Once again, a minority of Senate Republicans led by Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell blocked the ability of a bipartisan majority to move a piece a legislation, this time a bill that would allow the District’s representative in the House to have a full vote on the House floor. McConnell led a filibuster of the legislation, and a cloture vote on Tuesday to end the filibuster fell three votes short of the needed 60.
It is obstruction at its most contemptible. Never mind the protestations by McConnell and the 40 other Republicans (and one member who calls himself a Democrat, Montana’s Max Baucus) about what McConnell calls the Senate’s “duty to defend the Constitution.” This was, in fact, another episode in the temper tantrum being thrown at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue by people who still do not accept the results of the 2006 election. President Bush had vowed to veto the legislation, but thanks to McConnell, he won’t have the opportunity.
