Today in Washington D. C. - Nov 19, 2007Ex-Klansman Honored by Sen. Harry Reid

The Senate is on Thanksgiving break for the next two weeks. However, there will be no formal recess, as Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to hold the periodic pro forma sessions instead of a typical recess to prevent President Bush from making any recess appointments during the Thanksgiving break. The Senate reconvened at 9 AM today for a pro forma session; will also convene pro forma sessions on Nov. 23, 27 & Nov. 29. The Senate is scheduled to resume legislative business at 2 PM on Dec. 3. But with Reid's track record who knows!

Democrats left town on Friday with a sorry record for the year so far: a series of 63 “repeated and fruitless votes on the [Iraq] war,” endless partisan investigations, 11 of the 12 annual appropriations bills still not sent to the president, and a failure to address the alternative minimum tax. In addition, the Senate spent two weeks on a farm bill that went nowhere thanks to Democrats’ hypocrisy and partisan maneuvering,

In the wake of the latest failed Iraq votes in Congress, an astonishing number of articles appear in the mainstream media today with positive news from Iraq. The New York Times and The Washington Post both report a sharp decline in attacks today (though the Post has put it on page A14), the Los Angeles Times reports “war-weary Sunnis and Shiites are joining hands at the local level to protect their communities from militants on both sides,” Reuters notes that Iraqi ambulance drivers are no longer quite so busy, and AFP even profiles a revitalized nightlife in Baghdad.

In fact, it seems as if the most negative news concerning Iraq this morning comes from Washington rather than Baghdad. Thanks to Congress’ failure to pass dedicated funding for the troops into next year, The Christian Science Monitor reports the Pentagon may be forced to “close dozens of domestic military bases and imperil the livelihoods of tens of thousands of defense workers” to keep U.S. forces fighting.

ICYMI On Friday: Senate voted on a series of cloture motions, all of which failed to garner the 60 votes needed.
- In the first vote the Senate failed, 45-53, to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the GOP emergency supplemental appropriations bill (S. 2340), which would have provided $70 billion in war funding through the spring.
- Cloture on the motion to proceed to the House-passed supplemental funding bill (H.R. 4156) also failed, 53-45. The House bill would have provided $50 billion in war funding but included irresponsible troop withdrawal requirements.
- The Senate also failed, 55-42, to invoke cloture on the Harkin substitute amendment to the farm bill (H.R. 2419). Work on the bill remains stalled.

However using limited floor time, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid led democrats to express their enjoyment over attending ex-Klansman Sen. Robert Byrd's surprise birthday party the previous evening. First elected in 1958, making him the longest-serving member of the Senate. Byrd is currently the President pro tempore of the Senate and third in the line of succession for the Presidency. It is interesting that in 2007, liberal Sen. Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) could wax nostalgically on the Senate floor about Sen. Byrd (D-WV) birthday before the whole world on C-SPAN without repercussions. However, when Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) nostalgic words at a birthday party in December 2002 about Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), who ran for president as a segregationist in 1948, caused a public uproar and cost Lott the majority leader's post.

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