JASmius adds: FWIW, some are saying that this isn't necessarily a proxy for the final "ram" vote. Something about the majority NEVER losing rules votes (Remember when that happened on Clinton's crime bill right before the '94 election?), and a "yea" here providing cover for killing Red Barry's top domestic priority and "destroying his presidency". Whatever, dude.I'll be honest. I had started to wonder whether this Slaughter Rule business was a bait-and-switch. I couldn't imagine that, with the pounding Democratic leadership have taken over the deem-and-pass strategy, there was any profit left in pushing it. After all, the point was to provide Democrats with political cover, via procedural obscurity, for a vote in favor of the Senate bill. But the procedure is no longer obscure and the cover is now a fig leaf.
That's why I find it genuinely amazing that the House just defeated a
Republican measure to block the Slaughter Rule by a vote 222 to 203.
All I know is, the gap closed alarmingly today, greased by one kickback after another. Could there be a surprise this weekend? Nope, because nobody can convince me that Crazy Nancy will start the roll call until she's certain to win it. So until there is a vote, she doesn't have the votes. And if she doesn't get 'em this weekend, care to take bets on whether she'll just cancel the Easter recess altogether, keep the House in session twenty-four hours a day, and waterboard her caucus until enough of them finally capitulate?
I've thought for a while now that the really shrewd thing for Granny to do would be to put BarryCare on the back burner, go on to other things, let the whole uproar blow over, minimize the November damage as much as possible, and then - particularly if the Dems lose the House - bring it back after the election and ram it down our throats then. Probably the reason they're not is that they honestly believe that once the dirty deed is done, all the furious public opposition to this hijacking will miraculously melt away, and they can ride to unanimous reelection on this "historic accomplishment". And, of course, that would require a degree of mental candlepower of which StoneFace isn't remotely capable.
Just do what I do, Jen: get your news from reliable sources, and treat the outrageous lies, the truimphal Rose Garden signing ceremony, the insufferable gloating, the taunting victory dances, like they're happening on another planet.
And....remember. Because what goes around, comes around. As the Dems have been so helpful to remind us this week, "self-executing rules" and "reconciliation" are bipartisan games. Live for the day when this tyranny gets erased by the same misbegotten means that begat it in the first place.
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