(H/T: Don Surber) The two Democratic branches of Congress aren’t precisely happy with each other right now:
Reid, Pelosi Swearing Match Over Omnibus
After an angry, swearing late night meeting among top Democrats, Congress voted Friday to give itself another five days to try to complete a long-overdue omnibus spending bill that had become a growing embarrassment for party leaders and President Barack Obama.
Senate Democrats had abruptly pulled back Thursday night after finding themselves one vote short of the 60 needed to cut off debate. The action infuriated Speaker Nancy Pelosi so much that the California Democrat wanted to abandon the $409.6 billion measure and instead push through a stripped-down continuing resolution to keep the government operating through Sept. 30.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) and his deputy, Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D.-Ill.) were called to Pelosi’s office late Thursday night and ultimately prevailed in their argument that Democrats should try to salvage the bill, which includes critical spending increases for vital agencies. But the heated, sometimes profane, exchanges were described as “ugly” by Democrats on both sides of the Capitol. Staff, kicked out in the hall, could hear the yelling, and Pelosi herself seemed a little abashed the next day, joking that nothing her leadership could say to her now would match the night before.
The problem here is that the Speaker of the House is just a little too used to her current setup, which permits her to dictate whatever legislation that she, or a small coterie of her creatures, pleases (which is one reason why Cantor annoys her so). Reid is in a harder position, given a) the nature of the Senate and b) his own glaring incompetence, which turns even the easiest procedural votes into epic amateur theater; to put it very weirdly, Pelosi’s ego writes checks that Reid’s body can’t cash, and sometimes that means that a screaming match will result.
Don’t read too much into this, of course: they may be contemptuous of each other by now, but they absolutely hate us. So they’ll unite against a common enemy at need. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun with this anyway: because I can’t imagine that Harry Reid is the only person out there in government who’s getting tired of the House of Representatives being run as a personal fiefdom…
Crossposted to Moe Lane.
Neil Stevens
Steve Maley
They were "called to Pelosi's office"...?
NeoKong (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 7:56AM EST (link)Oh man,how embarrassing.
I guess we know who wears the pants on Capitol Hill and it sure ain’t Harry.
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I wonder if Nevada voters will like the idea of that
smagar (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 8:10AM EST (link)The idea of their Senator coming when Pelosi blows her whistle.
NV GOP—please take note.
“Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?” (Macaulay)
Nevada may be doing some soul searching in the future.
NeoKong (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 8:50AM EST (link)They are getting creamed in the housing crisis and tourism is one of their biggest industries.
Tourism thrives on disposable cash which many people don’t seem to have lately.
A lot of the new construction in Vegas has been put on hold.
Nobody will be singing Harry’s praises at election time.
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I am sorry for this.
Steven Willis (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 8:11AM EST (link)It is great theater, but nevertheless unfortunate.
I detest their policies. As fellow, flawed human beings, I wish them happiness and they seem not to have it. That is sad for them and for us all, as we need leaders who are calm, serious, optimistic (when realistic), and happy with themselves and their colleagues.
I will pray that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid find more constructive ways to vent.
Exercise, therapy, and prescribed medications (based on competent diagnosis) are helpful in these situations. I suggest they each seek some time alone in their Faith. It will help.
Perhaps a vacation would be good, too. I suggest a long one.
“Let it be said, I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith.”
Paul, Second Timothy 4:7, The New Covenant.
Steve Willis
Professor of Law
University of Florida College of Law
"..seek some time alone in their Faith. It will help."
janis (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 10:11AM EST (link)If these two actually had a faith that they sincerely attempted to follow, you might be right, Steven, and they–and the country– would all be the better for it. But they have sold their faith for the nasty mess of pottage they have coveted and now they have nothing. Neither their faith that was sold so cheaply and expediently, nor the power that they sold it for. When thieves fall out with one another, it gets nasty fast.
The vacation idea is the best one, particularly the long part.
I was half joking.
Steven Willis (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 9:37PM EST (link)Both profess a Faith. They clearly need time with it. I suggest a few years.
“Let it be said, I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith.”
Paul, Second Timothy 4:7, The New Covenant.
Steve Willis
Professor of Law
University of Florida College of Law
Where are the dueling pistols?
bobojake (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 11:13AM EST (link)Maybe it time to bring back the dueling pistols for these 2 incompetent ego manics.
Dueling pistols have been banned. It's rubber bands at 20 paces.
janis (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 11:45AM EST (link)However, stand back if the rubber band hits Nance in the face. That botoxed skin could cause some serious rubber shrapnel damage!
Where are the dueling pistols?
bobojake (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 11:13AM EST (link)Maybe it time to bring back the dueling pistols for these 2 incompetent ego manics.
Time alone in their faith...
mbecker908 (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 11:36AM EST (link)Is there a Planned Parenthood office on Capitol Hill?
Wrong clinic for their ages...
The_Gadfly (Diary) Monday, March 9th at 12:33PM EST (link)They’d be looking to visit Dr. Kevorkian to sup some wine.
I' Not Buying It!
briefsynopsis (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 9:09AM EST (link)How many of us out here have conversations that start out with “I’m not a conspiracy theorist but?”, any one?, all of us?
To believe this truly happened in this manner would require a willful suspension of disbelief!
Madam Speaker cannot deviate from, or talk too long, without her talking points. Once offered for consumption, she comes off as an idiot lip syncing. Could this be more contrived theater designed to fool the American people into thinking that they really do care?
