Men At Work

If it weren't for infantile behavior in Congress, there'd be no behavior at all. Gamesmanship, taking shots at each other, trying to embarrass the other side, or the president. Doing the people's work? Down the list, about forty lines. No, this is how they spend their time:

WASHINGTON -- A move to embarrass Democrats backfired on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Thursday as the Kentucky Republican proposed a vote on raising the nation's debt ceiling -- then filibustered it when the Democrats tried to take him up on the offer. 

On Thursday morning McConnell had made a motion for the vote on legislation that would let the president extend the country's borrowing limit on his own. Congress would then have the option to disapprove such hikes, in a fashion similar to one that McConnell first suggested during last year's standoff over the debt ceiling. 

The minority leader apparently did not think Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would take him up on his offer, which would have allowed McConnell to portray President Barack Obama's desire for such authority as something even Democrats opposed. 

Reid objected at first, but told McConnell he thought it might be a good idea. After Senate staff reviewed the proposal, Reid came back to the floor and proposed a straight up-or-down vote on the idea. 

McConnell was forced to say no...

In my view, it's McConnell who's the douchebag in this particular episode: it was he, after all, who initiated it, with his turtle-face, smugly thinking he was pulling a fast one to embarrass the Ds and, of course, President Obama. So, really, Reid gets a nod for being smarter than Mitch (a high bar if ever there was.) But if either of these guys -- and the whole sorry little of them (they're not a "lot") -- were to devote the energy to getting things done that they do to trying to screw the other side, we'd be ... well, we wouldn't be in America, not any more.

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