Barbara Boxer: So Much for a More Open, Respectful GOP Senate

[IDemo]

I wasn't shocked when Senate Republicans made their first order of business a bill pushed by Canadian special interests. I knew they had made a commitment to Big Oil to force through a vote on the Keystone tar sands pipeline, which would carry the dirtiest oil on earth across our country.

I wasn't even surprised that GOP leaders ended this week's session early so their members could fly to Palm Springs to cozy up to the billionaire oil magnates, the Koch Brothers, at their winter retreat.

What shocked me about the debate last night that stretched past midnight was the way Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the new Republican majority treated their colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

First, McConnell and the new Senate GOP leadership pushed to have debate and votes on all kinds of Republican amendments that had absolutely nothing to do with Keystone. They included measures to prohibit EPA enforcement officials from carrying weapons, to block the designation of new national monuments, and even to halt the historic U.S. agreement with China on cutting dangerous carbon pollution.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-barbara-boxer/so-much-for-a-more-open-r_b_6535936.html

[freshwest]

1. We have years more of this to come.

[kentuck]

2. He used to be a turtle - now he's a turdle...