Imagine sitting down across a poker table from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and telling him, "If I bluff, you don't get to see my cards, you just have to accept my word that I've got the winning hand. Oh, and if you have an ace in the hole, you don't get to play it."
Imagine he agrees. Wouldn't you JUMP on those ground rules and laugh heartily as you took his stake, hand after hand?
Well, that's what Minority Leader Mitch McConnell got Reid to agree to on all Defense Authorization amendments that come up this year. You can forget any old fashioned accountability for filibustering a change in Bush's Endless War strategy for Iraq. And, last week, Sen. Jim Webb was perturbed at Reid's concession before he even got to ante up.
It may sound like a technicality, but Webb's measure to require that active duty troops have at least the same time at home as their time in combat was not filibustered by the Republicans.
It seems that back in July, Majority Leader Reid agreed to McConnell's terms for "an automatic 60-vote threshold for all key Iraq amendments, eliminating the time-consuming process of clearing procedural hurdles."
By agreeing to McConnell's terms, Reid gave up the ability to see the Rethug's cards -- force them to do more than merely "threaten a filibuster" but actually prove they're prepared to stand up and talk a bill to death. As it is, McConnell can force a Super-Majority vote on any Defense Authorization measure with a wink and a nod, and the headlines will scream "Dems Fail to Pass Troop Withdrawal" rather than "Republicans Thwart Funding for Troops."
Beyond that, Reid gave up his Ace in the Hole --> hours of C-SPAN video of Republican Senators trying to justify their opposition to providing our troops adequate rest and time to salvage their marriages and get to know their children when they come back from Iraq, AND hours of campaign-ad-worthy video of Republican Senators extolling the Wisdom of Their Support of George Bush's war.
And it seems to not have occurred to poor, befuddled Harry Reid that a filibuster can be broken, in which case voting a change in Bush's War Plans only needs a simple majority to pass. Then Bush would have to REALLY OWN his war and explain away his veto.
Reid agreed to this so as to save time ... to eliminate the need to "clear procedural hurdles" of full (and embarrassing to Republicans) debate.
"[Americans] are tired of the procedural strategies designed to protect politicians from accountability," Webb said to the news cameras after 56 'aye' votes failed to provide relief for our soldiers and their families.
Personally, I'm wondering -- is Senator Reid really up to playing the High Stakes game Mitch McConnell and George Bush are forcing on him?