Senate's Closed-Session Move Borne Out of Daschle's Strategy

[Rose Siding]

snip>
The final decision to employ the tactic, which infuriated Republicans and exacerbated partisan animosity, was made in the Democratic leader's second-floor Capitol office Monday night, in a small gathering of his lieutenants. Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) considered the strategy to be so sensitive that only four of his colleagues knew what he intended when he entered the Senate chamber at 2:25 p.m. Tuesday, party aides said yesterday.
....
But Reid did not have to start from scratch. His predecessor, former Democratic leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.), had considered going into closed session to discuss intelligence use and to spur the inquiry launched in early 2004. But he wanted the cooperation of Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

"For the past couple of years, Senator Frist and I had agreed to hold an executive session," Daschle said yesterday. But Frist "kept putting it off." Daschle said several Democratic senators "threatened to do it over his opposition during that time, but it never got to that point."

Daschle's staff researched exactly how Rule 21 might be used, aides said, and its findings were at Reid's fingertips when he convened the weekly meeting of his leadership team at 6:15 p.m. Monday. Present were party Whip Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), conference Secretary Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) and campaign committee Chairman Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.). In an interview yesterday, Schumer said the group decided on the closed session out of frustration over the Bush administration's "stonewalling" and their anger over the White House's failure to apologize after senior aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was indicted Friday on perjury charges connected to claims that prewar intelligence on Iraq was manipulated.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/02/AR2005110203165.html

[WhiteTara]

1. I do feel better about our

party, almost as though we have a chance to right the nasty mess these criminals have made. I hope we get to suck our money out of them when they go to jail

[truthisfreedom]

2. i feel so great about this. what a fantastic move... how humiliating

to the thugs, and how uplifting to the battered Democratic Party.

[thebigidea]

3. which nicely illustrates the difference between Reid and Daschle

coulda, woulda, shoulda. Nice try, Daschle.

To quote Tor Johnson, "Time for go to bed."

[Up2Late]

4. But really, don't you think it was the WH Form Letter that was the straw

that broke the camels back?

I mean really, not having a face to face meeting with the CBC is one thing, but sending a WH Form Letter reply to a letter from 40 U.S. Senators...???

That was just one insult too much.

[Hardrada]

5. From someone named Candy Wolf!!

O boy. Let's see her picture!

[Up2Late]

6. On "The Daily Show" Jon said the letter didn't come from WH aid...

...Candy Wolf, but from Lovable Transgender Porn-star, Candy Wolf!

I wish I had the Picture.

[Brooklyn Michael]

7. So Frist was shocked...SHOCKED, I tell you...

...that the Dems would do something like this.

That's like putting a "kick me" sign on your own back and then being upset when someone kicks you.

[CBHagman]

8. Language quibble.

Do they really mean "borne out of," which means carried out of or endured out of? Don't they mean that the strategy originated with Daschle and therefore was born, not borne?

Then again, The Washington Post indulges in a language all its own, including punctuation dictated less by an understanding of the rules of English than it is by certain affectations.

[sofa king]

9. Whose name is missing here? Bobby Byrd's.

Senator Byrd is the Senate historian and acknowledged procedural master. He is also the senior Senator from West Virginia, and of the same party as Senator Rockefeller.

He may choose to try to go unacknowledged in this, but I guarantee you that both Daschle and Reid consulted with Byrd on this plan.

[underpants]

10. I was thinking the same thing

I thought this was the rule that he used several years ago but I could be wrong. He knows the whole thing backwards and forewards.

LEt me say this-this whole thing shows just how SLACK the "politicians" these days are at "politicking". The Rayburns, LBJ's and such would have eaten most of them alive at this point.