Posted by
Defend America on Monday, December 21, 2009 7:56:01 AM
Who's responsible for the Senate's middle-of-the-night vote?
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
12/21/09 1:19 AM EST
Why
did the Senate gather at 1 a.m. Monday for a vote to move ahead on the
Reid Amendment to the Democrats' national health care bill? Democrats
blame Republicans. "Everyone knows we're here at one in the morning
because of my friends on the other side of the aisle," Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid said moments before the vote. On CBS Sunday,
Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu said, "We don't have to vote in the
middle of the night, but [Republican Sen. Tom Coburn] is the one making
us do it -- not Harry Reid, not the Democrats. It is a Republican
obstructionist that is making us vote in the middle of the night."
Coburn has no doubt slowed debate on the bill. But the fact is,
there is no reason the Reid Amendment vote could not have been held at
a more reasonable hour. One a.m. Monday was the earliest moment that
Senate rules allowed a vote, but there is no rule keeping the Senate
from voting at some time after 1 a.m. If Reid had scheduled the vote
for, say, 11 a.m. Monday, that would have been fine. If he scheduled it
for 4 p.m. Monday, or 10 a.m. Tuesday, that would have been fine, too.
But Reid is determined to pass the national health care bill by
Christmas, and to do so he has to get the cloture vote on his amendment
done at the earliest moment. The timeline is Reid's and Reid's alone.
"The bottom line is, Sen. Reid schedules the floor," says one
well-connected GOP aide. "He is the only one who can schedule the
floor." If Reid had scheduled the vote during business hours on, say,
Tuesday, a final vote would not have taken place until the day after
Christmas -- an outcome Reid apparently found unacceptable.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Whos-responsible-for-the-Senates-middle-of-the-night-vote-79781687.html