Say it, over and over again, that Republicans are political geniuses:
Twenty-seven Republican senators voted with Democrats on Oct. 16 to lift the debt ceiling and avert a catastrophic default. And each one of those 27 senators voted Tuesday to “disapprove” of their own votes.
The vote Tuesday was a symbolic “resolution to disapprove” of the debt limit hike.
Precisely zero Democrats in the Senate voted for this thing, and it failed on a majority vote.
Do none of these people understand what chickenshit, Mickey Mouse, weaseling cowards they look like? How deep up your own ass do you need to be to think that this measure would provide any kind of political safety? Sometimes the mind boggles.
Botsplainer
Class, what percentage of the total senate do 27 senators comprise?
Baud
If they really wanted to do some good, they would vote to disapprove of their election.
eric
It is all just further evidence that they were were the ones held hostage by the dems and that they, with their great patriotism, put country over ideals and ended the democrats’ hostage taking. See, wasnt that easy to understand.
Baud
Can’t wait to see what they do after they agree to raise the debt limit again in February.
dmsilev
You should pair that with yesterday’s news that Mitch McConnell now thinks that the ‘McConnell Option’ for disarming the debt limit bomb is a really bad idea and it was a complete and utter coincidence that his name is attached to it.
srv
They wouldn’t have to do such things if Obama wasn’t so unreasonable.
And these Senators did want you want anyway, voting to bankrupt America and drown our children in debt so you don’t have to pay every time you stub your toe kicking a veteran out of his benefits. Can’t you liberals ever give a guy a break?
Cervantes
How deep up your own ass do you need to be to think that this measure would provide any kind of political safety? Sometimes the mind boggles.
What’s really mind-boggling is the possibility they’re right about gaining some cover.
Anyhow, don’t be surprised when the House votes to do the same thing.
jibeaux
@Baud: Amen to that.
So, they voted for it but they hate themselves in the morning?
The Ancient Randonneur
27 percent of the Senate. THAT number again. Some mornings I wish those Death Panels were real.
eric
It is only hypocritical nonsense if the MSM pushes back against the spin the GOP uses to sell this gambit. Soooooooooooooo, you fill in the blanks. At moments like this, remember the “Upton Sinclair Axiom.”
Elizabelle
Here’s the list of the brave 27.
Disturbing to find Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski on it.
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Chiesa (R-NJ)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Graham (R-SC)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kirk (R-IL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Portman (R-OH)
Thune (R-SD)
Wicker (R-MS)
Roger Moore
They think their constituents want chickenshit, Mickey Mouse, weaseling cowards. Given election results, I think they may be right.
Ash Can
And, as the linked blurb says, the House will be voting on the same idiotic measure today.
This is awesome. What the Republicans are doing by this is reminding the rest of the world that they’re still dangerous radicals, and that they learned absolutely fuck-all from the last shutdown/debt limit shitshow fail parade they put on. All the Senate 27% are doing is trying to make nice with their constituents, but I don’t think that even their constituents are dumb and placid enough to forgive them simply because they’re saying they’re sorry now. And the GOP senators who didn’t vote for raising the debt limit in the first place are just doubling down on the crazy. And lather, rinse, repeat in the House today.
To be honest, I hope they do this about once a month from now until November of next year. Votes to shame themselves for raising the debt limit can alternate with votes to repeal the Obamacare that by that time will be taking off quite nicely. Or they can combine the two, for a little variety. That way, by the time the 2014 election rolls around, everyone in the nation will have gotten it drummed into their heads that the GOP is nothing but a fail festival, and that can have good ramifications at the polls.
Southern Beale
It’s the Tennessee Gun Report! Plenty of gun loonery to fill out the week here …
srv
Doug, I know you have had issues with Charlie Rose, but you should really watch his interview with Dick Cheney last night. Dick looks fabulous, with the heart of a twenty year old.
This great leader is going to be with us for a long, long time.
cmorenc
Even I can write convincing attack ads for these GOP Senators’ Tea Party primary opponents. I’ll bet ex-Presidential candidate John Kerry would be glad to help me, even though I wouldn’t really need it…”they were for it before they were against it”. Heck, the damn ads write themselves without need of anyone’s help.
MattF
I suppose this is aimed at the ‘low-information’ voter. Now they can say either “I voted for the deal” or “I voted against the deal”, depending on the context. What’s not to like?
NotMax
Next, voting to defund Congress so they can slink out of town?
sparrow
@srv: I’m an organ donor, and I’m starting to wonder if it would be possible to have an exclusion list for recipients. Shithead war criminals would be a general category, of course.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
Disturbing how?
