The Daily Background

Oh boy, so get this. The Republican victory on the cloture vote seems to have been rather short lived. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) just announced that if Republicans won’t allow an up-or-down vote on the withdrawal amendment, he won’t let the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2008 (that the withdrawal amendment was supposed to be attached to) reach the floor. I agree with Steve: this is playing hardball.

“Because Republicans continue to block votes on important amendments to the Defense Authorization bill, we can make no further progress on Iraq and this bill at this time.

“For these reasons, I have temporarily laid aside the Defense Authorization bill and have entered a motion to reconsider.

“But let me be clear to my Republican colleagues — I emphasize the word ‘temporarily.’ We will do everything in our power to change course in Iraq. We will do everything in our power to complete consideration of a Defense Authorization bill. We must do both.

“And just to remind my Republican colleagues — even if this bill had passed yesterday, its provisions would not take effect until October.

“So we will come back to this bill as soon as it is clear we can make real progress. To that end, I have asked the Democratic Whip and Democratic Manager of the bill to sit down with their counterparts to work on a process to address all outstanding issues related to this bill so the Senate can return to it as soon as possible.”

This is totally unexpected, and a fascinating move- it looks like the Democratic leadership hasn’t given up just yet and may be growing (gasp) a spine.

Also, why is it that the media can’t identify a filibuster when it sees one?

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog