’s the only kind of bipartisanship there is, to wit: NAFTA, welfare “reform,” Iraq, etc.
Shalimar
@fasteddie9318: Since he thought that piece of 2nd grade wisdom was a devastating point, I’m going with really this fucking stupid.
You Don't Say
@NonyNony: Oh, I don’t know, I’m pretty sick of Republican obstructionism.
Zifnab
@Sue:
Honestly, accusing the President of sexually harassing a White House staffer is about the only card they haven’t played yet. I just assumed it was going to be an October Surprise.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Laura W.: My pleasure! It’s purty.
@sven: Ooh, no. Sounds like the artist, and we wouldn’t want to create THAT kind of association for Dear Mr. De -. But thanks for playing! You can pick up the home version of our game on the way out.
@Rosalita: Well, yes. That would work.
Mike in NC
@Third Eye Open:
I don’t know who did the audio version of “Decision Points” (I’d nominate Jon Stewart), but if Dubya could be convinced to make a CD version of “My Pet Goat” a load of people would buy it just for the novelty value.
Nellcote
People want “bipartisanship” because they accept that needing 60 (sixty) votes is the new normal in the senate.
Ben
@ppcli:
Alas, Majority Whip Clyburn is from South Carolina as well, so sadly your fantasy won’t be happening. We can dream though…
Cris
@NonyNony: Brilliant.
Benjamin Cisco
@Mike Goetz:
Attention Mr. Bullock: Inigo Montoya would like a word regarding the meaning of the phrase “middle ground.”
Third Eye Open
@Mike in NC:
I would own it. And I would put it right next to my W. Presidential Magnet ($4.95 at random D.C. tchotchke stand) with the hand-written word, “Putz” across his forehead.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Shalimar:
I think change is a sockpuppet and a bad one at that. Spelling is too good, the grammar is fair, the post is short and topics change like when cornered in an attempt to keep the ball rolling.
I don’t think it’s Master Spoof Professor DougJ but if it is he better get a tune up.
When a senate like the one we have now agrees 81-19 on anything, you better start drilling out and bolting a steel plate over your ass because the invisible hand is gloved, coated in Vaseline then rolled in sand and glass, poised and ready to shove right up our asses.
But it’s being done for the good of our country, so smile convincingly when the ‘exam’ begins!
russell
OK with me, but he has to sit through the whole reading, and no potty breaks.
Martin
It’s just nonstop procedural brinksmanship. The only solution is to eliminate the procedural options.
Skepticat
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: I’ve always thought of him as DeMented.
@LGRooney: This is a superb idea. And is there any law that says only one person at a time may read? I’ll bet we could find quite a few senators to each read ten or twenty pages–simultaneously.
DPirate
@The Moar You Know: Hahah, awesomeness. I wish!
matoko_chan
well……ok…..but only if
this plays the whole time they are reading the bill.
:)
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Skepticat: Ok, that’s actually perfect.
I declare a winner!
(Yes, I know the thread is dead. Don’t judge me).
DougW
@You Don’t Say:
Actually, they are. Our president is perceived more favorably than Republicans for fixing America’s problems. Congressional Democrats are also perceived as better suited to fix our problems…