It's only been one day since Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) warned that working anytime around Christmas is disrespectful to Christians, and already Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is proposing to disrespect them for up to 72 hours:
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) will force readings of both a nuclear arms treaty and $1.1 trillion spending bill that could eat up hours of the remaining lame-duck Congress.
DeMint will invoke a senatorial privilege to ask that texts of both the New START Treaty and the 2011 omnibus spending bill be read aloud on the Senate floor.
And dollars to doughnuts, DeMint won't even be there to listen while low-level clerks are tasked with hastening their own burning in the everlasting hellfire.
Or, on a more serious note, as the White House put it:
This is a new low in putting political stunts ahead of our national security ... Senator DeMint wants to waste 12 hours to read the text of a treaty that has been available to every member of the Senate and the public for more than eight months. This Treaty has been the subject of nearly 20 Senate hearings and 1,000 questions ... Every minute that the START Treaty is being read on the Senate floor increases the time that we lack verification of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Call it disrespecting Christians or putting political stunts ahead of national security, whichever you prefer. In any case, we can at least all agree that DeMint is a asshat.