Be careful what you wish for
I wrote yesterday about what a total moron South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was for stepping forward and formally proposing a Senate bill banning abortion nationwide after 15 weeks. But it wasn’t until I took a little quiet time to think about it that I realized Graham may actually be even dumber than he looks.
If Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is as smart as he is, then he has realized that Lindsey Graham has just handed him the goose he can use to lay a golden egg big enough to bury the entire GOP under in November. If he does it, it will have to be quick, but Schumer has shown his legislative prowess over and over again in the last 2 years.
Here’s how it works. From the reporting I’ve seen, Graham used his publicity stunt press conference to actually introduce the anti abortion bill to the floor of the Senate. OK, fine. If you’re that dumb, Fool on ya mate! Schumer should immediately send the bill to the appropriate committee, with instructions to the committee Chairman to fast track this turd blossom.
The committee holds a hearing on the bill, with witnesses as soon as possible. Most likely, the Democrats have a 1 seat advantage on the committee. Hold the hearing, and bring it to a vote. And when that vote is held, make sure there’s one safe Democrat to vote for the bill to send it to the floor of the Senate.
When it hits the floor of the Senate, Schumer immediately holds a floor vote for cloture to begin debate on the bill. With the current state of GOP politics, it will literally force all 50 GOP Senators to vote for a bill with no chance of passage. Once that happens, there are two ways it can go.
One, all 50 Democrats can vote against cloture on the bill, allowing VP Kamala Harris to cast the deciding NO vote. This allows the Democrats to now spend the next 7 weeks running on the extremism of the entire GOPÂ in trying to muzzle a woman’s choice in regards to her own body.
But I like the second option better. Find 10 safe Democrats, the California Senators, the New York Senators, the Illinois Senators, the New Jersey Senators, and a couple of more to reach the 60 vote margin for cloture.
And then immediately bring the bill to the floor for debate and markup. Every Democratic Senator can take to the floor to loudly tout their pro choice bona fides. And the more militant, hard core anti choice Republicans can take to the floor to spout off about just how totally out of touch they are. Choose debate, do the markups, and bring it to the floor for a vote. All 50 Democrats vote NO, Harris casts the deciding vote, and it goes down in flames. But now the Democrats have all of those lovely sound bites of far right GOP Senators extolling the virtues of turning 53% of the US population into a real life version of A Handmaid’s Tale to use in attack ads nationally.
There is one wild card in this scenario, but it’s still a win-win for the Democrats. Let’s say that the Democrats find 10 Senators to vote for cloture in order to advance the bill to the floor for debate. But GOP Senators Collins and Murkowski break ranks and vote NO, and the cloture vote fails. All the better. Now the Democrats can argue that the GOP’s anti abortion position is so extreme that they can’t even hold their own caucus in line to vote for it!
Lindsey Graham has just graduated from moron to uber moron. And if Schumer wants to put a little time and sweat equity into pulling this off, it could be the final stake in the GOP vampire heart in 2022. Don’t touch that dial.
I like it! Can’t wait to see if this actually happens.
if the democrats play their cards right and can excite women to vote the republicans will take a dive no matter what the polls say. let s see how this plays out. The key in my mind is getting those that normally don t vote to get out there and vote especially on issues that matter to you . That s the only power we have to get our life and freedoms secure and keep radicals in check.
Schumer is smart. He’s a very cagey pol. That said he’s been in D.C. for quite a few years now and over those years he is quite addicted to power. This is not unusual but it is a problem. When pols get addicted to power they want to keep it at all costs and that can get in the way of smart thinking and actions. We’ll see if Schumer is so addicted to power it clouds his thinking and makes him do less than intelligent things or conversely not do things that should be done.
The theocrats on the s.c. and the ‘pube party have given Schumer and Pelosi a very generous present. Let’s hope they make use of it.
Looks like power means more than intelligence. Just found out Schumer told the ‘pubes the marriage equality vote will NOT be on the floor before the mid-terms.
What a putz-snatches defeat once again.
It’s hard for good little boys & girls who have stayed inside the rules all their lives to have the balls to win a knife fight with nazis. We need killer angels, like the title of the pulizer prize winning book about Gettysburg. The northern troops barely won that battle. We didn’t send troops to Normandy with convincing arguments. They went with battleships. Just saying.
Schumer may be more worries about the House than about the Senate – although since I can’t find a reliable source for that “overherd” remark, that may just be someone’s wishful thinking.
Manchin is pro life, isn’t he?