Good News: Senate Shuts Down

Government works best when it's not working at all, as far as I'm concerned.

Props to Mitch McConnell for showing some stones. If it puts a halt to this idiotic, economy-crushing globwarm bill, then it's all worth it.

Overshadowed by the hype of Barack Obama's victory lap on the Senate floor today is a simmering dispute between Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over President Bush's remaining judicial nominees.

McConnell has essentially shut down the Senate floor this afternoon by forcing the Senate clerk to read aloud the entire 500 page global warming bill. So if legislative language is your thing, turn on C-SPAN and watch the Senate at its best, or worst, depending on your perspective.

McConnell (R-Ky.) believes Reid (D-Nev.) has backtracked on a promise to clear a significant number of Republican judicial nominees, but Democrats are becoming more and more hesitant to give Bush judges a lifelong appointment to the federal bench in the waning months of this White House.

Stupid Media Trick: Planted Readers

A regular nutroots circle jerk.

Dan Riehl has the details.

With no regard for accuracy, a continuing desire to undermine the war and also to seek revenge for the defeat of Tom Daschle, the Moveon.org types in the Democrat Party will stop at nothing to end the solid conservative Republican leadership of Senator McConnell. And when certain liberals in the mainstream media see a chance to help them out, they rarely miss a beat.

Bush to Hispanics: Habla Up, Y'all!

The dreaded conservatives are being trashed every which way to Sunday, Trent Lott urges that something must be done about those rebel yahoos on talk radio, and now the president is now urging Hispanics to join the fray in trying to pressure senators to vote for shamnesty.

No word on what language they'll speak up in. The Senate will probably set up Spanish-speaking phone lines.

President Bush yesterday told Hispanics to step into the middle of the immigration debate and make sure senators who have been bombarded with calls from opponents also hear from those who support the bill.

"There's a lot of emotion on this issue, and it makes sense to have people from around the country come and sit down with members of Congress to talk rationally about the issue," he told those attending the Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington yesterday.

He was speaking a day after the bill, which collapsed last week, was revived by the top Democrat and Republican in the Senate.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, agreed to put the bill back on the Senate's schedule next week, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, agreed to limit the number of amendments Republicans would offer.

But roadblocks are already popping up.

Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, said he will block any attempt to send the bill to an eventual House-Senate conference, complicating the usual path a bill takes to reach the president's desk.

"Ted Kennedy has sold us another bill of goods and I don't trust him to make even more changes to it behind closed doors in a conference with the House," Mr. DeMint said, referring to the Massachusetts Democrat who has spearheaded the bill along with Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican.

Read the rest.

Good for Sen. DeMint. South Carolina has at least one sane GOP senator.

Meanwhile, some rather stunning news in the House last night, via Michelle Malkin.

UPDATE: You've got to be kidding me. They can't be this stupid. Can they?

Amnesty Bill in Trouble

While I'd certainly prefer this bill go down to defeat because the American public is overwhelmingly opposed to it, we may just have to take a victory however it comes.

The immigration deal foundered yesterday, on the verge of collapse under its own weight just days after it appeared to have a clear path to pass the Senate.

By late in the afternoon, Republicans were accusing Democrats of trying to "stuff" them, and Democrats said Republicans were trying to kill the bill by obstructing the process. Both sides were saying they don't know whether the process can be put back on track.

A showdown is scheduled for tomorrow, when Democrats said they will force a vote to set a time limit on the bill, and Republicans have promised to block that move through a filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that if Republicans block his effort to limit debate, it would bump the bill off the schedule and likely derail it for the rest of the year.

"People are looking for excuses on the Republican side to kill this bill," he said.

The Nevada Democrat said Republicans are trying to bog down the bill by piling up dozens of amendments -- most of them from senators who "have no intention of voting for this bill, no matter what we do with it."

But Republicans said Democrats are blitzing them by blocking Republicans from even offering amendments.

"The best way to process this bill is not for the majority to try to 'stuff,' if you will, the minority, because that will not happen, I assure you," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, who contended that Democrats were trying to block Republican amendments because they were afraid of having to take tough votes.

"He would like to move this bill and have his members exposed to the fewest number of votes," Mr. McConnell chided Mr. Reid on the Senate floor.

Read the rest.