The Latest Washington Shenanigans

Philip Klein sums up tonight's activities in Washington:

As expected, the U.S. Senate voted 59 to 41 to table House Speaker John Boehner's plan to increase the debt limit that had been passed by the House just hours earlier. Then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declined a GOP offer to hold a cloture vote on his own plan tonight.

Six Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting the Boehner plan: Sens. Jim DeMint, Lindsey Graham, David Vitter, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch. (Hatch's vote was especially interesting, another bit of evidence that he's fearing a primary challenge and is eager to show his conservative bona fides.)

Reid had filed cloture on his own debt limit bill, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had offered to hold the vote tonight. But Reid declined, saying the only way he'd allow a vote tonight would be if it were a simple majority vote, rather than one that required a 60-vote threshold.

Thus, the Senate will now have to wait until Sunday at 1 am to hold a vote on his bill. However, he still has the ability to make changes to his bill up until midnight tonight, which he could attempt to do in an effort to win over seven Republicans and obtain the needed 60 votes.

Ultimately, whatever the Senate votes on will have to be reconciled with the House.

Separately, the House of Representatives announced that they would hold a Saturday vote on the Reid bill, in order to demonstrate that it doesn't have a change to get through the House as written.

I liked this idea I saw on Twitter:

@BrandonKiser: .@SpeakerBoehner should adjourn the House and nail a sign to the door that says "We did our job. Enjoy the weekend."

Exactly.

My fear is the bill that comes back to the House will be a real piece of garbage and all the Democrats, with help from the establishment Republicans, will line up to pass it.  I hope I'm wrong.