Shock: Senate Democrats Attempt To Kill Earmark-Transparency Bill (Passed By Own Party In The House!)

They failed, at least on the first vote. Now they're trying to stall and twist arms until they can get their precious pork-without-public-notice back.

And then there was drama.

So when the motion to kill the bill came to a vote, Durbin and the Democrats lost! [ed. note: At this point, the Senate erupted. The chair, who I think was Maria Cantwell, banged the gavel repeatedly to bring the room to order. The Democrats were frantically performing triage in an attempt to recover.]

It should be noted that a majority should never offer a motion to table if they aren’t sure they can win. It was very embarrassing. Especially since Durbin was trying to kill a proposal that his Leadership colleagues in the House offered!

Anyways, after the motion failed, DeMint asked for a voice vote, which is common. It's basically used to save time since de facto support of the bill was decided when the motion failed. However, Big Ted Kennedy objected, which is all that it needed to skip a voice vote.

The Dems are now off the floor whipping the hell out of their members for when they take a real roll call vote later this afternoon.

Stay tuned...

UPDATE (4:07pm): They are voting now. Reid was waving his hand on the Senate floor right now as if to say, "Hurry up!".

UPDATE (4:23pm): Actually, they are only voting to acquire the attendance necessary to vote on the bill. Crazy, I know. Anyways, a reliable and friendly source in the Senate is telling me, "This is absolutely amazing. Senate Dem Leaders are twisting arms and defying Senate precedent in order to reverse an earmark reform vote that was based on Nancy Pelosi’s proposal. The irony is thick. This is happening on a bill in which Democrats are claiming to clean up a culture of corruption in Washington. It is only the 5th vote of the 110th Congress and we are back to business as usual."

UPDATE (4:29pm): It should be noted that Senate Democratic freshmen, Jim Webb and Jon Tester, voted with Republicans to not kill the proposal. Will Reid successfully whip them into changing their vote?

UPDATE (4:34pm): Harry Reid is talking right now. He just said that DeMint's proposal is disrupting the overall bill, which took a lot of time to put together. He just said that the weak earmark reform rules "were carefully vetted with weeks of work from our staff" and that it's "preferrable" to DeMint's proposal.

UPDATE (4:44pm): DeMint is speaking now. Man, the guy is a champ. He just said he felt like he was still in the House. He then compared this vote to the disgusting 3-hour vote on the Medicare drug bill in 2003. That's going to hurt the Dems in tomorrow's press if the mainstream media isn't playing favorites.

"If the mainstream media isn't playing favorites."

And what are the odds of that?

...

UPDATE (5:04pm): The Senate is having another quorum call to bring all the Senators to the floor for a vote. The funny thing is...all the Senators are on the floor. Transparent stalling tactics.

The Not Ready For Prime Time Legislators.

Thanks to Larwyn.

Meanwhile, just in case anyone isn't convinced the Reality Based Community is back in charge -- Congressman David Wu (D-Antares VII) just claimed on floor of Congress that the Bush Administration was nothing but a cabal of Klingons.

New York Money Klingons, I think he meant.

posted by Ace at 08:43 PM