Obama's Goal is to Pass Cap-and-Tax During Lame Duck Session

The Lame Duck Session will occur after the November elections and before the new Congress is seated in January. That's when there may be as many as 50 or more House Democrats and 7 or 8 Senate Democrats who know they won't be returning in January and will no longer feel pressure from their constituents (from Jim Geraghty):

EXCLUSIVE: Phil Schiliro, the White House congressional liaison, has told the Senate to aim to take up an energy bill the week of July 12, after the July 4 break (and after the scheduled final passage of Wall Street reform). Kagan confirmation will follow, ahead of the summer break, scheduled to begin Aug. 9. The plan is to conference the new Senate bill with the already-passed House bill IN A LAME-DUCK SESSION AFTER THE ELECTION, so House members don’t have to take another tough vote ahead of midterms.

If this happens the new Congress will take office in January facing an enraged electorate demanding that this be undone, and the battles that will result will be legendary. Unfortunately, more important issues the Congress really should be tackling will be sidelined as the GOP tries to undo the damage done by this Congress with Obamacare, cap-and-tax, and other issues.

If the Republicans cannot get guarantees that passage of such legislation will not occur in the lame duck session, they should do whatever they can to make sure the sessions don't occur.  Refuse to show up and deny a quorum.  Call for endless procedural moves that will delay and obstruct proceedings.  Anything's fair game at that point.