How Many Times Does Ben Nelson Vote With The GOP On Cloture Before He's Officially A Republican?

These people all wish you the worst; can you identify them all?

There are some demented souls who are so certain that Obama is an illegitimate president-- hey, he's not even white-- that they just want to shut down the government and let everything, the whole kit and kaboodle, go to hell. Talk to some teabaggers; they think that way. I mean, they believe it. They really and truly are 100% unaware that they are pathetic Astroturfed Republican Party pawns. They have their beliefs, even if they all came from Fox and Limbaugh, and they're certain that the Republican Party isn't manipulating them. No, not them!

In Congress, you certainly have a great many opportunistic Republicans who don't seem to care how much damage they do if they can cause such a stink and such a ruckus that people associate it with Obama being unable to govern. At this point, it seems to be the clear "strategy" in both houses. And if there are any patriotic Republicans left... well, what are they doing in the GOP? Yesterday the Senate took only one vote. It was to break another de rigueur GOP filibuster. They filibuster everything, and it takes 60 votes to move on. It just wastes a lot of time, keeping the country from moving forward, which is, after all, bottom line, exactly what the whole conservative venture is all about.

The cloture motion yesterday passed 61-30. It releases funds passed by the House (H.R. 2847) to deal with unemployment by helping to create more jobs. A booming economy is the GOP's worst nightmare, and they are determined to do everything they can to prevent it.

The only Republicans voting last night to shut down the filibuster were Kit Bond (R-MO), Scott Brown (R-MA), Richard Burr (R-NC), who is deathly afraid to keep screwing around because he knows Secretary of State Elaine Marshall is likely to win the Democratic primary and is in a good position to take away his seat, which would force him to go back to selling lawn mowers), Susan Collins (R-ME), Jim Inhofe (R-OK; don't ask me) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Ben Nelson, who now has a worse voting record than Scott Brown, voted-- as he usually does-- with the Republicans, for social nihilism.

The final vote on the bill, colloquially known as the HIRE Act, comes tomorrow.