Frist Pissed!
On day when Karl Rove hoped to shift the focus away from the CIA leak investigation and the indictment of potential felon Scooter Libby, Harry Reid said, "Not so fast."
Invoking the rarely used Senate Rule 21, Reid put the US Senate into a closed session:
In a speech on the Senate floor, Reid said the American people and U.S. troops deserved to know the details of how the United States became engaged in the war, particularly in light of the indictment of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.Apparently the entire maneuver caught Bill Frist by surprise. He all but popped a blood vessel while denouncing his Democratic counterpart. Poor baby!
CNN was also caught off balance -- Wolf Blitzer cut to one in-studio reporter who tried to deliver some information about Rule 21, but her mic wasn't on. Wolf then cut away to Bill Schneider who appeared on-camera with a crooked necktie.
Man, they was scramblin'!
With this move (which some are saying will be repeated every day until the long-promised investigation is launched by the Senate Intelligence Committee), Reid served the majority with notice that the Dems still have some fight in them. Maybe Reid is thinking about filibustering Samuel Alito's nomination after all.
Bottom line? Reid has succeeded (for a few hours) to remind people what's at stake in the CIA leak investigation and the indictment (so far) of Scooter Libby: that this administration will go to any lengths to cover up what really happened in the run-up to war in Iraq.
In other words, Reid connected the dots and reminded people that there is a really big picture here to look at.
(HT to Miss Julie for the clever headline -- the New York Post got nothin' on you, baby!)
Milbank’s take was priceless:
”Frist was now sputtering. ‘This is an affront to me personally. It's an affront to our leadership. It's an affront to the United States of America!’ Turning sorrowful, he vowed that ‘for the next year and a half, I can't trust Senator Reid.’”
Sounds like poor Bill did everything but threaten to take his gavel and go home - oh, right, he couldn't. What whiney babies Republicans sound like when they don't get their absolute way.
See, here's the thing: we're in an era where the old rules don't apply anymore. And the avatar of this age is Karl Rove.
In the old days, as Trent Lott recently pointed out, you would never have had a political operative given authority over the White House policy shop.
But there's a new sherriff in town. Now, anything goes.
Frist knows this better than anyone: he crossed the line himself, when he went to South Dakota to campaign against his Democratic counterpart, Tom Daschle.
I don't care much who "started it." All I know is, the Dems have a lot of catching up to do and I can't think of a better person to guide them than Reid.
Give em hell, Harry!
I'm humming a little Eubie Blake, even as we speak ;-)
Did you catch Lautenberg's latest slap in Frist's face? He filed an amendment to change the official name of the "Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act 2005" to the "Moral Disaster of Monumental Proportion Reconciliation Act."
Donkey Balls are flying!