Democrats have been attempting to push through health care votes in the middle of the night because they know they cannot afford to let the debate linger past Christmas. To counter this, GOP Senate Leadership has begun a strategy to filibuster votes or have amendments read aloud, in order to delay.
One such filibuster was supposed to be of the massive Pentagon bill being voted on after midnight Friday. The Washington Post wrote, “Democrats emerged from a huddle confident that they would muster the 60 votes needed to thwart the GOP effort at blocking the military spending bill … in order to keep the chamber on a timeline of holding a final health-care vote before Christmas.”
All was a go with the GOP Senate strategy until three Senators — who are known not to be the most conservative members of the caucus — broke their promise and voted with the Democrats to end the filibuster: Olympia Snow and Susan Collins of Maine and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. Their votes effectively shut off debate and forced a final vote the next day, which, in turn, accelerated the process of bringing health care to the floor.
As if the vote wasn’t bad enough, Senator Hutchison’s evolving reasons for doing so have caused a firestorm in Texas from which she may not be able to recover.
When someone says the word “fight,” most of us see images of Ali and Frazier, or perhaps scenes from the movie Rocky. Certainly the fighting of soldiers at Normandy or Iwo Jima come to mind, maybe even a simple fight among high school boys where someone walks away with a bloody nose - or if even talking only about rhetoric, something akin to Patton’s famous speech to his soldiers (the real or dramatized ones).
Senate Republicans are talking a lot these days about “fighting” the healthcare bill. These folks have an awfully loose definition of the word “fight.”
For example, a friend forwarded me an email from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign for Texas Governor, the title of which is “Kay Fights ObamaCare on The First Health Care Vote!” It is followed by a number of statements, including “[She] is fighting tooth and nail against government-run healthcare and actually voted last night to maintain the filibuster of Harry Reid’s bill,” and “Kay is steely in her resolve to do everything in her power to stop this horrible piece of legislation.”
Fight? Steely resolve? She honestly cannot be serious.
What has she done? Specifically?
Best I can tell, the Senior Senator from Texas has talked a lot, and then failed to join 33 Republican colleagues to vote against a politically motivated DoD Appropriations bill, and now is throwing those colleagues who filibustered it under the bus - claiming she is “for the troops.”
And what of her fellow Senate Republicans? More of the same - a lot of talk and forwarded emails…. all necessary, but not that effective without any teeth in the fight. And this total spinelessness represents everything wrong with Washington Republican leadership. They keep talking a lot about “fighting,” but it’s not enough to stamp your feet and whine about how bad the bill is.
RINO Kay Bailey Hutchison helped Harry Reid expedite health care bill to its passage
MIDNIGHT VOTE IN WASHINGTON: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison continues to hide the truth from the American people regarding her decision to vote with 60 Democrats and Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe to end a Republican filibuster to delay the passage of health care legislation. On Dec. 19, during an appearance on Fox News, Sen. Hutchison said, “By the time I got to the floor, they had the 60 votes.” SOURCE: 2:32 mark of interview available online at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYMqE_IZMdk&feature=pl…
The facts say otherwise. C-SPAN footage of the vote to end the filibuster clearly shows that when Sen. Hutchison arrived on the Senate floor, the outcome of the vote was still in doubt, and the 60-vote threshold had not yet been reached. (See detailed timeline below; complete footage of vote is available at www.WashingtonKay.com.)
Senator Hutchison is clearly misrepresenting the facts and trying desperately to cover up her decision to side with every Democrat in accelerating the passage of health care legislation, said Texans for Rick Perry spokesman Mark Miner. After promising to fight health care, Senator Hutchison abandoned Republicans and stood with Democrats to ensure health care legislation would pass quickly.
So how did these statesmen of conservatism represent my state in the dark night of legislation?Cornyn did not vote. Of 100 individuals in the Senate, only 2% opted out of this vote, with my senator representing half of this.Hutchison, she went one step farther. Rather then attempting to mount a filibuster, rather then trying to fight for one more day in the hallowed halls of legislation that the senate resides in for the liberty of my people, rather then standing for what is right, Hutchison votes to end discussion. She votes to pass the bill. She votes to bring this nation to its knees in the coming decades by taking a meat cleaver to the ankles of a once mighty economy.
WASHINGTON - Tea Party groups in Dallas, Austin and Houston are rallying today at the offices of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to protest her breaking ranks with a GOP filibuster aimed at stalling the Democrats’ health care bill.
"We want to let her know that we are not happy," said Dallas Tea Party leader Phillip Dennis. "If we can’t trust her to fulfill her promises as a senator, how can we trust her as governor?"
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Hey now, campaign characters. Be nice. I know a lot of you on both sides, so I don't want any overly foul language, personal attacks on anyone other than the candidates themselves, or other party fouls. I will moderate the heck out of you if you start breaking the bounds of civility.