This is who they are.
rikyrah
White Alienation, Black Satisfaction and the Obama Era
By Francis Wilkinson Oct 29, 2013 4:23 PM ET
One of the remarkable trends of the Barack Obama era is the transference of rage from left to right. Anybody remember “Bush Lied, People Died” bumper stickers? To some extent, this is the natural sway of the political pendulum, with angry lefties supplanted by angry righties after the party in the White House changes.
But there appears to be a longer-term process of alienation under way, with conservative whites — talking to you, Tea Party — increasingly assuming the posture of aggrieved outsiders. The “angry white men” who fueled the Newt Gingrich revolution in 1994 are seemingly angrier, more alienated and as white as ever in 2013.
A new ABC News-Fusion poll contains a remarkable finding. When asked whether “people like you” are well represented in Congress, twice as many nonwhites (47 percent) as whites (24 percent) say yes. Of course, “people like you” is a Rorschach of a phrase that can encompass ideology, sex, region, class, religion and more. Race is only one identifier.
bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-29/white-alienation-black-satisfaction-and-the-obama-era.html?alcmpid=vie…
NonyNony
@rikyrah:
Disturbing because they have a reputation for being smarter than the average Republican.
A smart Republican would have arranged to be out of DC at a photo op feeding kittens at an adoption center in their hometown or something when that vote came up.
dricey
@Baud: What this vote is going to do is make it much, much harder for these 27 GOPers to vote to raise the debt ceiling in February. That makes a repeat of the shutdown/default confrontation even more likely, which will cement the negative image the electorate is getting of GOPers into their minds, with less than nine months to go before the midterm election.
Suffern ACE
@dricey: honestly, I don’t think we’re going to have an open government next fall and the election will be about reopening it.
Southern Beale
I just saw where our Sen Lamar Alexander has joined the chorus of Republican’ts calling for Sebelius’ resignation.
I’m just trying to wrap my head around the idea that there are Republicans calling for Kathleen Sebelius to resign over screwing up the launch of a program they’ve been trying to kill for 3 years.
What
The
Fuck
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@srv:
Gladly (in this specific case) transplant recipients are likely to develop kidney failure and cancer.
Also, MM, why does this surprise you?
/trolling
Baud
@Suffern ACE:
One can dream.
magurakurin
@srv:
I saw that movie. Mickey Rourke is the star…it doesn’t end well….
Tone in DC
@Southern Beale:
It’s truly ridiculous.
Baud
@Southern Beale:
Obama should be like Bush and give her the Medal of Freedom.
Violet
@rikyrah: Exactly. I wouldn’t expect anything else.
Violet
@Southern Beale:
Is there any hope she’ll say something like that today?
Tone in DC
On mistermix’s original point… there is no need to insult Mickey by comparing him to 27 percenters.
drew42
They’re throwing up chaff to help protect themselves against the next round of Tea Party primary challenges. I’m sure there will be similar measures over the next few months. This way, they can wave their hands around and say, “No, no, no … I’m on the record as disapproving that vote.” Republican primaries are now all about creating as much confusion and misinformation as possible.
It’s desperate, but politically it does makes sense.
Violet
@dricey:
I hope you are right, in the political sense. The shutdown again…ugh.
Belafon
OT: mm, did you see the articles on LGF about the spying stuff? They were:
1. All that phone data we got from overseas was given to us by their spy agencies.
2. The Russians handed out thumb drives at the G20 summit with Trojan horses to spy on the users of the drives.
Kirbster
I especially loathe Susan Collins, who in her role as a “reasonable, moderate Republican (hah!),” was crowing to the cameras less than two weeks ago about her critical contributions to the negotiations that ended the shutdown and raised the debt ceiling.
Citizen_X
@srv: Is his heart really from a twenty year old? That’s so appropriate that I expect to hear creepy background music.
Cervantes
@Violet: Is there any hope she’ll say something like that today?
Not if her boss has anything to do with it.
Shane
@Rikyrah
Oh, lefties are still angry, and our representatives aren’t immune. Well, maybe immune’s the wrong word cos they still don’t seem to give a crap what we want, and are making their stands defending Republican policies from Republicans.
Ash Can
@drew42: Now that I think of it, I don’t know how much political sense it makes for the senators who aren’t up for re-election for a while. I suspect that, in their cases, they were just making nice with their fellow Senate Republicans, showing them that they’re still on their side, rather than trying to have it both ways with their voters. I don’t know which is worse.
MattF
@Ash Can: Note that the votes for the resolution consist of all Republicans who voted for the debt deal. So, I think the concept is that unanimity is double-plus effective at altering reality.
