Andrew Jackson Was Sorry He Didn't Hang Calhoun For Treason-- Obama Will Be Sorry He Didn't Hang DeMint For The Same Reason

First they're working on weekends-- two in a row so far-- and now they're voting at 1:01 AM! Last night/early this morning, the Senate beat down a craven Republican filibuster against a Pentagon appropriations bill, 63-33. Four Republicans miss the late night session-- Bond, Bunning, Chambliss and Cornyn-- and all 33 voting against cloture were Republicans. But, ashamed of their party's blatant and dangerous hypocrisy and willingness to put national security in jeopardy three Republican women broken with the obstructionist core to vote with the Democrats: Snowe, Collins and Hutchinson. As today's Washington Post points out, "after years of criticizing Democrats for not supporting the troops, just three Republicans supported the military funding."

Smelling blood in the water-- Obama's-- congressional Republicans will do anything, even putting fighting men and women serving in battle zones in danger, to stop healthcare reform. Conservatives are as passionately opposed to anything approaching universal healthcare as they were opposed to voting rights for the middle class, for women and for ex-slaves. Conservatives are as adamant about defeating healthcare as they were about defeating the minimum wage, Social Security, Medicare and the abolition of slavery. And it should come as no surprise that, once again the charge is being led largely by southern reactionaries like Jim DeMint (R-SC), Richard Burr (R-NC), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Miss McConnell (R-KY), David Diapers Vitter (R-LA), plus the 6 goofballs from Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama.

Republicans have provided the backbone of support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many have praised Obama's troop increase in Afghanistan. When the House considered the same legislation Wednesday, 164 of the 175 Republicans present voted for it, so the Senate GOP plan to oppose defense spending Friday morning put them in an unusual position.

...Because of the narrow timeline on health care, Democrats decided to schedule votes on the defense spending bill shortly after 1 a.m. so that, under parliamentary rules, that legislation can be finished by breakfast-time Saturday. That is a preemptive move to allow extra floor time for other potential delay tactics by Republicans on health care.

Democrats were furious at the filibuster attempt on Pentagon funds. "They are prepared to jeopardize funding for troops at war," Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said Thursday evening. "If Democrats did that, there would be cries of treason."

The Democrats are too polite for that, part of the reason Americans are already sick of them and getting ready to deal them a devastating electoral blow in the midterm elections.


UPDATE: Dems went part-way there. If they're serious, though, they'll customize this ad for state races in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and Iowa where it might do some good: