VIDEO: Harry Reid Exposed; Democrats Filibuster Their Own Debt-Ceiling Bill! UPDATE: Republicans Reportedly Reach Compromise Deal With White House

Posted on | July 30, 2011 | 36 Comments

I could scarcely believe it when Michelle Malkin blogged this earlier: Democrats spent more than 24 hours refusing to call a cloture vote on Harry Reid’s own debt-ceiling bill. Cloture — the motion to end debate and bring a measure to a vote — requires 60 votes and, if such a vote falls short of the 60-vote threshold, debate continues and the measure is thus said to be “filibustered.”

What has actually happened since Friday, however, is not a filibuster. Democrats led by Reid, who know they don’t have 60 votes for his bill, have refused GOP calls for the cloture vote. Democrats are thus in effect filibustering their own bill!

In one of the most amazing moments in Senate history, on Saturday afternoon Harry Reid called a “live quorum” — requiring all senators to be present in the chamber — and threw what can only be described as a tantrum, demanding that the cloture rule be waived. Malkin describes what happened:

He repeated “filibuster” 100 times and even spelled it out — f-i-l-i-b-u-s-t-er.
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell asked why Reid wouldn’t allow a cloture vote on the Reid proposal at 6:30pm Eastern.
Reid let out a thin laugh and meekly said: “I object.”

This is one of those things you can’t actually believe unless you see it, so here’s the video:

You see Reid claims that Republicans are “threatening” a filibuster, but GOP leader Mitch McConnell isn’t making any threats at all — he’s just saying that the Senate should follow established procedure and have a cloture vote. Then Reid accuses Republicans of “putting lipstick” on a filibuster. As I wrote at The American Spectator:

Of course, there was not actually a filibuster. Reid simply refused to bring his own bill up for a cloture vote because he knew it would have failed to get 60 votes, thus exposing the truth that it isn’t House Republicans who are the real obstacle to passing a debt-ceiling bill. But the Democrats have invested so much propaganda in the myth of House GOP obstructionism — it’s those crazy Tea Party extremists! — that Harry had to whine, whine, whine about a “filibuster” in order to attempt to maintain the charade.

For connoisseurs of inside-the-Beltway gamesmanship, this is one of those Kodak moments you want to frame and put on the mantle.

BTW, the plan had been to bring the bill to a vote at 1 a.m. ET Sunday– an hour past midnight – but about 10 p.m. Democrats announced an adjournment until noon, with a planned vote at 1 p.m. ET Sunday.

UPDATE: You may have noticed during that video that McConnell said he’d interrupted a conversation with Vice President Joe Biden in order to meet Reid’s call for a live quorum. Now there are unconfirmed reports that a deal has been reached between the White House and GOP leaders. So this leaves Harry Reid — who had previously said his bill was “the only game in town” — playing with himself.

What a complete chump!

UPDATE II: Jimmie Bise was one of the first to blog the (alleged) deal, and Ed Morrissey says:

It’s a deal we could have reached two weeks ago, but were never going to reach until time ran out.

Of course, but that’s like complaining about having to take a girl on three dates even when you knew from the start she was never going to put out until the third date.

UPDATE III: Linked by POH Diaries — thanks!

UPDATE IV: Jennifer Rubin has details of the deal:

Two senior Republican offices have confirmed that while the outlines of a debt-ceiling deal are in place, no “paper” has been exchanged. The agreement would take the country through the 2012 election, but the Boehner bill two-step cutting process would remain. A trillion in cuts up front would be followed by $1.8 more to be determined by a bipartisan commission.

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.) The important thing: No tax increases on those “millionaires and billionaires” in “corporate jets” that Obama has been demonizing for weeks. So any conservatives in a mood to claim victory can score that a “win.”

Of course, what we’re actually going to hear from conservatives is a lot of bitter complaints about GOP sellouts, while liberals whine about weak-kneed Obama “caving” to right-wing extremists.

