They Made Them Actually Filibuster

Dear Friends,

The Republicans have finally agreed to permit debate on the floor of the Senate on Wall Street reform.  You may recall that on Monday I wrote a post that was entitled "Make Them Actually Filibuster" in which I argued that the Democrats should actually make the Republicans keep going all day and night to keep the debate from happening.  Well Senator Harry Reid finally took my advice.  After three regular working hours attempts to open debate all of which were blocked by the Republicans.  Senator Reid decided to keep the Senate in session all night tonight with vote after vote to try to get the Republicans to agree to permit the debate to begin.  Well that was all it took.  Earlier this evening the Senate agreed, by unanimous consent, to begin debating the Wall Street reform bill known as the Dodd bill.

The Republicans are trying to put a spin on this turn of events by saying that they had achieved a lot in private negotiations and now it was time to begin open debate.  I never ceased to be amazed at what lies they will tell.  Here are two postings from The Hill.  Read them in chronological order to see that the facts speak for themselves.  The 12:51 pm  today the post indicated that Senator Reid planned to keep the Senate in session all night to put pressure on the Republicans.  The 6:46 pm today the post indicates that the Republicans have agreed to start the debate on the Senate floor. 

Rachel Maddow had a great segment on how the Republicans don't like to work late and went back through all the times lately that they agreed to proceed with something after Senator Reid had threatened to keep the Senate in session all night.  I cannot link to it because it has not been posted on line yet, but it will be later.  Here is the link to the show's website.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal