July 9, 2010

John Finally Finds His Fundament

Hatched by Dafydd

We'd like to congratulate Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund for bringing to our attention the distinct possibility that, during the "lame duck" session of the 111th Congress -- when many, many Democrats will have already been defeated at the polls (thus have nothing to lose anymore) -- the Democrats will muscle through all those wish-list pieces of legislation that they would never dare to vote for before the election.

It's a brilliant insight... but I have the strangest feeling of déjà vu, almost as if I've seen something like that on the Web before. Wait, I think I have it; could it be -- this?

I would guess that the window will firmly shut in late May or early June; after that -- with one dangerous exception -- ObamaCare cannot be enacted, for reasons of politics.

The one dangerous exception is the putative "lame-duck" period of the second session of the 111th Congress... the short interval after the elections but before the 112th Congress is seated on January 3rd (per the Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution).

During those two months, every representative in the House already knows whether he has been reelected, and the Senate bill is still in effect.

A defeated Democrat has nothing to lose by voting for ObamaCare. If enough of those currently leaning towards Nay are defeated, they may, in a fit of vindictive revenge against the constituents who fired them, vote in as perverse a manner as possible. (Though of course, it's unlikely the reconciliation side of the package could also be enacted during that period.)

This is the most likely time for ObamaCare to be enacted, since it would then have virtually no consequences on its supporters: Many of the Democrats voting for it will have already been defeated; and for those from moderate districts who were nevertheless reelected, a December vote gives them the maximal "memory-lapse" time before facing voters again in 2012.

I'm quite concerned about that interval; has the GOP given it much thought?

I can't remember what idiot wrote it, but it was posted on Hot Air's rogues' gallery approximately three months, 26 days, nine hours, 39 minutes, and 46 seconds ago. It's another WSJ scoop!

...But I'll bet a whole lot more people will read it in Fund's column than in that anonymous blogger's post; and perhaps such exposure will finally awaken Republicans from their electative torpor; perhaps they will suddenly realize that the "loyal" opposition considers politics to be an extension of war by other means, regardless of how docile and genteel the GOP behaves towards them.

Time to begin sounding the klaxton about what the Democrats intend to do after the election but before the 112th Congress is sworn in: Our side needs to be ready to mobilize every GOP senator and even some more moderate Democratic ones to deny cloture. We need to credibly threaten that any such shenanigans will force Republicans to resort to various "nuclear options" during the next congressional term, bringing Congress (and Obama's last two years) to an utter standstill. Oh, and don't expect a Republican House to fund any of these insane policies.

Perhaps that fear will deter enough Democrats to prevent such wholesale disenfranchisement of the American voter... at least for any Democrat who understands the term "pyrrhic victory."

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, July 9, 2010, at the time of 8:56 PM

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» How to Deter the "Lame Donkey" Congress of 2010? from Big Lizards
In yesterday's post (from here in "sunny" San Diego, on holiday), we warned once more -- this time echoed by John Fund of the Wall Street Journal -- that the critical time for a massive last-gasp of liberal-fascist legislation from... [Read More]

Tracked on July 11, 2010 9:09 PM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: snochasr

You have to hold out the possibility for Democrats that, if they listen to their constituents, they might still WIN re-election, otherwise they'll simply pass this stuff NOW. They're so arrogant and delusional that they will believe it, right up to and past the election. But once the much-desired axe descends, the GOP will have to go into full-court press mode, with a credible threat to not only defund any and all idiocies of the lame-duck Pelosi-Reid axis of evil, and to not just repeal any and all such idiocies en masse, but to DENY PENSIONS to anybody that votes for them, as a violation of their oath of (former) office.

The above hissed in response by: snochasr [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 10, 2010 5:42 AM

The following hissed in response by: kentuckydan

While the ones who are defeated will not suffer any consequences, the ones who squeaked through this Fall might want to ponder whether they wish to be reelected in 2012

The above hissed in response by: kentuckydan [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 10, 2010 7:55 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dale Gribble

I bet my senator Bob Bennett will vote for anything to punish us rubes for running him out of Washington.

The above hissed in response by: Dale Gribble [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 10, 2010 4:24 PM

The following hissed in response by: AMR

If the Republicans won’t stop them, the people can by surrounding the capitol building and shutting down their underground access with peaceful civil disobedience. Let’s see them get a quorium then.

While I don’t propose revolution, our Declaration of Independence written by great patriots states: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed”.

This is the important part: “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it”.

Just saying.

The above hissed in response by: AMR [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 11, 2010 6:05 AM

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