This spending bill with its pork “earmarks” will prove to be yet one more candy coated crap pill forced down our throats.
Theater is exactly what this all is.
Have you Hugged a “Special Operations Warrior” today?
Then it's theater like "Stop-Loss"
Raven (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 11:21AM EST (link)And it’ll go over just as well because it’s just as well written.
“If you do not have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”
Luke 22:36
No. She only needs her talking points when she has to lie in public.
itrytobenice (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 8:30PM EST (link)When she and Dingy Harry are along together, they both know exactly what they’re up to and how they have to spin it.
They can let it all hang out when they are together.
Proper grammar saves lives.
Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.
Is this real? Or I'm only reading a fictional novel?
Rod_Patrick (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 9:23AM EST (link)This is quite embarrassing.
It all seems surreal lately!!! nt
mom2oneson (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 10:37AM EST (link)nt
Yes, mom.
Rod_Patrick (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 12:56PM EST (link)Surreal is really the right term for this.
the worst thing you can do to the Left
rrpjr Sunday, March 8th at 10:07AM EST (link)is give them power, I’ve always thought. Hate never has a good end. Unfortunately, we all suffer.
If the liberal dream is realized,
johnt Sunday, March 8th at 11:12AM EST (link)which is total uniformity, every dummy a liberal, then shortly thereafter
they will be clawing at each others throats. If the nation were completely liberal they would in short order be rolling in the gutters in mortal combat. It’s the nature of the beast. Apart from wearing clothes and taking occasional showers they are uncivilized, primordial cave men.
The only thing that keeps them together is their shared passion for power and dominance, that and a common enemy.
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
"Without a strong opponent, the Sith eventually turn on each other..."
Raven (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 11:16AM EST (link)nt
“If you do not have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”
Luke 22:36
If they get tired of swearing at each other...
Next93 (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 12:01PM EST (link)If Nancy and Harry get tired of swearing at each other, I’m fairly certain I can find a few million people who’d be willing to take up the slack. I wonder if there’s any money in the “stimulus” bill for something like that? Maybe I can get a CETA grant?
Gawd, it’s nice to have Carter back in the Whitehouse. Now if I can just manage to get back into my bell bottoms and grow my hair back.
Obama was The One in 2008.
He’ll be a BIGGER one in 2012.
NancyP is really acting like Empress Dowager.
Rod_Patrick (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 12:58PM EST (link)She has lost her decorum a long long time ago.
The Left Hate Each Other
IJB Sunday, March 8th at 2:49PM EST (link)It’s true that they hate everyone who’s not Left, and will generally band together against common enemies.
But stunts like this are par for the course when they run the show all on their own.
People forget what happened in the first couple of years of both Carter and Clinton, but it looked a lot like this.
The thing you have to understand about Leftists is that they hate and are contemptuous of *everybody*, include their fellow so-called comrades. It’s why it didn’t take the French and Russian Revolutions long to turn into bloodbaths where they turned on each other.
Anyway, as the “Thud!” that sounded when Obama’s budget hit, it’s clear that Congressional Dems are no longer taking their lead from Barry (thus, definitively making this into “Carter II”), and Nan and Dingy Harry won’t be taking orders from each other anymore either.
Trust me, it won’t be long before Durbin and Hoyer are planning back room conspiracies with their little minions to plot to take out the current Kings & Queens.
This is gonna get uglier.
Fast.
As long as it gets more entertaining along the way n/t
wennejunk (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 3:30PM EST (link)I’d be up for that.
There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ -C. S. Lewis
Kinda like Stalin and Trotsky?
Next93 (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 10:29PM EST (link)Or maybe Hitler and Rohlm?
Obama was The One in 2008.
He’ll be a BIGGER one in 2012.
Maybe Stalin and Trotsky
The_Gadfly (Diary) Monday, March 9th at 12:41PM EST (link)definitely not Hitler and Rohlm.
Personally, I’d prefer something more akin to Charles Bronson in The Mechanic.
It would seem that the language used
candoo2 (dkos funluvn1) (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 3:41PM EST (link)changed nothing in the outcome of the deal made by the Senate and the House.
I often snicker at the sillyness of discussing “language” used by elected officials. I’m not big into four letter words, and I imagine you are not either, however when things get heated and tense those words somehow seem to show up. Even out of the mouths of babes.
I make crude sexual jokes about conservatives.
In 2010, run against a Dem congress
David123 (Diary) Sunday, March 8th at 8:39PM EST (link)Dow Dec 31, 2000 – 10787 – R Congress, Bush about to be sworn in, FINALLY, after the longest election in history
Dow Oct 31, 2006 – 12081 – R Congress (for a few more days), President Bush
Dow Nov 28, 2008 – 8829 – after 2 years of a Dem Congress, Bush is still President, but Obama is President-elect.
Dow Feb 27, 2009 – 7063 – with President Obama + a Dem Congress, helping (?) the economy.
Don’t forget, John McCain and other Republicans were pushing legislation back in 2005 to prevent this mess, but the Dems prevented them from passing it.
David123
So maybe, Pelosi should let the Republicans propose some amendments in the House
The_Gadfly (Diary) Monday, March 9th at 12:35PM EST (link)so as to avoid the embarrassment of having to pull them from the Senate floor…
…
Nah, that would never work.