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Democrats across the board are calling for Mitch McConnell to act like he takes his oath of office and constitutional duty seriously and delay the tax cuts vote until Doug Jones, the Democratic senator-election from Alabama, is seated.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats said that Doug Jones, Alabama's senator-elect, should be seated in the Senate before the legislation moves forward. […]
"It would be wrong for Senate Republicans to jam though this tax bill" without allowing Jones to vote, Schumer said. "That's exactly what Republicans argued when Scott Brown was elected in 2010 . . . What's good for the goose is good for the gander, and what’s good for the gander is good for the goose."
McConnell clearly wants to jam this bill through as quickly has he can. That's why the conference committee has been operating behind closed doors, with no Democrats present, to come up with a bill that merges the House and Senate bills. The one and only public meeting on that work hasn't even happened yet, but Republicans already have a deal that they are going to push to the floor as soon as they can. They can have their rush to the floor, but they can do it while honoring the voters of Alabama.
There's certainly precedent for Jones to be seated immediately, as Jason Kander reminds us. In June 2013, Kander—the Democratic secretary of state of Missouri—helped then-Speaker John Boehner seat Republican Rep. Jason Smith within hours of Smith's victory in a special election there. Daily Kos spoke with Kander about his decision to help a Republican begin the job he was elected to do.
"It was clear on election that night that Smith had won," Kander told me. Even though I'm a Democrat and he's a Republican, I knew that it was best for his constituents that he be seated as soon as possible. I put party aside to do the right thing." And it was simple, he told me. "All it took was a letter from me to Speaker Boehner saying that Smith had won the most votes." The certification process for the election moved forward as prescribed by state law, and had the results of the certification turned the other way, Kander says he would have worked with Boehner to have Smith expelled.
"There's no reason at all the Secretary of State in Alabama can't do exactly what we did," Kander says in sending a letter to McConnell saying Jones got the most votes. But Secretary John Merrill and McConnell are "going out of their way to make this process seem more complicated than it is," says Kander, "but it's actually very simple." A letter. That's all it would take for the will of the people of Alabama to be honored immediately.