It’s almost 1:30 in the morning and the Senate is still in session. They just voted to invoke cloture on the Defense Appropriations Bill that funds the troops in the field. The prior appropriations bill expires later today, so the fact that they had to invoke cloture (versus just voting on the damn thing) means that there will be at least the better part of a day (later today and Saturday morning) when the troops are operating without any money. If you’re interested in the details, read David Waldman’s explanation. Basically, there are always at least 30 hours of post-cloture debate. So, because Jon Kyl denied his consent to fund the troops tonight, we have to wait until seven in the morning on Saturday to do that.
The goal is simply to chew up legislative hours and try to kill the health care reform bill. The vote was 63-33, and the Democrats had to wheel Robert Byrd in to make sure they reached the 60 votes needed for cloture. I know that at least three Republicans bucked their party on this one, but the only one I know by name is Kay Bailey Hutchison. I guess she didn’t need a vote against funding the troops on her resume when she goes up against Governor Rick Perry in the Texas gubernatorial primary next year.
Prior to the vote, Dick Durbin asked for unanimous consent to wave the cloture vote and move straight to a vote on the bill. Jon Kyl denied his consent and he and Mitch McConnell proceeded to deny that they were filibustering because they weren’t debating the bill to death like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Of course, denying unanimous consent to waive a cloture vote is basically what a filibuster is. We normally think of filibusters that are successful. In other words, we normally only call it a filibuster if it succeeds in preventing a bill from being voted on. But filibusters can fail, too. And that is what just happened with the Defense Appropriations Bill. They tried to filibuster it but failed. But that failure was by design. They had no intention of preventing a vote on funding the troops. They just want it to take place on Saturday instead of today.
And with that, good night.
