Send in the Senate Clowns: Jokers and Fools Run Democratic Senate

Amazing. In the hundreds of years of our nation's history, rarely has the Senate degenerated to the point where it has after the Democrats took it over. The madness and funny games began early yesterday but only got worse as the day went on, as this party made a mockery of tradition, decorum, and the rules of the chamber.

The first bit of fun was when Senator Tom Coburn objected to a request to waive the reading of an amendment that was offered by Senator Bernie Sanders. The Senate rules state that an amendment must be read in full unless the entire Senate, by unanimous consent, agrees to waive that requirement, in which case the Senator offering up the amendment can just explain it and give an outline of what it does.

Earlier that day, Coburn had offered an amendment to the healthcare bill that would have required the bill to been available for at least 72 hours before it could be voted on, but the Democrats did not allow that amendment to receive a vote. In response, Coburn later objected to the request to waive the reading of Sanders bill, as per Senate rules.

Sanders was outraged by the action, as Democrats reacted furiously to the reading of their bill out loud in the Senate. After three hours of reading only about a quarter of the bill had been read, and then Sanders withdrew his amendment and the reading of it stopped, in violation of Senate rules which stipulate that any amendment proposed must be read in its entirety (although to be fair, it is not clear if the reading has to continue if the bill is withdrawn).

The Democrats were outraged that the rules were being asked to be followed and that they were being forced to read the bills that they are proposing (no one has yet to even see a copy of the latest health care bill that is being proposed), alleging that it was all a giant conspiracy and that the rules shouldn't have to be followed when they are ruling the nation. Coburn's move was most likely a delaying tactic, but it was an acceptable tactic that has been used frequently in the past in the Senate, and as such should the Democrats should not have reacted like they did.

Later that day, the madness continued, when in a bit of petty and bitter vindictiveness that joke-of-a-Senator Al Franken shut down Senator and 2000 Democratic VP-nominee Joseph Lieberman. Lieberman spoke for 10 minutes on the Senate floor about a health care amendment that he is co-sponsoring, and then after his 10 minutes expired, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) — the president chair of the Senate at the time — informed Lieberman his time was up.

When Lieberman politely requested “just an additional moment,” to finish, and Franken rudely barked out, “In my capacity as Senator from Minnesota, I object.” “Really??” a clearly surprised Lieberman said before he returned to his seat.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) later spoke about this issue, saying "I’ve never seen a member denied an extra minute or so, as the chair just did." Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI also spoke about this, saying "If the chair would yield for that…I think the same thing did occur earlier this afternoon, for reasons which have to do with trying to get this bill going..."

Levin and McCain and Lieberman have been Senators for years, and Franken has only been a Senator for a short time after stealing the election, but that does not excuse he rude behavior. Other Democrats are leaping now to defend Franken, proving that they don't respect the rules of that chamber and are willing to tolerate all sorts of thuggish and rude behavior in their quest to change America into a country where this sort of behavior is encouraged.

At their worst Republicans were never as vindictive, rude, irresponsible, and downright ugly as the Democrats are today running the United States Senate. Anyone who voted Democrat at any level should be ashamed at themselves and what they did to our nation.