Category: Budget, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Senate, Video

Comments

36 Responses to “VIDEO: Harry Reid Exposed; Democrats Filibuster Their Own Debt-Ceiling Bill! UPDATE: Republicans Reportedly Reach Compromise Deal With White House”

ThePaganTemple
July 31st, 2011 @ 3:34 am

If people don’t vote these damn Democrats out of the Senate next year and Obama out of the White House I honestly think there’s no hope for us. I’ll probably link this as soon as I can build up the stomach to watch the video.
Anonymous
July 31st, 2011 @ 3:34 am

I actually feel a little sorry for Harry Reid (D-Nzl). He looks like one whipped pup. I have the feeling that if not for, the soon to be, The Once, he would have already compromised. Enough to get something through both the Senate and House.
Michael Davidson
July 31st, 2011 @ 3:46 am

I think McConnell is going about this the right way. When a bill is put forward and passed, it will be a bipartisan bill in which Harry Reid has been marginalized. Mr. Reid seems a bit of a cry baby at this time.
Anonymous
July 31st, 2011 @ 3:50 am

If you’ll look at the update, it’s pretty clear what was actually happening:

Reid found out that McConnell was negotiating directly with the White House, so Reid called the “live quorum” and whined that he’s the victim of a GOP filibuster. Mitch just smiles and says, “Filibuster? What filibuster? Let’s proceed to the quorum vote, get it over with, and then go ahead negotiating what comes next.”

Finally — at about 10 p.m. ET — Mitch strikes a deal with Obama, leaving Harry out, and so Harry has no choice but to adjourn until tomorrow, when the Senate will vote on the Obama-approved McConnell plan, to which Reid was utterly irrelevant.

Regardless of what’s actually in this deal (and I can imagine my fellow conservatives raising hell about it), as far as the way it will be scored inside the Beltway, it’s McConnell 1, Reid 0.
JeffS
July 31st, 2011 @ 3:50 am

We ought to kick Nevada out of the Union for re-electing that cretin, Harry Reid.
Possible Tentative Deal Struck Between White House, Republicans? - The POH Diaries
July 31st, 2011 @ 12:00 am

[…] including Marco Rubio’s Senate floor speech. R.S. McCain has more, as well as Harry Reid playing with himself. Well, he did say his bill was the only game in town didn’t he? Tagged with: debt […]
TWB
July 31st, 2011 @ 4:02 am

I’m just upset that you put in my mind the horrible mental picture of Harry Reid “playing with himself.”
Wilbur Post
July 31st, 2011 @ 4:06 am

Politics is now performance art. All that’s missing is the chocolate pudding and styrofoam maps of Canada.
JeffS
July 31st, 2011 @ 5:29 am

Maybe the deal is a good one, maybe not. But McConnell certainly took control of the Senate — however temporarily — from Reid. I’d love to see what Reid’s blood pressure is about now. It wouldn’t make up for the charlie foxtrot the Dems and Repubs are running on the Hill right now, but it would be a brief but welcome humorous interlude.

I suspect that the deal suck myself. But maybe the bigger victory is rendering the Democratic Congressional leadership irrelevant.
JeffS
July 31st, 2011 @ 5:30 am

And paper mache heads. Don’t forget those.
SVT
July 31st, 2011 @ 5:32 am

If that’s the deal – fake spending cuts in return for giving The Pimp the ability to continue increasing the debt by borrowing more and more, with the issue off the table in 2012 – then the GOP can go to hell.
Anonymous
July 31st, 2011 @ 5:49 am

Stacy, this — right here — is why we can not continue to share a country with the Copperheads. They are so fundamentally dishonest that we can’t afford to trust them on anything.
Jung
July 31st, 2011 @ 7:14 am

And what would you do? I don’t like it anymore than you do, but the bitter fact on the ground is that we have to play politics right now. If we the people don’t vote all of the beltway insiders out next year, and if they don’t do what we want, well, then, it’s on us, but for now, weakening the Communists…er…Democrats is our only play.
Anonymous
July 31st, 2011 @ 8:13 am

It’s just another trap, Mitch and the Speaker have been close to a deal several times already with sputty and he made unacceptable demands to kill it. They were close to a deal with Reid, he then has a meeting with the White House and then that deal collapses. O’Sputnik is waiting for the DJIA or the bond markets to really freak so the Stupublicans will chicken out and cave. The WH has been meeting with the rating agencies and knows that merely raising the debt limit even with a trillion or two in cuts wont stop a downgrade. Before this drama ends Obama will get his tax/revenue increases.
DianeValencen
July 31st, 2011 @ 11:35 am

One of the biggest problems that American Progressives and
American conservatives have is a lack of communication. Nowhere is that more
apparent than in the past few years with the Heath care bill and now with the
debt ceiling crisis. I don’t know what conservatives want and this is a big
part of the problem. Over the course of the rest of the day, I will be posting
this question on 100 conservative blogs as well as at media outlets in
comments:

“It is 2013, you have a supermajority in both the House
and the Senate and a true conservative GOP president. What are the top ten
things that you would want to see come out of government in the two years you
would have certainty that a conservative agenda will be carried out?”

Your options are open. You can respond at the post for this
question at our blog or if you’re not comfortable going to a liberal blog you
can post your answers inline here and they’ll be retrieved by a member of my
crack staff.

Diane Valencen

Editorial Page Editor

[q c p n!]
Sunday Morning Round-Up: Fast and Furious, Budget Bill, Twitter and More
July 31st, 2011 @ 7:41 am

[…] night, Stacy was agog at Harry Reid’s wacky accusations of filibuster on the part of Senate Republicans, preventing his Budget Bill from being brought for a vote, when […]
McGehee
July 31st, 2011 @ 12:04 pm

Over the course of the rest of the day, I will be posting
this question on 100 conservative blogs as well as at media outlets in
comments:

In other words, you’re a spammer.

I don’t know what conservatives want and this is a big
part of the problem.

Well, I think it’s probably safe to say conservatives don’t want people spamming their comment threads.
ThePaganTemple
July 31st, 2011 @ 12:45 pm

She posted the exact same comment, word for word, at Sister Toldjah. Probably not really interested in “communicating” with conservatives as much as she is culling out what she considers the far-right extremist positions and then portraying them as the majority conservative opinion.
ThePaganTemple
July 31st, 2011 @ 12:49 pm

I don’t even know where the hell to begin. You’re so mad at Obama maybe getting his way for another year and a half that you’re perfectly willing to give him his way for another four years beyond that. Isn’t that pretty much what your little hissy-fit amounts to? I guess no doubt you’re going to tell me God is on your side, right? Dude, please-just get the fuck out of the way.
ThePaganTemple
July 31st, 2011 @ 1:32 pm

what’s actually in this dealDebt ceiling increase of up to $2.8 trillionSpending cuts of roughly $1 trillionVote on the Balanced Budget AmendmentSpecial committee to recommend cuts of $1.8 trillion (or whatever it takes to add up to the total of the debt ceiling increase)Committee must make recommendations before Thanksgiving recessIf
Congress does not approve those cuts by late December, automatic
across-the-board cuts go into effect, including cuts to Defense and
Medicare.
Datechguy's Blog » Blog Archive » Has a Obama Bailout Deal been reached?
July 31st, 2011 @ 9:46 am

[…] a few amusing moments such as Harry Reid blocking consideration of his own bill as chronicled by Stacy McCain and Michelle Malkin I decided it wasn’t worth losing sleep […]
And yet Pelosi voted for it « Don Surber
July 31st, 2011 @ 10:43 am

[…] over in the Senate, Robert Stacy McCain reported: Democrats have filibustered their own bill, as Harry “Bart” Reid holds himself […]
DianeValencen
July 31st, 2011 @ 4:04 pm

It’s not spam McGhee, we’ve actually engaged in some good spirited open dialogue.
Anonymous
July 31st, 2011 @ 4:10 pm

I was: Bamboozled. Hoodwinked. Snookered. Chiseled. Flim flammed. Gulled. Rooked. Befooled. Stung. Cozened. Had the wool pulled over my eyes. Led down the garden path. Lead by the nose. Played false.

