Reid and Dems takes control of Frist's Senate

[Evilmav2]

The comedy of errors that is the Bill Frist-led, 55-45 Republican controlled Senate continues, and the sickeningly patent incompetence of our Senate majority leader is even gaining wide attentive truck from backwards mainstream media outlets like MSNBC. I can only mutter a prayer that this damnable, humiliating Frist-era in the Senate will eventually come to an end, and hopefully sooner rather than later...


Reid takes control of Frist's Senate: A maddening week for the majority leader

By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC
Updated: 8:20 p.m. ET May 27, 2005

WASHINGTON - When Senate Democrats stopped John Bolton’s nomination as U.N. envoy Thursday, it was, for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the horrid end to a nightmarish week.

President Bush could use his recess appointment power in the next ten days to install Bolton as interim U.N. ambassador until the end of 2006.

Presidents from Washington to Clinton have used that power. For Bush to use it in Bolton’s case would "be another example of the Republican majority abusing its power and growing increasingly out of control," said Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

In the Bolton battle, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid proved that the Democrats can run the show — and they are running the show — with only 41 out of 100 senators.

Reid seems to have become Frist's Dementor, the frightening creature in the Harry Potter saga. According to one reference work, "Those kept in the company of a Dementor for too long are often driven insane" and it wouldn't be surprising by week's end if Frist felt he was succumbing to that fate.

Chance to regain control
When the Senate returns from its one-week recess, Frist will have a chance to regain control with bills ready for action on asbestos litigation reform and energy production, but he’ll soon likely face a contentious battle on taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research.

“It is not the fault of the Democratic caucus,” Reid said on the Senate floor Thursday night after the roll call vote in which Frist came up three votes short of the 60 he needed to end debate on Bolton and to move to confirm him.

The good news for Frist was that three “Red State” Democrats, Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted with the Republicans on Bolton. The bad news was that bipartisanship was limited to those three.

“We’re not here to filibuster Bolton,” Reid insisted. But until the Bush administration gives Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Biden State Department and National Security Agency documents which Bolton worked on or perused, Reid can stop Bolton from ever getting to the U.N.

It is unlikely that any of the 40 Democrats who voted with Reid would have any reason to abandon him in the weeks ahead.

Reid’s party cohesion has been pretty impressive.

Feinstein's change of mind
Case in point: Late Wednesday afternoon, I asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whether she would vote for a cloture motion to end debate on Bolton’s nomination.

She replied, “Well, I keep an open mind, but at this stage, I intend to vote for it, for cloture.”

At that point, Feinstein’s Democratic colleagues Dodd and Biden were urging Democrats to vote against the cloture motion.

A ‘no’ vote would give them leverage to try to get the documents on Bolton from the Bush administration.

But Feinstein said Wednesday afternoon she had already decided to vote “no” on the nomination.

So, you see no need to get more information on Bolton, I asked Sen. Feinstein, you already have enough reason to vote “no” on the nomination?

“That’s right,” she said.

Sometime in the next 24 hours, Feinstein changed her mind. She voted against cloture, one of the surprises that bushwhacked Frist on the Senate floor.

There are lessons here.

MSNBC Link