They are giving up 11 hours of phone calls, e-mails, angry callers to talk shows. When they vote on Thursday most of the country will still be in bed. They are giving up precious time, who knows what could happen in those 11 hours? nelson or lincoln or one of the other principleless democrat foot soldiers could break.

peacenprosperity on December 23, 2009 at 2:07 PM

Hey rocket scientist. In case you haven’t tuned in lately, most are on vacation. No one listens to talk radio on Christmas Eve. You may be sleeping, but it will be covered on the news the entire day. If it had happened in the evening, it wouldn’t have been covered at all.

And if you read the post, it takes 51 votes to pass the bill. Nelson and whoever else is on your imaginary wishlist can choose to vote no and it will still pass. Next time you want to feign outrage, at least base it on logic and facts. GO TEAPARTY!!1!!!11!11! /s

*snort*

It may be unlikely but after Reid called Democrats stupid for not demanding bribes for their votes in the bill, maybe McConnell insisting on a late Christmas Eve vote would have resulted in one or two Democrats leaving town early?

The time to gum up the works, to demand every bill be read, etc, is NOW. Conceding ground to Democrats even once- especially on an issue with such serious and long-lasting consequences for the USA- is a dangerous and foolhardy tactic.

The GOP might be losing the fight in Congress but the country is behind them according to all the polls. What they should be doing is dragging their heels every inch of the way because the longer it goes on, and the more people learn about what it really entails, the less popular this power-grab and transformation of the relationship between government and citizen becomes.

I sure hope McConnell knows what he’s doing but I suspect Reid may be about to out-manoeuvre him. Bending the rules of Congress into entirely unrecognisable shapes for their own purposes is what Democrats do best.

its very doubtful dingy harry will break his word on this…mcconnell can make life very difficult for him…force the dems to read every bill….every amendment, etc…gum up the works…

right4life on December 23, 2009 at 2:36 PM

If McConnell had the propensity to do that, the healthcare reform bill would still be bottled up in debate.

highhopes on December 23, 2009 at 2:41 PM

come on now, a little thing like an unconstitutional mandate on 300 million people is one thing–a lie would be outrageous! /sarc

People now advocating, against all evidence, that the passage of this socialist bill is a good thing,

james23 on December 23, 2009 at 3:33 PM

Who is saying that???? I think everyone here agrees that it’s an awful thing.

Ed’s saying that it’s a done deal, so it doesn’t matter much whether it’s passed at 8 a.m. or 3 p.m.

With all due respect, what guarantee does the Republican party in the Senate have that the Senate Majority Leader will honor his word?

Scott H on December 23, 2009 at 3:55 PM

Exactly. Without hostages McConnell has doodley-squat as far as Hawwy and his porcine pals are concerned.

There is even the very easy out of just having the VP head up the Senate on those days, and Senator Reid can rightfully (but deceitfully) claim that he had every intention of honoring his agreement.

In fact, were I the Obama administration, and Senator Reid had offered to give the Republicans a platform to eviscerate said administration right before the State of the Union Address, I’d do everything in my power to stop it. And here enters the VP.

Republicans get to talk about broken promises, etc. in January, just before SOTU, when there’s likely to be a bigger audience paying attention than there is now.

Not for Republicans. The audience will be paying attention to the first black man to give a State of the Union speech, trying to rally America around recovery. Gripes about what Senator Not-Obama did to Republicans will be, like, soooo 2009.

Millions of people are paying attention NOW. Sell them NOW. Sell them on our values NOW. Republicans still have values, right? Other than love of process and decorum? Please?

What is this DRUDGE headline/reuters article about then? Hello? http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BL41Y20091222

theTarCzar on December 23, 2009 at 1:15 PM

That is a short-term (estimated at 2 months) raise of the debt limit of $290 billion. What McConnell supposedly won from the Dingy One was a change in the timing of the big debt-raise vote (on the order of $1.8 trillion), large enough to push the next vote past the November 2010 elections.

As some people noted above, that assumes that the Dingy One won’t renege on the deal. After all, he has already laid waste to almost every Senate rule and tradition, as well as the spirit of the Constitution.

Any news on who will give the GOP response to SOTU? If it’s an effective speaker (unlike last year), it would an important speech, laying out the GOP plan for November 2010, and clear differences between the parties.

Wethal on December 23, 2009 at 1:01 PM

I really, really hope it’s DeMint.

Ed’s a pretty astute blogger, but lets face it, this is nothing more than an after the fact rationalization for another embarrassing retreat by the GOP leadership. Neither Ed, AP nor Byron York were calling on Mush McConnell 48 hours ago to abandon the Christmas Eve push to get some unidentified player to be named later.

like Ed and AP, but honestly, this seems to be yet another instance of presuming the Dems will act honorably, and they’ve done nothing but demonstrate that they can’t be trusted.

Ditto!! When have the Dems ever told the truth? When have they every kept their word about anything? You can’t trust them any further than you can throw the capitol building. Once again the GOP leadership is acting gentile instead of fighting for our Republic! Get rid of them in the next elections and vote for someone who will actually fight for us!!!!!

flytier on December 23, 2009 at 2:54 PM

Well, if they don’t live up to the deal then you can make an issue of that in of itself and that will be as useful as a few more hours of speeches that no one is listening to..People seem to forget that the Republicans are outnumbered here and considering that fact they have done a good job of putting up a fight. More than a lot of voters did, that is for sure.

And how many of those voters, right or left intend to spend Christmas Eve in some vigil in DC? They will be home with their families.

Basically, McConnell conducted a tactical retreat

AH, hahahahahahaha
Dang, that is so good it brought a tear to my eye!
Keep a stiff upper lip, Mitch! er, nevermind
ah, hahahahahaha

Basically, McConnell conducted a tactical retreat on one symbolic front that won’t affect the trajectory of the bill at all, while advancing on a couple of symbolic and substantive fronts later. That deal may or may not be worth it — frankly, it seems like a big win to me, but your mileage may vary — but it wasn’t just an agreement to get a few more hours of vacation for both sides.

I think this is right. And to be honest, I always thought the Christmas Eve vote was just bizarre, but then the whole situation is bizarre.

Let’s all remember this story on 1/20/2010 when Reid reneges on his promise.

What will Mitch do?

barnone on December 23, 2009 at 2:20 PM

Send a strongly worded memo? Make a speech at 10 Pm in front of no one, but have it read in the congressional record, and tell some paper in Kentucky it ain’t fair…137 people will be upset…

force the dems to read every bill….every amendment, etc…gum up the works…

right4life on December 23, 2009 at 2:36 PM

And McConnell and the Republican party becomes nothing more then an obstructionist. Well we can all get angry here on HotAir and other conservative blogs…but that is about it.
Basically, the Republicans didn’t have the fortitude to fight it out to the bitter end…the holiday is more important, so they created a “deal” that at best will be covered on the 24 page in two paragraphs, right next to the “You can quit smoking” ad…you can see why politicians lose wars, not win them, sacrifice is a word not in their dictionary.