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Yesterday John McCain had his little hissy fit over Al Franken’s objection on allowing Joe Lieberman to continue speaking on the Senate floor after his 10 minutes was up. It turns out that Franken was under orders by the Senate leadership to limit all Senators to their allotted time. Anyway, here is what McCain had to say about the Franken-Lieberman affair.
I’ve been around here 20-some years. First time I’ve ever seen a member denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks. … I just haven’t seen it before myself. And I don’t like it. And I think it harms the comity of the Senate not to allow one of our members at least a minute.
Ok, so McCain was offended by the lack of courtesy in the Senate. As we discussed yesterday, that in itself is a pile of bull but even more interesting is the following revelation.
On October 10, 2002 — just ahead of the looming mid-term elections — the Senate rushed a debate on a war authorization giving President Bush the power to use force against Iraq.
During the course of the frenzied floor debate, then-Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN) spoke in favor of an amendment offered by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) that would have restricted Bush’s constitutional powers to wage war against Iraq. After a minute and a half, Dayton ran out of time, prompting this exchange:
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator’s time has expired.
Mr. DAYTON. I ask for unanimous consent that I have 30 seconds more to finish my remarks.
Mr. McCAIN. I object.
Byrd stepped in to grant Dayton time to finish his remarks. But just moments later, Byrd asked for more time to speak for himself. Again, McCain objected, prompting Byrd to chide him for doing so. “This shows the patience of a Senator,” Byrd said. “This clearly demonstrates that the train is coming down on us like a Mack truck, and we are not even going to consider a few extra minutes for this Senator.”
After being publicly shamed, McCain acquiesced to Byrd’s request. But moments later, McCain added this disclaimer: “I wish to say very briefly that I understand people have a desire to speak. We have a number of Senators who have not spoken on this issue. It is already looking as if we may be here well into this evening. From now on, I will be adhering strictly to the rules.” In other words, he acted just like Franken did yesterday.
It’s not surprising that the incident would have slipped McCain’s mind. If there’s been a pattern with conservatives, (politicians and media), it’s that life in America began with the inauguration of Barack Obama. For Conservatives, there was no politics in the United States prior to January 2009…or if by chance there was, then it’s completely irrelevant to anything occurring today. By those rules, everything is conveniently the fault of Obama and Dems.
These guys have hypocrisy down to an art form.
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The reason that we do not see clips of that exchange between McCain and Byrd is because that has mysteriously been cut out of the archival videotape. But there are written transcripts that show that the comments were made.
With that kind of memory, can you imagine what kind of president this man would have made? (Shudder)