Anya
@Elizabelle: I am more surprised to see Mark Kirk of Illinois. I thought he was slightly more sensible than that.
Anya
@Kirbster: what are the chances that Main Dems will find a viable candidate to run against her?
aimai
@Violet: I do hope the Dems get up and reassure their Republican colleagues that they can, as usual, vote for sensible fiscal policies and then retract their votes retroactively because they believe their voters are so dumb that they won’t know the difference. That should make for a really fun debate in the Senate.
shelly
I can see them walking down the hallways, like Cher in ‘Clueless’, ranting about ‘voter’s remorse.’
Roger Moore
@Belafon:
And if all the other world leaders were jumping off a cliff, would that make it OK for Barack Obama to jump off, too?
OK, I got nothing.
scuffletuffle
@Botsplainer: Total WIN!
Ash Can
@Anya: I saw something on Buzzfeed saying that he was badmouthing Obama and the ACA, repeating all the stupid GOP talking points, when he got in on the stunt at the Veterans Memorial shortly after the government shutdown. I haven’t seen this corroborated by any other sources, though, and have not had a chance to call his office about it. Judging from this voting-against-his-own-vote horsecrap, it looks like support for marriage equality is the most, and best, that we can expect from him (unless he decides to backpedal on that too).
Elizabelle
@Anya:
Yeah, Mark Kirk surprised me too. Although I don’t follow Illinois politics closely.
Bill Arnold
@Citizen_X:
If true, then no, it is not appropriate. The rule for this (just adapted from the rule for age differences in relationships): minimum age of a transplanted heart should be (age of recipient)/2 + 7.
batgirl
@Anya: I’ve been trying to tell my so-called liberal family in Illinois that considers Kirk a moderate Republican that they like that when push comes to shove he votes with the crazies. If you vote for someone with an R after their name (especially at the national level) then you are voting for the craziest of the crazy Republicans. Do not be fooled.
srv
@Citizen_X: Cheney said something during the Rose interview about having a better heart than he did at 20. I googled for the age of the donor, but couldn’t find it.
NorthLeft12
Do any of these senators have any clue of how they are embarrassing their country in the eyes of the world?
After typing that I realize it is a rhetorical question.
I just consider myself fortunate that I live in Canada and can get “free” emergency care for my jaw as it fell off my face onto the floor when I read this shockingly believable story. Just wow.
I am not that religious anymore, but I will pray for you guys.
cmorenc
@drew42:
In a general election contest against a democratic opponent, this ploy likely would have some success toward enticing GOP base voters and GOP-inclined independents to turn out rather than sit at home wishing a plague on both candidates. However, this sort of ploy is not merely ineffective, but counterproductive in a primary contest against a true believer tea party challenger with even minimal political skills. It plays right into their central campaign theme that establishment incumbents are corrupt, insincere, and even outright dishonest agents for advancement of true conservative values. Spewing disinformation to bamboozle the stupid only really works well on people hearing and seeing in it what they are already substantially disposed to believe anyway.
feebog
Wait, it gets better, From the TPM story:
This is the proposal that Dems are now putting together to essentially gut the debt ceiling votes. They are calling it the McConnell bill because the Turtle came up with the idea. Heh.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: I keep thinking of something Carlos Yu said on LiveJournal in the heady days leading up to the Tea Party wave election:
james-nicoll.livejournal.com/2568077.html
Matt McIrvin
@sparrow: I could see it as a PSA: Wear your helmets, folks, your heart could end up in Dick Cheney!
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Bill Arnold:
He was 71 when he had his transplant. That in itself fails transplantation guidelines, I believe.
ETA…yeah, sixty.
Rand Careaga
From The Onion, 3/26/12: “Brand-New Heart Scalded By Cheney’s 1,000-Degree Blood.”
Lex
[[Do none of these people understand what chickenshit, Mickey Mouse, weaseling cowards they look like?]]
To borrow a phrase from Charlie Pierce, it was so weaselly that actual weasels stood on their hind legs and applauded.
TG Chicago
@Anya: Well, you have to remember that *relatively speaking* these 27 are the reasonable ones. They’re the ones who voted for a deal that would prevent an economic collapse.
The truly insane ones are the ones who voted against the deal.
These 27 aren’t insane, they’re just laughably hypocritical.
muricafukyea
And yet you write about it muckymux. In other words their vote did EXACTLY what then wanted it to do. Generate attention. Does not matter if you love it or hate it or laugh at it. You wrote about it so you are their little reliable puppet on a string.