Saturday, January 30, 2010

Daily Kos: Hatch vows "outright war" if HCR improved by reconciliation


Gosh, aren't a-holes like Orrin Hatch are truly insufferable? Greg Sargent has the latest:

GOP Senator Orrin Hatch is now warning that if Dems pass health care reform via reconciliation it will lead to permanent “war” between the two parties — even though he voted for more than a half dozen GOP bills passed through the process known as...reconciliation.

It's not just that Hatch supported the use of reconciliation throughout the Bush years (as Greg documents thoroughly), it's also that Hatch has been a leader among Republican senators who have over the last year abused the filibuster in historic fashion. For the first time in our nation's history, every single major piece of legislation -- and every major confirmation -- in the Senate has been subjected to the filibuster.

So in a very real sense, Orrin Hatch has already declared "war." That's why you have senators like Jim DeMint calling for health care to be President Obama's "waterloo."

And now that some Democrats are considering mechanisms -- mechanisms that are clearly within the Senate's rules -- to get around Orrin Hatch's war, Hatch is crying about it. Well, tough luck Senator. You're the one who broke the Senate. Deal with it. ..

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