What? My age is showing? Ok then.

I was Weinered by a weasel. 🙂
AngelaTC
July 31st, 2011 @ 4:49 pm

For heavens sakes – the progressives and the neocons are pretty much exactly the same. Big federal control, putting the interests of the state over the interests of the individual. I want the opposite. Small federal government, strong individual rights. I’m not adverse to social safety nets, but I don’t think the federal government should be administrating them. That stuff should be handled by the states.

I saw the progressives sell out civil rights and war over money. The movement has no credibility.
AngelaTC
July 31st, 2011 @ 4:55 pm

Gee, I wonder how many times have you guys used the word “racist?”
AngelaTC
July 31st, 2011 @ 4:57 pm

As far as I can see, Rand Paul generated the “Reid is filibustering his own bill” talking point. He’s worth watching, because he’s full of them. He had another in the last week, “Obama needs to explain why he against a balanced budget amendment.”

The Balanced Budget is something that 70% of Americans support. The GOP should be holding the President and the Demos over the fire on this, but the neocons and the socons have about 3 trillion reasons not to support it, I suppose.

He also gave @BarackObama:twitter a strong retort during the Twitter spam. He’s got more backbone than the GOP House combined.
Anonymous
July 31st, 2011 @ 5:11 pm

“far-right extremist positions and then portraying them as the majority conservative opinion. ”

Contributing to making those positions majority conservative opinion would be a great service indeed.
SVT
July 31st, 2011 @ 5:11 pm

Get bent you sanctimonious sphincter. It’s GOP insiders and their apologists like you that bear almost as much blame as the Democrats for this mess. The only progress that has been made so far is the result of people who were willing to try to save the GOP from itself by running true conservatives, instead of listening to the “Oh my, we ust back the Establishment Republicans no matter how they sell us out because if we don’t it might help the Democrats” chorus that you sing in.

And “God on my side?” That’s some serious projection there, Skippy.
Anonymous
July 31st, 2011 @ 5:18 pm

On the subject of a balanced budget amendment, why do so many insist that it would take five to seven years to be ratified by the states? If written with proper protections prevent the feds from loading the states with un-funded mandates etc. I can’t imagine whats not to like from a State Government perspective.
ThePaganTemple
July 31st, 2011 @ 5:29 pm

Project this, you little five-alarm faggot, its people like you who will destroy the party because you can’t get your pitiful little way every step of the way. WAAAAAHHHHHH WE CONTROL A WHOLE THIRD OF THE GOVERNMENT IF OUR SIDE DOESN’T WIN I’M GOING TO THROW A LITTLE HISSY FIT AND I-I-I-I’LL STAY HOME NEXT TIME WAAAHHHHHHH

Keep your ass home then, cocksucker, the adults have got problems to solve.
McGehee
July 31st, 2011 @ 6:05 pm

It’s spam. You can call a tax cut an “expenditure in the tax code” but that don’t make it a spending item.
SVT
August 1st, 2011 @ 1:35 am

A few points that you might want to consider:

1. The party doesn’t matter as much as the nation.

2. Voting for an establishment Republican or staying home are not the only alternatives.

3. If you had been around in the 1850s, you would have argued that everyone should support the Whig party because voting Republican would only help the Democrats.

4. Trying to insult the people with whom you disagree by accusing them of being homosexuals went out around 198o.

5. Do you really think you look like the adult here?
ThePaganTemple
August 1st, 2011 @ 2:40 am

@a980cc18d30d1809ce1fe69477af4c71:disqus

Trying to insult the people with whom you disagree by accusing them of being homosexuals went out around 198o. Do you really think you look like the adult here?

My apologies, sir, I didn’t realize “sanctimonious sphincter” was a term of endearment.
SVT
August 2nd, 2011 @ 2:06 am

Re: your latest comment, in which you try to play the victim:

Are you really trying the “you started it” gambit? You do realize that your comment accusing me of a “hissy fit” and telling me to “get the f*** out of the way” is there for all to see.

And I note the silence on the substantive points.