The Political Chase

GOP Filibuster Blocks Levin-Reed Bill

The Senate failed to pass today yet another bill requiring the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The Levin-Reed bill, which would have required the withdrawal of most troops and begin within 120 days of enactment, failed to stop the GOP filibuster with 47 votes.

Last year, the Republicans threatened to use the “nuclear option” to keep Democrats from filibustering on one Bush judicial nominee. Bill Frist, the Righteous Republican Majority Leader at the time, pitched several temper-tantrums on the floor of the Senate, declaring he would break the super-majority rule (60 vote minimum) that had been in place for more than 200 years if the Obstructionist Democrats did not allow the Righteous Republicans to have a single majority vote for a federal judge nominee. Now that the Democrats have majority rule, the Righteous Republicans filibuster almost every piece of legislation Democrats submit and on issues as significant as the war in Iraq.

Hypocrisy seems to be viewed as a virtue to the Righteous Republicans when they repeatedly try to protect the Decider, but blasphemy when the Obstructionist Democrats use it to stop the approval of a federal judge.