Customer Deb T. says the best 2 minutes ever to happen in the United States Senate is on You Tube.

She offers an explanation and I can’t do it any better:

Dear Juanita,

Well, that’s a new one, on Thursday,  Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell went from the sublime to the ridiculous when he filibustered his own bill. No, really, I did not make that up he actually did that, filibustered his o-w-n bill.

Now why on earth, you might legitimately ask, would he do such a thing? Well it seems that McConnell was actually trying to embarrass the Senate Democrats, it is just that it kinda backfired. It seems that the Senate’s nastier version of Yertle the Turtle proposed a vote on legislation that would increase the national debt ceiling. Senate majority leader Harry Reid called his bluff and agreed to move forward with the offer. Reid said, Ok, you want a straight up or down vote – you got it. Leaving Yertle, I mean Mitch, twisting in the proverbial wind.  McConnell then objected, arguing that sixty votes — the number required to end a filibuster and go to a vote — were necessary.  Thus invoking a filibuster.

So what we have in effect is a minority leader who has introduced a bill and asked for a vote, and who then opposes proceeding to a vote on his bill saying his bill should be subjected to the filibuster breaking vote threshold of 60 votes.

If that did not make sense to you, don’t worry that is because, it didn’t make sense, at least it anywhere else but Washington.

I think my favorite part about the entire fiasco occurred when the presiding officer (aka  the Senate Traffic Cop), played that evening by Missouri’s own Sen. Claire McCaskill (who, not that she needed to, totally justified my vote for her in the last election with this one act), actually commented on what happened instead of simply issuing the normal traffic directions that the presiding officer is limited to.

McCaskill’s reaction to the exchange between McConnell and Reid? She snapped to attention did a double take and said, “Got whiplash.”

Me too Claire, me too.

Thanks to Deb T. for kicking us off this morning.