Ferchristsake
by digby
It’s like dealing with emotionally disturbed 2 year olds having a tantrum:
Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), one of the Senate’s most senior members, said Republicans are “not going to put up with” an action-packed lame-duck session.
“They know it’s likely there will be less Democrats in the Senate if Republicans are lucky enough by the end of this year,” Hatch said. “So there will be a big push to try to make a big stink. As you can see, lame ducks don’t work. Republicans aren’t going to roll over and play dead if they want to play politics at the end of the year.”
The right wing is also making noises about a prospective lame-duck session — even though Republicans used lame-duck sessions to attempt to pass major legislation when they controlled Congress. Freedom Works, the conservative organization run by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), is circulating a “No Lame Duck” petition. The group’s website warns that Democrats — after potentially losing control of the House — could push through tax increases and stimulus-type bills, even though there are no plans to do so.
“When will politicians finally get the message?!” reads the petition, which is being sent to members of Congress.
Boehner’s statement and the Freedom Works initiative are clearly aimed at painting the Democrats as mucking with the will of voters and tricking the public by enacting laws after votes alter the membership of Congress and before a new session begins.
As Dave Weigel wrote, “Am I the only one who remembers that the House *impeached the president* during the 1998 lame duck?”
Apparently. Of course, impeaching a president over a private sexual matter had absolutely nothing to do with “mucking with the will of the voters” so it was fine and dandy.
These guys are awfully confident. They were awfully confident in 1998 too. There was a wonderful documentary done during that campaign called “The Fall Of Newt” which followed him all over the country as he boldly predicted that they GOP was going to win up to 40 seats:
[W]hen Gingrich is campaigning just before the election in his own Georgia district, Pack catches him taking a cat nap in the back of a British double-decker bus. Gingrich wakes up to a nightmare. Rather than gaining between 10 and 40 House seats, his Republican conference shrinks by five members.
“This was a night I was generally confused,” Gingrich confesses. “It was not the election I would have predicted.”
What’s that old saying about counting your lame ducks before you pay your doctor with them?
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