I think it was noted here somewhere the other day that on Tuesday, Senate Republicans used a little-known rule to prevent hearings from proceeding past 2:00 PM. In fact, our own beloved Sen. Carper was forced to halt a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on transparency due to Republicans’ refusal to give unanimous consent to waiving the rule. (It goes without saying that they lack the self-awareness to realize they pivoted from crowing about government transparency, to stopping a hearing about transparency.)
Well, yesterday they were at it again at an even higher level of childishness. Within the same Senate rule that prohibits hearings from proceeding past 2:00 PM is another provision that prevents committees from meeting more than two hours after the Senate convenes. Again, this is a rule that is routinely waived every day without a second thought. Not now, though. Since the minority party refused to give consent to waive the rule, and the Senate convened for the day at 9:00 AM, all Senate committees were forced to end their meetings at 11:00. Among the committee hearings that were forced to end prematurely or be canceled were:
- A Senate Homeland Security subcommittee session on “Contracts for Afghan National Police Training”
- A Senate Armed Services Committee hearing regarding Korea, for which several high-ranking military commanders had traveled to DC from as far away as Japan.
- A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing dealing with judicial nominations, and
- A Veteran’s Affairs Committee hearing regarding helping homeless veterans.
Just close your eyes for a minute and imagine the outrage from the right if Democrats so much as showed up late for hearings about dealing with rogue nations or helping homeless vets. Liz Cheney and Marc Thiessen would have strokes trying to unleash their outrage. The word is that Republicans will continue to play these games all week.
I think there are two important lessons we can learn from these episodes (although we really should know this already): 1) the Republican Party has no interest in actual governing the country, and behaves like a bunch of children who were told they can’t have the candy from the checkout lane, and 2) it’s a disgrace that the United States Senate is so structured that a group such as 1) can bring it to a halt. If nothing else, I hope this add fire to the “Reform the Senate” movement. And also the “Don’t let the GOP back in charge” movement as well. What are the chances that the national media sufficiently calls out the GOP for their unbelievably childish and unprofessional behavior?