ConfirmThem

By Quin Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Something really strange, or a lot of somethings, is/are occurring with the judge's fight. First comes the blockbuster story about the Lott deal. Then comes the start of Senate floor discussion today: "morning business," with no pre-set time limits.

Frist, Reid, Leahy and Cornyn all talk on judges. Meanwhile, Specter was to make a lengthy statement expected to hint at his stance on the constitutional option, or maybe to hint at his stance combined with yet another compromise proposal -- or SOMEthing. But Specter clearly was in line to talk. Instead, morning business proceeds to regular order, in which the Transportation/oinking pork bill was supposed to come up.

But Ron Wyden, of all people, asks unanimous consent to proceed as if they were still on morning business, so he could have 15 minutes and then Lott could have 15 minutes, supposedly on judges. Wyden then spends 15 minutes trying to sound oh-so-reasonable and bipartisan. Meanwhile, this site reports the UPI story about how Lott's office has denied a deal. Obviously, the expectation is that Wyden and Lott have some two-step worked out, and that Lott will explain what's going on.

Instead, Lott gets up and, feigning utter ignorance about what's been happening on the floor, says he came in to talk about the transportation bill which he thought was on the floor, so, barring objection, that's what he would talk about. As if he knew nothing about how judges was the topic du jour and that his dealings were the main reason that expectations were so high about big goings-on. Anyway, about 10 minutes into Lott's babbling on about transportation -- none of it remotely important, all of it mere boilerplate -- Specter interrupts to say he thought HE was supposed to have time. Lott says he'll be done in three minutes, so Specter says to go ahead.

Lott finishes, and then Inhofe and Bond get up and start talking procedural stuff about the transportation bill. Finally one of them recognizes Specter -- specifically for 15 minutes only. Specter takes the mike. He's angry. He says he has been promised time today since last week, and that he originally was to have 45 minutes, and then he just spent a ton of time in the cloakroom negotiating it down to 25 minutes -- and now he's told he can't have more than 15. "Well, I can't possibly do it in just 15 minutes!" he huffed. "So I yield back the floor!" And he stalked off, VERY angry.

WHAT IS GOING ON? What was Specter gonna say? Why did both parties appear to cooperate in keeping him from his expected floor time??? Why did Trent Lott work with Ron Wyden to waste time that could have gone to Specter? Would Specter have announced that he would vote against the constitutional option altogether, thus killing the Lott compromise and handing a victory to the Dems? Or would he have hinted that he would reluctantly vote FOR the constitutional option, thus killing the Lott compromise and making it far more likely for the constitutional option to pass?

Either way, SOMEbody, or a number of somebodies in the Senate, seemed scared of what Specter would do. And Lott, whose deal was reported in Roll Call today, and then whose press person said there was no deal, was part of what looked like deliberate subterfuge to change the subject on the floor. VERY VERY VERY strange all around. Methinks I see a GOP implosion happening before our eyes. And if that's NOT what is happening, then Frist needs to act, and ACT NOW, to lower the boom, pass the constitutional option, and stop allowing more time for nervous nellies to gum up the works. !!!!!!!!!!!!!