67–33: The Budget Gets Cloture, Republican Senators Trash House Republicans

[pampango]

Source: Slate

The ayes: Every single Democrat or independent, plus Lamar Alexander, Roy Blunt, Saxby Chambliss, Susan Collins, Jeff Flake, Orrin Hatch, John Hoeven, Johny Isakson, Ron Johnson, John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, and Rob Portman. Chambliss is retiring. Hatch, McCain, and Murkowski have defeated Tea Party challengers. Only Alexander and Collins are up in 2014, and have drawn weak opponents. Notable among the no votes: Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, who used to be a reliable "aye" for these sorts of deals, before he drew a Club for Growth-backed primary challenge.

What did the ayes and nos have in common? Senators who split on the cloture vote were united in their derision of the House. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who voted no because he wanted more long-term spending discipline in the budget, said that House Republicans put up a lame product to save face.

"I know that they had to overcome the antics that they displayed this fall, and they went out of their way to look like they had the ability to govern," he said. But it was the antics that put them in such a weak position in the first place. Then you had House appropriators who didn't want to live within the caps."

Read more: http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/12/17/_67_33_the_budget_gets_cloture_republican_senators_trash_house_republicans.html

[question everything]

1. Good. Perhaps there are still chances for a functioning government

though I suppose that we will have to wait for Nov. 2014 to find out whether the teabaggers took over, and destroyed the GOP as we know it, or whether a new and improved opposition party is in place.

[underpants]

2. Their antics?

It was Repub Senators' actions that left Reid no option but to go nuclear in their buttocks.

[FairWinds]

3. It is a really rotten . .

austerity-type deal. Very disappointing that Dems voted for it.
Watch the GOP use it against them in the fall.

[pampango]

4. I tend to agree, but Warren and Sanders did vote for it so I suppose the alternative,

whatever they perceive that to be, was worse.

[The Stranger]

5. Where's the Republican-on-Republican trashing?

WHERE'S THE TRASHING?

I want to see it.