The Senators Who Dissed Baby Jesus
Marty Kaplan
HuffPost
What's the right word for what Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) was doing when he attacked Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for "disrespecting one of the two holiest holidays for Christians" by keeping Congress in session in the week before Christmas? What do you call it when Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) blasted Democrats as "sacrilegious" for wanting the Senate to take up an arms control treaty and a spending bill "right before... the most sacred holiday for Christians"?
Not "chutzpah." Chutzpah is Newt Gingrich and incoming House speaker John Boehner (R-Ill.) hammering Democrats in 2010 for the effrontery of convening a lame-duck session of Congress, even though then lame-duck House speaker Gingrich called a lame-duck session the week before Christmas 1998 so that he and Boehner could vote to impeach President Bill Clinton.
Not "hypocrisy." Hypocrisy is Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) holding a press conference last week to denounce Democrats for bringing an earmark-riddled 2011 spending bill to the floor, even though they themselves had larded the appropriation with hundreds of millions of dollars of pork for their states.
"Extortion" isn't quite it either. Extortion is Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) threatening that if Don't Ask Don't Tell were to be repealed, it would doom ratification of the New Start arms control treaty because "it poisons the well" for other votes.
(More here.)
HuffPost
What's the right word for what Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) was doing when he attacked Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for "disrespecting one of the two holiest holidays for Christians" by keeping Congress in session in the week before Christmas? What do you call it when Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) blasted Democrats as "sacrilegious" for wanting the Senate to take up an arms control treaty and a spending bill "right before... the most sacred holiday for Christians"?
Not "chutzpah." Chutzpah is Newt Gingrich and incoming House speaker John Boehner (R-Ill.) hammering Democrats in 2010 for the effrontery of convening a lame-duck session of Congress, even though then lame-duck House speaker Gingrich called a lame-duck session the week before Christmas 1998 so that he and Boehner could vote to impeach President Bill Clinton.
Not "hypocrisy." Hypocrisy is Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) holding a press conference last week to denounce Democrats for bringing an earmark-riddled 2011 spending bill to the floor, even though they themselves had larded the appropriation with hundreds of millions of dollars of pork for their states.
"Extortion" isn't quite it either. Extortion is Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) threatening that if Don't Ask Don't Tell were to be repealed, it would doom ratification of the New Start arms control treaty because "it poisons the well" for other votes.
(More here.)
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