He's very angry. As usual.
The Senate will gavel in Monday afternoon to deal with
three pending nomination votes, then will move on to deal with the budget the House passed last week, and a boatload more of work, that is if Republicans allow it.
They spent last week showing their displeasure at the majority's filibuster reform by forcing the Senate to stay in continuously since Wednesday. That is, continuously up until the weekend, when the limits of their willingness to stand on the floor and bitch about Obamacare, and totalitarian Democrats ending democracy as we know it with filibuster reform (in the same breath bemoaning the death of comity in the body) were reached. They weren't going to give up their weekend for that. Which means an even busier final week of work.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wants to pass the budget deal and the Defense authorization bill, and confirm a new secretary of Homeland Security ... all by Friday.
A Senate Democratic leadership aide said last week that Reid also wants to move another batch of nominees, including Janet Yellen, who would become the first women to head the Federal Reserve. [...]
Reid said last week he hopes to wrap up the budget deal quickly and move to a vote on the Defense authorization Wednesday. On Sunday, he filed motions to end debate on both measures. [...]
Reid wants to move another batch of nominees, including Yellen and possibly John Koskinen, President Obama’s choice to head the IRS. The Senate Finance Committee approved Koskinen’s nomination Friday.
A Democratic aide said Koskinen’s nomination could “possibly” reach the floor this week.
Nominees are key, because
Republicans will likely force them to be renominated and the process begun from scratch if they expire at the end of the year. Reid has said that if the Senate has to work through Christmas, it will in order to do all of this. One of the sacrifices in this compressed schedule is key amendments to curb sexual assault in the military on the defense authorization bill. The Senate was ready to move the bill before Thanksgiving, but Republicans refused to allow it unless they could have unlimited, and often unrelated, amendments. In order to just try to get the bill passed, Reid's nixing
all amendments.
That doesn't take in to account the budget vote, which isn't yet a sure thing, with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) the only sure Republican vote. Even he, or maybe especially he, intends to make life difficult for Reid and the Democrats, snarling about the filibuster reform, "[t]he ill will that has been inflicted by that action is incalculable." So much for goodwill to all.